Does ANYTHING About JWs Make Sense To You? (page 3)

jaguarbass

Today in this age being a witness makes little sense.

I was born in back in 52. Information was hard to come by. My father never was a witness,

but he allowed my mother to take me and my brother to the meetings to get us all out of his

hair so he didnt have to be a parent.

Why did it make sense to my mother? She didnt have to be a parent either, she didnt have to

help us with school work or make us do school work because school was bad.

She didnt have to think about to much except get us to the meetings and out in service on

Saturday mornings.

To bad she didnt get into a simpler religion that didnt require as much, that wasnt so

controlling and intrusive.

Since being and escaping from the watchtower we know why all other religions are wrong

which leads many to atheism and agnosticm.

Atheism if its true is not very comforting and doesnt lead to a very happy person.

I can see what made sense about my congregation back in the 50's and 60's.

All the big shots were sales men.

Our head honcho presiding overseer, I dont know what they call them today, was

a Buick salesman, he had his own Buick dealership and all of the good witnesses in

Cleveland drove Buicks. I suspect the Buick thing even made its way to New York, bethel.

I think they drove Buicks up there. Not Cadillacs or Lincolns back in the 60's and 70's.

The other big shots in Cleveland were insurance salesmen, and pots and pans salesmen

and they were very successfull.

Being a leader in a kingdom hall, Being a leader in a circuit and a district and selling

Buicks and car and home insurance made a lot of sense to some JW's.

It also made some millionares.

Even the moral code doesn't make sense. They are quick to jump on it, so they can use the threat of "fornication" to ban just about everything. Listen to music, it is all bad for sex references. Spending time with the opposite sex is bad. They are always worrying themselves sick about fornication, even when there is nothing to worry about.

The moral code itself is corrupt. When you are stopped from premarital sex, you are also stopped from test-driving your potential marriage. They want marriage to last until death--yet, if they are not allowed to test it out, there is as good a chance of getting a bad one. People test-drive cars they are thinking of buying, and if it turns out to be a lemon or doesn't suit their needs, they will not buy it. Yet, a car is expected to last only around 12 years. Why not test out a marriage before, when it is to last forever?

I also see nothing wrong with two people that choose to just live together. To me, that is simply a personal preference matter--I have people nearby that are living together unmarried, and I do not give a fxxx if they die like that. I also have no issues against two gay or lesbian people that choose to have sex with each other or with other same-sex people as long as they do not attempt to get me personally involved. If other men choose to have sex with each other, so be it--it is none of my damn business anyways. And neither is the matter of oral sex, incest among consenting adults, or bestiality.

What I do have a big problem with is a religion that sets up a paradise for pedophiles, after bashing the Catholic church for doing the same. And, with their two-witness rule, that is what the witlesses have done. The majority of the pedophiles are not approached by the children for sex (as in "jail bait"). Most of them will use the system, setting up hounding calls with the children and/or the parents, setting up so the children are alone with the pedophile (usually in the name of "private counsel"), then molest the child and silence everyone about it. Absent two different witnesses, any warnings of the incident or reports to external authorities amounts to "slander". And, despite that the Catholic church is at least trying to do something about it, the witlesses are trying to hide it.

tec

To someone who'd never belonged to a single church and who'd never read the bible before, JW's seemed to make a lot of sense. They really only needed to throw in a few truths to give them the appearance of validity. I had just started trying to read the bible so that I could at least recognize when something being taught by priests and such was actually in there.

I didn't know God's name was in the bible, though I never really became comfortable using it. No one told me about the failed prophecies - only about 1914, and then only that they had misunderstood the meaning behind it. The honesty of admitting a mistake was refreshing. I knew there couldn't be some fiery burning hell, and they confirmed this. I never even heard about the trinity until they taught it to me so they could teach me that it wasn't true. (That was silly) And my mentor was/is sincere. I'd never heard anything bad about JW's, and I only saw that there was love, sincerity and humility among them.

A weekly reminder of everything I was learning reinforced those teachings. It was only when I said no more studies while I reflect on things by myself that I felt things were wrong. Which, in turn, led me to the internet and all the failed predictions, and sites such as these.

Tammy

BluesBrother

Anything they say make sense?

They denounce wars and downplay Nationalism, that makes sense to me (of course they have their own cultish pride in themselves instead of a nation, but that is not what I mean) ....They teach equality and harmony of all ethnic groups. They are clean and tidy . (too much so, I know)...Other than that, I cannot think of anything.

Jaguarbass' post resonated with me. I too was the son of a tolerant unbelieving father. I have often wondered latterly why he did not dissuade me from a course that he believed to be in error.

but he allowed my mother to take me and my brother to the meetings to get us all out of his hair so he didnt have to be a parent.

Sadly, I can now see that this was exactly so. He had his life and friends, the family were cared for emotionally. The kids grew up "straight" and he took the credit. That makes sense now. Thanks Jaguar for getting the penney to drop for me...

minimus

I know of a lot of "worldly" fathers/husbands who are happy to have their families as JWs. It works for them and as one man told me, he didn't have to "worry" about his family and especially his kids.

cult classic

Yep -jaguar/blues/minimus ---- those are good points - my great grandparents on both sides were witnesses ----so each successive generation just knew what was expected of them. no need to forge new pastures....either you do what's right or you don't. No thinking or parenting necessary.

WTWiz - 100% agree with you there.

Tec/Blues - Well put - they appeal to our natural desires to be a decent member of society and have a bond with our fellow humans, it's natural to want to know who God is too. - They teach you a bunch of "false doctrine" that no one cares about anyway, then clarify it and you think you learned something new........lol

Cult Classic

straightshooter

Condemning wars, hellfire, Trinity, and idolatry made sense to me.

But the prophesies, shunning, blood transfusions, etc were wrong.

Open mind

8 out of 9 elements of the Fruitage of the Spirit still seem like desirable personality traits worth cultivating. Of course the JWs don't have a monopoly on Galatians 5:22.

om

Lozhasleft

I was familiar with the bible in a 'protestant' kind of way and I'd always loved it and believed in god. I had always been interested in spiritualism strangely enough...then I moved to a new area and got chatting to a neighbour who 'witnessed' to me although she'd left the 'truth' at the time herself....I was fascinated with it...how could they presume they had the 'truth' ....who was this 'Jehovah'...I sought them out and had a study and I wasnt a pushover to study with either...to cut a long story short I stopped questioning and started accepting everything and wanted to 'belong' to them and be approved by Jehovah....I really believed they were the only religion who had the 'truth' and who tried their best to live up to it...

In time you start to see things behind the 'image' and the doubts start ....you go along and are happy to be convinced that you can 'leave it all with Jehovah...' 'wait on Jehovah' etc etc...but it wears you down very gradually ...and then for me I started to feel so deprived of scriptural input and got so bored with the organisational input...there seemed to be so much of it....and then when my life went belly up the wonderful foundations I thought I had weren't there at all...neither were the fine shepherds ....it was like being in a different world from the one I went into all those years before....

The neighbour who witnessed to me has been a lifelong friend, she came back to the org, but since my Df she only sees me now and again and stays in touch via texts...but wont cut me off bless her...

Loz x

dgp

Marked.

Does ANYTHING About JWs Make Sense To You?