Is Today's Jehovah's Witness Religion The Same As It Was When You Were A Member?

by minimus 49 Replies latest jw friends

  • minimus
    minimus

    In my day, you were PROUD to be a JW! You knew you'd get "persecution" and it was all good. When you abstained from blood, you read the ingredients of a candy bar! When a Bethel speaker gave a talk, the whole place would be packed!

    Now, today, this religion is a former shell of itself.

    Do you agree?

  • james_woods
    james_woods

    I have not been to a JW meeting in over 30 years - but from what I read about them here, I would not even recognize it.

    For just one small example - all the control issues about the conventions are simply unbelievable to someone who last attended these in the 1970s.

  • minimus
    minimus

    True....plus you can't hold hands during a prayer, you can't wear a tee shirt with any logo on a WT. site, etc. makes one wonder what the hell!

  • Found Sheep
    Found Sheep

    It's going down

    Um I think it's more controlling then it was. That makes some leave but the in ones makes them "stronger" brainwashed

  • cofty
    cofty

    I agree. We could also defend every word of our beliefs with multiple proof texts and counter any argument to the contrary.

    JWs no longer know or care what they believe, its all about blind obedience.

    The "Reasoning" book was the beginning of the dumbing down

  • james_woods
    james_woods
    True....plus you can't hold hands during a prayer, you can't wear a tee shirt with any logo on a WT. site, etc. makes one wonder what the hell!

    You have to wear your convention name tag when you are eating at a restaurant...you can get in trouble for not sitting where you are told...you can get in trouble for staying at a different hotel than you were told...you can get in trouble for not parking where you were told...you can get in trouble for using too many paper towels...

  • XBEHERE
    XBEHERE

    Its changed since I got baptized and that was only in the 80s.

  • moshe
    moshe

    No, not the same- the light is getting brighter, light blub in the writing department has burned out-- and I think former members are different, too. In the past, you had to be an public activist to get your message out- you had to interact and talk with real people. It took a certain amount of boldness and grit to go against the crooked WT religion. Those JW telephone helplines required you to talk on the phone, answer questions. meet people and be a public persona-- no hiding behind an avatar.

    Today, we have people with 30,000 posts who think they are somebody important, but run away from an elder out in field service. They would have never had an audience 20+ years ago. We have elders on ex-JW forums who who pretend to be JWs and act like somebody important on an ex-JW forum, too.

    Walter Mittys find their escape here.

  • jam
    jam

    The folks that came into the borg. in my day (70,s -80,s)

    where much more educated. Many have left. In my congregation

    we had a lawyer, teachers, professional people. There was some

    class distinction. The gathering, lots of fun. There is no fun in being

    a JW today, boring as watching two flies mating.

  • SophieG
    SophieG

    Found Sheep said: It's going down

    Um I think it's more controlling then it was. That makes some leave but the in ones makes them "stronger" brainwashed

    I agree it's more controlling and high routine so much so that folks really want to take a break and they are!

    I see a lot of people leading 'on the edge lives". I have a few friends around my age group on social media and they hardly post about the KH or going out in FS. A few of them don't even have JW as a religious status on places like Facebook...

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