by minimus 47 Replies latest jw friends
I was raised as a JW and 1975 expectations were pretty intense. As I recall, most people did not leave after the failed expectations but many s l o w e d down. Now, I think most of the 1975 Witnesses are gone or barely in.
Is the older generation still around in the Kingdom Halls or are they much gone?
Those that don't know what they are doing there are still around. Those that don't reason are still around. Those that don't take the consequences of still being around are still around. Those that are losers are still around.
The Rebel.
I would think so, the teenagers in the congregations back then would be the ones left from that time. I graduated from high school in 1975, so my peers I grew up with who are still in and there are quite a few, are still around from those years, but most of our parents who thought they would be in paradise now have already passed away
Went thru the drama of the 70s and the lack of the promised outcome,
All my family and friends there then, me and my family escaped, all others from that period dead, incapacitated or incapable . Amazing is the lack of any accountability held to the WT, they got away with it and they now have anew breed of leaders who seem capable of drawing more drivel from the rabbits hat.
If my parents and others from that time knew of society's downsizing and the way it is handled , constant money grabbing, even the diehards would have quit.
I very clearly remember it. Not just our congregation or circuit or district. Everyone I knew was caught up in it. A family in one congregation was in sold their house and moved to a remote area to pioneer. How those children suffered! The family ran out of money, eventually living in a house that should not have been inhabited. I don't think there was electricity or heat. I hope they all recovered.
I do believe that their numbers dropped 2% in 1977 and 1978. Remember the upheavel in Bethel in 1981? jws are always looking for dates or signs of the end although Jesus said it would come at a time they thought not.
My in-laws are in their early 90's and are still in. Their son (Bethelite in mid-70's), DIL (me, 16 in 1975) and their grandchildren (raised in) are all out. Their great grandson was brought free of the cult. They will never meet him, as they are in shunning mode.
My first husband (we got married very young, dub ways, ya know) and I often liked to bring up "Stay alive for 75" to his father...who was then anointed and was baptized in the late 60s/early70s. His dad made up a lot of excuses for the WT like, "It wasn't the Society that started that, over zealous members did." Mmhmmm.
He and his wife are still around, but I think that there are more doubts and disappointments in their heads than they'd like to admit or show. About a year and a half ago, my ex and his new wife were killed in a very, very bad car accident. A 19yo drunk driver hit them head on going south in the north bound lanes of Hwy 19s running from the cops. The father later came out that he was not anointed after all...but his reasoning for that I haven't heard.
It's sad. Like this man, who had a successful military career going, so many gave up their lives for this "religion" that has done nothing but drag them through the mud. I don't see why after 40 years, and a multitude of doctrine flip flops, anyone would stay. I guess everyone wants something to believe in.
I remember as a young lad a Circuit Overseer (or Circuit Servant as they were called then) stating how many days were left until Armageddon was to come, well over 40 years ago!
I was in my teens and baptized that year.
I am not there....
I am here!
