I imagined hysterical fundie types giving out bad arguments which were distorted lies about the past. Then I realized I was surrounded by hysterical fundies making bad arguments which distorted and lied about the past.
When you heard "apostate" who did you imagine?
by nbernat 34 Replies latest jw friends
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undercover
As a child the only reference to apostates I heard were when we went to assemblies and people would be picketing or handing out their own literature. I remember everyone quickening their pace and walking by without acknowledging them.
We were told that they were "apostates" and "hated Jehovah" and were possessed by Satan and we should never, ever talk to one or take anything they hand out.
So, growing up apostates were pretty much the boogeyman.
As I got older, I came to understand that an apostate was anyone who not just left the faith, but worked to disparage the Witnesses and Jehovah. There were no longer the boogeyman, but I still feared them as I still thought they were controlled by Satan and had committed the unforgivable sin.
I remember when I was a kid and an "apostate" came to our door and gave us some anti-JW literature. I'm the one that accepted it at the door. I didn't know, I didn't even really look at it. I didn't engage them in conversation, I just took the handbill. I kinda figured it fair. We knocked on doors and gave out stuff, it's only fair to reciprocate when others showed up at our door. I remember my mother getting all upset at me for taking it, for even touching it. I remember asking her what the big deal was. If we had the "truth" then we shouldn't have to fear what someone else says. She quoted the WT playbook of course. Some part of me figured it silly to have to fear someone who was lying about us. My simple, child like mind wondered why we're going door to door to convince people we have the truth, but yet were so afraid of someone who claimed we were wrong.
Looking back on many things my parents instilled in me through JWism, I wish I had listened to my innerself more...
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Denial
this phrase always brought to mind an image from a childhood memory of leaving a district ASSembly: 2 guys wearing furry wolf costumes holding signs and trying to hand out pamphlets.
sometimes i think of doing that myself . . . but maybe dressed up as russell :p
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blondie
I noticed on the WT-CD that the use of "apostate" starts increasing from 1966 to 1971, and then from 1975 to 2009, does not drop below 20 times a year.
