Being a JW Used to Be Fun :-)

by snowbird 63 Replies latest jw friends

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  20yearfader

  i would say the conventions at the capitol center in landover,md in the early 80s were fun seeing all your family and friends getting those food tickets to buy cheese danishes mmmmm the good ole days
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  Finkelstein

  Wasn't for me and I was brought up since birth.

  It was all too boring, pretentious, stupid and annoying.

  The anxiety level was always high compiled with a huge amount of fear and guilt and suspected sense that someone was lying.
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  GrreatTeacher

  I was there, too! The cheese danishes were the best. The good thing about the Capital center was that it was enclosed and airconditioned. And had the big jumbotrons.
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  Bungi Bill

  None of it was ever exactly my idea of fun - more like incarceration!

  Bill.
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  factfinder

  snowbird- I'm sorry my post almost made you cry.

  It is sad though that what we thought was the truth and that we were part of God's organization and the security it gave us, was in fact just another made up religion.

  And we can't go back even if we wanted to. THAT religion is gone. What passes for it now is nothing like it used to be.

  Reading the posts, so many had good times as witnesses-it was not all bad.

  I remember the cheese danishes and pudding cups! And the REAL food at the circuit assemblies! When they used to prepare the food in the kitchen at the assembly hall.

  The cake nights after the book study. There WERE good times.

  The jw religion now is horrible, run by egotistical, control freaks.

  But it was nice, at a time long ago.
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  HowTheBibleWasCreated

  Yes i attended a day of the RC yesterday. Had a very big touch of 'the old days' when I was 5-10 years old. But it faded when I glanced over at my cousins who used to be my playmates. the youngest is 32!... It's all a childhood dream we grow up with. Family.. friends.. Big Jah in the sky...

  Eliminate the later and move the family ahead 25 years and WOW!.. it feels the same but... it's not!

  Added to this I remember the old Joshua drama.... That was fun... this was the lamest of lame I watched yesterday
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  20yearfader

  it was only nice cause i was a kid and didnt know any better but even as a kid it was too restrictive

  i hated field service

  i hated the ministry school

  i hated celebrating absolutely nothing and never getting anything

  i hated out of a class of 5 witnesses being the only one ever freaking year that had the balls to speak up and tell the new teacher what we did and didnt celebrate

  i hated the bible based butt whippings i use to get

  so you see i would have left anyway no matter how fun the district conventions an dramas back then were
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  Magnum

  I agree with a lot of what has been posted. Factfinder, I agree with both of your posts.

  It is sad though that what we thought was the truth and that we were part of God's organization and the security it gave us, was in fact just another made up religion.

  And we can't go back even if we wanted to. THAT religion is gone. What passes for it now is nothing like it used to be.

  I am sentimental about and nostalgic for old times. I miss the old exciting district conventions. I miss the fruit bags. We did really think the end was coming any day and I miss that. We had one sister who, in the pre-1975 era, would always find the first district converntion and go to it no matter how far away just so she could get the latest information. That exemplifies the general feeling of excitiement back then. I and my mother and sister would go out of town to district convnetons with my grandparents and stay in motels with them. My grandfather was wonderful fun, and he was one of the real, true faithful JWs who would have died for it. It was so nice being with them. We all had such a sense of security; after all, very shortly we were going to be in paradise.

  On the way to the district conventions, we would put Watchtower mags in the front and back windows of the car. Fellow Witnesses on the way to the convention would see the mags and wave. We had a feeling of comradery. Witnesses seemed different then; they seemed to be made of better stuff. I was in an area that had a core group of older JWs that were smart & knowledgeable. I"ve mentioned this before, but I've got to mention it again because it's so burned in my memory and I miss it. After district convention sessions, at night, these older ones would sit by the motel pool as we younger ones swam. I remember seeing them relaxed in their shorts having deep, exciting converstations about Bible prophecy, when the end was coming, etc. JWs just don't do that anymore. For one thing, most are incapable now; they don't even know their own doctrine. Also the org doesn't really provide that kind of info anymore. And I think the org doesn't want such conversations to go on because they expose the holes in JW doctrine. In fact, now such conversations are almost forbidden.

  As somebody mentioned above, a lot of the lit now is just stuff for children. So much of it is about social stuff and daily living. The org has abandoned the heavy doctrinal and prophetic stuff - the stuff that I enjoyed and found exciting.

  Wow, I miss those exciting times and the feeling of security - like we were part of an organization that was going to take care of us, protect us. But, as was said, that religion is gone... gone. I just can't believe it. It seemed so real. One of those older JWs I mentioned told my unbelieving dad that I'd never drive or graduate high school because the end was so close. It's been over 40 years since he said that. Most of those folks are gone now and I miss them. I can't relate to JWs today; they're just different. It's all different.
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  Wild_Thing

  This is just an observation, but I think it was the sense of belonging that made it fun. Honestly, I could have been raised in the Mormons or any other close knit religious group and I would have thought it was fun as a kid. Automatic family, automatic friends. Always stuff to do and hang out with. You can't beat that. If only it weren't for all that pesky brainwashing.
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  Band on the Run

  Snowbird,

  We must live in galaxies very remote from each other. Being a Witness was never fun. I cannot recall a single moment. My parents could have raised me in a respectable, mainstream religion. A religion where members are able to pass a fourth grade reading comprehension test. To be a Witness, you must not have any knowledge of current events, so ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS are out of the question. The New York Times is too difficult for WT readers. I graduated, worked very hard to meet normal people. People are utterly shocked when I reveal that my parents forced me to go to meetings. The widget factory has some rejects. It is best for the Witnesses when people assume they are utter fools.

  It is a good test for assertiveness skills. Come and study the Bible with me. Eight years later, no Bible is studied. In fact, we don't even known Genesis1:1.