by MrMonroe 11 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I often wish now that I had done it. It was only after leaving that I realised just how absurd and inaccurate many of the statements in the WT study really are. The tag-team application of "this generation" is a classic example.
I'm interested to know if anyone who was in "good standing" actually did speak up at a meeting and challenge what's in the study. What was the reaction?
There were certainly times that I really wanted to say something against a point that was being made.
However it is very hard to do that, for the moment you say anything in disagreement with the point being made, the whole congregation would be glaring at you for having doubted what 'God's org' was telling you. Even if you did muster up the courage to say something the WT study conductor would always say that we should speak about it privately at the end of the study.
no one can do that! you know that! everybody is in a trance!
I wish I had.
TBH If I thought something was daft, I blamed myself for not doing enough personal study. That resulted in me keeping quiet because people would know that I didn't have Jehovah's operating on me, and I wasn't really qualified to be an elder.
It wasn't until I woke up, that I realised no else understood it either.
A sure way to get in serious trouble... unless you happen to be a PO in a little congregation in the countryside...
I did disagree with Rainer (our circuit overseer) during a visit and he was doing the usual blah-blah before field service and was going on endlessly about wearing head coverings if sisters did the meeting...
I raised my hand and said "Is this such a massive problem that it deserves this much attention? Can't we just get out now?"
The room went pretty quiet...
I forget what he said next, and then I said "I'm sorry if it seemed rude, but you just kept going on and on about it."
I use to bring my Jerusalem Bible to the meetings and got counseled for reading scriptures using Yahweh.
My last confrontational meetings came at the Book Study the last time they went through the Revelation Book. I was slowing things up correcting all of the mistakes about the history of the Bible Students and JWs.
Exactly right, Outlaw.
Trying to raise controversy during a meeting is a self-defeating proposition. All that happens is that everyone in the Kingdom Hall will think that you are just being disruptive and ill-behaved and will not hear anything that you have to say. It's a fast track to being DF'd.
When I was in (so many years ago) there were two occasions when someone tried to disrupt a meeting with an out of order comment.
One was during a public talk (subject long forgotten). Some non-JW visitor stood up in the middle of the brother's talk and said, "May I ask a question about what you just said?" The brother politely asked if he could hold his question until after the talk and the two could meet at the back of the Hall to discuss it. "No, I want you to answer it now!" was the reply. The brother lowered his head for a moment and then looked up. "No. Please hold your question for now. I only have a few minutes left to cover the rest of the material and I do not want to extend this meeting and inconvenience the other brothers and sisters." For a brief moment there was a silent pause between the two men. Finally, the fellow in the audience replied, "Well, OK. I guess that will be alright," and then sat down. After the public talk, the speaker and the disruptive man met out in the parking lot and had a rather long and heated discussion while the rest of us sat through another boring Watchtower study. It certainly would have been more fun to be outside listening to the two men arguing.
The other time was at a Tuesday night book study held in someone's home. One of the sisters decided to bring her non-JW husband along (he might have been driving her). Someone found him a spare copy of the book we were using. He was quiet and sat on a spare folding chair just outside the ring of brothers and sisters. At some point during the study, one of Daniel's or Ezekiel's prophecies was being discussed. He raised his hand and then very forcefully asked, "Do you people really believe these fairy tales mean something? I don't mean to be rude, but this is all baloney. How can you sit there and just read this stuff like it was real? I'm sorry, but you'll have to excuse me. I'll wait outside for [his wife] until your meeting is over. But I can't sit through any more of this." That was it. He got up, went outside and smoked a cigarette. The poor sister was so embarrassed and explained, "He tends to speak his mind. I know he didn't mean to offend anyone."
That fellow saw through the WT BS in 20 minutes. For the rest of us it often takes years - or even a lifetime. That book study was the subject of KH gossip for months afterward.
About 9 years ago when there was an article about sex there was a disagreement between the elders. There was a paragraph about oral & anal, and the conducter called on this one creepy elder who was like "oral & anal are totally cool long as you're married". The conductor was like "hmm, lets get another thought" called on a different elder. There was a bit of back and forth on it, I got uncomfortable and went to the bathroom to escape.
