Did You Ever Hear a Non-Witness Opinion After They'd Attended Their first Meeting? (page 2)

Crazyguy

My wife took a friend that was a bible reader a Christians with knowledge. She later commented how some of the scriptures were taken out of context.

Before knowing much about the cult, my first thought was how suppressed the collective feel of the people/room (kingdom hall) felt. It literally felt like something heavy was weighing it down. The experience was very shallow, fake, rigid, controlled in every aspect without anything free flowing, and boring to the point where I caught myself tuning out.

As for the material they presented along with the magazines, major red flags went off. The writings gave an air of manipulation, talking down on you as though you're stupid, along with a tone of control. It reminded me of abusive personalities right away. I bailed not too long after.

clarity

At a funeral for my Dad.......... all my jw relatives complained about just hearing his religious views .....nothing personal about him!

Just to add .....when first started d2d, I felt so guilty because I knew we counted that time. I could imagine how insulted that person we had spent time with, would be. They thought we were seriously interested in them!

So glad I left!

apostrate

When I was about 12 years old I remember my now ex-brother-in-law attending a Sunday meeting for the first time. His remark afterwards was, "I never experienced a religion that did nothing but bash other religions!"

Village Idiot

It was a rainy day close to Christmas and we had a special meeting. The stated purpose of the meeting was to get us together for fraternizing as a substitute for the holidays. It was emphasized at the meetings that the holidays were evil.

A person who appeared homeless came in to the hall and said that he just wanted to get out of the rain. When the meeting ended he said "Happy holidays even though you don't believe in them."

James Mixon

My sister said she didn't understand a damn thing, and the singing was terrible.

Ding

At my first WT study, I thought it was cute when the little children got excited as they were told they had given the "right" answer to a question, but the whole thing seemed rather mindless and boring for people over the age of 10.

At my first Memorial, even though I knew what was going to happen, it still seemed weird to have a "meal" at which no one partook of anything. I remember thinking, "So why are we all here?" Everyone else seemed to think it was quite natural, which seemed even more bizarre.

millie210

I took a friend to an assembly for her first exposure to anything "witnessy"...

During the experiences, she leaned over and asked me why did the people get up and brag?

How was that Christian?

Now, I could set her mind at ease by telling her the experiences are made up conglomerations of events but I didnt know that at the time.

snugglebunny

When my father died, my non-JW auntie and uncle attended the funeral talk. They said they expected to come to a funeral -not observe a commercial.

WingCommander

My fiance (now wife) first meeting with me was the Memorial. She was shocked that no one partook of the emblems, merely passed them around. Only 144K are "allowed" to partake? Ridiculous! Why bother to even show up? For what? REJECTING the emblems of Christ? I was pretty awake by that point, but her comments really shock me. Especially when she said we were rejecting Christ. I had never in my life thought about it like that, but it was true! We weren't accepting him into our lives, we were rejecting the emblems and passing them on without a second thought. Whack! She spoke to an Elder (The PO actually) and she had questions. He really couldn't answer them....he was too "busy". I'm sure.....too busy to answer the legitimate questions of a lowly worldly "woman". He's dead.....a beam fell on his head at a construction site....a quick build or assembly hall project I heard.....so much for Jah's Divine Protection, huh?

Did You Ever Hear a Non-Witness Opinion After They'd Attended Their first Meeting?