How I miss the 'Truth' of my youth....

by gingerbread 11 years ago 20 Replies latest 11 years ago jw friends

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  drewcoul 11 years ago

  Ginger- I know EXACTLY what you are talking about in your OP. I was talking to my girlfriend the other day about this same thing. I understand where you are coming from. Naive. That's a good way to describe it.

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  cantleave 11 years ago

  I relate to the OP. My childhood congregation and the one we were in when first married was lovely. Everyone seemed to enjoy true fellowship and common goals. Things changed about 20 years ago when we moved to congregation that was made up of cliques and had an obvious hierarchy.

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  KateWild 11 years ago

  A lot of my friends talk about hoe things used to be.....I hope they wake up and see the light. Who knows???

  Kate xx

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  Phizzy 11 years ago

  You never know Kate, they may just wonder why, if it is Jehoobers organization, things have gone downhill so fast.

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  fulltimestudent 11 years ago

  My sentiments also, gingerbread ! I think that may have been the general way it was in Australia, though my experience was some congregations were warmer than others.

  Of course, it doesn't mean that the message preached was right. In hindsight, I should've done a lot more checking before I joined up, but OTOH I lacked teh research skills

  to do that. Nothing in my education had prepared me to do that.

  Anyway, thnx for your thread, GB. Its a nice change from the head-kicker attitudes of some people. I have heaps of good memories of my JW days, but also some anger because

  I lost the opportunity for a life that was more genuine for me.

  The truth, as Buddhists like to tell us, is always likely in the middle between the two extremes.

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  snare&racket 11 years ago

  Sorry to self refer but I know exactly what you mean, i wrote about it recently and have to say as others do, that religion we grew up in has long gone...

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/265102/1/The-Jehovahs-Witness-religion-has-gone-for-good

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  scotoma 11 years ago

  The love of the greater number IN THE CONGREGATION has cooled off.

  At least that's how some would bend this narrative.

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  transhuman68 11 years ago

  Every congregation has its share of missionaries, mercenaries and misfits; but in the new congregations started in the 60’s & 70’s the proportion of young & dumb missionaries and ‘need-greaters’ must have been a lot higher than it is now, giving a good ‘feel’ to the Witness experience; although the religion itself was even more crap than it is today, if that is possible..

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  jookbeard 11 years ago

  a lot have felt like that, I grew up as a kid in the early 70's and this was before the hardline attitude that saw the clampdown in Crooklyn in the early 80's, times were different for a JW kid back then, it all seemed far more fun!

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  sieborg 11 years ago

  I agree when i came into da truwf in 81 at first it was enjoyable. There were and i believe there still are genuine people in it, but no matter how nostalgic we get about the good times we had, it is still a lie.

  The genuine ones (incluing my parents who shun me since i was disfellowshiped four months ago) are misguided and refuse to question anything that they are told to believe. THE REALITY OF THE LIE OUTWEIGHS ANY ROSE COLORED VIEW OF THE PAST.

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