by cognac 55 Replies latest jw friends
Ironically, it was pre-1975 (1970 actually) when I tried to do research to prove that "Jehovah" really belonged in the N.T., and that the other churches had just removed it for "Lord" because they did not like Gods Name!!!
Stunned to find out that this was total B.S. - Freddy and the other Great Translators simply plugged it in because they wanted to.
Sure set up a nice foundation of doubt for when 1975 rolled around!
That's a good question.
Its really an accumalation of many lights going on just as the Bible fortold. "The light keeps getting 'brighter and brighter' until the Truth is firmly established that this is NOT God's True organization."(italics mine)
For moir, it had to become so bright that even a blind person could see it. But noooooo, not me. I thought I was, was so smart, and yet.....I was so stupid that it took a visit from God in the form of a SR CO to make me change. (see Saul while he was traveling on his vacation to persecute the Christians)
"Blinded by the light" is now my theme song for the day.
Jan. 1, 1976
--1971
The JW organization began teaching that your brain was responsible for only logic and cognitive thought whereas your (literal) heart was responsible for all emotion. (I kid you not.)
District conventions that year featured a drama entitled, "What Is In You Heart." When charaters in that drama were faced with dilemmas, the action would freeze and gigantic heart and brain models at either end of the stage would light up and argue with each other.
The effect was sort of an "Angel on your right shoulder - Devil on your left shoulder" parody.
--Most of the JW's in the audience ate this up. My secret suspicion was that WT writers were watching Star Trek and taking it way too seriously
I remember being bothered about the treatment of the df'd, even at a young age. I remember my dad being pulled aside by an elder once for simply nodding at a friend of his who was disfellowshipped. I was about 10 at the time. I also remember feeling bad for a df'd sister who was bawling after the meeting the night of her df'ing, and no one comforted her.
Looking back, I wish that I had taken those warning signs more seriously.
--1971
The JW organization began teaching that your brain was responsible for only logic and cognitive thought whereas your (literal) heart was responsible for all emotion. (I kid you not.)
District conventions that year featured a drama entitled, "What Is In You Heart." When charaters in that drama were faced with dilemmas, the action would freeze and gigantic heart and brain models at either end of the stage would light up and argue with each other.
The effect was sort of an "Angel on your right shoulder - Devil on your left shoulder" parody.
OMG, YES!!! I was given the job of making the giant fiberglass heart and brain. Two funny stories - I made the things but was not allowed to switch the lights on and off because an elder caught my buddy and I doing a knife-throwing exhibition with Phillips Head screwdrivers on the unpainted and unfiberglassed paper-mache shells.
I complained about this to an elder (how preposterous medically the idea that the heart could motivate "bad thoughts") and he replied that it is obvious: When he was doing it with the wifey he noticed that her heart beat faster!!! ("doing it" is something mildly bad even with the wifey?)
I think that before they dumped this idiocy they even tried to find an emotional role for the kidneys as well.
It's funny, but looking back, I can suddenly remember all these doubts that I shoved out of my psyche.
I remember all the times I'd be studying and something just would not make sense to me.
I would cross-reference and think about it and look up other stuff on CD-rom, but still I couldn't wrap my head around it.
Eventually I would chalk it up to my own stupidity.
Never mind that I have always been a good student, never mind the glaring obviousness (now) that it didn't make sense because it was made-up BS; at the time I did what any good JW did: shoved it aside, waiting on Jehovah.
Usually this was when studying something like the Daniel prophecy books. You have to really have an imagination to see the parallels they draw; even when I was at my most zealous and wanted so badly to believe it, I remember thinking "these people in this room that are so excited about how obvious these prophecies are in line with events we see happening in our time, man, they are just really stretching here," and then I'd have to chide myself for having such a thought!
Rachel
Edited to add: Though it wasn't explicity requested, ultimately what forced me into truly waking up from the JW's was: Disfellowshipping and Blood. I just cannot agree with those two JW doctrines. Their Bible verses on those two items are incredibly weak, and the practices themselves are far too damaging to enforce such things based on such weak arguments.
"Usually this was when studying something like the Daniel prophecy books. You have to really have an imagination to see the parallels they draw."
LOL - You mean the "Ships of Kittim" didnt represent Hitler and the Nazi's???
(I dont remember the exact point, but you get my drift.)
Whoever wrote the Daniel and Revelation books should have won the HUGO award for best SCI-FI fiction!
Jeanniebeanz: "I was also pretty young... my first doubts came up after listening to a member of the 'anointed' (and a CO at that) in a car group one morning picking out his 'after armageddon' house while 'witnessing' in a wealthy section of Redwook Valley."
I had a similar experience with a member of the anointed. He was a pet supply salesman and one of his customers had a ranch with all sorts of odd creatures. The anointed brother basically said that he was going to take over that ranch after armageddon. It took some time for me to realize that, being anointed, he should have been in heaven after Armageddon and not on earth riding on camels.
What really irritated me and finally got me out was the pathological self worship of the Society. Statements such as:
Every time you open up a watchtower it's like getting a letter from Jehovah.
Even if the Organization is wrong how dare you correct it! You're running ahead of Jehovah.
When you have any doubts about the Organization you should say what the disciples said "Lord whom are we going to go away to, you have the sayings of everlasting life."
villabolo
