What really woke me up: I started noticing most JWS are weirdos..

by kneehighmiah 41 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  EndofMysteries

  I wonder if any 'non weird' person exists in this world.

  Everybody puts on a cover of themselves, but the more you get to know them you then see stupid phobias, obessions, paranoias, etc. The seemingly normal person who becomes crazy and calls a million times if you don't answer, the ex who suddenly stalks, the person who has a fetish for collecting pens, or candles, hording, the paranoid person, the superstitious person, the time bomb angry person, drug addict, thief, bipolar, obessive compulsive, neat freak, quiet withdrawn, socially awkward, angry at the world, always depressed, super hyper all the time, uncaring to their family, religious fanatic, etc, etc, etc.

  I don't think I've ever got to know a person who at some point didn't display traits of weird and not normal the more time went on. Which then means that nobody is normal and normal is an illusion. Everybody has something wrong with them.
• 

  Divergent

  I often thought about why there are only a few million witnesses of Jehovah in a world filled with billions of people. The answer given is that Jehovah looks for quality, NOT quantity

  Then I started to think: Wait... why do people on the outside seem to be of better quality than us???
• 

  Vidiot

  Giordano - "I think the weirdness sets in because of the thought proces needed to remain a witness."

  I came to the same conclusion.
• 

  Island Man

  If you raise this point with JWs, you know what they're likely to do? They likely to use your statement as proof that they have the truth by quoting this scripture:

  (1 Corinthians 1:26-29) . . .For YOU behold his calling of YOU, brothers, that not many wise in a fleshly way were called, not many powerful, not many of noble birth; 27 but God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might put the wise men to shame; and God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put the strong things to shame; 28 and God chose the ignoble things of the world and the things looked down upon, the things that are not, that he might bring to nothing the things that are, 29 in order that no flesh might boast in the sight of God.

  I think the above scripture shows that even the bible writers of the first century recognized that not many wise people were falling for their nonsense - that it was mostly the gullible and uneducated. With simple logic and philosophy available at the time, it was easy to poke holes in christianity. So as a means of counteracting this inconvenient fact, the above passage was written as a means of saving face and justifying christianity's propensity to attract the unwise or the "weirdos". LOL.
• 

  Divergent

  Island Man, the quality that I am referring to in my case had more to do with personalities rather than what you just mentioned. Should have made that clearer in my post. Anyway, good point
• 

  Bungi Bill

  I grew up in a sparsely populated district, in which eccentric persons were not uncommon (they were usually referred to as "characters", and one could write a book - perhaps even several - about som eof the eccentric characters I knew).

  However, the ones I encountered "in the truth" were something else again, and I agree with kneehighmiah and others that the religion of the JWs attracts more than its share of strange people.

  Just one question, though, about something you said:

  "My parents sent me to college and told me to take what the watchtower said with a grain of salt."

  Knowing that to be the case - as they obvioulsy do - how is it that your parents still remain with this religion? As W.C. Stevens, in his 1968 book "The Inside Story of Jehovahs Witnesses" expressed it:

  "No other religious group would demand so mauch from its followers, in return for so little."

  Bill.
• 

  kneehighmiah

  I doubt I'll even try to get my parents out. They don't care about doctrine. They know I don't believe in 1914 and they don't argue about it. They still let me be an MS somehow. im just only assigned certain parts. No public talks anymore. The org represents their entire social structure. As long as they believe it's filled with good people they will ignore everything else. I highly doubt they will shun me when I marry a worldly girl and stop going to the meetings. I think they know it's coming.
• 

  3rdgen

  EOM, I agree that most everyone has somthing quirky about them. The difference imo is that JWs usually don't have the social skills to control the crazy when in public. Let me put it bluntly. We all burp and fart but most of us know better than to do it in public.
• 

  steve2

  The Witnesses' message - highly critical of the established secular and religious "order" and positing solutions as resting in, not human, but divine hands - is an extremely captivating one to individuals who feel as if they don't belong in this world.

  Disenfranchised, alienated, "eccentrics", lost souls of assorted varieties etc, find a common point of agreement with the Witnesses' cynical, critical, judgmental view of humankind.

  Of course, even disenfranchised, alienated individuals may have one too many active brain cells to not quite succumb completely to the JW belief system - but enough of them stick around to lend the pressure-cooker JW congregational environment an even more blatant flavor of weirdness.

  But, to be fair, if you attract weirdos, does not necessarily mean you are weird - although it probably helps.

  Sometimes we attract people regardless of what we do because we are good looking and sweet talkers. What is that research that suggests adult females are especially vulnerable to the charms of psychopaths? Or horny older men to the delicious beauty of sweet young things hovering over head like promises of an intense paradise in a half-hour double bed?

  To put this in reverse, busy, industrious, self-motivated, grounded people find little of interest in the Witnesses cliche condemnation of the world and their cardboard paradise solutions.

  I guess we should all take it as a compliment that our own individual weirdness was not enough to keep us in the organization. Yet, I still am drawn to the notion that, selectively, weirdess has a lot to commend it - espeically if it is coupled with damn good looks and the promise of an intense, although fleeting thrill. But enough self-disclosure.
• 

  apostrate

  Well, it certainly is factual to say that the JW's have their share of weirdo's. But, think about it, you are what you eat! And you are what you feed your mind!. You have come to realize what the WT Society is feeding its members.

  Don't expect good fruit from a rotten tree!

  The whole world is filled with weirdos. Just look at the political parties. Look at other religious organizations. Every group and organization in the world will have its share of peculiar characters. Be very careful when aligning yourself with an organization.