The generation change was huge for me. I didn't do anything about it right away, but it sat, undigested, in the back of my mind for years. It was the beginning of the end for me as it finally broke through the crust of cult teachings that had built up around my mind, and caused me to take a good look at the organization, the changes they were making and what hypocrites they were.
I also remember the WTS filing a brief in the Jimmy Swaggert case in support of being able to sell product (magazines and books in the case of the WTS) without collecting tax...at least I believe that's what their support of him was about. It wasn't so much a change in doctrine as it was supporting false religion, even though the reason was to support themselves and their magazine sales. There was also the big reveal about the WTS belonging in some fashion to the United Nations...I can't remember as what at the moment. I was already out at that point so I wasn't paying a lot of attention...still, the fact that they had joined the wild beast in any form or for any reason was something of a shock and completely against what they'd always preached. I guess their admonitions to the stupid publishers are only for the publishers and not for the WTS itself.
When I was coming in, I allowed myself to be convinced that the 1975 debacle was mostly the doing of individual JWs. I bought the line about their "running ahead" and coming to erroneous conclusions about the end date, and how stupid they were. I should have researched it all more. Fact is JWs are very changable. They've gotten smarter and smarter at explaining it to the congregations...and training them to expect change and shrug it off as new light...as if a completely different and contradictory explanation was the same as something becoming clearer, but retaining the same basic meaning.
I also remember how important all five meetings were supposed to be and how the bookstudy groups were where dubs were going to congregate when open meetings at the KH could no longer be held. Guess they're going to stay in touch with the congregation via email when the governement closes them down. Again, its not doctrine, but it was sure hammered home heavily all the time I was a dub. Jehooba changed his mind about all of that, I guess.
There was a fiction book by Heinlein that was titled "Job, A Comedy of Justice", in which the author postulated that God, as we know him, is either a child or a maniac based on what religion says he requires, the variety of contradictory religious organizations claiming to represent him, the dual personality he demonstrates in the Bible itself and how He supposedly does stupid stuff like making sure some people find money lying in the street when they need gas so they can tool around the countryside selling magazines or helps other people get stuff they pray for (like Santa Claus), while letting kids be molested and other innocents starve to death. If you were to look at how Jehovah of the Witnesses behaves according to their own doctrines and constant changes and tweeking of supposed prophecy, you'd have to conclude that He is nuts too. None of it makes much sense or is consistant or logical in the long term.
