Are Dubs just getting lazy?

by pr0ner 16 Replies latest jw experiences

  • pr0ner
    pr0ner

    Twice this month I've seen dubs out. Both times they just totally avoided me. Yesterday I went to subway and they were sitting on down outside of subway with their rags. They didn't even attempt to make eye contact with myself or the people walking in front of me. WTF? Aren't they supposed to be smiling and striking up a convo? The other time was very early in the month I went to a gas station and two women approached another women directly beside me pumping gas. I could tell by the horrible dresses that they were dubs. She shooed them off and they just walked back to their car. Didn't even think of asking me. Now I am a clean cut guy and I drive a Mercedes so I wasn't exactly screaming dangerous but I guess you just never know so I can at least see a little bit why they didn't try to talk to me. I was very disappointed.

    I've been out of the game so long, is the door to door annoying strangers at random spots starting to die down among newer members?

  • gutted
    gutted

    Totally. I for one tried to do as little as possible towards the tail-end of my ministry last month. In US/Canada there is so much "apathy" that it really does seem pointless, so I think people just try to coast and get some hours, a few mags and RVs here and there.

    Definitely a "keeping up appearances" approach IMO.

  • jgnat
    jgnat

    If my hubby's congregation is the norm, enthusiasm does seem to have waned. I think it affects all generations, not just the young people. Cutting the extra midweek meeting reduced the momentum. The generation change has sucked out all urgency for the older generation, and why would the youth care?

    Several years ago an elder's wife confided that she is only concerned with saving her own family. Field service for her was not to support any that are "lost", but to maintain hers and her family's spiritual status. This world has been condemned so long, it is a miracle that JW's risk "exposure" any more than they have to.

    It is the same dedicated few who show up for field service. Return visits are much preferred over door-to-door work.

  • Coffee House Girl
    Coffee House Girl

    Ive only been out for 11months, but I HATED parking lot witnessing- I felt like an a**hole doing it bugging people while they were trying to pump gas or get to their cars- so yes I didn't make eye contact, just said "here's something for you to read" and got back to the car.

    I wouldn't just go up to anybody, I had to feel somewhat comfortable- so yea even though your clean cut and drive a nice car, I may still not have been comfortable with you (I targeted mostly older women, they seemed the most likely just to take my rag and go on)

    So glad to be out of that game, I will never do it again!!!!

    CHG

  • Meeting Junkie No More
    Meeting Junkie No More

    Dubs aren't lazy! I know, I used to be one - talk about a stressful lifestyle - the never-ending hamster-wheel of endless mindless meeting attendance, magazine reading and preparation, daily text, family study, blah, blah all sandwiched between all the other important facets of life; no, sorry, I think those two probably were 'exhausted' just from getting ready and being out in the 'ministry' at whatever ungodly hour they were out there - if they could have slept on the job, they probably would have! I really pity them these days. So glad I'm not on that regimen any more. I'm much lazier now! After one too many 'Could you do more?' parts on the meeting, I finaly decided I could do LESS and have been doing ZILCH ever since...ah, the freedom!

  • Soldier77
    Soldier77

    I don't know if I would call it lazy as I would call it misguided. They are told to do more constantly, every Saturday morning you're out in service, Sunday morning or some part of the day a meeting, so that leaves you with 2 half days to get your shopping done, house work chores done, family recreation is last on the list if you're a JW! Not to mention if you have to show up for some cleaning at the hall after service on Saturdays and if it's your FS groups turn to clean the bathrooms for the week!

    As far as studying goes, most of my "studying" for the meetings consisted of skimming through the article/chapter read the questions and since they were paraphrasing the answer anyway, it was easy to target it in the paragraph and underline. I rarely ever looked up the scriptures.

    Now, I don't read any of that shit for studying, I'll read it to look for the latest bullshit, but as far as personal study, I just read the bible, and I get so much more from doing just that.

  • Room 215
    Room 215

    For increasing numbers of JWs, "field service" is just a meaningless "feel-good" exercise; the tiresome drag-on of Armageddeon's arrival, mind-numbing repetition that "it's just around the corner" and the elasticity of the "this generation" stretching on into distant future, etc. is disheartening and disincentivising greater numbers of them. Time simply is not on the WT's side.

  • snowbird
    snowbird

    After one too many 'Could you do more?' parts on the meeting, I finaly decided I could do LESS and have been doing ZILCH ever since...ah, the freedom!

    LOL and amen-ing at the same time!

    A good one!

    Syl

  • pr0ner
    pr0ner

    First of all I was raised a witness so I know all about it. So just FYI you don't need to "preach" to me about what they believe. My Mom and Dad still go out door to door, but even they seem more apathetic about it then they used to it. It's become more of just something to do together then actually saving people as one person brought up. I remember (and I'm relatively young) when I would go out you tried to talk to every single person you could. Bonus points if they were by themselves. I didn't like it but that was what we did. Now it just seems like they go out of their way to NOT talk to you. This has happened two other times, once in a Wal-Mart parking lot where I even made eye contact and smiled(!) and another time at the bus station, though there are so many people there I could understand how I would get lost in the shuffle.

    Personally if it is the case I blame the internet. Religions worst nightmare. This could also be good. The tides have been slowly shifting for awhile so this is just another chink in the armor.

  • OUTLAW
    OUTLAW

    It`s not so much Lazy..It`s more like..

    What`s the point?..

    JW`s go out in the FS.....Hoping no one is home..

    Hoping not to talk to anyone..

    JW`s will walk away if confronted with difficult questions,after knocking on "Your" door..

    What`s the Point?..

    ........................... ...OUTLAW

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