It got to be hard being a JW today!!!! (page 3)

Julia Orwell

This movement will die its natural death like so many others. Hope it happens soon!

Yes, the petering out of the Watchtower may take a few decades, but its heyday in the west is well and truly over. I'm old enough to remember the dying embers of the Christadelphians, a spookily similar sect to the JWs. The Christadelphians got their start perhaps a decade or two prior to the Russellites (i.e, the pejorative name for the Bible Students) and used similar end-times rhetoric. In fact, the early Christadelphians accused Chuck Russell of stealing their main doctrines - and that seems a warranted accusation given the Christadelphians started before the Bible Students. Anyway, the point is, the Christadelphians spread like wild fire in their earlier years and certainly gave the witnesses a bit of a run for their money. They are however yesterday's news and occasionally if you're driving around some back roads of New Zealand you'll spot one of their very simply constructed religious halls with a notice board announcing a public talk along the lines of "Are We Living in the Last Days?" or "Satan - the Ruler of the World!" No, the Christadelphians did not "steal" this sort of tabloid publicity from the Witnesses - the evidence suggests the early Bible Students got their inspiration from the American sect, the Christadelphians - a perfect example of the fascination Rusell had with other newer religious groups springing up in the USA during his tenure in developing a group of followers.

LouBelle

I think it's realtively easy being a Jw in 2013. They are so lax on so many things compared to when I was in. Sure they've tightend up on the GB stuff but being in that faith is a no brainer.

Phizzy

Steve2, the Christadelphians come from the same roots as JW's. Dr. John Thomas, the founder , met with and was influenced by, William Miller.

Thomas formerly organized the Christadelphians so as to establish the right for his followers to be Conscientious Objectors during the American Civil War. Shortly thereafter they published their Articles of Faith, which are not disimilar to today's JW/WT teachings, and notably have not changed, no flip-flops and constant adjustments for them !

So, for some years before Russell got going, this group had been truly "neutral", was procaliming the Time of the End and awaiting the Kingdom of God with keeness, whilst teaching virtually what JW's NOW teach.

Surely if Jesus was choosing anyone in 1919 or thereabouts, he would have to choose these people ?

What had Rutherford got ? teachings that have all but been totally thrown out, a neutrality that was besmirched by his urging his readers to buy War Bonds, and a bunch of false prophecies, 1925 etc

I think the demise of the Christadelphians has been quicker than the WT's because they are not at all cult like and controlling, each Ecclesisa is autonomous I believe, so the younger generation are likely to have become more secular and drifted away.

Rigid control as exercised by the WT only works for so long, any totalitarian regime fails in the end, as will the WT.

It must be a lot more pleasant to be a Christadelphian than a JW today !

brainmelt

Its embarrasing being a JW today. All the talks on how we should be proud to be witnesses, I was always embarrassed to tell anyone, the beliefs are so wacky.

WTWizard

Back even into the late 1980s, there was a message. A bad one, granted, but a clear one. People knew what their beliefs were on any given topic, and I could hold my ground against almost anyone. Born-agains included. True, I never got them to become witlesses. And true I was still new at the time. But I could hold my ground against virtually anyone.

These days, that is no longer true. When they change "a generation" to include stringing them like Christmas lights, there is no way I can present anything that vaguely resembles a logical argument for the religion. Meaningless doctrinal details get changed to confuse the witlesses, so they feel dependent on the Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger. How is anyone to give householders a logical presentation of that rubbish?

And back in the late 1980s, the pedophile problem was not widely known. These days, it takes about 30 seconds to find information online. In the 1980s, you made a presentation, and the householder had to take more rags and littera-trash to verify it. Now, they go online and get rebuttals. They find more people that have been tossed out of Beth Hell for piddling things, hanky panky during judicial committees (and more than one kind of hanky panky), pedophiles that threaten the children with disfellowshipping after molesting them (usually shaming them in the process, on purpose), and doctrines that have been altered and prophecies that have failed since their prediction "Let's settle it once and for all time--it's 1874".

