How many members on here in total, & q about pre-1975 jws

by gypsywildone 22 Replies latest jw friends

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  gypsywildone

  A long story condensed in order to keep private things private, but first of all, how many active members are on here now?

  Second of all, were the pre-1975 jws less hard core, would you say? Is that around the time they "stepped it up"? Because an older, non-jw relative is trying to tell me the jws I am describing were not the jws she knew when she walked away from them around 1970. I was forcibly detained there from like 1975 till 1978 maybe. In that time, I knew them to be breaking up families, writing ugly books to scare little kids, & generally be very hard core. Any comments?
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  Terry

  I was in the belly of the beast from about 1959 (baptised in 63) and disfellowshipped in 1979.

  I stopped being active for about the last year and a half.

  All the meaness crept in after 1975 as far as I'm able to ascertain.

  Another legacy of Freddy Franz and his obsessive chrono-compulsive disorder.
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  Netty

  Dont know about pre - 75, I was in, but too little. But for sure, after 75, say late 70's to early 80's, things were hard core STRICT! Thats why I left, I couldnt breathe. Disfellowhipping was an epidemic! Judicial Committees for everyone! I never knew how to make a decision, so much definition during those times on what was a disfellowhipping offense, and what was a conscience matter. I think it became more lax in the 90's.
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  gypsywildone

  Thank you for replying, this was my perception from 1975 on also. What year did Franz become president, do you know?

  this relative is trying to tell me what I saw, heard & experienced was NOT all of the above. WTF, I can remember being 4 years old, I certainly was aware of my friends being at the pool, & me having to sit & listen to that shit. I know what I heard, even though I knew from the git go it was insane,. there was real life out there, & me & my dad wanted Christmas BACK!
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  gypsywildone

  This relative is mega pissed because I told her the truth about her mother (my grandmother). Just because the woman is dead does not make her a sait. It also does not re-write history. The facts are the facts. This relative left the jws way before I was ever forcibly detained there, & her perception is NOT the same as mine, but it does not negate mine. She thinks it does.

  I would like to know how many active members this site has, because she thinks everyone is just a pissed off, bitter xjw here & that I am as well. I

  I am not, but I will not whitewash what it was.
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  Poztate

  Click on the big boards logo at the bottom of the page.It tells how many members on this board although I am not sure how active all of them are.
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  gypsywildone

  Thanks much Poztate!
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  onacruse

  I was baptized in 1962, and was a 100% dyed-in-the-cloth JW, to the point of even being a weirdo-among-weirdos , so I remember those times, and the ambience, like it was yesterday.

  The biggest shift in WTS policy came in the early 80s, and especially right after Ray Franz defected. I remember it well because I was going through the process of reinstatement right when the policy about how to treat a df-d person shifted sharply back towards the ultraconservative. I was sitting (alone, of course) at a district convention, and the chairman of my committee approached me and said he hoped that the change in policy wasn't going to cause me to abandon my effort to get reinstated. Well, it didn't, primarily because I was trying to get reinstated so I could have full freedom to again be with my family and friends.

  Ever since then, df-ing was increasingly, and for a period of time even primarily, used as a baseball bat against apostasy. Of course, there has been a continued high level of df-ings for sexual sins, though use of tobacco seems to have fallen off the map.

  There've been a couple of brief efforts toward a more liberal approach, but short-lived and of minimal impact.

  Craig
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  wasasister

  I don't know, Craig. It seems there have been natural pendulum swings back and forth since the 50's. In 1968 when the Truth Book came out, there was a big push to get Bible Studies baptized in a hurry. That's also about the time they cracked down on dating (don't pair up until you're ready to marry). Perhaps it was because I was dating at the time, but it felt like the grip was tightening even then.
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  onacruse

  wasa, yes, the push for the "6-month bible study and get baptized or out" period..LOL, been a long time, eh? My Dad had had a long-time (multi-year) study with a fellow (Brad); really nice guy, very intelligent, and when the directions came from Brooklyn that we were to terminate studies if they didn't show 'promise' after 6 months, then my Dad dutifully laid out those terms, and Brad said: "OK, then, it's been really great having these discussions."

  And the "dating" issue, or, for that matter, the "getting pregnant" issue. I remember sitting front-and-center-row at a circuit assembly with my first wife, and she was far too late with her period, so we were naturally rather excited that she might be pregnant. One speaker (the district overseer) got up and gave this scathing talk about how foolish and unfaithful someone must be to be having, or even thinking of having, children, so close to the last day. I was so steaming mad that I almost jumped out of my seat and screamed at the top of my voice...I was shiveringly incensed.

  Perhaps, in the context of this thread, my memories have become somewhat myopic.

  LOLOL, thanks alot...now I'm mad as a burning bat.

  I'll take it out on you later.

  ((wasa))

  Craig