by minimus 34 Replies latest jw friends
I'm not fond of ANY religious fanatic. Islamic fundies can be downright crazy.
Mormonism seems silly to me. Ultra-Orthodox Jews are extremists.
There are a lot of sects and fringe groups out there.
JWs are nutty and extreme too---but are they horrible?
they are god's chosen people - how bad can that be? You don't see anyone else celibrating the 100 birthday of Christ's reign - nuff said.
Not entirely, there are good qualities but they are horrible when you try to leave. There is no honorable way to leave or stop being one of jehovahs witnesses as they will shun you or see you as a spiritually weak person or bad association if you stop going to their meetings
But IS it true that it is no honourable way to leave? In my congregation's area, there are around 10 persons who are baptised and no longer attend any meetings, not because they are old and sick, but because they simply have stopped attending. They are in the age range of 30/35 to 65. They are greeted when met, from time to time invited to outings, have magazines put in their mailbox from time to time - they are not shunned in any way. So is this point of no honourable leaving a thing from the past that is stuck in the mind of people who have themselves been shunned, but things are slowly changing these days - or are there areas in Europe where the good old liberals still exist?
Taken as a whole, the organization is horrible. But if you look at individual people, you will always find some misguided souls who truly believe the tripe, but are very loving, caring individuals. Actually many who are like that do realize something is wrong, but would never speak out because they still believe it is Jehovah's organization.
That being said, the Watchtower organization teaches arrogance among their members and as so many of them already have mental/psychological issues and suffer from low self esteem, they snatch right on to this mindset. It validates them as people if they can be arrogant and look down upon others, many of them having been looked down upon at other times in their life. Those are the converts.
Then you have also have the born-ins; they have suffered from mind control all their lives and are brainwashed. If they begin to see the light, they are afraid of losing their families. If they do not see the light, they also can be arrogant, though I think in this group you are more likely to find those I mention in my first paragraph - misguided souls who truly believe the tripe but are loving, caring individuals, though sometimes realizing there are some things that are wrong, particularly when they are old enough to have seen the many changes the Watchtower Society has gone through.
Of course, you can also see some loving, caring, albeit misguided individuals in the convert group also. But I do feel the above patterns are a reality.
But IS it true that it is no honourable way to leave?
OldHippie ... I don't think I would call your examples honourable or that they really left.
They are never free to be something other than an inactive JW. They must hide what they believe if it has changed from JW theology if they want to maintain ties to JW's.
I guess i can only speak from my perspective and congregations in my area of california. My sister who has stopped going to meetings does not get the same treatment as others do who are regular in attendance and the ministry. My family regularly excludes her and when they do invite her or have her over they would never do it with those who are "spititual strong" in the congregation for fear of "stumbling" others or bringing them into contact with "bad association"
We, when I was in for 5 decades, never contributed to the community at large. No socialization, no community projects, no support groups like shelters and food banks. A zero sum game religion. If a KH rolled up the carpet and left town no one would see any difference.
wannabefree says it all. An inactive JW may not be shunned or treated differently 100% of the time but if they were ever to start going to another church or begin to hold other beliefs they could be facing a judicial committee in a heartbeat.
Some KH's go right after a person while others don't. It's a crap shoot.