To rub salt into the wounds, there is less fun. Back in the late 1980s, we had gatherings that had nothing to do with boasting sessions. Granted, they were usually boring, but better than nothing. Back in the 1980s, you had food at the a$$emblies. Back in the 1980s, you had slide shows. Back in the 1980s, you had the expectation that, within maybe 10 years, paradise would be here. Back in the 1980s, people actually gave comments that had substance. Myself, I could come up with a comment using an illustration not provided in the washtowel that actually added to the program. Back in the 1980s, you had "goodie night" occasionally after the book study. All these things are gone! Besides the even worse "music(??)" (I hate to blaspheme real music by classifying Kingdumb sxxx as music), boasting sessions with robotic comments, robotic presentations in field circus, guilt trips to get pious-sneers, and more graphic descriptions of what constitutes a sin, all make things even more dreary than they were back in the 1980s.

wasblind

They have spent the rest of their lives pretending that what was printed in the litteratrash they peddled didn't say what it clearly said, regardless of how poor your grasp of English grammar was.

Now, they are having to confront far more people who are educated in their tactics, doctrines and failures.____Black sheep

Exactly And I used an opporutnity on one visit to ask them

about the predictions in the Reasoning book. I then showed them all

the pages that said " The generation that was alive in 1914 would be the ones to see the end "

The Sister Tried her level best to wiggle out of what generation that book

specifically pointed to without lookin' like a false prophet

That's when they threw out the " Noo lite " to save their butts

from embarassment

Jehovah's witneses don't realize that " Noo lite don't spare them

from bein' false prophets. If so, that same light coulda saved Hananiah

Jehovah Witnesses today, often times ring doorbells

while folks are on the internet in the privacy of their homes

It doesn't matter that they have the WT site on their mags

If that househoulder becomes interested enough in anything JW

sooner or later that householder will run across JWN.

I hardly get any visits from those in the KH I used to attend

And when I do, I feel it's out of desparation to talk to at least

one householder in person but even those few visits have now turned

to hit and runs/ drived by's

.

poppers

"JWs lay low in the neighborhood so they can pretend to be normal people. They prefer not to work the territory their home is in. Deep down, they know the public views them as social parasites and just plain weird. Wearing that kind of badge must be depressing for JWs."

I've found this to be true as well. A JW family has lived two doors away for more than 30 years and I haven't once seen them knock on anyone's door in our neighborhood. To this day they have yet to even say hello as I go by unless I say it first.

DesirousOfChange

STEVE: Now it's as if the witnesses just go through the motions.

For me, this is the foremost evidence that (almost) NONE of them really believe that The End(TM) is really near. They are all just going through the motions. Yes, the make most (70% average) of the meetings, but they certainly have no issue with missing one when it conflicts with any kind of other event. They put in token Field Service hours, half of which is spent at Starbucks and most of the other half behind the windshield if they are in any kind of a rural area.

Some of them still Talk the Talk, but very few are Walking the Walk. (They're doing the pioneer shuffle.)

They don't stand out as different anymore. No more sacrificing for The Kingdom. New houses. Expensive vacations (NOT to seldom worked territory). They are just "keeping one foot in the door" just in case. . . .

Doc

respectful_observer

They don't stand out as different anymore. No more sacrificing for The Kingdom. New houses. Expensive vacations (NOT to seldom worked territory). They are just "keeping one foot in the door" just in case. . . .

That's how it seems to be in my area as well. I can't even recall the last time I heard a single person under the age of 40 say "Well the New System will be here by then!" or "The End will be here before Little Jonny graduates from High School."

Instead you hear:

"I'm psyched that the 401(k) match at my new job is much better than my old one!"
"We'll probably stay here until the kids are done with school, but then move somewhere with palm trees. I'd never want to retire around here."
(In a low tone) "We know technically college is a no-no, but there's no way Little Suzy isn't getting her degree."
"We're just making sure we don't end up like both our parents...self-employed with little/no retirement savings."
"Sorry, I watched my dad get burned out as an elder and my mom burned out as a pioneer. There's no way we're going to put each other and our kids through that. Making it to the meeting is hard enough."

Oh, and practically everyone drinks like fish.

It got to be hard being a JW today!!!!