Who left or got stumbled over the 1995 generation thing? (page 4)

I was a fairly new elder in 1995 and there weren't too many changes, certainly not such major ones, in the few years before that when I came into the religion. Other than their excuse for 1975, I thought JW'S were teaching the same stuff my mother tried to teach me when I was little. (There were some changes, but I was convinced they were minor adjustments up until 1995.)

Well, changing the "generation" was huge to me. I asked another elder what he thought of it. He was a long-time elder. He kind of shrugged and said "Things change" like it was no big deal. That did not sit well with me.

That teaching totally changed my attitude. I realized I needed to be financially ready to retire and even die in "this system of things." I started a career effort instead of just having a job to make the rent. I stopped being an obstacle to my wife's overwhelming desire to get a college degree.

1995 wasn't enough to break me free, but it was the first straw on the camel's back. It was a big straw, maybe more of a log.

zed is dead

OTWO,

And they have been pinching off "logs" ever since.

zed

Crazyguy

when the info came out i thought 'this is crap' but i got married in 95 and we all know what happens when u get married. Looking back i wish i would of taken the info and the changes more seriously because after a few years of moving around my wife and i became weak and missed a lot of meetings. Perfect time to have quit, now my wife all fanantical.

DesirousOfChange

OTWO: 1995 wasn't enough to break me free, but it was the first straw on the camel's back. It was a big straw, maybe more of a log.

Sounds a lot like my feelings at the time, although I helped a couple of friends to "accept" the New Light then. I bought into it as an adjustment from Holy Spirit or something........I figured it was a short-term delay.

The Overlapped Generation was the LOG.

Doc

sir82

I think, when the WTS has faded into obscurity and some enterprising historian writes up a comprehensive history of it, 1995 will prove to be one of the most significant turning points in the organization's history.

I think it will stand as a dividing line between the zealous, confident, assertive JWs of the past and the timid, time-wasting, go-thru-the motions social club members that currently inhabit Kingdom Halls.

That will be seen as the time when the ship's engines conked out. Decades of momentum allowed for some forward movement in the years following, but that momentum has just about stopped.

The ship will soon be adrift, and begin a long long long period of slow decline and even greater malaise.

Darth Rutherford

sir82... I think you're probably right. Now looking back, it seems the nineties were a turning point altogether. Factor in Franz's death, the UN NGO relationship, the king of the north (USSR) was no more, the 1995 generation change, plus the end of the 20th century (which was a benchmark where many figured the end would arrive before the end of the century). There were many changes on the world scene as well as in the organization that does seem to be a watershed dividing the earlier JW zealots from the shallow automatons in the congregation today.

moomanchu

Remember to serve Jehovah because of love not because of a date.

AndDontCallMeShirley

Remember to serve Jehovah because of love not because of a date.

Unfortunately, as a JW that message often gets lost because of the WT's historical obsession with dates and end-times prophecies.

Without it's incessant date-setting what would WT have to uniquely brand itself ? Not much. In fact, I believe it's the date-setting that established the religion- the carrot, of course, being the constant promise that Armageddon is imminent and only WT knows the date. Without fear as the primary motivator, what would draw a person to the Org ?

leaving_quietly

Remember to serve Jehovah because of love not because of a date.

What AndDontCallMeShirly said. I would add that my response to this is: if they can't get this ONE SINGLE teaching right, what else are they not getting right? This isn't about love of Jehovah. It's about the truth.

Who left or got stumbled over the 1995 generation thing?

Satanus

OnTheWayOut