When I was a JW, I thought (because that is what I had been taught) that there is only one true religion, that it was all or nothing. I read here so often (most recently Sweetpea) of experiences and discussions with JWs who know it isn't all right, but they are in it for various reasons-basically a lot of 'its better than what I knew before' and 'what will happen if I leave???'. I wonder now how many JWs did NOT have the idea that it IS the truth, but didn't really care? They are spouting the lines publically, but have fully acknowledged-to themselves at least-that it really isn't any truer than any other religion. JWs are just like EVERY other religion in that they are filled with a lot of folks who are only (in their heart in any case)Sunday churchgoers. The idea of being a 'sunday churchgoer' (notwithstanding that there were a lot more meetings than sunday) never even occurred to me. It never occurred to me that I could be a half hearted JW. I imagine my age had a lot to do with it. I am almost wanting to bring up this subject to my mom, but kind of don't want to start anything. If she wants to be one of them. . .sigh. Anyway, any thoughts on this?
WTS, religion, all or nothing-Sunday KH-goers
by JWdaughter 7 Replies latest jw friends
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purplesofa
since i came in door2door at age 27 .......i would have never thought any JW was just a benchwarmer, I was just so gungho
thats what I became until I just could not stand it anymore.
purps
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looking_glass
I think some of it has to do with certain generations. My group of friends are mostly open minded. A few are die hards, but most of them say that they believe 75% of what the jws teach. As my mom got older she became the all or nothing generation. You know the generation that is spoon feed and believes 100%. My grandparents always believed it 100%.
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Gopher
We heard constant exhortations againt "lukewarmness" at the Kingdom Hall, and at the book study whenever we studied that part of the Revelation Climax near at hand book. Meeting attenders who rarely went out in service were painted as 'lukewarm', which is a putdown if you look at what Jesus wants to do with his lukewarm disciples in the book of Revelation (vomit them out).
When you go door to door preaching this stuff, if you took it even somewhat seriously you had to come up with reasons this stuff was true. You had to repeat it to a lot of householders. As has been pointed out by others on this forum, this is a really effective way for the Watchtower to keep its people loyal, by having them repeat the teachings over and over to non-believers. It wasn't a really effective way of making converts, but it did re-enforce those Watchtowerisms in our minds.
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Creeper
A lot of it (from what I could see in my days there) seemed to have to deal with hypocrisy as the chief problem that the organization has.
For instance, there are many things they know that are truth, for example the holidays are pagan customs, and have no real business in the life of a believer in the Messiah. But then they go and participate in all sorts of other revelry and worldly commerce, negating the very servitude and honor they claim to purport.
Then you have the "question your religion" presentation at one's front door, yet, the very same principle is discouraged by the very organization that presents it, when turned on itself. There are some bible writers that disagree with this though:
1Jn 4:1
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world.Act 17:11 Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of the mind, examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so.
There is no doubt that the WT has many things completely wrong, mainly due to a mixing of the old and new covenants, but also because of several other issues, such as the preexistence of Jesus as an angel, the arrival of the Kingdom in 1914, and many other false teachings that are obviously not in the bible.
But what baffles me more then anything, is that they fail to put the number one bible principle first and foremost in anything that they do, because in reality, the Watchtower experience is more about becoming selfish, then it is about becoming a giving, caring, and humble organization. The love for others simply really doesn't exist, unless you have something to offer. IF they were the "true religion" then they would have listened to James when he said:
Jas 1:26 If any man thinketh himself to be religious, while he bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his heart, this man's religion is vain. Jas 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
But exactly how much money does the soc have? How much do they give to the red cross or any other nonprofit groups? Simply because they are more concerned with trying to please their God with rules and law, then to live by faith and love. IT really is a form of Judaism just repackaged with a different label from what Moses taught.
Creeper Buds
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littlerockguy
We heard constant exhortations againt "lukewarmness" at the Kingdom Hall, and at the book study whenever we studied that part of the Revelation Climax near at hand book. Meeting attenders who rarely went out in service were painted as 'lukewarm', which is a putdown if you look at what Jesus wants to do with his lukewarm disciples in the book of Revelation (vomit them out).
When you go door to door preaching this stuff, if you took it even somewhat seriously you had to come up with reasons this stuff was true. You had to repeat it to a lot of householders. As has been pointed out by others on this forum, this is a really effective way for the Watchtower to keep its people loyal, by having them repeat the teachings over and over to non-believers. It wasn't a really effective way of making converts, but it did re-enforce those Watchtowerisms in our minds.
Going out in service was not primarily to win converts but basically to reinforce the indoctrination when you were not attending meetings. During the time I was in I totally believed it was the truth, 100%; I just thought what I didn't understand would eventually be revealed to me and that I shouldn't expect to learn everything at once and that other people in the organization who had been in the organization for years were learning new things that they had wondered about and then later it would be my turn to have things fall into place that didn't already.
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jws
When I was a JW, I probably believed 95% of it. I know we had the people who went through the motions. Maybe they'd only be there on Sunday. Maybe they didn't go out in service. I was probably one of them myself. I went through the motions, but I hated service and my mind just couldn't focus on meetings when we're going over the same old things again and again and again. It's like repeating 6th grade for the rest of your life. Cut down on the meetings, bring some life to them, or teach something different and maybe I can get more motivated.
My belief at the time was that you couldn't be luke-warm or half-hearted about it. From what they taught, I had to get to some higher level of buy-in that I wasn't at. I was going through more motions than a lot of people there.
I do have an aunt who was a literal Sunday Witness "church"-goer. I don't think she liked driving at night and didn't go to the night-time meetings. One Sunday, they were blasting people like that from the Sunday talk. It was the last meeting she ever went to.
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mouthy
by having them repeat the teachings over and over to non-believers
Yes Gopher your right .But isnt that what mind control is all about ? Slowly but surely...repetition ...the more you repeat it the more it becomes true. I believed it a 100%( except for 1914) but I thought that was MY fault Jehovah would help me to see it...They are masters of deception...