Jehovah's Witnesses---From Walking Tall To Living In Shame

by minimus 25 Replies latest jw friends

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  minimus

  I remember the days when JWs were proud of their religion, they walked tall and carried their big stick, their bibles, proudly. Now, it's embarrassing for a Witness to admit their faith to others.

  The average Witness can't explain their beliefs, as they have changed so many times. Most of the JWs that I know are depressed, sickly and pretty much unhappy.

  Gone are the glory days of boasting that you were a Jehovah's Witness. Now, it is the time to keep a low profile and just surrender yourselves to the "Slave".
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  TTATTelder

  Yeah before there was a feeling of having things figured out. Now it's "sit down and shut up". If you ask a JW now what they believe, they better check the latest Watchtower before responding.

  Maybe they should say "I'll get back with you after the next Annual Meeting." Lol

  Something wrong with that picture. I mean imagine having to ask some authority what YOU believe. Can it really be called a belief if it was assigned to you by someone else?

  -TE
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  DesirousOfChange

  That's a most interesting assessment, Minimus.

  And I think it is "right on" for many JWs. Their family thinks they are kooks. Their friends think they are kooks.

  And now they are embarrassed that everything they said to "warn" their friends & family about Armageddon being right on the horizon has failed to come true.

  The most common defense I hear today is: "Where else would we go?"

  Doc
  
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  Magnum

  Yes, I remember the old days when JWs were confident and proud and and more knowledgeable and more dignified and stronger. They even seemed smarter. Many used to like discussing Bible doctrine (now they run from it). They really thought they were right. The fact that they had their perceived guru (Freddy) on their side gave them a false sense of confidence. Their deep study books gave them the impression that they were real Bible scholars and really had the key to Bible understanding while the rest of the world was in darkness.

  I remember reading in a Watchtower or Awake! mag about an older sister, maybe in the 1940's or 1950's, who would boldy walk into office buildings, go into offices, and confidently tell the business people "I'm hear to tell you about the old whore, Babylon the Great."* She seemed so strong, bold, and confident. I wonder what she'd think of the current state of JWdom (that is, after she got over the shock that the old world is still here with no new world in sight).

  Yes, the glory days are gone. In the late 80's and early 90's, I never would have believed that JWdom would turn into what it is now.

  *I think the article was a life story of one of the now deceased GB members. I might not have all the details right, but he mentioned this sister and said she trained him.
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  freemindfade

  Good post, for what its worth i see it another way

  People love to show off the shinny blue logo, and bells and whistles, bright colors, tv stations etc. They are so excited.

  No one wants to show off doctrine anymore because 1. nobody else actually cares in an increasingly rational society 2. no R&F know what the hell it is anymore.

  relatively over night it became a religion with all kinds of secret knowledge that controlled its members, to a religion with the same info as everyone else... that controls its members, but in a pretty package.

  I do believe that some people don't watch the programing, or different things because it is embarrassing and they just refer to it like someone who thumps the bible but never reads it.
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  Magnum

  TTATTelder: Something wrong with that picture. I mean imagine having to ask some authority what YOU believe. Can it really be called a belief if it was assigned to you by someone else?

  Yep. I've been thinking about that a lot lately. Why do JWs even read the Bible? They can only believe what the GB says, so why don't they just read the org's publications?

  DesirousOfChange: The most common defense I hear today is: "Where else would we go?"

  I hear that a lot, too. It's a logical fallacy. The fact that there might be nowhere else to go doesn't make JWs right. At best, it can make them the lesser of a number of evils.
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  DesirousOfChange

  I do believe that some people don't watch the programing,

  That's no different than all the JWs that never read the magazines. I remember when there were still subscriptions in the mail. Just go look in the cars in the parking lot on Sunday. Not at all unusual to see the empty WT subscription wrappers.

  Doc
  
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  Magnum

  freemindfade, I see your point, but I think it has to do with the changing makeup of JWs. I believe most of the old-school, smarter, knowledgeable JWs are embarassed by the new shallow, shiny, glittery, plastic JWdom. But the old-schoolers are now in the minority and are dying off or leaving the org.

  The new JWs are gullible and clueless and many of them are proud of and excited by all the new stuff. I agree with Minimus's assessment: "Now, it's embarrassing for a Witness to admit their faith to others." But I think that applies to the smarter JWs - not the clueless ones.
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  TTATTelder

  Yeah it's easy to see now that it was a publishing company that sold books because of its anti-religous-establishment stance. They were basically the religious shock-jocks of back-in-the-day. They caught a lot of eyeballs and sucked in the disenfranchised. It grew a cult following that actually turned into a cult.

  Today they are lost in space. The GB are managing a cult built before their time in power. The GB are just cult followers themselves that inherited the company.

  They look foolish, but I agree, the new shiny things will keep the masses distracted.

  -TE
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  The Searcher

  "Not only failed to come true" DOC, a huge amount has been totally dumped or reversed!

  So much for "truth".