Did you feel embarassed explaining the Memorial to people? (page 3)

snowbird

Snowbird - thought up by a white guy?

The "only anointed should partake" thingy.

LOL at Girlie. You know I love my sistahs.

Sylvia

I wasn't particularly embarrassed about explaining the (M)emorial (but I was embarrassed trying to explain the ban on birthdays, because there was no scripture or reason for it, but that's another thread.)

A couple of months ago, however, I had the most astounding reaction when I was describing "the JW eucharist" to a friend of mine. When I told him everyone just passes the bread and the wine and no one partakes (except one or two in a rare few congregations) he was overwhelmed. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath... and began to cry.

I think his reaction gave me a whole new perspective on my experiences and upbringing. Things we just don't think about.

GromitSK

Why did he react that way? He wasn't laughing was he? LOL

BabaYaga

Ha! Gromit!

No, he really was grieved that people act out a ritual which, in essence, proclaim they have no ties to Christ.

GromitSK

Ah he is Xian then?

BabaYaga

No, believe it or not, he is not a Christian. I believe he would consider himself to be a mystic.

In any case, he realized how damaging a "refusal ritual" could be.

dgp

I've never been to a Memorial but, on the basis of your description of it, my unbelieving ways would lead me to wonder why we are there at all, if we can't partake. It would be all the most strange because, as a former Catholic, I would expect the emblems to be available to all. As in "Take this and eat, all of you", or whatever the Bible says. I would wonder why we should have the meeting at all. And probably it would be one reason NOT to join.

Magwitch

Memorial 1992 I am in the back room with a 7 month old child and pregnant along with a few other sisters in the same situation. The brother knocked on the door to hand us the bread and I said "no we are good, thank you" He got a little nervous and peeved and said it had to be passed around in the bathroom. I handed it around -kids were grabbing at it. It fell on the floor and I handed him back the empty basket and said Thank you.

ana_dote

oh man i had the weirdest but most interesting experience with this at work today!

last year when I was an active JW I would witness to certain coworkers and we've built up a rapport on the religion level. Well this one coworker knows I don't go anymore and such...but there's actually another JW we work with and he gives her the magazines all the time (she claims she loves them tho, but has no interesting in becoming a JW lol). I guess he invited her to the memorial and she said she would try to go. So she messages me at work to ask if I had a jw bible with me that she could borrow, since she doesn't have one and wanted to read along with the same wording. Well the conversation went on about different things and then for some reason I felt compelled to "warn" her not to partake of the emblems unless she wanted people lookin at her like she was crazy lol this led to her wanting to know why she couldn't partake and me trying to explain the JW belief that only 144,00 go to heaven, that they alone should partake and that they also happen to only be JW's. LOLOL AWKWARRRRD. she was all like "well I'm going to heaven...who are they to say who does and doesn't go?! that's the Lord's judgement!", etc. Then, since her work day was over, she clocked out and actually spent another half hour talking to me in my office about how messed up it all is. I told her that i thought she should still go, just to see what it was like....only cuz she's been to the meetings before and likes them. She is very set in her baptist ways and will never leave, but she likes certain things about the meetings and literature I guess. But maybe she's actually studying them the RIGHT way....picking and choosing what applies to the reality of your relationship with God and dismissing any society BS.

At any rate, it was kind of interesting trying to explain it from the "outsider" perspective I now have, as opposed to the non-thinking rhetoric I was trained to automatically respond with. She kept sayin "see? that's why JW's have such a bad rep"...and this time all I could do was agree.

OH! and does anyone else think this sounds ridiculous??:

I've heard of maybe two congregations joining together and renting an auditorium...but has anyone heard of THREE congregations doing that???? I thought one of the intentions of an orderly memorial was not to keep people there for an excessive time period. How on EARTH do they expect to pass the emblems to all the members of THREE congregations plus each congregation's visitors in an appropriate amount of time???? I don't see how the elders let that one get by. Bunch of lazy brothers maybe. Ridiculous.

Did you feel embarassed explaining the Memorial to people?

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