When did it all go wrong for the WTS? I say 1980's.....

by jambon1 29 Replies latest jw friends

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  jambon1

  After speaking to an elderly JW a few weeks ago, it occured to me that the WTS genuinely experienced good times in the 50's and 60's, perhaps the 1970's. It seemed a good place to be. People seemed more relaxed. People were flooding into the truth and there seemed to be genuine, sincere expectation that the end was imminent.

  I really feel after reading this board for over a year, that the WTS kind of nailed its own coffin around the time of R Franz leaving the truth. Things seemed to go 'high control' with all the disfellowshipping of apostates, people seemed to get suspicious of each other, elders became more like policemen and things just seemed to go breasts skyward thereafter.

  The element of suspicion and the judgemental attitudes made the truth a really negative and bad place to be for me. But was it always like this? I really feel that this all kicked off around about the 1980's.

  Can anyone see my point? Can any older ex JW's clarify this? Or was it always the same as it is now?

  Thanks,

  J
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  fokyc

  You are perfectly correct, it all started going very wrong when 'The Stay Alive to '75' failed to materialise. Many left and many more slowly became disillusioned.

  The hard liner elders which are left now, have no Empathy, Sympathy and certainly NO discernment, they act like a bunch of gangsters.

  Biblical principles are out, their behaviour is similar to the East German Stasse or the Russian KGB

  fokyc
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  candidlynuts

  i agree.. the 80s was a turning point. and not for the better..they became more cult like in their rigid hardline rules. before then, you were encouraged to associate with the other brothers and sister socially. in the 80s you began to hear counsel on being cautious about association even within the congregation. that started a period of paranoia , hurt feelings, cliques and isolation which has hurt a lot of people.
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  jambon1

  in the 80s you began to hear counsel on being cautious about association even within the congregation. that started a period of paranoia , hurt feelings, cliques and isolation which has hurt a lot of people.

  The hurt feelings of those who were nice people but who were shunned by the pious mob really got to me. The more you think about what went on, the more you see that there are no real friends in the truth. Just people who are constantly monitoring your speech and their own to rank up brownie points in their 'standing'. I really wish I had reacted differently to the f**kwits who treated me and mine badly back then. Let them walk all over me!
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  avidbiblereader

  I would say much earlier than that, I think the International Bible Students were on to something whether sincerity and a willingness to try, However as their numbers grew fairly rapidily over the decades and actually grew faster and larger then they ever thought, they became more brazen in their doctrines and especially their prophecies that they were trying to explain. With no one checking their hand things have progressively gotten worse and as a ship heading out on a course, you dont have to be off very far in your degree on your compass, but the further you get away from your starting point, the further the degree of error shows and that is where I think they are now. It started out a little and it has grown way out.

  abr
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  Confession

  I agree with Avid. Yes, I know things really came off the rails in the wake of the '75 blunder and resultant WTS paranoia. But its legalism and authoritarianism began with the Judge.
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  avidbiblereader

  Thanks Confession, I actually had someone agree with me, hahaha

  abr
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  proplog2

  It all started falling apart when Fred Franz started shaping organization policy around entering the promised land. He looked at 1975 as the point where the organization had to become as OCD as he was in order to be "clean" for passage through the great tribulation. Franz was the self-proclaimed visionary and his vision was wrong. He was a crank and Knorr was preoccupied with manufacturing books and magazines.

  The largest increases were in the post world war II period up to the mid 1950's. The early 1960's became a period of stagnation. The baby-boomers would have all left the organization if it weren't for the 1975 idea. Many including myself figured they could put their lives on hold until 1975. The baby-boomers were entering the critical life planning stage from 1960-1975. Most of the leadership in the congregations are aging boomers. If it weren't for 1975 the organization would 10 years further in the toilet. If nothing extraordinary happens by 2014 it will decline rapidly.

  Of course a die-hard apologist could say that Jehovah preserved the baby-boomers by the 1975 fiasco.
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  Apostate Kate

  Yes, the 80's brought about great changes as they rigidly forced illogical doctrines down peoples throats who now could easily find real truth in other places.

  The Internet will be the final nail in their coffin and has brought about the greatest exodus since Moses lead Israel out of Egypt.

  They are trying to wipe out their history which is bothering me a bit. If they rewrite their history they then may be able to ruin more lives in the future.
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  NanaR

  I had a genuinely good life growing up as a Witness. The congregation, for me, was a warm and happy family. In order to go to assemblies, we traveled all over the Eastern US. I had visited almost every state east of the Mississippi River by the time I was 18, and had taken one trip out West. There was the problem of being forbidden to go to college, but I even enjoyed pioneering and the group of friends I pioneered with. I went to an international assembly in Puerto Rico and met the brother who became my husband. We are still together.

  Then 1975 came and went. In the congregation where my husband came in the truth, a family of elders left the congregation one by one, followed by their sister who was married to an elder. Meeting attendance in our area dropped dramatically.

  Then came the "approved associate" designation for people who were unbaptized publishers, and all the talk about apostates.

  So yes, things did pretty much go out of whack in the 1980s.

  But they went out of whack because what was expected to happen in 1975 did not happen. They went out of whack because the theology based on chronology is flawed. They went out of whack because the basis on which sincere and humble people were building their lives turned out to be WRONG...

  I'm glad I have good memories. My children's memories aren't so good. I feel bad that they missed out on things when they were growing up that were not made up for by the special love that I experienced from a closs-knit congregation. I have regrets, not as to how I was raised (couldn't have controlled that anyway), but that I didn't see "the truth about the truth" sooner.

  So yes, it WENT wrong in the 1980s... but it WAS wrong in the 1880s.......... took 100 years to start to crack...

  NanaR