35 Yrs ago today - We rocked! (page 4)

avishai

Dave, If you are having a hard time posting, you can pm me too, or my email is [email protected]

I wasn't born 'til '81, although I do have my parents' stories of the org in the early 70's. I think it was just as twisted and destructive a cult then as it is now. The difference is that it had energy and spirit--it was actually growing, and most of the members were converts rather than born-ins. I think you'll still find a simlar energy in some of the Spanish and other foreign-language congregations.

Personally, I prefer my destructive cults to be declining and dying, rather than energetic and growing. I am glad that those of you who converted as adults found happiness, at least for a time. I realize that is what attracted you to the cult. But it is also what caused us--your children--to have miserable childhoods.

Anyway, sorry if I'm laying a guilt trip on anybody; that wasn't my intention. You're all entitled to your nostalgia.

CyrusThePersian

Yep,

35 years ago we did indeed rock! i remember working in food service in the early seventies. Such fun!

Stirring enormous pots of beans, rinsing off THOUSANDS of metal institutional trays, it was hard work but for a fourteen year old kid,but it seemed worth it. I remember in 1971, the year I was baptized, the convention was held at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis Tennessee. There were 12,000 people there, in a venue that was only designed to hold 9000. The overflow had to sit out in the concourses or stand up all day and listen at the Shelby County Building next door (which served as the cafeteria). There were hundreds who were baptized. I had to wait for an hour to get dunked, there were so many!

Now it's all gone. Food service is no more. Now you bring your own stale sndwich. No more live music, just canned recordings. The talks are drab, the dramas are lifeless. There are so few baptisms that they may as well have them in the men's room. Yes the glory days are over and all I have to say is ...Good %$#*@ Riddance!

CyrusThePersian

sf

The difference is that it had energy and spirit--it was actually growing, and most of the members were converts rather than born-ins.

Another difference too, is that the internet did not exist as it does today, in that people bought whatever "food" that was being dished out then, as "in due season". Without any tools {google} to sift through the "meal". {{ Praise be to the Google God!! }}

I agree too, that I'm sure it rocked for the adults. Yet, we as Children Of The Watchtower, suffered greatly in so many ways, for the choices our parents made, with no regard for our thoughts and feelings or that of our immediate family.

It sucked!

sKally

CyrusThePersian

To sKally and Euphemism,

You are both absolutely right, of course. Just because there were good times back in the old days doesn't make it any less a destructive cult. Even back then the Watchtower was destroying families and laying burdensome guilt trips on its members. Too, us parents made some awful decisions regarding our children. I have a daughter who is a gung-ho witness-and is unhappy as hell and a son (living with his mother) who is headed in the same direction. Like you Euphemism, I prefer my cults to be on the decline, despite the "good times."

CyrusThePersian

Amazing1914

I feel bad that some of you under 35 had such a rough time as JWs. Remembers, while the JWs had their problems, and were as wrong then as they are today, we were young, and things were different. We left 13 years ago, when things were really starting to get bad, and it was obvious that the organization was wrong ... and the good times were long over.

Also, as the organization became worse, the good times dying off, we suffered together with our children. We made things as bearable as possible. My children, ranging in ages from 27 to 33, do not resent us for our belief and actions. In fact, they appreciate it that we got them out before they lost their entire youth.

We believed this stuff ... as do JWs today who act in good faith. We cannot fault them for their believing. We can only try to get them out. Sadly, though, many JWs today don't believe it, both young and old. But they are trapped because of family ties. This makes it a considerable burden for them.

Let's hope that more and more will find good Internet sites and get enough information to decide to elave the JWs.

Thanks for your input. - Jim W.

sf

But they are trapped because of family ties. This makes it a considerable burden for them.

Jim, I have such a hard time with this.

I don't buy into the trapped crap. Nor the burdens they supposedly bare.

This org cares nothing about the family unit.

What about all those families and THEIR ties that were destroyed due to insane policies and doctrine this org CONTINUES to dish out as truth?

I've said it before and I'll emphasize it again....there is NO excuse to stay or be trapped ANY LONGER as an adult jw. I will never see them as trapped and/ or burdened.

They must get out of that mindset and start thoroughly examining what it was that caused such destruction in their families and how "we are to hate the world and all who inhabit it, if they are not of jw org", poisoned many of our spiritual connections with god.

Some of us did not experience physical rape by these nutjobs in Krooklyn, yet the spiritual violations have scarred many of us for life.

Go Watchtower Go!!

sKally

sf

Dear Jim,

I'd like to invite you to read my thread I submitted not long ago, perhaps to gain a better insight to my feelings and thoughts re: adult jws and their blantant hypocrisy:

Turning the shunning policy around onto Mother...

sKally

Amazing1914

Skally,

I will read your post and make a comment later. In the meantime, I cannot sit and judge people so harshly. People have varying degrees of intellect, information, cognitive skills, and circumstances. If a man knows that he no longer believes the religion, he may have to bide his time until he can get his family out.

In my own case, even after I read Crisis of Conscience, it took another three years, another book called In Search of Christian Freedom, and some hard experiences to come to the conclusion that I had to leave the JWs. Then, I had to draw up a plan to get my family out. And until I could get them, I was going to stay and keep working on it.

All this reported in my exit series posted here on JWD and on Freeminds. But that was me then, in a different place and a different time. Knowing what I know now, I would have moved more quickly, and trusted my family more, and gotten out sooner.

Hindsight is always 20-20. That is why I refuse to judge those JWs who knowingly remain, because they have to cope with their own demons, their own particular circumstances, and take their own time. They did not invent the religion nor make it into what it is. So, I cannot hold them any more responsible than I do you, me, or any one else on this forum, or still in the organization.

By having forums like this, we are at least providing a place for them to start, and then we can help them along. But if we get judgmental and demand they all obey as we would have them obey, then we will become no better than their existing taskmasters.

Jim W.

TresHappy

Twenty years this passed March, I rocked too. I was the only child to make it to baptism; my mother was planning her daughter's KH wedding in her head; Dad was proud that his daughter would make it thru to the new system. I had friends galore in the Watchtower, all young women of various ages desperately looking for love within the confines of the Society. If someone noticed us outside the WT, we hastily put it to a halt. No dating worldly men! So if we did date a guy within the WT, most of the time he turned out to be a real dud. Really no manners, and the chaperones. It was hard to neck when the chaperones were in the back seat of the car. We could look forward to group dating; large masses of us would debate over which PG 13 movie to go see. Then we would go and a group of JW's thought they could be rude and get away with it. Or there was always Watchtower Bowling - we were the only ones not smoking at the local bowling alley. Or we could always have a small group gathering at a someone's apartment. Then we could read the WT together for the next day and then play a wonderful game of Trivial Pursuit. Then about 11:00 pm all of us single sisters would drive home alone; looking forward to another gathering when someone would invite us...

35 Yrs ago today - We rocked!

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