They Came, They Said, They Left

by snowbird 33 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  LongHairGal

  SNOWBIRD:

  I came in a few years after 1975 and there was absolutely NO mention of this fiasco to me. I suppose it is a major embarrassment to the religion and not something you tell to a new study. I can honestly say that I would have thought twice about joining the religion if I had any idea of its past. There was a woman in the hall who was irregular at meetings and would often sit in a back room and leave early. Shortly thereafter she stopped coming. Somebody said to me that she was probably a '75er. I didn't know what he meant by that statement but I certainly do now.

  Too bad there was no internet back then.
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  botchtowersociety

  They came to the rural Black Belt county of Wilcox in Alabama, in the year 1970.

  They learned Spanish and came to Miami too.

  My mother's twin sister answered the door in 1970 and was convinced.

  She would not stop talking to my mother about it.

  In the meantime, she picked up a believing boyfriend.

  Around the same time, my father met my mother.

  Their parents though, did not believe, but old fashioned Cuban rules meant daughters from "good families" always dated with a chaperoning adult, and there was only one adult (my mother's mother) that chaperoned, so all dates were for both daughters.

  Meetings were Friday nights. So of course, my mother and father had to tag along with my aunt's dates if they wanted to be together too.

  They got sucked in as well.

  My parents were baptized (and married) in 1972, at the age of 19.

  They believed and preached at a fever pitch.

  I was born two years later, and at the age of a few months, they gave up good jobs (my father was a lineman and my mother worked for the phone company) we moved to form a new congregation to serve where the need was greater.

  My first word was "JEHOVÁ."

  The first song I learned the words to was

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy_xJ-7ruU0

  Makes me tear up Snow.
• 

  Quendi

  My first contact with JWs came in 1968 when I was a boy of twelve. I remember the excitement about 1975 back then. I renewed contact with the Witnesses three years later and, if anything, the buzz was even louder. By the time I began my own formal study, it was 1974 and excitement was at a fever pitch. However, the man who studied with me was more circumspect than most. He kept saying 'nobody knows the day or hour' and cautioned me very strongly about putting my eggs in the 1975 basket. As a result, when the year passed without the end coming, I experienced only mild disappointment. My teacher had told me that my dedication to Jehovah was to be lifelong and would be in force until I died. He was a wise man in that regard and I did well to listen to him.

  As the years went by and 1975 moved to the rearview mirror, I noticed how the WTS shifted the blame for everyone's expectations onto the rank and file, saying that many had 'run ahead of Jehovah'. It wasn't until the summer of 1980, during that year's series of district conventions, that the organization finally admitted that it had played up expectations and therefore bore some responsibility for the shattered hopes many had. Still, we were told that the end was closer than ever, and that we should not give up on our hope of seeing it very soon. Like many who heard those words, I was a loyal Witness and didn't think that anything was seriously wrong with the Society's understanding of Bible prophecy.

  Doubt began to sprout in me with the November 1, 1995 Watchtower article on the meaning of a "generation". Twenty years had passed since 1975's dawn and many of us were clearly growing weary and were burning out. The new explanation gave some of us new hope, but even then I wondered how Jehovah could have let his people believe in something that was clearly wrong for so long. If He really loved us, wouldn't he have corrected any false impressions immediately, just as Jesus did with his followers at Acts 1:6, 7? But even then I did not question the legitimacy of the Society's understanding and claimed status as "God's organization".

  It wasn't until the new century was well underway that I finally began to loosen the shackles and it took my being disfellowshipped to do that. I suppose that shows just how strong the grip this cult had on me was. Prior to my disfellowshipping, I had been assisting an elder I knew in his own Bible research and was beginning to learn many things that completely contradicted WTS doctrine. When I was put out, I continued my research with him as he refused to shun me. Finally, I was convinced that the WTS teachings about Bible prophecy were completely false. It was then that I ceased any and all efforts to get reinstated.

  I find it interesting to see how the WTS has completely whitewashed its role in promoting 1975 as the year the end would come. Others have remarked how they never heard it mentioned when they studied with the Witnesses or if it was discussed that was done in a perfunctory fashion. But that is nothing new. Look at how the Society has downplayed or even denied its teachings about the end coming in 1914 and 1925. None of us was alive then, so it was easy for the organization to pretend those expectations were never given prominence. As Voltaire once remarked, "The more it changes, the more it stays the same." That certainly is true of the WTS and has been throughout its history.

