My conversation with an elder

by Dune 30 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  AK - Jeff

  It is amazing to me how well the org has hidden the 1975 debacle. I lived thru it, as did many others here. To hear of elders 'glossing it over' just makes me sick to my stomach! These little moronic robots [especially the ones who did not live thru it] are disgusting in their willingness to continue to sweep it under a proverbial rug, as if it never happened. or that it did not seriously affect lives.

  When I came 'in' in the 60's as a youngster I suppose they were busy sweeping 1925 under the same damn rug. I never heard of 1925 till I was out of the borg two years back. I find it amazing that witnesses have been so boon-doggeled. And that we let it happen to us.

  Jeff
• 

  katiekitten

  I have relatives who are still in, who would remember the details of what happened, but I bet they would gloss it over too. Its SOOOO long ago to them now. Onward and upward. Theyve got bigger things to gloss over these days.

  Im not sure where theyre gonna get all that gloss from.

  It makes me so angry that even talking about 1975 now brands you as an apostate. Too bad most of us that can remember it have left. It must be all newbies and thicko's in there now, easy to hoodwink and manipulate.
• 

  katiekitten

  Oh, by the way, well done Dune for being so restrained. You clearly have a very sensible young head on your shoulders.
• 

  atypical

  Good job with the self-control, Dune! There is no way I could have kept from saying something. I mean, you can totally refute that crap with nothing but the new Watchtower CD-Rom!!

  The last meeting I was at, during the watchtower study, the conductor mentioned that there was a time when some witnesses started thinking on their own that the end was about to happen. He said, "When was it, oh I don't know, 1975 or something" and then went on to say how some people took it upon themselves to sell their houses or do other extreme things like that. He turned it into an example of going beyond what we are told. I couldn't believe it.

  After we left, I told my wife that if she ever wants to know the truth about what he said, just to look up 1975 on the Watchtower CD-Rom and see for herself.
• 

  greendawn

  I asked an elder in the late 70's while I was studying with the dubs about the 1975 debacle, and he told me it wasn't the society's fault but of certain irresponsible individuals who had spread unfounded rumours.
  
  According to him because we don't know when Eve was made we can't know the time, the exact date of the end, so the society would never set any such date.
• 

  yesidid

  While we were still attending meetings a speaker from another congo said in a talk that '75 has been blown out of all

  proportion, that the society had not really been behind the pre '75 excitement .

  After the talk my husband took him aside and filled him in on the facts of the situation. At least he was gracious enough to

  say "Oh I didn't realize, I must look into it."
• 

  james_woods

  AK - Jeff is exactly right about the 1925 date during the 1975 era. It was NEVER mentioned back then, but I found it in old literature and pointed it out during my DFing experience in 1980. I got told that this was obviously old light and looking at it was to invite the nastiest sort of Demon into my mind - (or was it my thinking heart?)

  Funny, though - the Great Crowd and the "millions now living" stuff from the same 5-10 year time span were all still just fine...

  And I wonder how many today are being told that the Charles Taze SUCCESSFULLY prophecied the first world war in 1914? (instead of totally BLOWING on the end of the world and christs presence).
• 

  DannyHaszard

  From 1975-to about circa 1985 a most common meet and greet exchange among Jehovah's Witnesses everywhere was :"we never thought we would still living be in this system of things"

  That is a fact!
• 

  stillAwitness

  Thanks for everyone who linked me to specific info. I can recall talks on how those who leave the organization b/c of speculation on so called "failed prophecies" of when the end would come did it b/c of their own imperfections.

  I can remember thinking 'what a weird statement to make.' He did not elaborate but I remember saying toi myself 'he must be talking about something or somebody in particular.'

  And that info about kids not going to college, how the end is so near and so on. I read that surprised that that was an article written way back in the '60's cause it sounds like the recent WT study we just had a few months back!

  Boy, some things never change.

  By the way, who loves the new pic of moi?
• 

  GentlyFeral

  greendawn,

  According to him because we don't know when Eve was made we can't know the time, the exact date of the end, so the society would never set any such date.

  Yes, there was a speech to that effect given in January or February of 1976, via coast-to-coast radio hookup. I heard it in the Oakland Auditorium, Oakland CA, along with a dozen or so other congregations.

  But there was also a speech titled "1975!" in which a fervent speaker said "The Society wasn't wrong about 1914, and they aren't wrong about this date, either!"

  Even the Life Everlasting book, in 1966, did say that "six thousand years of human history" end in 1975. It was the last entry on a chronological chart of Great Moments in Bible History or some such.

  gentlyferal