by sleepy 13 Replies latest jw friends
What were you like as a JW and how does that compare to now?
Were you an Elder , min servant(If a bloke)or, pioneer, regular publisher ,iregular , almost never there?
Now what are you like as an apostate?Very active as one, quite active or not much bothered.
Are you as zealous in the opposite sense, as you were as a witness or have you changed?
If you have changed why the difference?
Are the people who made the most zealous witnesses the most zealous apostates I wonder?
When I was a witness, I lived like every day was the last day of this system. I auxilary and then regular pioneered (when it was 90 hours) for 3 years. But I am far from being an activist now.
In your comparison, you would also have to take into account that someone like me was young and innocent as a pioneer and have mellowed and chilled a bit as I have got older.
Ballistic, I remember your thoughts on the way that the majority of us, being zealous witnesses, make a mockery of the 'Satan picking the "weak" ones out from the fringes of the congregation' argument!
As you know sleepy, I'm just a closet apostate at the moment! Apart from the time when I was getting baptised, when I unfortunately had just a momentary lapse of faith (I remember thinking "What the hell am I doing!", while answering the questions!), I have always been a pretty zealous JW. I think I will be an equally zealous apostate too when I finally leave.
I was pretty darn zealous as a witness. I'm only a fringe apostate.
I was talking to someone the other day who has a well-paying job, but wants to give it up to pursue their passion in a lower-paying field. I couldn't help but feel a little jealous that they could be that passionate about something. I don't have a good history of choosing worthwhile causes (first the JWs, then an unfortunate campaign to make freecell an olympic sport).
Now I'm playing catch-up with life, and don't really think that zeal for a cause beyond my own current/future family is in me.
Hmmm
Something in those questions struck me as well. I really didn't want to answer them at the last minute but did anyway. I wonder if that is more common than we think?
p.s. my internet space server appears to be down at the mo, so no icon or ukmap.
Edited by - ballistic on 24 July 2002 12:50:47
Well, I began as a pretty zealous witness, and then slowly drifted off.
Right now, I am a pretty zealous apostate
Viv.
I was a regular pioneer for 4 years. I'm a somewhat zealous apostate as well, when the opportunity to "anti-witness" presents itself.
ballistic Yes, it was "I know it's the truth so lets get this baptism over with and sorted!" Then when it came to it, I got the serious doubts. I kinda dismissed them later thinking it was Satan having his "last go to stop me making the dedication". Can you understand that logic?!
A thought: If you really love someone, and they are cheating behind your back, does this then make you hate them even more when you find out about it than you would if you never really loved them that much anyway? I can't see how anyone who never really "made the truth their own" could be as angry as someone like me who bought it hook line and sinker.
(edited to add the reply name)
Edited by - Matty on 24 July 2002 13:50:39
"A thought: If you really love someone, and they are cheating behind your back, does this then make you hate them even more when you find out about it than you would if you never really loved them that much anyway? I can't see how anyone who never really "made the truth their own" could be as angry as someone like me who bought it hook line and sinker."
Good point Matty.The more you fall for something , or believe it ,the worse it is when you discover its wrong.
Me?
I just did the bare minimum. Although I enjoyed the social side of dub-dom (the 20 mins chatting up the pretty girls at the end of the meeting), I detested the door to door work, listening to meetings and studying.
Over the last 5 years I have become more and more pro-active in my warning non-dubs to stay away from them. One only has to tell them how witnesses encourage shunning of one's own mother (see latest KM) or similar, and they drop them like a hot potato.
Englishman.
