JWdaughter; "I don't remember short skirts, pantsuits--" no wonder you did not remember that, it was no doubt sarcastic prophesying be a previous poster. it was villagegirl :Oh wait a minute, what message board is this ?
Living Through the Brief Liberalization of Jehovah's Witnesses, Never Recovering
by TMS 74 Replies latest jw friends
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freddo
I can vouch for TMS's feel of the congregations in the mid-late 70's.
Here in the UK one of the elders in my hall who is in his 70's now actually gave a circuit assembly talk as a young up an coming elder sporting a beard. Unfortunately he is still deep, deep in but has no beard largely I suspect because he likes his "high profile" and assembly items.
It was great - we late teenagers wore loud check sports jackets, wide ties, wide-collared, coloured shirts, flared trousers, big clumpy shoes and hair over our ears! And there was that article about women wearing "pant-suits" too. Though no-one did.
And of course the "generation that saw 1914" doctrine ruled as king.
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tornapart
I remember these years as a teen, They were the best years, apart from a few hardliners in the cong, it was mostly an easy time. There were several changes and generally for the better. It wasn't until I read Ray Franz' book CoC recently that I realised a lot of those changes were brought about under his influence. Such a shame there weren't more like him. Things could have been so different. -
sir82
Somehow I missed this thread 3 years ago.
I was just a kid then (70's), and more concerned with who was leading the National League in home runs rather than the content of Sunday Watchtower, but I do recall the "feel" of the OP.
It makes me feel nostalgic, ad a bit sorry for what could have been. What if the reforms had continued? The JW religion might be tolerable today.
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TMS
a couple things. . . . . .This thread from three years ago came about as I finally understood why my last few years on the elder body were so problematic. My difficulty sprung from actually believing in the principles taught about the role of the conscience, the understanding of the word minister, "Rights or Duties, Which?", etc.
As stated in the thread, reverting back to the old ways was not something taught. The pendulum simply swung. I recall raising the ire of fellow elders by using that exact phrase, "the pendulum has swung" when referring to the backtracking on the treatment of the disfellowshipped, the relative authority of the circuit overseer, etc. "No pendulum has swung," I recall a newer elder correcting me. "This is spirit direction."
After 50 years in and now 20 years deprogramming, decompressing, detoxifying, it's obviously a process. At least the nightmares and angry wordfights in my sleep have dissipated. What I can share is that the most painful things in those memories were always things I didn't say or didn't express well enough.
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Hecce
Impressive reading TMS.
One observation, after all the twists and turns, the basic command structure of the congregations is the same than before the 70s. One strong man, the coordinator with two henchmen and a group of lackeys. That is basically a body of elders, the difference is under the congregation servant the group was a lot more considerate and caring.
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prologos
A pendulum obeys simple natural laws, and in any open, developing power structure, the raw forces of clawing to the top will be repeated, are always there, as latent possibilities when temporarily stifled by imposing an altruistic framework, like what happened in those pre-1975 years, interestingly coinciding with the perceived prospect of going with that good start into a truly new world. Witness mother Russia, with the strong person Katherine the great to Putin. I recall the hidden anger of the thwarted ambitions of the power hungry, entitled attitude, scheming , ready to pounce, to restore raw power order. Chimps do it too. -
lumberjack
I think these matters are not so dramatic as first Christians were going through, also I think nowadays conventions and all other structures or bodies are little bit far from these first Christians had, maybe it's because of differences is environments, cultures, goals etc., anyway considerable changes existed even than. If we follow example of Christ, there is certainly nothing wrong about it. -
lumberjack
@TMS I think if we compare JW's with Christianity in its early years, I see an ease in treating apostates, they were though facing similar problems, anyway even apostles contested or stumbled at times. -
Magnum
TheOldHippie: I remember the kind of people who joined during that period – in the congregations in my area we welcomed a couple of medical doctors, a couple of pharmacists, quite a few artists – painters, singer/songwriters – many educated people, a couple of lawyers – one of them well-known – one scientist, political interested people, some from the hippie movement.
It was the same in my area. We had a number from the hippie movement come in. They were all very smart - deep thinkers, intellectual.
Now the majority seems to come from among the poorer and vulnerable layers of society.
That's what I'm seeing now, too.