The revolving door and the hardcore ones (page 2)

Gayle

It is extreme personal pride or extreme personal insecurity?

chickpea

what madsweeny said!!

all song content must
be approved by....
who is it again who
will be running the jointparadise earth?

mrsjones5

I think it's both Gayle. Well at least when I think of my mother.

Have you noticed how these new world pictures are always spiced up with attractive women? How could any man live for eternity and not be tempted to try a new fruit? The women will of course have a problem resisting all those perfect youthful men. As for the gay men, sorry I won't be there - and according to the Watchtower, neither will you!

I have reserved a first class place with the devil, where I will be made to sin until I grow bored, in the hope that I shall beg to be taken to a kingdom hall and mentally regulated in the ways of Jehovah. It won't work. I will show the devil what wicked really means.

Mythbuster

Because they still have their teeth into the original carrot that got them in, everlasting life in perfect health on a paradise earth free of wickedness surrounded by their friends and family, deceased or otherwise.

Then why's that AFLAC dude in the picture?

IsaacJ22

With a religion like the Society's, you have to bear in mind that its weaknesses are also its strengths. These qualities will always limit its numbers, but will often insure that the ones they do get stay got by the Society.

1. Sacrifices

JWs make a lot of sacrifices to the WTS. Their time, their money, even their children's futures. (You thought I was going to say they sacrifice their kids, didn't you?!) There's a point where most people are unwilling to let all those years and all that devotion get thrown away. Even when the org. really misbehaves. The more the Society asks and gets, the less likely the hardliners are to leave. The investment is just too great.

2. Fear

But...what if the WTS is right and I do die at Armageddon for leaving it? I've known a lot of Witnesses who are borderline, just barely hanging on to the Society, but they stay associated just in case. Even when the other Witnesses in their congregation look down on them and mistreat them, they're still there, getting 2 hours a month in field service and only making about 4 or 5 meetings in the same time frame. They're just plain scared to leave. So they stay, just in case.

3. Meaning

The Society provides a sense of order and purpose to the lives of JWs. You can get that sense of meaning elsewhere, but old habits die hard. JWs -- especially those born and raised in it -- will it hard to feel the same way about another religion's sense of order as they do about this org's. They've been going to 5 meetings a week for years. The hardliners will miss them, the conventions, talking to people door to door...because they're used to it and it makes them feel like they're doing something with their lives.

4. Family

The threat of disfellowshipping keeps a lot of people who don't wish to stay in the Tower anyway! They're afraid they'll lose their family and friends, and they have no one else. Good JWs aren't supposed to have "worldly" friends, after all. Plus, their parents are probably Witnesses, and many of their parents were also JWs. So it's part of their personal identity. They don't know anything else. So again, they stay.

The Atheist Geek

St George of England

Then why's that AFLAC dude in the picture?

Can you explain the acronym please?

Thanks, George

undercover

You thought I was going to say they sacrifice their kids, didn't you?!

Though that does happen on occasion...when a child needs a blood transfusion and the parents refuse it. It don't get more hardcore than that...

Good points, however...

Hiding Questioner

For years I stayed in the JWs by using what I justified as my Bull S**t Meter. As long as if hovered below 50% BS and didn't harm people I was OK. Generally for about 30 years the BS Meter was at about between 30% and 40%. However, as time passed and more info became available the BS Meter started registering 50%, then 60%, then 70% and, almost out of habit, I stayed. Then I started to see the harm to people with the result that the meter went to 80%, followed by the UN scandal, CofC and Bulgaria and you've got a Meter at 90% ready to hit 100%.

HQ

Hiding Questioner

Sorry, not sure why all the gargage appears before my post.

HQ

The revolving door and the hardcore ones

Gayle

chickpea

mrsjones5

THE GLADIATOR

Mythbuster

IsaacJ22

St George of England

undercover

Hiding Questioner

Hiding Questioner

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