Easy hours! It's all about the hours!
People who study for years ??
by Clambake 21 Replies latest jw experiences
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DesirousOfChange
What happened to the six month rule about if they don't progress that the study should be stopped
That gradually faded out when 1975 didn't happen.
Talk at Dist Conv 2 years ago really changed it officially when the line "God makes it grow" was applied to the fact that people progress in their spirituality at different speeds. We continue to "water". Never give up. Esp on your children.
Doc
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Lynnie
Yes I was wondering that lately as well. Back in the early 70's if people didn't "progress" you were supposed to stop studying with them. But these days I think they just want the seats filled at the Kingdom Hall not matter what. My cousin (born-in) who left the org for many years decided to go back in her early 30's and studied for 2 years! I think it was more for attention than anything else!!! -
Wasanelder Once
Remember the "Live Forever" book? We took to calling it the "Study Forever" book. Most of the time those who get baptized after all those years of studying don't last long. I guess they are smarter than they look. -
Gulf Coaster
They weren't pushing young kids to get baptized back in my day (late 70's), or at least not in the KH I went to. 16 or 17 was the common age for kids to get dunked at our KH, slightly younger if they were born-in keeners. But around that time, my doubts had become so strong that I knew the JW life was not for me.
From about age 17 to 19, I put up with some pressure to make the commitment. A couple of the hardliner elders were pretty passive aggressive about it to me, and sometimes not too passive either. My mother often got quite nasty about my avoidance.
It was stressful and sometimes miserable but getting baptized felt like I would be trapping myself forever. Something about it just scared me silly. I'm glad I listened to myself :-)
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JWdaughter
My mom was first taken to the hall by a lady who came to her house doing door to door work when my mom was two. She had a baby brother and her mom was pregnant again. The JW lady offered to take her to the hall (later took her siblings as the new kids KEPT ON COMING). Anyway, this lady took special care for my mom and lavished her with a lot of attention that she was not getting as the eldest of 6 kids (and a few miscarriages along the way, so there was that drama, too). My moms association and on/off studying went on for about 35 years as she was finally baptised when I was 13. In the early 70's she had trouble with smoking. She didn't quite buy the escatology(she claims to this day, but she dragged my dad to the hall in the early 70s, so I dont believe her). She always considered herself a JW, we didnt celebrate holidays after I was 8, and I, like Candace Conti DID go out in service without my mom A LOT (my worst experience was getting stuck with a sour old pioneer on a regular basis, best experience was the cute boy two years older and the charming MS who was about 10 years older (he was later dfd and reinstated for the normal reasons).
So, essentially, mom 'studied' or was associated strongly with JWs for 33 years. Many of her relatives got sucked in, in the meantiime, including her younger brother and sister, several aunts and many cousins. One is still a JW, after 3 DFings, she is a pioneer.
Do you think she set any records? She was inactive (didn't tell me!) for a while after my dad died. Still thinks it is the best option out there but claims she doesn't expect that they have it all right. I think choosing a religion for being the lesser of the evils is an interesting way to do it:) I think she is one of those that cannot be reasoned with because she has the emotional tie.
I think she kept under the radar because everyone assumed that she WAS a JW (albeit a weak one). Later, I was DA'd and I think that was because they assumed I, too, was baptised. I had more service hours than most elders did.
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James Mixon
In the 60's and 70's the world was coming to a end and Jehovah was going to
BBQ a lot of folks. When I was told that, hell yes sign me up. After 1975 and
we were still here I think studies figured , what the hell I can stay close and not
become a full member. That's a smart move.. Think about the unbelieving mates,
I knew several brothers and sisters with unbelieving mates. They enjoyed hanging around
the friends. The tactics to scare the B-Jesus out of someone don't work today, what's
the big rush...
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fulltimestudent
Good topic! And here's a story of one perceptive woman.
I spoke to her after I was kicked out, and she had finally terminated her long-running study when her brother was kicked out. A wife of a high-ranking Bethel brother studied with her for years. I don't believe she ever became a regular meeting attender, but perhaps enough to satisfy the criteria of "making some progress."
Anyway, I knew of her, while I was 'in,' and after we were both disconnected, I met her in a shopping centre one day. We chatted about past Jesus/Yahweh glories and I asked her why she never went, 'all the way?' (grin!!!)
She looked at me and said,
"I have a lot of people in my life, who try to tell me how to run my life, and the last thing I needed was another whole bloody congregation of people telling me what to do!
I'm not a bloody fool."
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sparrowdown
I guess some are addicted to the special treatment and free pass you get while unbaptized.
Get everyone running around after you, being extra careful not to offend you lest a"millstone be tied around their neck..." for "stumbling one of theses little ones" blah blah.
These people aren't slow they're smart, putting off baptism puts off accountability.
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fulltimestudent
sparrowdown: These people aren't slow they're smart, putting off baptism puts off accountability.
haha! It's always been like that.
In later Roman times, after the Emperor Constantine made early Christianity legal, it was quite the fashion for people to wait to be baptised until late in life, or even just before their death. They were likely emulating the Emperor himself, who although taking strong stands on some church issues, like the Arian/Athanasius controversy, as illustrated by this sketch
He also called Church councils and attended, and financed an enormous church construction program. But did all that without ever being baptised.
The Wikipedia entry regarding his baptism, fits within the generally accepted scholastic view of Constantine's late baptism:
"Constantine had known death would soon come. Within the Church of the Holy Apostles, Constantine had secretly prepared a final resting-place for himself.[250] It came sooner than he had expected. Soon after the Feast of Easter 337, Constantine fell seriously ill.[251] He left Constantinople for the hot baths near his mother's city of Helenopolis (Altinova), on the southern shores of the Gulf of İzmit. There, in a church his mother built in honor of Lucian the Apostle, he prayed, and there he realized that he was dying. Seeking purification, he became a catechumen, and attempted a return to Constantinople, making it only as far as a suburb of Nicomedia.[252] He summoned the bishops, and told them of his hope to be baptized in the River Jordan, where Christ was written to have been baptized. He requested the baptism right away, promising to live a more Christian life should he live through his illness. The bishops, Eusebius records, "performed the sacred ceremonies according to custom".[253] He chose the Arianizing bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia, bishop of the city where he lay dying, as his baptizer.[254] In postponing his baptism, he followed one custom at the time which postponed baptism until after infancy.[255] It has been thought that Constantine put off baptism as long as he did so as to be absolved from as much of his sin as possible*.[256] Constantine died soon after at a suburban villa called Achyron, on the last day of the fifty-day festival of Pentecost directly following Pascha (or Easter), on 22 May 337.[257]
Note, that I've left the footnote reference numbers in the text, so that anyone interested can check the sources for themselves.
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_the_Great
* In reference to his "sins," while supposedly a "Christian Emperor," we can note that he had both his son Crispus and his wife Fausta murdered. I guess that may weigh on one's conscience a little.
Christianity is such a big con. trick.