boozing as a jw (page 3)

AllTimeJeff

Nothing will make you do a double take like seeing a "heavy" elder from the Service Dept at Patterson walk in from the parking lot with a case of beer. Not bagged, there it was.

It was almost as if this bro was saying "Damn it, I've been here for 40 years, and you can bellyache all you want about drinking, but if you had to read these letters from elders all day long, you'd drink too. So I am going to have my beer, and you all can screw yourselves on a Sit n Spin.."

...of course, maybe I got the wrong vibe. Maybe he was just a drunk.... lol

Goshawk

Self medication to keep the cognitive dissonance under control.

Myself, I rarely drink.

under_believer

My maternal grandfather was the PO of our congregation and was also one of those pickled, not-quite-ever sober alcoholics. I didn't realize it at the time because I was little and didn't know of such things. I also later found out that his alcoholism was an "open secret" and all of the elders and many of the publishers knew about it. He was the PO for 15 years at least and an elder for three decades. Sadly this wasn't the worst thing about him, either, but he got his in the end.

So: yeah, boozing is common and tolerated.

undercover

I guess I'm the exception. I drink more now than I did when I was in.

I drank when I was in but was pretty careful about not getting drunk...not that I was always successful. We drank crap beer and cheap wine because we didn't know any better. We bought what was cheap. Rarely touched the hard stuff. There was more stigma on hard liqour than beer/wine in our area. I remember trying to keep some Jack Daniels or something in my apartment and people kept commenting on it as if it was a bad thing.

But when I left, I drank more because I wanted to. I got falling down passing out drunk a few times but got over that stupidity pretty quick. Hangovers are hell. I still drink more than I did when I was in...mainly because I have more time to. I have after work cocktails, wine with dinner. I can stay out late on Fridays and Saturdays and not worry about getting up early the next day for service or a meeting. I can drink what I want and when I want and not worry about "stumbing" anyone.

Open mind

The Proclaimers Book has a quote from Rutherford speaking out against prohibition.

Don't have WT Library handy right now, but it's in there.

It doesn't take long to figure out which JWs are OK with bending their elbows and the "moderation" rule.

I learned through a JC of a poor young beer drinker, that it's important not to drink something unique, say a brand of beer that no one else will touch, if you're at a party of lots of JWs including those who will turn you in. This guy was at a ball game buying humongous tankards of beer. He bought and drank three and no one else was buying that size or type. It was clear that he had consumed at least 1/2 gallon of beer in a pretty short time, so he got privately reproved. Why we went private, I'm not sure. Plenty of people knew about it.

Anyway, when drinking with JWs, have what they're having and you're probably safe from JCs.

om

VIII

I was just thinking this morning about going to a concert with a bunch of JWs as a teen. They were all elders kids. They brought in something in a plastic jug (you could back then) and everyone was chugging from it. My friend was falling down drunk as was her 14 year-old brother.

Her older brother and sister-in-law were tanked (He was an MS) and another couple were puking all over the place. I was semi-sober. Which is how I remember any of this.

We saw Marshall Tucker band. We were all wearing cowboy hats and, boots, bandanas, etc. Recall this is the suburbs of Chicago.

No one heard a word about it from the Elders. This was the about the fourth time I saw them all falling down drunk, so this was not a one time occurance. Their dad, the Elder, was renowned for his Scotch collection.

boozing as a jw