Was everyone surprised by how nice worldly people can be?

by Inisc 35 Replies latest jw friends

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  popcorn_eater

  My stepdaughter who is still in has had this experience, fortunately. One of my first memories of her was when we took her to the movies, around age 10, and she left her purse when we left our seats. A teenage girl called out to her and handed it to her. She said she was surprised the girl would give it to her instead of stealing it. I still vividly remember that moment and how much it surprised me. That was before I learned much about JW's.

  Something that also sticks out at me is how we were discussing morality one day and how all JWs are very good, moral people (her opinion). I asked her if she thinks Daddy and I are moral people, kind of jokingly. She said no, kind of on auto pilot, then backtracked after seeing my reaction.

  These are both the result of indoctrination against the "worldlies." I think both of these events kind of got filed away upstairs.

  Something more recently in a more positive direction -- she was phone witnessing and after hanging up with a man who had told them he was a "born again Christian," the other people (adults) in the group started making fun of the man and talking about how wrong he was and how stupid. She spoke up and said to them, supposedly, "we are judging him for something we don't even understand. Stop making fun of him." That was a very brave thing to do, and I told her so. She told me that she has realized that JW's as a whole are very judgemental. Well, I've been trying to gently drive this home for a couple of years but that just goes to show that a person has to come to realizations on their own, or it won't mean anything to them.
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  Disillusioned Lost-Lamb

  Not only was I surprised at how nice and genuine the worldlies were, but I was mortified at how nasty the witlesses were in comparison.
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  the_raisin

  Everything Disillusioned Lost-Lamb posted.

  Also: I was SHOCKED, just completely SHOCKED, at how worldly people were so normal, and not the STD-infected, foul-mouthed- duplicitous monsters they were made out to be.
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  moshe

  Worldly people can be very generous, just ask them for help--

  
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  PaintedToeNail

  I was always suspicious of everyone. My parents did their best to alienate us from my extended family. I am only now rediscovering these people I lost 30 years ago. They seem to care more about how I am doing than my own parents do. It is a sad thing to contemplate the amount of damage done to those of us here in this regard.
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  AK MCGRATH

  Since I started to study with a new co-worker when I was about 19 or 20, no, I wasn't surprised how nice everyone in the world was. You want to hear how horrible the "worldlies" are? They were still nice to me even after I basically stopped hanging out after work and on the weekends with some of my closest friends. One devout Catholic took the time to go to my first talk. My "worldly" sister, niece and aunt came to see me on my first Circuit Assembly part, and my sister also came to video tape me at the D.C. They didn't approve of the religion, yet they did it for me. What jerks, huh?

  Even though I turned my whole life inside out and basically shunned all these beautiful people by pushing them away in order to devote my time to "The Society", give up holidays, leave mags at the corner of my desk (oh yes I did..lol), etc. I did it all because I thought it was the right thing to do.

  Looking back, after leaving the "truth", I am ashamed and embarassed at the friend I turned out to be to them. We were still friendly, but not on any level as we once were. And my neice, well, she just turned 19. I was there when she was born, yet I missed all of her other birthdays. She has a sister who just turned 10. Up until last year, as I was still struggling with the birthday/holiday issue, I did not SEND THEM ONE GIFT! I am tearing up as I write this. My grandmother? She begged me to come over for Christmas, even just after thanksgiving, because, well, I still have to eat, don't I? I held fast to the truth for 19 years, and did not even go to one holiday "after dinner". My granmother is now 90 and has Alzheimers. She has for almost as many years as I've left the "truth". It saddens me so that I wasted all those years of not having wonderful memories with my family.

  But you know what? ALL of these people have loved me IN AND OUT of the "truth". These bastard worldly people as the WTBTS would have us think, have stuck by me thru thick and thin. When I was at such a low point in my life, my aunt even asked me to live with her, which I did. One day she took me out to lunch and stated, I notice you don't go to meetings much anymore. I immediately broke down crying and said, "I can't talk about this right now.". She said, ok..ok. She didn't ask me anything related to the JW's again. It was obvious I was a shell of a person I once was, and she gave me space..and respect.

  So, all this shit the WTBTS says about "wordly people", is a bunch of frigging lies! I have tried to contact my old workmates via FB, unable to find any. But as luck (or another source) would have it, just as soon as I had given up, one of my old boyfriends, and close friend found me. And lo-and-behold, just last week another friend said she had been looking for me for a while. She has given me her phone # and we will be talking soon. These are two of the people I basically shut out, yet we have talked on FB as if things just fell right back into place. Funny thing is, she is the one who actually introduced me to this sister who was new at work and needed a ride...which is how my journey to the witnesses started. Ironic..maybe I SHOULD shun her..lol jk

  I thank GOD that my family have stuck by me through it all, and my old friends still remember me and think highly enough of me to still want to get and keep in touch. Now THAT is something the JW's can learn from. What TRUE LOVE is all about.
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  Broken Promises

  ^ Like
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  Joey Jo-Jo

  the wb&ts did a good job in demonizing "wordly people" but this is not say that there arent bad people in the world
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  dozy

  I think the ministry has an effect here - for some JWs that is pretty much most of their interactions with worldly people. Lets face it - most people when a stranger knocks uninvited on their door are at best dismissive in a tolerant way or at worst downright aggressive , so JWs assume that worldly people are like that in general. It reinforces all the messages in the magazines about worldly people lacking morals & being basically nasty people.
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  Fernando

  I continue to be amazed and surprised.

  It was only after leaving that I came across the term "group think". Man it sure is powerful. An unhealthy group provides you with community, identity, purpose, direction AND "strings attached". You promptly and gladly start digging an ever deeper hole for yourself - one you may never get out of, or at least one that will cost you everything if you do.

  You gradually turn into a bigoted supremacist, yet most people whose doors you knock on are quite civil whilst knowing full well exactly who and what you are and what you think of them and where they're headed. I still struggle to get this, how ordinary folk can consciously choose to be so decent to such prejudiced and ignorant people at the door.