The Single Most Dangerous JW Meeting....in my opinion!

by enlightenedcynic 33 Replies latest jw experiences

  • enlightenedcynic
    enlightenedcynic

    The way I see it, pretty much everyone here knows that the 5 weekly meetings, the memorial, the DC's and CA's are all a bunch of rubbish and jibber jabber. There is still one other meeting, not as frequently held as the others, that JW's use very effectively to control existing members and bring in new converts and this meeting sadly plays apon the emotions of all in attendance.

    What meeting is this?

    A KH Funeral!!!

    I just attended a funeral yesterday, for a dear friend and instead of the day being about the man(about 10 min. of a 40 min. discourse was dedicated to actually speaking about him) the rest of the talk was used as an opportunity to spew the same ole rhetoric about JW's and their beliefs. What if a person doesn't want to be indoctrinated on that day, what if they just wanted to celebrate the life of the deceased and mourn? Not in a JW funeral!! All in attendance got to hear how the deceased loved being a JW and how he lived his life for Jehovah and how you too could learn more about the bible and JW's....just sickening. But through the anger and disgust there was a part of me that felt nostalgic, hearing about the paradise and when death would be no more and when we will all see our dear friend as well as our loved ones lost in death again. To top it off, they finished with my deceased friend's favorite song....you guessed it....#15 Life Without End At Last, a song guaranteed to bring a tear to the most hardened apostate. For a moment I questioned whether I was the one who was wrong? Some of the thoughts conveyed, the song, the prayer....so beautiful!!! This is a dangerous meeting for those who are not quite out or who are teetering.

    My advice: If you don't know the deceased, don't attend a JW funeral.....just go to the viewing at the funeral home and pay your respects there.

    ec

  • SixofNine
    SixofNine

    Very sorry about your loss, enlightenedcynic.

    I'll see your song number 15 and raise you an event so dry, so full of sales propaganda for the watchtower, that it is an embarrassment to even most witnesses because it is so transparently disrespectful of individual human life and dignity in death. I seriously cannot think of a time in my life, even back as a young teenager, when I wasn't embarrassed at what we were showing "worldly" people at any given witness funeral.

  • fullofdoubtnow
    fullofdoubtnow

    The ones I've been to were always used as an opportunity to preach to "worldly" people. I doibt I'd ever attend another at a kh.

  • unclebruce
    unclebruce


    And I bet no one got the irony of singing Life Without End At Last! at the funeral of a man who has just breathed his last. I know it was your friends choice but of all the songs. I think I'll go out with song 44 " Jehovah Really Cares".

    You make an interesting point enlightenedcynic. Funerals are an emotional time. A time when people are vulnerable and more easily seduced by watchtower reasoning than normal.

    condolences on the loss of your friend, unc

  • katiekitten
    katiekitten

    Too true.

    My grandad had a JW funeral. He had never been a JW, he was deeply distressed about my dad joining the JWs, and none of the rest of his family were JW's.

    But my dad was an elder when grandad died, and so grandad had a JW funeral.

    It was crap. No-one knew grandad so there was no personalised stuff about him. It was all JW propoganda and it pissed off the rest of the family who werent JW's. What a crock.

  • DannyHaszard
    DannyHaszard

    I was dfed in 1992 my beloved disabled JW mother died in 2002 this i found out on my own from government social security death records.

    Yes, not only was i not allowed to attend her funeral they didn't even let me know when she died so i could properly mourn my loss.

    WHO! Does this except the Watchtower cult? WHO? They make the taliban look tame,curse you watchtower bastards.--Danny Haszard apostate warrior

  • unclebruce
    unclebruce

    It's quite sickening the way Kingdom Hall funerals are used as little more than another excuse to spruke the watchtower religion. There is little dignity aforded the memory of the departed save a few brief words to confirm his former good standing in the congregation. JWs cannot even write a decent eulogy celebrating someones life. For many JW's their life of door knocking doesn't leave much to eulogise about. For others their active engaging pre-witness lives are not mentioned for fearv of admitting that all in the world is not rotten to the core.

  • unclebruce
    unclebruce
    I was dfed in 1992 my beloved disabled JW mother died in 2002 this i found out on my own from government social security death records.

    Yes, not only was i not allowed to attend her funeral they didn't even let me know when she died so i could properly mourn my loss.

    WHO! Does this except the Watchtower cult? WHO? They make the taliban look tame,curse you watchtower bastards.--Danny Haszard apostate warrior

    Jesus! That's shocking Danny. I though it was bad that my mad jw mother didn't see fit to inform me of my grandads death even though at the time I worked under his old army mate (who was pretty miffed that I wasn't at the funeral). condolences, unc

  • Mary
    Mary

    This might give you a bit of insight as to why Witness funerals are nothing more than a sales pitch for recruitment:

    *** w77 6/1 p. 347 Mourning and Funerals—For Whom? ***And further, when a service is held for a deceased faithful servant of Jehovah God, the occasion could well be used to note that one’s integrity-keeping course in spite of all manner of obstacles. (2 Sam. 1:26) True, as Mark Anthony said in his famed funeral oration: "I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him." So our purpose is not to eulogize or extol creatures, but to consider their example as one to be imitated. As the apostle Paul put it: "[Do] not become sluggish, but be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises."

    Since when did the WTS hold Mark Anthony in such high esteem? And do they really think a relationship with a beloved family member can be compared to Mark Anthony and Caesar?!

    *** g99 2/8 p. 11 Should the Dead Be Honored? ***A formal program may include one or more speakers. But it would be inappropriate to convert the occasion into a long parade of eulogizers extolling the deceased. Rather, the funeral affords an opportunity to extol God’s marvelous qualities, including his kindness in providing us with the hope of the resurrection.

  • Gill
    Gill

    A total of three sentences were devoted to my Aunt. The rest was JW rubbish!

    I sat there totally dumb struck. Had she actually lived.....or had it just been a rumour?

    There was NOTHING to bring a tear to anyones eye!

    There whole experience of my Aunt dying and being dead opened my eyes. I like to think that somewhere she is watching us, and with any luck sticking pins in an efigy of her daughter in law ...oh and the local CO!

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