  Quendi
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  Honesty

  The Society NEVER said that 'the end' would arrive by 1975.

  The very few JW's who preached that it would were running ahead of Jehovah.

  The very few JW's who sold their homes and moved to serve where the need was greater were not commended by the Society.

  See page 3 in the May 1974 Kingdom Ministry

  Just ask any JW elder who managed to stay alive until '75.

  Better yet, see what was said about 1975 during a 1967 District Convention:

  http://www.freeminds.org/doctrine/chronology/public-address-by-watchtower-district-overseer-bro.-charles-sunutko-in-1967.html
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  Quandry

  They said the end was close, that the year 1975 would probably be the farthest limit for the current "system of things."

  Yep. I started studying with a lovely young woman from work in 1973. When she started "showing me from the Bible" that the big A was coming, I asked her how much more time we had. She replied, "About two more years", of course 1975. Being new, my husband, also baptised with me, and I were just too "newly righteous" to really react when the end didn't come. But I do remember that one man vowed he'd walk from Jacksonville(Fl) to Jacksonville Beach-about 25 miles-if the end didn't come in 75. He later did complete his walk!

  I knew another couple-he an elder and she a pioneer-who left after the 1975 thing. So wish we'd left with them.
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  BluesBrother

  Yes...BB was there and believed it ... I was careful not to say too much or (go beyond what was written) but deep down I could not foresee that God would allow his organisation to be so spectacularly wrong on such a public matter

  When nothing happened that was O K "It is a test" we all said , just to see who would leave - so we stayed...As years went by it became a mark of honour not to be a short term Witness who "only wanted their own salvation"

  When it became blatantly obvious that there had been an almighty cock up....Well, we had been around so long that we had got over the disappointment so we carried on,,After all "The 1914 generation would not be around much longer - it must be soon" we said!
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  snowbird

  Thanks for all the responses!

  BTS, that made me tear up, also.

  I remember sitting in the KH, located on Hwy 28, in August of 1976, listening to the study that blamed the rank-and-file for the fiasco.

  The WT is surely going to pay a heavy price for stringing good people along like that.

  Syl
• 

  snowbird

  Outlaw, it seems the South was overrun with JW's during that time!

  There was definitely an air of great expectations.

  Oh, during the DC of 2003, I met again the wifely portion of a couple who came down from Ohio - the husband fell ill and had to go back home.

  She seemed withdrawn and bitter, a far cry from her former upbeat self.

  I can certainly understand why.

  Syl
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  snowbird

  Thanks, Blondie for information on H-principle.

  That showcases why we shouldn't attempt to predict happenings that are totally out of our control.

  Someone in a position of authority should have called a halt to WT's foolishness.

  Syl
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  Podobear

  I was hooked.. I sat as a cocky 13 year old when "The Truth" book was released with enthusiasm. Dad had a copy already in the bookcase at home... presented to him by workmates who had stolen it from a container in the London docks.

  As I listened to the animated presentation by Ron Drage, I calculated that if each of us brought just 1 person in over the 6 months of studying... most of the world would be saved before Armageddon hit... pioneering was the only way to go!

  My education was brilliant, I was one year ahead in Hight School.. I turned down a brilliant education in the Universities of Pau and the Sorbonne, forfeited the Vienna School of Music as a Clarinet player.

  Instead I focused on '75... but did not fix on it, other than the constant talks telling us it would only be a little while longer. I enlisted as a Regular in 1972, into Bethel in 1978... hit a brick wall there and left disillusioned in '82.

  I survived two more years before I walked out in January 1984.

  Penniless, no commercial value.. in the depths of despair.. I went to step in front of a London bus, and end it all.

  I turned back onto the pavement, packed my bags and left home.

  I didn't speak to my folks for over two years ( I am so sorry Mum for those years - that is why had to go to the top of Sinai, kiss my hand at dawn, kissed my hand, held it against the rock and said "She is all yours - look after her")

  I was baptized at 1.35pm 25 April 1971 by my own Father, my mother opposed for over 45 years)... Exactly 40 years to the day... I sat there as the Sun came over the horizon and ended the bitter struggle, this religion brought on our family.

  But, I have not abandoned faith and hope that one day I will see my mother again.

  Yes, they came, They Said, They left, and my Dad has finally realized his selfishness and the struggle we have all had.