Some will remember the painful fiasco of my last meeting. http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/7/141032/1.ashx
Last night was only the Bookstudy. It's only an hour. How bad could it be?
Well I came within seconds of 'Apostacy' and being DF'ed. Whee!
I got asked to read. Just before the meeting started, the Overseer mentioned those who would be leaving the group to go to the newly formed group. My best friend and his wife have been having problems and have missed A LOT of meetings in the past few months. When the Overseer got to their names, the group's Assistant says "Who?" with a big shit-eating grin on his face. As if they haven't been to a meeting in so long we don't know who they are anymore.
I nearly punched him.
So the meeting started and I read through gritted teeth for the first few paragraphs. When we got to the part about "the Bible Students foresaw for 40 years before that 1914 would be the end of the gentile times" I thought "No, they didn't, they thought they were already in Christ's Presence since 1874 and that the Great Tribulation would END in 1914. The understanding that Christ's Presence BEGAN in 1914 wasn't clarified until 1920 in the Watchtower." I read from the paragraph, knowing that I was reading A LIE and it made me sick to my stomach.
But I held back. I stayed calm.
Near the end of the study however, I lost my composure.
When I got to the line about "the light getting brighter" my self-control slipped. I rolled my eyes and read the line with bitter sarcasm. Then I switched back to my normal tone of voice and kept reading.
I fully expected to be called before a JC, but apparently everyone thought my throat had tightened due to phlegm (I suffer from BAD reflux esophagitis) so they overlooked it. -sigh-
I couldn't wait to get out of there. Of course the Italian brother in our group, who's daughter (she's an elders wife) has actually called people up and told them not to invite me to certain gatherings or her and her husband won't 'support' them, well that brother decided I needed a huge bear hug before I left.
Sheesh.
P.S. That sister is permanently pissed off at me because of an incident where she and the other pioneers changed the time of a service arrangement to suit their needs, since they figured no one else would show up that day... but I did, and I raised a fuss and she got in MAJOR shit from the elders for it. So I'm persona non grata to her now. "By this they will know that you are my disciples, if you have love amongst yourselves"... right.