by minimus 16 Replies latest jw friends
You know they have that question about stars that were famous back in the day and they went from child star to porn star.
My question---Regarding all the Witnesses you knew from years ago, where are they now?
These "true believers"---are they still around or are they long gone by now?
When I think back to many of the elders that I knew, many are no longer around and those that are are ready to recieve their "reward".
I'm in my 50s, and I have seen many people come and go from the Organization.
MOST are just not that zealous. Years ago, they had a sense of urgency, a desire to preach, and be different.
Many that have not actually left are not into the pushing of themselves, the "do more" attitude. Now, they are just taking up space, thinking about the all the smart ones that wisely high tailed it out of Dodge.
I would love to find out that some of my old friends were out. Many have moved away from where I was so trackignthem down is next to impossible
More than half of the friends I had growing up are now out. YAY!
Maybe those that left will go back,
Quite a few I knew back in the day are now drawing meager Social Security and facing a bleak retirement due to never planning for a retirement. Poor job/career choices that lacked pensions and retiree medical plans means that many, many JWs will be depending not upon "Jehovah's Kingdom as the only hope for mankind", but upon caesar and his governmental agencies to sustain them in old age. It's a bitter pill for them and they will stick it out in the KH to the end, rather than admit they were bamboozled by the ghosts of Russell, Rutherford and Knorr.
About 65% of young ones are leaving and alot of oldtimers are just plane worn out waiting,Waiting,Waiting for the system to end.
My best friend growing up who I met when we were in the 1st grade (no longer a JW) made a comment to me about this. "Exwhyzee....did you ever notice how so many of the kids we grew up at the Hall who's lives are now complete train wrecks? "
This past Monday I saw a headline about one of one of the kids I grew up with who was a shining star...go getter who would go out in early morning street witnessing on Saturday mornings and come back in time for the regular meeting for service having already placed dozens of magazines. He was the kid that Moms would say "why can't you answer or give talks the way "D" does? "
Apparently D crashed his car into a moving van. He stole the van from the man driving it and took off with the man's wife still in the passenger seat. The Police were behind him in a high speed pursuit until he lost control of the vehicle. The woman was badly hurt and was hospitalized with a broken leg and lacerations. The article said the driver [D] was arrested and the report said he was rambling on incoherently about his Herion addiction.
This is one of many examples I could tell you about where they not only leave the organization but they go out and become the extreme opposite of what they used to be. JW's would tell you that this is because Satan is working harder on ex JW's. I think it's becasue born in JW are often such misfits and have little or no real coping skills on the outside and are often disillusioned or consumed with guilt and fear based on the beleifs they often still hold even after they leave. They have had only the extremly wicked ones of the world held up as an example what is typical wordly behavior and they have such a low self worth because of leaving the "truth" that they head straight for things that are not worth having. It becomes a self fullfiling prophecy.
I know that 8 members of an extended family (all adults, and born-in) left a local congregation earlier this year,,, 2, I believe, were elders. The rural congo was decimated.
w00t!
tal
