Lost faith and a Cadillac car.

by smurfette 5 Replies latest jw friends

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  smurfette

  Was anyone you know's entire faith in all things JW shattered by one specific incident or teaching?

  Or was anyone you know's faith squeezed from them by systematic taunting for not towing the line?

  For me it was a whole combination of things, not one specific incident, and it was gradual. I knew several people who's entire way of thinking shifted and their whole world was rocked by the WT "New Light".

  One guy in particular who fits both questions has been on my mind today. He was a ministerial servant in 1975 and decided to buy a Cadillac since he wasn't going to have to pay for it anyway since Armageddon was nigh. When the world was still here in 1976 this man lost his Cadillac and his ministerial servant position because he continued to say the society had said Armageddon would be here in '75 and he refused to admit that he may have just wanted it to be true. The loving "brothers and sisters" continued to taunt this man about his lost cadillac, mostly behind his back, well into the '90's. After many failed attempts to regain his status in the congregation, he eventually drifted away. I'm glad he's out, but the treatment he received makes me sad for him.

  This story also makes me wish my Ma had paid attention to his story and the fact that when we joined in 1980, our congregation consisted of 4 families meeting in the H.S. library and yet it was often talked about in those days that the congregation had been quite large in the recent past. Hmm. Where did all those people go?

  I would love to hear your experiences and thoughts on this subject- Margy
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  garybuss

  Can't be me, I bought my first Caddy in 1965. A black '59. I never lost one and have had many since. I did other stupid stuff believing the 1975 crap. GaryB
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  Frannie Banannie

  1. The BOE "da'd" my UNBAPTISED oldest son for getting in legal trouble, after they made lipservice to contacting him for upbuilding purposes without any followthrough, and refused to notify him of the "da-ing", leaving it up to me to be the heavy when he returned with the determination to pick up their "torture stake" and be a good little jdub. Talk about a SUCKER PUNCH!!!
  

  2. The BOE and cong. members ridiculed my partaking as one of the anointed, had cong. members spy on us and repeatedly refused to allow my youngest to be baptised when he sincerely made the effort to qualify. Their excuse was that he had been seen by elders' children eating with worldly classmates and heard cursing (things which the elders' children also did)

  3. I was publicly, though anonymously, ridiculed from the platform by the circus serpent for attempting to help my youngest son attain a baptised status. He referred to it as "nepotism" in his denigrating diatripe. I guess God's a nepotist, too.

  4. I was witness to MANY, MANY acts of blatant unkindness and cruelty on the part of BOE's and cong. members...toward those who were deemed "weak". Also, acts of obscene and public displays of fighting among the members of an elder's family.

  5. I witnessed a public verbal "flogging" by a cong. per-sniding overleer during what was supposed to be a disf-ing talk, when a pioneer sister was df'd (sobbing her heart out) for fornication, when the P.O. GRAPHICALLY and majorly deridingly described the sights, sounds and smells that must have occurred during the offending act, while the guilty young bro who participated in the act, merely got mentioned as publicly reproved. I wish I'd given 'em the whole "flock" of "birds" for that one.

  6. I discovered that the chapter in John which covers Jesus saving the adultress from stoning by an angry mob by saying "Let the one among you without sin, cast the first stone..."....those verses in toto were in FINE PRINT in the Gnu-Whirled Translation...and upon researching DECADES of volumes of WT's and Awakes, I found that those verses had NEVER been mentioned or referred to in ANY of their publications......WHY? They LOVE to hate.

  This isn't all...it's just the main ones....I'll add more tomorrow.

  Frannie B
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  Francois

  Frannie, you're so right. The highest form of entertainment to a JW is to sit around on the floor in a circle and see how many new and novel ways they can think up to give the axe to unsuspecting congregation members. I makes me want to heave.

  I can honestly say that I have experienced more love and acceptance in many of the other churches of Christendom than I have found in any of the churches of Jehovah's Witnesses.

  The current crop of young people in the JWs will look like raisins and still the end will not have come, and still the WTBTS will be speaking of the fast approaching day of God's great day of vengence. As if God allows vengence to cross his mind. It's all too juvenile to be taken seriously.

  Frank Tyrrell
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  COMF

  A black '59.

  Bet you wish you still had that one, huh! Half a block long, fins higher than your head... pure cheesy embarrassment all through the 70's/80's. Then suddenly, a classic and high fashion!

  Or do you still have it?

  
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  smurfette

  LOL Gary!

  ((Frannie))

  It makes me wanna heave too Frank.

  And COMF, that is one SWEET ride!

  -Margy