by Think About It 22 Replies latest jw friends
i stopped going for a number of years the first meeting i went to on a sunday an elder saw me and ran from his car into the hall as if he'd seen the devil. later he literally pulled another elder physically away from me, who had started to talk to me. The meeting seemed more boring, (if that is possible than before) The service meeting in particularly stood out as the most boring thing ever devised by man.
Having said that i genuinely like some of the brothers who do there best.
Back in 1991, after I'd been out for seven years, my fiancee asked if I could take her to a JW convention to see what it was like. My fiancee was Jewish, but was taking a class on comparative religion and wanted more information on the JWs. So I took her to the Saturday morning program. It was so boring that I slept through the morning talks. My fiancee stayed awake, but after three hours of talks, she had had enough so we left when they dismissed the audience for lunch.
However, in October 2002 Robdar and I attended the Ministry School and Service Meeting at a local KH. This was more fun as we went undercover so to speak. The JWs thought we were just a couple interested in their religion, so we got the usual love-bombing. But the meetings hadn't changed a bit, just the usual religious sales pitch.
Heh, yeah, I went 'back' for one meeting after I'd been out for around 6 - 7 years...
I had been in therapy for the damage, and decided that I was sufficiently recovered to go back [VERY briefly!] for one last look at where I'd been... My idea of 'going back for one last look' made my therapist EXTREMELY nervous. She remained worried from the time I told her I was going to do so, to the next session after my 'glimpse' backwards...
This happened in Billings, Montana; which was a location where I was completely unknown to the local JWs...
I happened to walk into the usual Public Talk [given around January of each year, I think...] wherein they exhort JWs to get out there and preach, convert, and preach some more... I think this talk might be traditionally given after the new Yearbook comes out, and there's the usual discussion about how many new members they gained in the last year, etc...
At the end of the meetings [talk and Watchtower], at least 5 people trotted up to me to ask me if I would like a bible study...
I just laughed and politely declined. It was like tasting warmed-up leftovers.... Same stuff, different decade...
Zid
