by JH 5 Replies latest jw friends
When you started to slow down in the congregation, what was the reaction of the brother/sister who studied with you up to your baptism? Usually these people hate to see their hard work go down the drain. Did he/she try to encourage you to study again when you became inactive?
Edited by - JH on 30 December 2002 17:7:45
I was raised a witness, and by the time I had stopped going, my parents had stopped already themselves.
It was funny watching those elders that would encourage me though, when I was not willing to accept their guidance, they looked personally hurt. I was thinking, why the hell do you care? They were not really friends. They were not their for me and my family.
Goody for me, my mother is suggesting I study with one of the sisters in the Hall. Maybe that will stengthen me in the faith and help me with my doubts.
No, I will not have anyone taking me for a fool and trying to program me again. Wouldn't work anyway because I've already come to seeing the truth about the truth.
I was threatened with disfellowshipping unless I shut up. Now that was encouragement. To leave!
I know this is slightly off-topic but I remember sometime I guess it was around 1996 I asked an MS's wife to initiate a sort of family study, just me and her. I cant quite put a finger on the reasons why I asked her to do this for me, maybe I was depressed and lonely and just wanted someone to come over to my house once a week, or maybe I thought that she would be able to dissipate some doubts that I started to have around that time, who knows really.
She only came twice, the first time we studied a little from that pamplet "is God interested in us" or something like that, but we only studied a couple of pages, then the so-called study turned into a 2 hour gossip/personal gripe session. At first I thought it was cool since she was an MS wife we gossiped some *good stuff*, but I always felt guilty afterward, not because of those ridiculous WT study articles about gossiping, but because I felt bad for those people she talked so badly about.
The second time she came around we didn't study at all, we made some coffee and finished up a cheesecake a la Golden Girls style and talked about anything and everything. Again, I thought it was fun, but I couldnt help but feel guilty about talking badly about people that I knew for a long time, plus at that point I really started to see the hypocrisy at the higher levels of the congregation. So I just kindly asked her to suspend our so-called study time because I needed to sort through some doubts and concerns I had, she said ok.
I think it was around that time that I started to feel I had gathered enough courage to break free from the org, that feeling epitomized by attending college later that year and interacting with so many different people, sharing different points of views, and of course reading Crisis of Conscience.
Edited by - Soledad on 30 December 2002 18:3:44
Actually yes that did happen. The elder I studied with did offer me a chance to study another book with him. I told him that I had studied on my own and therefore wasn't interested in studying with him again. All he said was "sorry to hear that" and it was dropped.
