happy witnesses?

by Realist 31 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  crownboy

  Hey Realist, since I grew up in the religion I actually kind of like those tunes . They grow on you after a while I guess .

  Most Witnesses probably view meetings as some sort of "holy duty" as opposed to a happy experience. Very few Witnesses do cartwheels and burst out in joyous laughter at the thought of attending meeting, but a faithful JW believes that going there is more or less the "will of God", so even though the meetings will bore you to death and you know all the information that will be presented since you've heard it a billion times before (except in the rare cases where "new light" is presented), you still feel a superficial happiness in going there because you believe you are fulfilling your biblical duty. At least that's the way I viewed it, and I'm pretty sure others did too.

  Harold King was a JW minister who was imprisoned in China for many years. I'm not sure how many total songs he is responsible for composing, but it's common knowledge that Song No. 32 ("From House to House"), one of the top 5 most popular JW songs, was composed by this man. What a waste of a life to be imprisoned so many years for such a corrupt corporation.
• 

  Valis

  What was that saying.."ingorance is bliss"?
• 

  Realist

  @Fredhall: 1. why hitler??? 2. to let this man, who is responsible for the suffering of so many ears, go without proper punishment would be equal to let the nazis escape after the war! :)

  @crownboy: thanks for you posting! what you said makes a lot of sense. why did you quit eventually? PS: i love this saying: Since only the meek will inherit the earth, can they be proud of that fact? that is very clever! :)
• 

  Carmel

  I can only advise you that the entire 14 years I was a JUU, I never enjoyed ONE of the meetings. Nothing for kids, nothing for children, nothing for the intellect, nothing but fear and boredom. Only when I left the mothership did I learn to enjoy fellowship and community without the hypocracy that is rampant in the JUU's. Funny, they claim that churchianity is full of hypocracy, while backbiting is their national sport.

  carmel
• 

  crownboy

  Thanks for the feedback, Realist.

  Right now, I'm still offically "in". I'm 19, live at home with a family of Witnesses, so I really have no chioce but to go, unfortunately [>:(]. On the plus side, due to very clever excuses, I pretty much have cut down my meeting attendance to about once a week (since there'll be food at the Book Study next week, I guess that will be my "meeting of the week" ).

  There wasn't any great epithany that got me thinking about the JW's, just little things here and there (e.g. why would God kill over 99% of the earth's population for not accepting a particular brand of Christanity? Actually, that's a pretty big thing come to think of it ). I eventually got up the courage to do some research, and of course "the rest is history". Can't fathom how both my parents (both raised "in the truth" like myself) haven't seen the things I saw at 17 at any point in their life. Then again, they didn't have the internet , and I've heard comments from various people here that the Org. was more interesting and less restrictive in the "old days", so I guess that could also be a reason. Once I move out, I'll be toally free then .
• 

  Realist

  Crownboy,

  that is pretty cool! i hope your family won't give you troubles when you leave!
  i think some people including your parents just lack any sense of curiosity or sceptisism. my Ex is 19 like you but she never tries (or maybe is afraid of) to question or verify the teachings of this church. i think you should talk with her someday! :)

  are you planning to go to college? when will you leave home?

  i wish you the best!

  Realist
• 

  SYN

  Crownboy: May the force be with you, dude. If you're ever in need, you know who to call!

  During a code review, when I asked why there was not a comment in 240,000 lines of code which was getting handed to me for maintenance, the programmer replied, "I'm terse."
• 

  crownboy

  Realist,
  I'm in college right now, would like to study law.

  I'm pretty sure my parents won't "shun" me if I left and weren't under the same roof as them, but to take such a step while still in their residence would be very difficult.

  I agree with you on the skeptisism thing. I'm one of those "question anything" types. I felt comfortable as a JW when I believed all my questions were reasonably and correctly answered, but once I got to really thinking about it, I saw the flaws and had to investigate. Your x-GF either isn't the curious type, or she realizes something maybe wrong, but is afraid to confront it. A lot of JW's are like that, but that is totally not me and I hate having the wool pulled over my eye by anyone, much less my own self. I think you mentioned somewhere that she is a science major, so she probably has the inquisitive mind, but is afraid of getting "outside the box" too much. Since she dated you, a non-JW, she couldn't be too "strong in the faith", since JW's are strongly discouraged from even having any friendships outside the Org., much less romantic relationships.

  If you and her are still friends, perhaps you could carefully show her some anti-JW information. Don't come outright any say it, of course, but tell her something like :"I've been researching the JW's since we broke up to see if maybe I was wrong about them. I found it interesting that I saw this quoted in their publications...". Try to avoid telling her that you've been on "apostate" sites, say you've researched from publications found in a library (which I actually did). Show her stuff from the JW publications. There are links at the bottom of the page to various sites that are very helpful in this regard, I recommend clicking on the link titled "Quotes" for direct quotes from the publications, but everyone of those sites have exceptional info, so I'd read from all of those sites to be fully "up to speed".

  I'll leave home as soon as I have the financial means to do so, which hopefully will be sortly after I get my undergrad degree, as I think I'll take a break before pursuing law.

  Thanks SYN. Mice in helmets are always the best to have supporting you.
• 

  sunscapes

  About the "music"...

  did any one here watch a TLC program that comes on once in a while about wild police chases and there's this chase where a car crashes INTO A SET OF GAS PUMPS, and just sits there stunned and dazed in his white car while the officers yell at him to get out now, then one of the officers sacrifices his safety and uses his cruiser to bump off this freak from the burning gas pump island and out of the fire....then an officer comments on the blaring "classical music" he heard blaring from his car stereo at FULL BLAST all the while he seemed oblivious to this whole situation?

  Guess what that "classical music" at full blast was? A Kingdom Melody! I can't remember exactly, but I think it was song 144 or such. It never dawned on me until I saw the show again a few months later. I couldn't believe it, until I got out the song book, hummed a few bars to the song, and it matched!
• 

  rmayer32

  Thinking back in my old KH, I think some of them were probably happy people, but most of the ones I knew on a deeper level were not as happy as they'd have you think.

  It's sad because they're just doing the robot thing, putting on the good face because that is what the Org tells them they should do.