What would happen if WTS banned alcohol?

by Confession 25 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  undercover

  To listen to some conservative JWs, drinking alcohol is banned.

  One of the biggest arguments that I ever had with another JW while I was still one was over alcohol. I had just turned 18 (the drinking age back during the last millenium) and was enjoying the legal use of alcohol (I was enjoying it before, but not publicly).

  Anyway, my mother and a "concerned" elder tried telling me that it would be best if I didn't drink at all. I kept asking for scriptural principle behind that and they couldn't provide any. They provided plenty of WT publication references...which didn't condemn alcohol, just the overuse. When I tried to point that out, they said that if one does not use it all then the there is no chance for abuse, so like good little followers of Jehovah, we should be babes as to badness and run away from the bad things, alcohol being the bad thing. I argued til I was blue in the face, but to no avail, they couldn't even accept what was plainly written.
• 

  parakeet

  They'd have to DF Jesus.
  Of course, they pretty much already have.
• 

  fullofdoubtnow

  If they did, half the elders in my former kh would have the shakes whenever they went on the platform. There were, and presumably still are, some really heavy drinkers in the cong. 6 or 7 of them used to meet up regularly in a local pub and drink themselves insensible every Sunday evening. If they banned booze, I reckon more than a few members would leave.
• 

  blondie

  They would have to cancel the memorial..........has to be real wine according to the WTS....I wonder if there would suddenly be more partakers?

  I saw more heavy drinking at Bethel than I ever saw in my local congregation.

  How would the enforce it?

  Blondie
• 

  JWdaughter

  #1 My first drink was at 14 at a JW gathering at the Philips house.

  #2 My mom and her brother both have severe alcohol issues, one denies, the other is past denial. Both are JWs. My mom drinks more when she is being a good witness. . .go figure.

  Another aunt who was seriously JW for some years has fought substance abuse of various kinds most of her adult life. Two other siblings(raised by my mom and her JW leaning mom)both suffered from alcohol issues-one had a totally loser life and the other died at 36 from a heart attack.(Alcohol had a great deal to do with his health issues) One sibling, not a JW married an alcoholic, but her life is pretty much intact.

  #3 They don't get to do anything ELSE, if they took away the binky, there would be mass defections.
• 

  whyamihere

  My whole family will be DF'ed with in 5 minutes!
• 

  Warlock

  I feel like leaving them right now, and I'm already out!

  Warlock
• 

  LovesDubs

  There was an elder in my old congregation that REEKD of alcohol and everyone told me that " he has a bad perspiration problem and it just smells like that when he sweats." Smells like WHISKEY? I bought that....the man died a year later from cirrhosis of the liver.

  My next congregation PO was so hung over on SUnday mornings he often had to be propped up in the back of the hall. We were told he had a "back problem".

  The lengths to which JWs will go to hide their drinking. Its the only vice they have that they can do relatively legally. They tried to ban R-rated movies and then the VCR was invented so JWs watched them at home. They tried to put the kabosh on oral sex...and well we all know how well THAT went!

  Nope...they will never stop drinking. The honchos at Bethel would have to and that aint about to happen. Even prohibition couldnt stop Rutherford from getting his freak on. :)
• 

  Seeker4

  Hell, Bethel would become a ghostland!! Lots of JWs seriously drink, and Bethelites have a reputation for being among the worst.

  There was a joke from my youth: What happens if a fly lands in a beer a JW is drinking?

  1. If it's a publisher, he sends the beer back and asks for another.

  2. If it's a Bethelite, he flicks the fly out of the beer and drinks it anyway.

  3. If it's a missionary, he eats the fly, as it's the only meat he'll get that week, then drinks the beer.

  My JW son in law is now in AA, and his JW parents (elder dad), he just told me on the phone, are now in AlAnon.

  S4
• 

  unbrainwashed

  They would be grieving the "spirit".