In search of a better word...

by okage 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  okage

  My JW brother-in-law is 32. He admitted to me the other day he's been inactive since 1989 (pretty much right after baptism). He stopped going to the meetings in 2003, and acknowledges he is a fader.

  His reason for not attending the meetings was the lack of passion for Jehovah exhibited by the elders and the brothers and sisters. He attended four different congregations in the Fort Worth/Haltom City area of Texas. In 2008, he was living with his father in Kansas and tried picking up the meetings there but felt the same disconnected, unpassionate feeling.

  He is very versed in real Watchtower history (not the edited version), can name every president of the Society since inception (can your R&F do that?), and believes that the Holy Spirit had nothing to do with the Society...until Adams was put in the seat.

  He upholds all of their current beliefs and will argue them until he's blue. He admits being inactive but still acknowledges himself as one of Jehovah's Witnesses.

  Is there a special term for this kind of person? An apostate who believes the Watchtower is right?!
• 

  cedars

  okage, sorry to say this, and I mean no disrespect, but the word/s you're looking for is "raving mad"!

  Since awakening myself, I've learned that there is a whole spectrum of different kinds of apostates. Some apostates view other apostates as apostate-apostates for not accepting their version of apostasy. I've been on the receiving end of some inter-apostate shunning already!

  Realizing that the organization is a hoax and that you have wasted many years of your life is a huge mental and emotional turmoil to go through. Unfortunately, not everyone makes it through in one piece - at least not without clinging on to their own version of their old beliefs. I'm afraid your brother-in-law sounds like one of these.

  Cedars
• 

  leavingwt

  Most inactive JWs are mentally captive.
• 

  blond-moment

  I wasn't "in" for 20 years, but still believed. Difference between him and I, was I didn't know the dirty secrets of the WT, only the 1975 fiasco, and I was still trying to buy their excuse "it didn't happen"

  Once I found stuff out, UN and Pedophilia were it for me, I started digging like crazy. I did go for a while, where I still wouldn't speak out against the GB, and was apalled by the lack of respect of those who did. You see, I knew they were corrupt enough that I wouldn't go back, but I still believed Jehovah was using them. It's weird, I know.

  Combination research and learning about mind control was what severed all ties for me. They are just men, corrupt and evil.

  Today I say, when talking about that part of my wake up, I was a "defender of the faith" Didn't believe, but still defended those men. Friggen mind control, it is so ingrained in us GB = Jehovah, speak against them, is to speak against god, etc...over and over and over and over for years and years. It does a number on you. Especially when it's ingrained in you from infancy.
• 

  Ding

  I don't know of an existing term for this.

  I think a fair number of people don't like the organization but still believe the Bible interpretations.

  Of course, one of the key doctrines of the organization is that the GB speaks for Jehovah.

  If you deny that, you are subject to being DFd.
• 

  ABibleStudent

  Hi okage, Have you read Steve Hassan's books "Combatting Cult Mind Control" or "Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for themselves"? I hope that your BIL gets over his cult induced phobias. I have an aquintance who doesn't believe that the Bible is the word of God, but does believe that the WTBTS knows the "Truth" better than any other religion.

  Other ideas to help your BIL would be to invite him to visit JWN so that he can learn how to fade without being shunned? I wrote a thread about sending anonymous emails to JWs in http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/211893/1/Youe28099ve-Got-Mail-TM. Or, could you secretly send your BIL a copy of "Crisis of Conscience" by Raymond Franz.

  Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,

  Robert
• 

  jgnat

  I'll make one up. Memorial Attender.
• 

  Ding

  Believes the doctrines, but no field service... few if any meetings...

  How about, "Jehovah's Bystander"?
• 

  Kojack57

  Okage: What makes your brother in law think that Adams has God's holy spirit ? If the whole corrupt organization from the very beginning didn't have Gods spirit, Adams has as much holy spirit as my turds floating to the sewage plant. Like cedars said he is a raving mad idiot.

  Kojack
• 

  blondie

  If you aren't df'd or da'd the WTS most likely views that jw as "inactive." I know plenty of people on this board in that category that are definitely not believers based on their posts on JWN. I have met "inactive" jws though that believe the WTS is the best of a bad lot but don't live by the WTS tenets they say are correct.