How to spot faders or "closeted" apostates in a congregation / meeting?

by nevaagain 33 Replies latest jw friends

  • nevaagain
    nevaagain

    So I am awoken for several years now (never really bought the cool aid) but for family reasons I am still enduring everything. But my wife knows ...

    Anyway so yesterday we had this boring meeting and as I was sitting there trying to make time pass faster I looked around me and I thought who else feels the same as me and is completely bored? And then I thought, who else from this congregation is also fully awoken and might be a lurker or even an active member of this message board?

    Judging from the talks and their comments, none of our higher ranks are awoken. They are trying to accomplish something - that is more hours in service and try to reach all the ppl in several languages. So when I talk to them, they make me feel like something is wrong with me, for not putting the same hours as they are doing. For not showing the same zeal as they are doing.

    There was a brother a couple of years ago, his wife was ill, she would not come to the meetings and he would come alone with this little son. He almost never gave comments, even though from the way he talked after the meeting, he seemed quite knowledgeable. When he came to the meetings, he would sit on the last row, playing games on his smartphone. Then he stopped coming to the meetings altogether and I heard from others that he some "crazy" ideas.

    Too bad I never really talked to him, I guess I never wanted to expose myself.

    We recently got a former special pioneer couple. They look tired and a little be unhappy. Even though they were special pioneers, I dont get the same vibe from them as the other pioneers in our congregation, so lets see if they might be up to something.

    So right now, that is how I am spending my meeting, trying to spot "closeted" apostates and faders ;-)

  • Ignoranceisbliss
    Ignoranceisbliss

    Same for me. I had a couple prospects at my hall but so far they have all fizzled out. I would think that if someone else was awake in my Congo it would be pretty easy to pick up on my feelings.

    Iggy

  • OneGenTwoGroups
    OneGenTwoGroups

    We had an MS in our congregation go apostate last year, I watched the whole thing play out. He's gone, I'm still chair warmer, feeling like an idiot. Too bad he's never really done much on any of the xJW forums, cause I've beena lookin for em.

    I would never had guessed he was waking up until the very end when he started missing meetings.

  • stuckinarut2
    stuckinarut2

    Don't assume that anyone who seems like they are a fader is indeed aware of TTATT!

  • stuckinarut2
    stuckinarut2

    Sounds interesting Onegen!

    What part of the world are you in?

  • crazy_flickering_light
    crazy_flickering_light

    I think you can't discover every awoken. I hope so, don't crush my plans of fading. I have to attend the meetings (MS) and so I fake a big part of it. But from the outside I look perfect: coloured WT, some text on the side (BS means biblestudy, please don't missunderstand.), answers,...

    If you know me, you only know I'm a critical thinker, sometimes very critical. But unless you know me very good, you think I'm full in. I hope there a lot of people in the cong awoken but to afraid to show it.

  • stuckinarut2
    stuckinarut2
    Was in the same boat crazy flickering.....then just couldn't keep up the charade anymore....
  • crazy_flickering_light
    crazy_flickering_light

    At the moment I have to. Yes, it's hard. Its part of my plans I work at the moment, I hope I have to step down the next time. Will make them kick me to start my fade and not to step down on my own. Should be a very cool WTF-moment in the cong. Until this happens, I try to wake up others. At this moment it worked!

    You know: If you want an apostate friend, you have to make a friend an apostate!

  • brandnew
    brandnew

    How do ya spot a fader????? Thats easy!!!!!!! They aint thereπŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚

    Mad Puppy

  • TheListener
    TheListener

    While I faded I appeared totally committed to dubdom. It wasn't until I started missing more and more meetings that anyone caught on. By then it was too late as I had slowly and quietly withdrew my friendship from most in the hall.

    At least one other couple has faded from my old hall, which surprised me at first but then I thought about a few of our conversations and realized they'd be a bit too liberal in their thinking about things. At the time I figured they were just a bit less judgmental than others.

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