Young JW's attitudes

by Phizzy 23 Replies latest jw experiences

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  Phizzy

  I met an old friend last evening, a great guy, an XJW for longer than me.

  During a conversation about our experiences since fading (neither of us are DA'd or anything) we got to talking about the young JW's.

  His wife is still in, and he has two lovely daughters who he is trying to teach the art of Critical Thinking so that they can make the right choice in the future.

  What worries him though is that he is convinced almost all young JW's do not give a "proverbial" if it is the Truth or not, they simply wish to remain in it because of the social aspects, loads of friends and activities that they feel safe partaking in etc etc.

  So how do you convince these young people that they would have a better life if they left ?

  They see it as losing all their friends, and being alone and trying to build new relationships, which is mostly true.

  How do we convince them to make the Leap ?

  Should they ?
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  Landy

  I think it fast becomes all that they know. They are brought up to be ostracized from their 'worldly' peers - it's only natural that they will look inward to socialise with those that have shared similar experiences. What they believe is irrelevant really.
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  Magnum

  It's not just young folks; it's older ones, too. I know some older JWs who would be zeros in the outside world, and they know it. In the JW realm, they have prestige, position, etc. which they wouldn't have outside. I think the older ones might care more about whether it's the truth, but they suppress any doubts they have because they can't imagine life outside JWdom.
  
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  sparrowdown

  Be the happiest apostate you can be.
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  Crazyguy

  I think most would leave if it wasn't for the friends and family. If they stopped the shunning the cult would disintegrate in just a few years.
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  joe134cd

  Yes I would have to agree with your friends comments. Even when I was waking up it was something I weighed up very carefully. The social friendship vs TTATT. It wasn't until I started losing that social support that it became easier to physically remove myself.
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  watson

  I like the idea of teaching them to be able to think critically. Other than that, it's hard to convince them to leave. They have to figure it out themselves.

  After all, who's to say they would have a "better" life outside the Org. I'd hate to be responsible for convincing someone to do something and find out they were miserable.

  One of the things that helped me fade was realizing that most attending were there because of the social support system.
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  2+2=5

  I agree that many young ones see the biggest advantage of being a JW as the social network. While they may not be as theocratically motivated and lack the enthusiasm for their own doctrine as the overlapping generation of JWs who came before, today's young ones are every bit as mentally trapped in the cult as those that passed on the baton of craziness.

  In saying that, I think the WT is doomed and the current 15-30 year olds will be waking up in droves in the coming decades.
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  DesirousOfChange

  Yes I would have to agree with your friends comments. Even when I was waking up it was something I weighed up very carefully. The social friendship vs TTATT. It wasn't until I started losing that social support that it became easier to physically remove myself.

  There was such an empty hole in the social calendar after we began our fade and it was evident to all the local JWs that we were MIA. In fact, we considered if it would be worth it to "return to Jah" and just fake it just for the social benefits. Then we realized that even doing that would not bring it all back because before fading we were a prominent family in the circuit and district. Upon returning, we'd just be Joe & Jane Publisher and we'd never make it back into the same social network as before. We'd likely still be excluded from many things for being "questionable association".

  Now we realize we'd have gagged on the "spiritual food" at every meeting.

  Doc
  
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  Hadriel

  Remember what life was like as a late teen or even early twenties if you were a JW at that time. You're friends were it. You went out on weekends during the week you name it all the time.

  It was everything. As a young JW you have a built in social system. They pretty much have to welcome you in to some degree. In the real world friends take more work because they don't have to agree with you.

  The solution I believe is time. Skillfully showing the blatant faults of the org in a systematic manner without emotion has worked for us, however there is still real drawn to what they know.

  I trust that the real truth has hit their heart and that in time as life goes on, they go to college, find a mate and so on the reality that it is false will be inescapable as friends just aren't the priority anymore.

  At least this is our experience so far!