Hubby's tempted to go back

by jgnat 48 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Phizzy

  Good luck jgnat ! the pull of the WT/JW.Org will diminish no end when enjoyable times are substituted.

  I did this with Mrs Phizzy at first, I filled the first couple of weeks or so with all sorts of stuff we did together, or with other non-JW's, and eventually she twigged and asked "Are we never going back then ?", to which I replied "That's right", and waited for her reaction, which was a shrug and a "O.K then".

  Phew, was that a relief ! but I am sure the experience of having happy times when we should have been at boring Meetings really helped.
• 

  Kensei01

  I have said to those who inquire that my vision as greatly cleared after I stopped drinking the cool aid
• 

  BluesBrother

  If I have got this right, Mr Jgnat wants to attend meetings and be a part of the congregation, but not share in the Field Ministry or other forms of service. He misses the fellowship, the routine, the "spirituality", the assurance of a hope of eternal life. He wants the good bits.

  The truth is, that you cannot be a Witness if you don't witness. The name is an action, a verb (please don't be pendantic on grammar, but I just make a point).

  I have known some who are accepted in fellowship only but they have active family members and they come on their coat-tails. To go along alone and not share would make you a perpetual bystander , an outsider . He would hear so much strong counsel to be active and busy that it would reinforce any feelings of guilt. You need a strong conviction that it is B/S to ignore all that
• 

  jgnat

  BB, Blondie mentioned in passing that it seemed that hubby is what the congregation used to disparagingly refer to as a "submarine witness"; show up for the memorial but you don't see them otherwise. Hubby quite likes the label, and is immune to it's connotations. When we talked this week I asked if he might be happy being a submarine? He was open to the idea.

  Like many fence-sitting Witnesses who briefly visit here, he believes the so-called core doctrines; no spirit body, paradise earth, a coming Armageddon afterwards which Jehovah will straighten all things out.
• 

  Rufus T. Firefly

  <<He does not want to do the Witness thing. He just doesn't want to feel guilty either.>>

  “Stanley Milgram . . . pointed out that people who disobey destructive authority suffer psychologically, too. Often a person who disobeys finds himself at odds with the social order, and may find it hard to shake the feeling that he has been faithless to someone or something to whom he pledged allegiance.” (From the book The Sociopath Next Door by Dr. Martha Stout.)
• 

  JWdaughter

  Excuse to not go back "All the raunchy carrying on that is going on in KH's these days prove to me that Jehovah's spirit is not with the organization anymore!

  Excuse why he was gone and is now returning "I was stumbled by the fact that there was never anything enjoyable or fun going on in the congregation, just drudgery and talk about armageddon-but now from what I see online, you all dance and carry on in the halls. I am encouraged that theremight now be fun and laughter allowed in KH's! "

  Just choose!
• 

  Apognophos

  Like many fence-sitting Witnesses who briefly visit here, he believes the so-called core doctrines

  I hope for his sake he doesn't visit the forum some day, jgnat, because I think a lot of us would like to smack him upside the head with TTATT Fence-sitters make me crazy.
• 

  jgnat

  You would confirm everything he suspects about apostates, LOL! He already knows he can't win an argument with me. But he's found away around that. He digs his heels in.
• 

  Paris

  Arguing never work because that's what jw's love to do. Core doctrines ? The absolute core is the Governing Body and thinking they are "special" and are the "sole channel of communication between man and God" that is the core. After that delusion is dismantled, all doctrines are up to question , since the GB is NOT who they say they are. Then thier peculiar doctrines making them the "central stars" of the Bible, becomes clearly nothing but embarrasing grandiosity.

  Lots of churches believe in a 1000 year earthly reign of Christ and all different kinds of "bodies" physical, and "spiritualized physical" and variation on the theme is out there. The JW doctrines are NOT unique !!

  Thats what he thinks, that he has "Special Knowledge " This is the core. Special Knowledge. Exclusive knowledge. " I know something you do not understand" That makes me "special" I belong to a "special group" of exclusive select who follow the only channel to God. That is what he believes. Not the way he would say it, but he can't say it out loud, because its too ridiculous.

  The first thing a JW has to do to is clear themsleves of this core "special knowledge" idea. There is no special knowledge, everything knowlable, can be known, by anybody, without attachment to special guides or allegiance to ritual or mysterious groups. The core book to unravel his delusions is still Crisis of Conscience, written in the Watchtower Style. Thats why it works.

  After that, there is the long step down - off the high horse - to being just one of us regular confused slobs who accept and respect other people and their opinions and ways of worshiping as just as legitimate as anything we or anyone can think up. Its a long step, many never make.