Steve2 - I have always maintained that apathy is a far, far bigger threat to active JWs than apostasy could ever be. So many of them look and sound like they're sleepwalking their way through their dreary, joyless lives.
Quite likely, Steve!
I was an archetypal "true believer." Constantly seeing Yahweh's guiding hand, leading us onward and onward and onward. But even a blind man like me, could see how boring the meetings could be.
And, I recall that it was often a subject of discussion. Some of us tried hard to make meetings interesting and there was always fiddling at the edges, for example, way,way, back (can't remember when), public talks were reduced from 60 minutes to 45 minutes, when actually they should've been 30 minutes or less.
But, your comment reminded me of scholar Robin Lane Fox's opinion of life in a Christian church in the third century CE. Lane has studied early Christian writings and from these writings that counsel Christians of that era, he's formed this opinion:
"Life in a third-century church shows only too clearly through these long counsels. They do not suggest ... a church triumphant. They show a membership which had known better than to obey their authors' and leaders' counsels of dullness. Their life was a round of small temptations, furtive love, gossip among the widows, gambling and attempts to by or in fluence the bishop's favour."
p.560, Pagans and Christians in the Mediterranean World: From the second century AD to the Conversion of Constantine.Penguin Edition, 2006
Christianity, for most of its captives, is a boring religion, that requires theatrics and music to turn it into entertainment.
