Your First Dealings with Apostates

by badcompany 17 Replies latest jw friends

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  badcompany

  Another thread sparked this memory but I didn't want to hijack. My first encounter with apostates was back at a District Assembly around 1978. They were picketing outside peacefully with banners and such. It was the first time I'd seen them and I was amazed at how many there were. There were attendants shuffling any witness's that were listening away (me being one of them). I went up into the stadium down a hallway with no traffic. I leaned over the edge and I could see and hear them. About 5 minutes later a LARGE attendant told me to move on because I was encouraging them to continue. I walked away at the time but I came back later but this time I stood against a wall on the other side of the aisle. No apostates below could see me but I could hear them. Well it didn't take long for my Attendant buddy to show up. This time he was pissed. He told me I had no business listening to them and I was to leave the area and NOT come back. I resisted and he physically shoved me down the hall. He took my name off my badge and told me he was going to report me to the elders in my congo if he caught me there again.

  Knowing what I know now I would have handled it a lot different. That event probably opened my eyes more than any other to really start questioning. What were the attendants so afraid of? If we had the truth why was it dangerous to hear an opposing viewpoint? What were the apostates so angry about? Why didn't I deck that attendant?

  Anyway, if you were an picketing apostate circa '78 Puyallup, WA. THANK YOU for that little spark. Anyone else have an experience like that?
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  Ding

  I know a congregation where everyone in the early 1980s got mailings from a group of "apostates."

  The literature came mainly from Randy Watters' early pamphlets with some writings from Bill Cetnar included.

  One dub turned the package over to an elder without reading it and the elder commended him.

  The P.O. (who was secretly having doubts about the organization because of the 1975 fiasco) said, "Why did you commend him for that? If we have the truth, why are we afraid to look at that stuff and give them answers?"

  The elder said, "Actually, I looked at it myself, and to be honest, I don't think it will be easy to answer it."

  The P.O. was shocked at his honesty, took the material home, read it, and DAd.
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  factfinder

  I was a typical jw who never listened to "apostates". When I saw them in the parking lot at a DC I wanted the brothers to beat them up! At that point nothing an apostate said would interest me. Sadly, my brother is still like that.

  But it wasn't anything I heard from apostates that made me stop going to the hall. It was the cong. itself and Jehovah, who I blamed for my beloved Mom's death.

  I wish I had been willing to listen to apostates back then! I guess timing really matters. Glad they helped you badcompany!
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  Leolaia

  My reaction:

  
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  Botzwana

  I was studying circa 93 when I was at work reading the Live Forever book and a woman brought a whole box of the stuff and said read the real truth about the witnesses. I read some of it and got scared. The apostates REALLY messed up one book though. I shared the book with my father who was a witness and he said let's test it. The apostates wrote a paragraph taking some liberties with the original material. We compared it with the real live forever book and saw that they took one line and fused it with another. We both thought ALL the literature was like that so I put it into my trunk. An Elder found out I had the stuff and I burned it in his fireplace a week later. If that certain apostate hadn't been dishonest I might've never gotten baptized in the first place. Thanks Jackass!
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  moshe

  I don't recall ever seeing a protest at an assembly or having a one-on-one with an apostate. I basically had to claw my own way out of the KH. I had many periods in my life where I was at a tipping point, but I never got the needed outside nudge. Perhaps that is why I never missed an opportunity to go up to a JW in public and wrestle with them over their anti-family and anti-life dogmas.
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  Think About It

  For me the religion was finally nutty enough on it's without needing the help of apostles it get out.

  Think About It
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  Ding

  Moshe makes a great point.

  How many of us might have been spared a lot of grief if someone who knew more than we did about the WTS had been willing to speak up or confront us with the real WT history at some critical moment in our lives?
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  WTWizard

  When I saw apostates, it was with the "Repent and be saved" message. I thought that we were already saved, hence it would have been a waste of time to "repent and be saved" when I thought I already did that. Matters not whether they were apostates or members of some other Christian denomination trying to save the witlesses.

  Turns out, the way the witlesses themselves welshed on their promises did more to make me snake my way out than any of those pickets ever did.
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  JunkYardDog

  I was always a so called apostate what really woke me up on how jw's are brain washed . was at the silentlambs march on Brooklyn bethel about 10 years ago. there was apostates wearing hollow ween masks to cover their faces. and when we got to bethel in about 2 minutes all the window blinds at 25 columbia heights were closed very fast on a very large building. Bill Bowen was Calling out from a LOUD BULL HORN, FOR THE leaders of the wts to come out and talk to him/us about the child molestions. well the wt s locked the gates at 25 columbia heights and the best the Silent Lambs could do was ring a intercom asking jw leaders to come down and discuss the problems. none ever came to talk and this was all on NYC TV news 11 wpix...