by sacolton 67 Replies latest jw experiences
I was out once with an uber- rightous pioneer once.
We knocked at a door and nobody answered, but we could hear someone walking around inside.
This guy walked around the house, knocked on a side window and said "we know that your home, we have an important message
to share with you"
That was one of the first times I started to doubt this religion and the mental state of some of its members.
Isaacaustin said
VS- not at all is it a life-saving work. The Brooklyn brass know it is not. If it was they would not use such a slow, painstaking, inefficient method to talk to no one (as no one is home). Those at home cut you off with a 'not interested' before they hear the message. If the brass beleived this to be 'the truth' they would get their message out en masse in such a way that even those not interested could not help but to be exposed to it.
This is so true, something I often thought myself when a JW.
If they really cared about this being a "life-sving" work, would they not use every means to get the message across. Everything from TV, Radio, adverts in newspapers amd magazines, billboards, etc
No, but they use a method that any other organisation dumped years ago as being unproductive. They boast that they are the only ones who preach house-to-house, and thats why, because everyone else knows its a useless why to find people.
They say they are following the "1st century Christians" of course the Christians back then, may have done it, but mainly because they didn't have TV, Radio etc etc. Not because it was the way that Christ wanted it done. Christ gave the command was to go and preach the Gospel. He didn't say go preach but only by house to house.
Its all just a way the Watchtower of keeping their members under control. Make the field service seem so important that not to do it means you're not getting through into the "New System". Plus you have a captive source that will always buy your publications.
Life-saving work , rubbish, more like a "money-making " work.
This thread and posts is the funniest ever! LOL, keep it goin. Instead of actually fake knocking since its hard to get away with that. I would use "it might be a dog in the yard" excuse, after acting like the trash cans and shrubbery were hiding Cujo. Of course this would only work if the house had a gate and if your partner had not been there recently. Another trick I would do and still do, is walk up to the house but as you reach the porch, slow down considerably as to let your partner feel inclined to knock on the door. Of course this would only work if your partner was over zealous or ignorant to the fact that you have been doing this. OHH Field Service
opps, I am sorry Saco. You must have been very zealous in this life-saving work.
Seriously, I wouldn't have done it at all, but I was constantly reminded: "We got to put some time in or WE'LL GET A BIG FAT ZERO AT THE END OF THE MONTH!" See? It's not about the life-saving work or having zeal ... it's about getting those hours so you don't have to get a guilt-trip.
I am so sorry I popped into this post Because you have all shown me what a really
stupid person I was for 25 years. WHY?????
Well Verystupid77 I was one of those women when I worked with some one who
timidly knocked ,,,,I KNOCKED loud.....Then when they openedI put my foot in the door
so they couldnt close it....Well I was saving their lives wasnt I ? Yes I made 10 people
JW's.. Not only that Sat mornings when we did FS,I never could drive a car,& the dear
brothers? would drive me & my daughter ( who is since dead) out in the country & tell us
to meet them somewhere at 1.00p.m. I have Rheamatoid Arth, so walking was hard BUT
I was training my child in the way she should go But when 1.00 came the dear Bro's
were nowhere to be found ...So we had a LONG walk. They would explain they got into a house
so couldnt meet us.
O.K. I am off to stick my head in the gas oven. You have all enlightened me to what a LEMON
I have been all my life ( Only kidding about the oven
were not there
That was one of the first times I started to doubt this religion and the mental state of some of its members.
God they are talking about me!!!!
I took it very seriously until I reached the point in my spiritual development where I realized this wasn't The Truth and decided to fade.
It would never have occurred to me to "fake knock" or pretend to ring the buzzer. But when I was fading, I had to show up for FS once in a while to keep up appearances. I quickly adopted a few strategies:
1. Hook up with an odd-numbered group so someone has to work d-to-d alone, and be that person. Then you can stroll to doors in full view of the other dubs and pretend to knock or buzz. After awhile, someone will want to go get coffee.
2. Arrange to get an emergency phone call right after you get to the field and tell the group you have to leave right away; this works best if you have a job where you are "on call" for some reason. Of course, you can't do it every week but my fade was of short duration so it only had to work a few times and I was gone.
3. Leave to make an arranged return visit ("They will only be home until 10 a.m. and I promised I'd be there today"). You can add that the RV is really interested and will probably turn into a Bible Study. Of course, there is no RV, you are just leaving the field and going shopping or home.
There are other strategies, of course, and variations. Shortly before we stopped going to meetings altogether, we were working alone - as we had for a couple of months. The territory was a long rectangle; I suggested the other two couples work house-over-house moving east and we'd walk north on the side street, then right on the parallel long block and meet them at the opposite corner. There were only about four or five homes on the side street and we pretended to knock at them. After three doors, we looked at each and started laughing. We walked back to our car and went out for breakfast, where, as I recall, we talked about the futility of FS.
I know this probably was terrible at the time, but now I think it's quite funny. My hubby (boyfriend at the time) and I used to break from the group after lunch to go and do our own RV's / calls. We trudged round a run down area of Glasgow every week for hours on end and hated it. We were both reg. pios. at the time, and had one legitimate magazine route. He was an old guy, very nice but was going downhill rapidly due to his age. Each time we dropped off mags. he would give us a contribution of £10. I think the price back then was about 60p for the mags, so it was a lot of money. He always told us to donate the money to 'the cause'. After a couple of times of him doing this we, being skint pioneers, decided we were 'the cause', and decided we needed the money more than the contribution box did. Did we use it in a spiritual capacity ? Did we hell !
We promptly walked across the road to the bowling alley and blew the lot in there. We did it every fortnight and had a great afternoon drinking coke trying to beat each others scores. No one knew. It was great. At least we can be pleased the money was put to GOOD use and not given to fatten up the bank account of a high control cult. Happy days !
As the years wore on, I started faking everything:
I did the "pioneer shuffle."
The soft-knock
The fake-knock
Waiting at the door and pretending the doorbell worked, when it was obvious it didn't. (Do this one when you are alone at the door and dubs are across the street looking your way.)
The 10 minute wait at the door at the house with the For Sale Sign, open windows with no drapes and no furniture and fifty million old newspapers on the porch, just to "make sure" no one is at home.
Making a local RV before going 100 miles to unassigned terrory and making the same RV when I got back gave me 4 EXTRA HOURS! The key to this one is to make absolutely SURE the RV will not be at home on both calls. Not at home RVs = more return visits and more time to count!
Rounding up my time slip by 30 to 50 hours when I was pioneering.
Having a huge fake magazine route.
Fake street work at 3:00 am
Buying 100 each of Watchtower and Awake!s to "look good" knowing I would only place about 1/4 of them.
Night "witnessing" at the local bars.
Counting time from when I woke up to after I had finished lunch and got home when I gave hour talks
Did I feel guilty? You bet. Did I think Jehovah was going to kill me? Sure I did. Did I do all that stuff anyway? Damn right I did!
Then one day it all dawned on me. "This religion is based upon the Bible-Based Doctrine known as 'salvation through report cards.'
Farkel
