Following a comment by Sapphy on another thread on cultural JWs, it got me thinking about my circle of 30 something JW friends.
They fall into roughly two groups. Couples without kids, couples with kids.
The couples without kids are the most interesting. They're mainly career types, but with one foot firmly in JW land. On the one hand, they go on lots of holidays. They are into running. They read lots of books and watch lots of films. They're culturally aware. They're bright intelligent people. On the other hand they'll do the pioneer thing in March. Keen to apply the career ideas to the Truth. Publisher to MS to Elder.
Never the less, they're a fun bunch. When we're together we laugh and share stuff. Interestingly the one thing that never gets talked about is spiritual things. Never comes up. And that's the weird thing. They're all born in, and all just accept. It's so frustrating. One old friend has a beard, which he keeps so he won't be asked to do anything. So I thought he'd be good to talk to about the July WT.
Here's a cut and paste (with minimal edits for anonymity reasons) of our Google Chat conversation:
11:42 me : You read the July 15th WT yet? 11:46 Friend : No Summarise, as if twitter length me : Ok in tweets 11:47 The Faith and Discrete Slave (FDS) is the Governing Body of JWs The FDS has only existed since 1919 11:48 Charles Taze Russell was not used by God There is no evil slave class They were appointed over his belongings in 1919 11:49 Have not been appointed over the domestics as yet (but they will be) Friend : Does anybody care? This is all in the past, right? me : Ha True 11:50 Most will think 'didn't we always believe this'?! Friend : Feel like there's a bigger picture to all these little tweaks me : I think so I wonder if they'll ditch 607 - 1914 by next year 11:51 I suspect its cos we've got a new GB (in effect) Friend : New thoughts are always about things I didn't understand or didn't even know about. me : HA Out with the old in with the new 11:52 Friend : To be honest they could change everything and I wouldn't care. In some ways I probably have more faith than others because I'd just blindly accept it without looking it up myself. In other ways it probably shows I have no appreciation, or something. 11:53 I'm not really a details man in this regard me : Thats how most JWs who were 'born in' are I've realised. Friend : Yeah me : For many its like being a Catholic or Protestant Its there religion Like whatever the football team is they support 11:54 Dosn't matter whether its real or made up! Friend : yeah - let's just skip the fussy fluffy details me : Yep (Having re-read the above I realise some of my summary of the WT was a bit off by the way) Incredible. This guy is bright as a button, but just accepts it all. In fact, as you can see with his 11:52 comment, he doesn't really care. This group, as I said above, have no kids. 7 couples. All 30 something. Given that most baptismal candidates are from within, and if this continues, then where will the next gen of candidates come from in years to come? In fact locally, the few families that there are have moved from three congs into one as they were the only family in their cong. We've moved too, so this one cong is has a few families now. Cultural JW's. Born in's. Happy with the staus quo. I guess one waits till something happens before they'll listen.