Were we in love?

by JH 3 Replies latest jw friends

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  JH

  When we become Jehovah Witnesses, we actually were in love with the religion. We were ready to defend it, even if we knew there were some things that were wrong.

  Don't we do the same with a person we love, don't we try to protect him/her even if we know they could be wrong.

  The moment we started to open our eyes and saw that religion for what it really was, the love was already gone.

  That's why it is so hard to go back to the hall. Even if they would come out with the right verses, we know that we wouldn't be able to have the love we had at the start.
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  mustang

  If we had a love to start with..... Good question!!!!

  There was a time when I was sincere and believed the whole spiel. Was it a "love"? I wouldn't go that far.

  The realization of all the hypocrisy and betrayals go so much further than the naive, positive side of things, that it really makes for an extremely lopsided pendulum swing.

  This broaches the question I posed in the reply about "faking it":

  "I have often wondered if I could not simply go to the KH, not socialize at all and just quietly attend for a few minutes, to "meet my obligation" and then simply leave. But I don’t think you can get away with that, due to the busybody nature of the Elders, MS’s and others who be "greeters". "

  Mustang
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  greven

  I definitely wasn't in love with this religion. I grew up in it. I usually compare it to growing up in disneyland being told this is reality. When I discovered that Micky Mouse had a flesh and blood persons underneath a saw through it and abbandoned the whole thing. I never have been copletely sure and found it very hard to defend doctrines that made no sense whatsoever.

  Greven
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  mustang

  As a matter of clarification, I will also say that I was "raised in the troof".

  As such, OBLIGATION is all that was ever achieved. Even in the most sincere of all my efforts, I do not believe that I felt anything beyond a feeling of satisfying an OBLIGATION.

  And further, all this was based on PEER PRESSURE. When I backed off from allowing that PEER PRESSURE, I came to the conclusion that serving God is possible and can be truly heartfelt.

  However, my ultimate conclusion was that it is not necessary to use the JW method to do so.

  This lessening of PEER PRESSURE and realization of facts about how to serve God occurred both BEFORE I TURNED 30 and before the Baptismal Vows were changed (in the middle 80's). (I did not RATIFY the 86? Baptismal Vow changes and never PLEDGED ALLEGIANCE TO THE WTS.)

  This proper and INFORMED choice NULLIFIES or ANNULS that uninformed childhood baptism that went before.

  Mustang