Truth or Treat ?

by snare&racket 6 Replies latest jw friends

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  snare&racket

  How does it feel to be a JW in2013?

  Seriously, I imagine it to be quite a strain, a tiring experience. One of doubt and constant inner turmoil. The JWs I know are more rebellious than ever before. Saying no to requests from elders, disagreeing with doctrines, questioning the restraints of JWs such as alternative facts and ideas etc.

  Time is passing, as it has for the last 100,000+ years of human life and everyone keeps dying, despite Armageddon supposedly coming long before the menopause did.

  It pains me that I lost all those years to a sham. But it could be worse..... I could still be waiting for a magical world promised in the stories of Jewish shepherds.

  Do people still on have ANY sense that the world and time doesn't wait for anyone? We will ALL die. We will all be forgotten. It isn't coming! Seeing prophecy in news events is just sad.... Because ten years on, that news article about the economy collapsing or war with North Korea didnt bring Armageddon.... AGAIN. Its just.....sad. Anyone can make a prediction fit after an event, there are no prophecies, just talk of beasts and horns and crowns and stars and thats it! That's it!

  Reading jesus talking about returning, he clearly is talking to the people before him. If you believe the bible he did return, 4 times after he died. Twice just after he died, once at Pentecost and if you belive the Christian killer from Rome, he also showed himself to Paul, 30 years after he died.

  So his 5th return will be the big one? ....sigh.......

  I talk about all this because I realised something in my last conversation with JWs I know. They don't really believe any of it. Most dont even know the beliefs. But when you show them that it isn't true, they don't deny it, they don't argue it, they don't shout "wow!" And ask for more information. They shrug it off and go to the next meeting and come back talking about who has been secretly dating who, which elder has been doing what etc etc.

  when I was a JW I thought it was all true, like REALLY true. I don't think many JWs do..... Its just a hope, a religion, a routine.

  snare
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  LV101

  Seriously, Snare, about witnesses or the ones you know, anyway. I sure hope this is spreading.

  Hope we hear more encouraging news on this topic from active ones.
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  Xanthippe

  Yes I believed every word of it too but it has become a religion, a belief for comfort, social contacts and rituals. Not to mention feeling superior to others, always a bonus.
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  snare&racket

  JW life can be very different by localit, but it is certainly very different now than it used to be, even if it is particularly relaxed where I have recently visited.

  I know of people saying no to help out at quick builds, that they knew they were just being used for their skilled labor.

  It's almost as if, the JW's today believe the doctrines, but not the religious structure anymore?

  WT has evolved the religion into unrecognisable formats over the last 100 years, maybe they will pick up on this and evolve it further. Either go super strict or super chilled out.... we will dee.

  Snare
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  BroMac

  great thread snare&racket. Its true what you observe, more concerned with what's happening among the group than what the group are taught to believe. JW's dont know what it is that they are supposed to believe. only that 'it' is the truth. how many really know what 'it' is? do they really preach&teach instead of just placing mags or posting campaign tracts that they never plan on going back to follow up. They are just happy to carry on like this all there lives completely ignorant to the deception that they are 'in' the troof. Such a waste to what are mainly very nice genuine caring members of society.
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  LouBelle

  Actually I think it's easier to be a JW now than ever before - they are so lax with so many things.

  But hey, honestly, I don't care - I'm not in the religion.
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  DesirousOfChange

  LOUBELLE: Actually I think it's easier to be a JW now than ever before

  As long as you can shut down your mind! It's harder than ever to sit there and listen to this drivel being dispensed as "spiritual food" from Almighty God.

  But otherwise, yes, I agree.

  Everyone is lax about meeting attendance including elders/MS/etc. Oh yeah, they talk the Heb 10:25,26 lingo, but no one worries about skipping out on a meeting if some other insignificant event conflicts with the meeting schedule. Elders/MS only attend about 75% of the time.

  Field Service? What a joke. Just don't get put in the group with one of those seriously elderly sisters who are die-hard zealots. Everyone knows to avoid them like the plague. Stick with your clique of friends or have a "family service day"and only work with your family. Drive slow to the territory. Work a street or two, knocking softly, find no one at home. Head to Starbucks or McDonalds. Have breakfast. Gossip about what's going on. Jump back in car and drive 30 minutes to a Return Visit (who you know is never home) and leave a couple mags in their door. Drive to someone else's return visit on the other side of the county (who is never home) and leave a couple mags in their door. OMG! We better haula** to get back to the KH! Oh, looky there, we made it back 20 minutes early. Let's sit and chat or head to the mall.

  Dist Conventions -- 3 days. If there are more than one in your area, you can split your time between them and actually a day or part of a day and no one really knows. (Remember when they were 5, 6, or more days!!!!???)

  Circuit Assm -- 1 day SAD, and 2 day CA (Remember when there were two 3-day CAs every year?)

  Aux Pioneering -- 30 hours (Remember it was 75 hours at one time.)

  Reg Pioneering -- If you aren't getting 50% of your time drinking coffee and eating cookies at QuickBuilds(TM), you're doing something wrong!

  No one is living like The End(TM) is tomorrow. Or even next year.

  Doc