2nd and 3rd Genners -- Did the passing of the 1st/2nd Gen. cause doubts for you?

by Apognophos 17 Replies latest jw experiences

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  Apognophos

  I can't discuss my family history here in detail while I'm still fading, but suffice to say that I'm a third-generation Witness. My grandparents' generation of Witnesses expected the end to come in the middle of the 20th century. They led spartan lives and largely went without having kids, as they awaited the imminent new system. Now they are dying off in their old age, poor and confused. My parents' generation expected the end in 1975, or at the very latest by the end of the century. Now they are retirement age and don't have anything saved up.

  For those of you who hadn't learned TTATT yet when you saw your parents or grandparents aging and dying, did it cause any conscious doubts in you?

  What's interesting about this is, not only did generations of JWs limit their child-rearing due to expecting the end soon, but if prior generations dying is causing doubt in born-in Witnesses, it means that the religion has a limited timespan when it comes to retention of born-ins. Second-gen born-ins may be more likely to stay in than someone who was not born-in, but third-genners will be seeing a personal family history, as they get older, where multiple generations are dying without seeing the end come. Fourth-genners are now becoming common as people my age have kids, and they're going to see even more disappointed oldsters dying off as they grow up.

  That's got to be damaging to the religion's retention rates, no? Surely we humans must learn something from our family history? Surely it causes doubt in kids at the time of life where they are trying to decide whether to go to college or devote themselves to the religion?
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  Honesty

  Brother, why are you serving Jerhover with a date in mind?

  Keep following da slave and reap eternal benefits for hawking their magazines.
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  DesirousOfChange

  The older ones who are aging, losing their spouse, and facing their own death are doubting it all.

  Doc
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  fiddler

  I was a third gen person, got out at age 41. I saw my 'faithful' grandmother die in 1980, the year my second born son was born. I stayed with it through the 90's but was very discouraged by the fact that the 'generation' was indeed dying and about gone. By 1999 we got the internet and the whole house of cards came crumbling down. My father passed away in 2012 but I was already long gone out of the belief system. Still, I couldn't help but reflect on the fact that he was 82 and still the 'end' hadn't come...but oh wait! It had...for him and my grandmother...

  something was very wrong about all that 'end time' reckoning.
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  kaik

  My mom and stepdad are mid seventees to eighty and the end did not come as they hoped 40 years ago. My JW aunt who introduced into family already died. She has from ther line three generations already where her sons are mid 50's or more. My non JW grandmother was born when Victoria was still a queen and Franz Joseph ruled Austrian Empire. I remember clearly how my elderly pointed out that she is the generation of 1914 and will see the end. She saw only her end, but at least, she lived almost entire century. Everyone I knew who were the 1914 generation is gone. The generation that came after them like my parents are getting there. WT does not care when the generation will die out. They will point out that generation(s) is actually biogenesis of multiple generations where people witnessed transformation. This was explained to us in the 1994 in the study, but I was on my way out. My sibling than tried to bring me in by explaining from the elder that multiple generations could span for several centuries and compared to people who lived at Renaissance. All generation that lived from 1400 to 1600 were part of one Renaissance generation, one biogenesis. So we can be living industrial generation all these people from Russell to 2100 could be a part of the same generation.
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  Word

  Maybe Jehovah's Witnesses are less intelligent people ? easy to fool ?
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  Ignoranceisbliss

  It's an interesting question to think about. A lot of us are actually fourth and fifth genners already.
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  Apognophos

  Fifth-genners?! I would think your family JW history would have to go back to Russell's time for that to be possible. I suppose I have heard a couple people here say that they did have roots back that far.
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  wildwildlife

  I'm 4th Generation on one side, 5th on the other. My family's involvement goes back to Russell's time.

  It wasn't a huge part in my exit, but definetely helped me a long the way as I saw my grandparents all pass away - and now that I look at my parents, getting to retirement age. It defintely makes you pause a bit.
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  DesirousOfChange

  More than once now I have heard the expression "getting into the New World via the Underground".

  That's right, older ones have to come up with some way to accept the fact that they know are going to die.

  Doc