Types of JWs, by A. Lee Lucas

by ColdRedRain 8 Replies latest jw friends

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  ColdRedRain

  The types of former Jehovah’s Witnesses

  The Whitney Houston

  This is perhaps the most common XJW, and this description can overlap with almost every XJW personality, except for the Brett Favre,. The Whitney Houston sees that the JW religion is abusive or some fundamental flaw in the church and perhaps even leaves for a while, but goes back to it for some sort of reason or the other, much like how a battered wife goes back to her husband in times of stress or lonliness.

  Some reasons for going back most often include:

  Not having the same social standing and hierarchy that one had as a JW or being unable to socialize with others outside the group. (Known as “culture shock” to sociologists)

  Going through a personal problem and not having a friend that’s been associated with the Whitney Houston type for a long enough term to help them get out of the personal problem. (You will commonly hear Whitney Houstons returning to the JWs telling you how their “worldly friends” were not “real friends”.)

  Not being versed enough in history, Bibliology or logic and encountering a similar cult like church with even more erroneous theology and being convinced that “the JWs have the truth”.

  Most Whitney Houstons leave the faith because they find the religion either to be too restrictive or hypocritical, but lack the critical thinking to see through the rest of the religion and make a clean, psychologically healthy break and thus often return to the JWs, often with untreated emotional issues.

  The Replacement Addict

  Many who are JWs were strong followers of the JW religion to the point where it became nearly an addiction. When they find out that their religion’s unhealthy or dishonest, they leave. Unlike the Whitney Houston, they find another, high controlling religion to fill in the vacuum that leaving the JWs created. You will see some XJWs become “strong” Catholics or be involved in some other church. Many become strongly political (Editor’s Op: In his experience, the replacement addicts who use politics to fill the void become politically liberal, since it much closely resembles the collectivist nature of the JW version of paradise).

  Drug addicts who replace one addiction with another tend to fail the most, since they’re not curing their addiction disorder, they’re just channeling it into another, less harmful addiction. But it’s still an addiction. Much like how XJWs who become deeply involved in other faiths become delved into their new faiths as strong as they were as JWs to compensate for the loss of their previous addiction. A replacement addict might find it better for their mental and emotional health to stay away from many religions for a while and let the “where will I go” fog clear.

  Soon to come:

  The Mad as Can Be

  The Brett Favre

  The Rudderless Ship.

  The Fader

  The Wild Child

  The Closeter
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  bluecanary

  Waiting to see who the bigger fire storm comes from: religious people or liberals.
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  OnTheWayOut

  The Danny Bonaduce: Similar to Brett Favre, but you thought he left a long time ago and resurfaces, but not with his former popularity.
  He could be gone now, but could resurface again. Nobody knows.
  
  The Ted Kennedy: Stays until he's dead. Fairly high up the ladder. That's his claim to fame.

  The Barbara Edens/Ursula Andress/Brigitte Bardot: You thought they were gone, but they may not be. All the guys remember them fondly.
  Similar to the above, but all the ladies remember them: James Garner/John Forsythe/Harry Belafonte

  The Johnny Carson: They stayed as long as it was good. When they left, they totally left.

  This could go on and on.
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  villabolo

  Editor’s Op: In his experience, the replacement addicts who use politics to fill the void become politically liberal, since it much closely resembles the collectivist nature of the JW version of paradise).

  Interesting post ColdRedRain. I disagree with the statement about JW paradise. The reason why is that all those cartoonish illustrations of theirs often show an isolated house surrounded by parkland space. I rarely see another house except perhaps in the distance. This suggests an individualistic society.

  villabolo
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  ColdRedRain

  Re: Individualist-Collectivist-

  I dunno, looks pretty collectivist to me. But I'm basing this on my own personal opinion and not from unbiased observation.

  The Mad as Can Be:

  The mad as can be (I didn't want to say "Mad as [heck]" so I would offend lurkers. The Mad as Can Be can range from the JW who was railroaded out of town by some idiotic elder conspiracy to somebody who was DFed for not following JW rules and who is angry. The Mad As Can Be can be found protesting outside conventions. Some mad as can bes are very angry after finding out their religion's a farce and will do anything to stick it to their former religion. XJWs are stereotypically thought of as unchaste or dishonest "Mad As Can Bes" XJWs by Bethel, but few truly are unchaste or dishonest MACBs and they're truly disgusted at the lack of honesty by their former faith.

  The Brett Favre

  Once had a high position in the faith, but the religion didn't want them anymore, so they decided to tell everybody where the bodies were buried and do anything they can to spite their old faith. They're a subset of "As Mad As Can Be". I'll expand on this later.

  The Wild Child:

  Finds WT rules to be restrictive and rebels, although few are aware why the WT rules are restrictive. They usually mutate into Whitney Houstons. I'll expand on this later.

  The Rudderless Ship.

  Only goes with the flow. They're in because their friends, family or spouse is in and nothing else. I'll expand on this later.

  The Fader

  They do they "fade". To be continued.

  The Closeter

  A lot like the fader, except they still have friends in and would like to keep those relationships. To be continued

  The Naturalized Ex Pat

  Will expand on that later. But generally, they are successful faders or XJWs. I will expand on this later.
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  avishai

  Brilliant!
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  dissed

  Is it possible that some just leave and go live a happy life with their families and newfound friends?
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  villabolo

  ColdRedRain, by saying that they were individualistic I did not mean that they were so extreme as to not gather together in family/friend associations. They do for their vegetarian picnics as you illustrated but in all the Watchtower literature I've seen I have yet to see a village or densely populated community in their illustrations. Nuclear families-the children in the illustration undoubtedly have parents-is as large as their society gets. Everything including their houses, as I previously mentioned, are scattered to the four winds giving a sense of isolation not to mention a very long walk for people who apparently have no transportation.

  Not to belabor a point, the rest of your examples are fine.

  villabolo
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  ColdRedRain

  Is it possible that some just leave and go live a happy life with their families and newfound friends?

  That's a description of "The Naturalized Ex-Pat". I'm going to expand on it later.