Damn... it's been 17 years since I've stepped near a KH, and yet Josh quotes a OKM song and I've got the melody back in my head like white on rice. Yet another way I tried so ridiculously hard to prove to Big J that I was worth His Big Love, sing songs of praise to Him. Uck. ;P
What Happened to the Religion I Left in 1995?
by JoshJeffries 69 Replies latest jw friends
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jhi29
I clearly remember a convo had by active jdubs when I was in my late teens, sometime early '90's. We were waxing lyrically about Pioneer School (couldn't wait until I could graduate and take my PS place!), and one lady, fabulously subversive in her own quiet way, asked us hypothetically: if the Society told you not to wear brown shoes in FS ever, would you obey the instruction?
I heard all kinds of falderol-- we should obey because... it's only out of love that they would say... we must trust in the Brothers...
I remember asking, almost musing aloud, something to the effect of: why should someone obey something that makes no sense? The room got quiet. I think someone awkwardly changed the subject. That was yet another brick falling from the wall. -
jhi29
Oubliette-- "What happened to the religion I joined in the '80s?"
I would gladly read your thread. Great idea. I might even rub a few leftover jdub-trained brain cells together to recall the 'heyday' of obeisance of the time and post my recollections from 1985-beyond. -
SafeAtHome
jhi29 Do you know if the subversive lady who asked such a provacative hypothetical question is still in? Sounds like she was finding her way out too, hope so.
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Vidiot
sparrowdown - "When I first woke up I was comforted by telling myself they are the true religion they have just lost their way. Then it slowly dawned on me as researched more about their history that they never were to begin with."
I was there, once.
It's not much of a stretch from "they had it once but lost it" to "they probably never had it".
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jhi29
SafeAtHome-- I truly don't know. I washed my hands of the whole thing when I left. I'm guessing since she converted her 2nd husband to the religion that she's probably still in it, likely for guilt if they're still married.
I hope she found her way out too. -
Vidiot
JoshJeffries - "What happened to the religion I left in 1995?"
IMO, it's having a collective nervous breakdown.
x
Or the cult equivalent of a severe mid-life crisis.
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Nosferatu
Welcome to the board!
Even if I wanted to go back to it, the religion I left in 1995 passed away a generation ago.
You left around the same time I did. I think I made a post fairly recently about how the religion has almost changed beyond recognition for me. An updated bible, new song book, no more hard covered books, no more slide shows, children's animation DVDs released, coloring and connect-the-dot pages, no more book study groups, less assemblies, no more local convention, two different versions of the Watchtower, and the list goes on. It's really quite bizarre to think that this religion changed so much in the last 20 years. The light gets brighter! I personally NEVER imagined the Watchtower making cartoons and activity pages for children. All we had was My Book of Bible Stories and Listening to the Great Teacher, along with the yellow and pink cassettes that dictated it directly into our brains.
When my JW niece got into a debate with me about the JWs, I told her I didn't want to be selling Watchtower magazines at the doors. She responded with "We don't sell magazines". I told her "They USED to when I was in!" The magazines also used to get mailed to your door in a little paper slip cover. Now everybody gets an independent magazine dealer.
It's funny how the Live Forever book was like the golden tool used to turn ordinary folk into JWs. Now it's as piece of useless lie-filled literature, simply due to the fact that the religion outgrew it.
Yup, strange how much "The Truth" has changed. Didn't think truth could change that much. And we're probably going to continue seeing change. I'm waiting for them to start having "Sunday School".
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AlwaysBusy
What happened to the religion I was born into during the 50's?