I woke up early in life. It’s not because I was smarter than my brothers and sisters. In fact, Reflecting back, I actually don’t know why I didn’t embrace the Watchtower teachings? I want to say the internet---but not really.
One thing I do remember is my Grandmother sitting me on her lap and talking to me about how wonderful life would be in the paradise earth. She didn’t talk about the animals so much. But she kept painting this picture that in the New World, I wouldn’t have to worrying that someone was going to break in our house and kill mom and dad. She told me that in the New earth, no one would kidnap little girls and do bad things to them. She told me that I wouldn’t have to worry about losing my mom and dad to sickness. (By age 6 I had already witnesses some of these things in the News)
Since one of my friends died in the first grade of school, grandma knew that I was aware that death took little kids like me, so She kept painting this picture that I would never have to worry about dying in the New World..
Even to this day, even though I know the Bible is a fairy tale book and the Watchtower is a religious cult, Sometimes When I’m in bed and everyone is asleep, I imagine what Grandma used to tell me.
It’s was a wonderful feeling believing that everything was going to be ALL-RIGHT. You actually sleep better.
There was this soothing comfort that if mom and dad died, --it wasn’t the End. I would eventually see them again. It really makes you fear Nothing.
Someone asked what 60 and above old jw believers are thinking with all the changes in the organization. Well I still have a lot of family that are jw hard core believers, and they are 60 plus years old.
They talk to me because I was never baptized. So I ask them what they think of all the changes in the Organization. No more Awake mag. No more yearbook, no Door to Door, no Kingdom Hall meetings, no Conventions.
When they answer, they have this look in their face,---the same look I HAD, when I was a little kid and imagined how comforting the promise of a New World was to me, when Grandma explained what it would be like to live there.
They don’t care about the changes. Instead they talk about seeing their wife again. They are anxious to see their daughter that died years ago. They talk about being young again, and they do so with this smile on their face. You can almost feel that they are imagining themselves being young again.
They remind me----or maybe they are reminding
themselves, that in the New World there will be no more crooked
Presidents, no more crooked Politicians, and no more corrupt leaders
anywhere in the world. They talk about not having to struggle
just to survive. No Crime anywhere. Not a single animal will be abused. Nice housing for everyone. No one will have a baby with cancer or birth defects.
But the most important thing to them is that they will be reunited with those they love-----and lost.
I can't blame them. The feelings that a person goes through when they lose their wife, or mother, Their child, is almost unbearable. Or what about widows. I've talked to some, and when they really open up, and tell you their feelings, they make you cry.
Then I remember a book I read a couple of years ago, recommended on Reddit. CAPTIVES OF A CONCEPT-by Cameron.
And basically the author said that all jws were victims.
I thought about this for a while and realized that one of the definitions for VICTIM is;
one that is tricked or duped
Everyone that has been or is a JW wasn’t given all the information to make an appropriate, correct, decision.
And not every JW has what it takes, whether mentally, emotionally, or physically to escape the DEEP INDOCTRINATION, that holds them CAPTIVE.
Just like not every single girl that is kidnapped at a young age and used as a sex slave has what it takes to escape that type of life. The kidnappers usually ingrain in the young child that leaving will only lead to death.
So I know the hard core jws do some crazy things like shun their children, refuse blood transfusions, (although that seems to be disappearing little by little) and other crazy stuff.
But I feel empathy for them. Had they been given all the information beforehand, I doubt anyone would join the Watchtower Organization.
But the allure of a New World, where righteousness is to Dwell, and death will be no more, can be a very strong incentive for someone who has lost their children, their wife, or their husband in death.
The changes in the Organization the past decade or more is Nothing compared to that comforting feeling that went through your mind when you still believed---IT WAS THE TRUTH!
More than anything else-----I feel great pity for them.