by UnshackleTheChains 22 Replies latest jw experiences
Believing in God and believing every word from the Borg are not at all the same. Swing and a miss.
However, I will corroborate that many do believe every word from the Borg. (They have to, or they'll lose all their loving friends and family.) Even if they don't believe every word, many still believe it is still generally true and that Jehovah will be vindicated in the end even if his mouthpiece has misspoken... It's like Stockholm Syndrome.
To me, it has now become nothing more than a social club. That's it!
Is anyone else experiencing a similar situation, ie attending meetings primarily for social reasons?
That's what the vast majority of people in any organized religion do. Religious organizations are social clubs. Do you think that people join because of what they teach? They don't know what they teach until they join, so it's not about their teachings.
I have a hard time wrapping my head around the concept of "social" membership.
As social environments go, the JW world leaves a lot to be desired.
Dreamer dude....You are so like myself. A social witness.
Like many on here. I actually truly believed it to be the truth till cracks appeared ie studying the book 'revelation...It's grand climax at hand'. That book truly began my awakening
I probably qualify as a social witness. But I don't witness and I realized that most of the Witnesses aren't really friends. So that makes me feel mostly lonely.
I had a very similar experience to stillin. I spent 18 months of been fully in while knowing TTATT, before I physically walked out the door. Partly the reason for this was the social contact. When I started to question things and I found those social ties getting weaker it became so much easier to leave because in essence I knew every thing else was just total BS. It's almost been 3 years now since I left and out of the 1000s of jw I knew only 3 people could be bothered to knock on my door. When I put all this together it makes me thankful I never spent another minute of my life in that religion, just for the social contact.
My elderly mom often say that meetings are her only opportunity to dress up, put some makeup, to see and to be seen and she always invites me with words: don't let people forget you - our cong is a social club to her, she is not interested in religious aspects for a long time. I noticed the same thing with younger JW (I mean below 60y), you simply have no one to talk about anything a little more seriously - you can talk about sports, cars, smartphones, shopping opportunities, and that's it. Religious topics - only a basic ones, on low-level. Fading away, I found more 'wordly people' with whom I had interesting chats, advanced religious thoughts and learn something new, than ever in JW cong. Sad but true.
UNSHAKLE:
Yes, I think most JWs are there for the "association". The elderly view it as an opportunity to get dressed up and go out (in many cases, it may be practically the only time these elderly go out at all, other than doctors appointments and the grocery store).
Besides those with families in, other Witnesses are trapped because they either work for JWs or they have a business and JWs are their customers/clients...A Witness with JWs as customers runs the risk of losing them overnight if he decided to leave the religion. Witnesses are very spiteful and would pull the rug out from under somebody!
I'm glad I'm out of there and don't need or want JW's association. Even on a bad day, I'd be better off by myself watching TV.
I think if you just go to meetings only to keep up appearances and maintain some sort of social acceptance for family reasons that is ok, but if you also go door to door preaching their shit and influencing non-JWs favourably towards the cult, then you are a real hypocrite.
