The biggest difference that I have seen is that decades ago JWs had fun. Now it seems any fun at all causes too much guilt aboout time wasting.
What's The Biggest Difference In Today's JWs And The Witnesses From Decades Ago?
by minimus 93 Replies latest jw friends
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stuckinamovement
Witnesses of prior "generations" really believed in their message and lived with a sense of urgency. Today it seems as if everyone has mentally checked out. The door to door work is not effective partially because of the lackluster message but also because the people carrying the message don't seem to be convinced themselves of the importance of the work. Try to sell something that you wouldn't buy and see how many sales you make.
Many of the brothers and sisters are just pretenders trying to keep their social lives intact. The conventions and assemblies are predictable, expensive, and time consuming. Watching a stream of people heading for the exits during the last talk of the convention proved to me that many people would rather get out of the parking garage quickly and avoid the traffic jam than stay for the "bounteous spiritual feast".
The whole organization is burning out and dying out. The ones who are left are uneducated, unmotivated, and lazy. The new feature in the study article celebrates the history of the organization with articles on the sound cars, the rolling suitcase and things like that. Those people back then were convinced of the truth of their message and expended themselves. It is rare to see a modern day witness with the same zeal.
There is no comraderie anymore, instead there is a culture of fear as everyone walks on pins and needles trying not to stumble their brother in word or deed. If you screw up, the elders will be on you like stink on poop. This fact deincentivizes gaining close freinds in the organization. It is safer to remain acquaintances with a shallow level of interpersonal contact and not get burned.
This organization is a shell of what it once was. Time has run out. Prophecies have failed. there is no leadership, and everyone is motivated by fear and paranoia. They have nothing to sell anymore except for empty promises generated by some tool in the writing department.
SIAM
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d
They all seem a lot more depressed.
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Balaamsass
"There is no comraderie anymore, instead there is a culture of fear as everyone walks on pins and needles trying not to stumble their brother in word or deed. If you screw up, the elders will be on you like stink on poop. This fact deincentivizes gaining close freinds in the organization. It is safer to remain acquaintances with a shallow level of interpersonal contact and not get burned. "
Well said Stuck!
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donuthole
Overall a greater cooling off and corporate homegenization stamping out any individuality
One of the things you see is how socially there is less happening in the congregation than decades ago. There have been years of crackdowns on congregation gatherings -- now even getting together to study is discouraged. Picnics, parties, sports -- diminishing. Even getting rid of the home bookstudy (with the obligatory "goodie" nights).
Talks are all getting homogenized. More emphasis on sticking to the outline. In the late 70's into the 80's you might have sketches on the TMS school, slides for public talks, etc. Everything is extremely scripted with little variance.
The literatue is dumbed down. There is no longer a focus on defending the core doctrines in the Bible study books as these are pushed off to appendixes in the back. If your Bible student will just accept 1914 -- why take the time to explain it to them? Similiarly ---
When new light is presented there is less emphasis on "selling it" to the rank and file -- it is more take it or hit the road.
The "meaty" books on Bible prophets are gone and replaced by lighter books about what does Zechariah have to say about Christian dress and grooming.
The Faithful & Discreet Slave is further elevated and glorified and more closely positioned with the Governing Body then the scattered "annointed ones".
The overall zeal of the Witnesses are diminishing if not their belief that is the truth. They pay lip service to their beliefs but do not put their money where their mouth is in terms of donations or field service or future plans. (This is the weird anonomly where sometimes the most vocal defenders of "the Truth" are those that are low in field service hours or falling short in some other area.)
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lifestooshort
This is one of the best threads i have come across. The posts have been dead on.
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LongHairGal
Stuckinamovement:
I agree with your whole post and the reason I think this has happened to the religion is because of the 1995 changed generation teaching. As far as I was concerned, they should have packed it in. This was a linchpin teaching that they drilled into our heads and they just pulled it out from under everybody like a rug.
For me, it was the first step in my exiting the religion (of course, it took several years). I was in a state of numb shock at how fooled I was but I tried to push it to the back of my mind and was in a state of denial for a while. I think many other people were as well. But, when you looked at the congregations a decade later you saw the result: many people gone or inactive or making other plans. Now, sixteen years later, the story is even worse. I also agree with you that many there are just pretenders keeping their social lives intact. They are playing along. You are also right about the fear and paranoia. I hear things from the few friends I have left there.
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sd-7
I feel like so much of the material is being dumbed down. When the focus is on just making literature easy for people to read, much less understand, you know there's a decline in overall Bible knowledge--and even doctrinal knowledge, as well.
Even as a kid raised through the 80s and 90s, I got a nice, hearty serving of deep stuff. Now it's just frustrating to watch them spoon-feeding the masses and yet still claiming to be so much more knowledgeable than the rest of the world on Bible topics. Deep concepts like the 'spiritual temple' vision, the antitypical this, that or the other, you know? What happened to that sort of thing?
Even a meaningful verse-by-verse commentary is being eschewed for general statements about day-to-day life and conduct, so that the deeper, actual meaning of scriptures ends up being lost.
In short, their Biblical kung fu is weaker today than it was even a generation (a literal, not overlapping one) ago.
--sd-7
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flipper
I feel there are several differences in the WT organization today than in former years. Since Teddy Jaracz got heavily involved in deciion making of the GB in the early 1980's - the WT society emphasized that the needs of the organization were more important than any individual needs of rank & file Witnesses. It's always kind of been that way before- however the so-called importance of the organization became first and foremost from the early 1980's on. In 2000 when the WT society split into 4 corporations - the organization REALLY became much more like a huge business, not a religion. And the importance of WT corporate attorneys and the legal department became ever more needed to cover their own financial a$$ in case of lawsuits due to their insane teachings.
While that was going on in the early 1980's the WT society also at that time discouraged Witnesses from socializing in big groups ( 40 or more ) at JW informal gatherings or parties. They used the excuse that the " host " of such gatherings would be liable or resonsible if someone got drunk or immoral . But what really happened is that the GB and WT leaders were , and still are, paranoid about people getting together discussing doubts about doctrines or doubts about the authority of the WT society -because at that time ( early 1980's ) Ray Franz, Ed Dunlap and other Bethelites were being cast out as rebel rousers as the WT society didn't approve of bethelites getting together informally reading the Bible or discussing concepts or doctrines outside of the congregation meetings ! GB was paranoid indeed. So that paranoia trickled down through ALL the rank & file Witnesses and it resulted in OVERKILL of restricting large informal gatherings.
Another difference from say in the 1960's or 70's is the subject matter discussed at WT studies. In the 1960's it was common to see WT studies discuss the " fruitages of the spirit " , you know, love, joy, peace, kindness, etc. They'd actually have ENTIRE WT studies on just one of those attributes at a time ! It seemed back then they were more concerned about the " quality " of Witnesses they were putting out. But since 1981 or thereabouts- the emhasis has been on loyalty to the WT society NO MATTER WHAT they teach ! There is no longer any talk of good alleged Christian qualities - it's all just about showing allegiance to the WT society and looking at them as the modern day Jesus Christ. With authority. So it's become that more controlling through use of guilt and fear manipulation tactics. It's really pathetic and disgusting. So- as a person who was born in in 1959- thats what changes I've noticed