by whyamihere 11 Replies latest jw friends
I have a question....What did you all think Dec 31st 1975 right before 1976 hit?
Then after it turned 1976 what did you all think after that? I never asked that question before.
Brooke
p.s. I am only 24 years old so I don't really know what 1975 was like.
The same relief we felt when the year 2000 hit. the computers didn't crash, we still had heat and electrictiy, and we were still alive
I was relieved too really,, I didn't really believe it would happen, I was 17 at the time, and didn't really want the world to change , not as much as the JWS did anyways..too bad I stuck with the Org until I was 29 though... it took having kids of my own to realize what the real "truth" of life is...
1975 was when I first started studying with a JW in highschool and he never mentioned anything special at all about it.
I really did not hear about it from any JWs or anyone else until mid 1980s
First I was relieved, then I was bent. Even at 11 I was like, I just lived in terror for a year and nothing happened, I wanted to put a beat down on someone. In retrospect I sort of feel bad for my folks, really good hearted people that really tried to follow what they thought was right, I remember asking them what the heck and they were sort of bewildered, but who did they seek guidance from? You guessed it.
I was 19 years old in 1975. The arrivial of 1976 and NO Armageddon meant that I could continue to drive the flashy red convertible car my father had given me---even if it was only for the field service.....
...kids have a different agenda....even at that time...
Hi Brooke,
In 2034 you'll be in your early 50s, so you may get a chance to observe millennial frenzy first hand. We'll have to see how the WTB&TS decides to spin their "just as the days on Noah were" theme. So far they haven't made a big issue of it, but it's very in the game - maybe around 2028 things will begin to get "really urgent."
It's not likely I'll be around at that time. I can tell you a bit about what I saw & felt as those years around 1975 approached and passed. I was a pioneer in the late 60s/early 70s and there were a group of us who were "pioneer partners." We were good friends, and this was BEFORE the "out the apostates" mentality of the 80s, so "theoretical" discussions were not TABOO.
One day I asked the group, "what would you do if you discovered this was all wrong?" To me this wasn't a heretical statement, but a necessary part of ratonal self-examination. The answers I got were odd (to me) - essentially most of my partners felt that if it was all wrong, then their lives were a waste. I felt that although I woud be disappointed, I would have to pick up the pieces and move on with my life. No crying over spilled milk, y'know?
Well, as it turned out I was on my way out by 1975 - not because of failed prophecy so much (of course that was a small part of it) but because of failed ethics on the part of the WTB&TS.
I learned that the WTB&TS required far less "righteousness" from THEMSELVES than they required of me. I learned that we had a pedophile in our local congregation and that nothing was done about it. The young brother pedophile continued to "rise" in the local congregation, in fact. When silentlambs began in 2000 it was vindication of what I'd known for more than 20 years.
Back then I decided that if there is a god, ultimately everyone serves HIS will - even if it is by fertilizing a daisy patch in the New Order. If Jehovah wanted me dead, so be it. I was rather fatalistic about it. I knew people who cashed out all their worldly assets to pioneer, only to find that the non-event left them in a financial hole. I knew people who didn't "waste their time" on education - I was one of 'em!
I decided that instead of continuing to make SOMEONE ELSE'S mistakes, I would begin makiing MY OWN mistakes.
I did things I wanted to do that the congregation would have "discouraged." I'm not talking about gross wickedness, either - things like meditation, exercise, martial arts, facial hair, and more than five extra hours a week (remember, ther's prep time in there!) to enjoy the things I wanted to enjoy.
Eventually I realized that Armageddon is the daydream of a person who hates their life and hates their neighbor but loves a vindictive WarGod. It is a daydream that will never come true, but it is also a daydream that will continue to appeal to socially disaffected people for gnerations and genrations to come, even after the WTB&TS is gone.
The end of 1975 and beginning of 1976 took on the sounds of silence in our area (Dayton, Ohio). The Tower did eveything possible to drum up activity from 1966 until the middle of 1975, and then acted like they had no memory of the frenzy they created (and benefited from). The meetings in 1976 took on the normal boredom as if the excitement about 1975 never happened in the first place.
The kicker came when the Tower started loosing members, and blamed the remaining ones for putting trust in the crap they spread! That was my turning point, not the failure of 1975, but the Tower's shameful treatment and attempted coverup. As most abusers do, the Tower blamed their victim.
Before 1975 I had full trust in the Tower. After 1975 the blinders were slowly removed.
I learned that the WTB&TS required far less "righteousness" from THEMSELVES than they required of me.
Excellent post, and your comment above seems to be the hallmark of abusive religions and organizations.
The kicker came when the Tower started loosing members, and blamed the remaining ones for putting trust in the crap they spread! That was my turning point, not the failure of 1975, but the Tower's shameful treatment and attempted coverup. As most abusers do, the Tower blamed their victim.
I was a young man then to and bought all the hype of 1975. When it came and went I was left very disillusioned by religion in general. I gave up my best years for that cult and what thank you did I get? They blamed us that put trust in the organization. AS someone else said in an earlier post, I would I am a forgiving sort of person and if the WT would have a least admitted their culpability that they were in error I would have accepted it as a human mistake and moved on.
Will
