Do you think that the Society knows the truth about family studies? They are one of the best turn-offs for the religion that it has ever developed. How many kids determine that they will have no part of it when they grow up because of being subjected the the infamous weekly study?
Att: ex-Elders and Their Kids: Did You Really Have a Regular Family Study?
by Room 215 41 Replies latest jw friends
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talesin
mac
it was generally short lived.
Lucky you.
I'm making up for it now, though.
tal
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got my forty homey?
Im surprised also by all the negative responses. My family we studied almost everyday. Monday night was for the Tuesday book study, wednesday and thursday were prep for Friday night meeting. Saturday was Watchtower study night. And all of these studies were incredibly BORING. I grew up in the projects in New York City so in the summer we had no AC, imagine studying in 100% weather and hearing all my friends playing downstairs and I studying for something. Sunday nights after the meetings we also did yearbook reading! Imagine how stupid this was! Reading how many new members were baptized and how fewer and fewer anointed are partaking at the memorial. Whats going to happen when that number is ZERO. Time for the punch brigrade! My family study was so intensive that when I was in Bethel my Father still wanted me to sit in on the family study for the Watchtower Saturday nights even though I did the study at Bethel Monday night! Years later after being DF'd my Father still wanted me to sit in on these damn studies. FORGET IT!
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Thirdson
We had a regular family Bible Study every Friday night for years. I remember when I was very young studying the old Paradise book. At some point in time it became a Watchtower study. Back in the old days the congregation studies were in the format of ask the questions first and then read the paragragh. Pre-study meant reading the paragraphs first and then asking the questions and as the question was answered everyone could underline the section. (I guess the Society knew that few studied before the meeting and thus reading the paragraphs first dumbed it down and did away with the need to study ahead of time.)
For a few years we did portions of the weekly Bible reading at the dinner table. Long enough to cover the whole Bible. Dad tried doing the day's text (numerous times it was started and surpringly these sessions always occurred after the last assembly we attended) but that was excruciatingly boring, more so that the family study. As we grew up and had work and other commitments the prolonged dinner sessions were hard to do. We eventually stopped the weekly Watchtower study when the youngest sibling got baptized.
Friday nights were so boring! We suffered through many hours of 'type' and 'antitype' waiting for it to be over so that we could watch Dad's Army on the telly.
Thirdson
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jws
Flower's accounts bring back a lot of memories. My dad was an elder, and family study was something we'd try from time to time, but we absolutely hated it. By the time they started to try this, we had gotten used to meetings and field service EVERY Saturday. Now they were adding another boring hour to our lives??? When it's something we'd always known it was accepted, even if hated. But adding more of this JW stuff was too much to bear.
My brother and I fought it tooth and nail. We'd try to crack each other up, make jokes, whatever we could to make it more fun only to get yelled at. Usually it ended up in us sulking or trying to punish our parents in other ways as revenge for making us sit through that torture. And it was torture. It was one thing to go to a meeting and sit and daydream. It was quite a different thing to be face to face with your dad who was expecting you to read or comment and be serious. And he seemed irked at the slightest things all the way through. You could see his temper building. Such a fun activity full of love... My blood is boiling just recalling it.
They once tried weeknights, but that didn't work out very long because of homework. It was already a struggle to keep up with homework sometimes with Tuesday and Thursday night meetings. So, it ended up on Saturdays.
We could tell our mom about hating it, but didn't dare tell our dad. We complained that our weekend was already filled with a whole morning of field service and a whole morning of Sunday meeting. "Why are you torturing us"? Kids need playtime. I know it was a pretty scandalous thing to suggest that more is not better.
Usually it didn't last too many weeks. Two or three months at the most. I was a bit young to understand what triggered these things. Something on an assembly part? A local talk? Overhearing what other parents claimed to be doing? Or just deciding the kids weren't acting spiritually enough and needed more studying. They usually stopped as soon as something interrupted them. Maybe there was a get-together that night or my dad had elder duties to go do. After one or two interruptions, they usually stopped.
Books were hard to find too. My parents shied away from the more boring ones or things that are too deep. Imagine studying the Babylon book with a 7 and 8 year old. I remember studying the Paradise Lost, Listening to the Great Teacher, Live Forever, and maybe some others we started on, then gave up on.
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Margie
We didn't have a regular family study, either, and look at me now!
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ozziepost
LOLOL @ Roomie!!
Good one!
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confusedjw
Flower:
I wanted to vomit as my father read about some poor legless witness crawled to the kingdom hall on her hands for three miles in the snow just so she wouldnt miss a meeting.
Oh jesus didn't that get me laughing!
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blondie
Most were too busy. I can remember the CO checking the Bible studies conducted in the congregation. He noticed that hardly any family studies were being reported, especially by the MS. He had the elders "encourage" the MS to be sure to turn in a Bible study slip for their family study already assuming that they were having them. A MS I knew just started turning in the slip but did not have a study still. As to elders, a few did have a study but it was not productive...that is their children have not stayed JWs any more than the ones who were not studied with.
I wonder if the elders of years gone by 15 years or more were more apt to do it than today's elders?
Blondie
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ozziepost
Blondie:
I think it's more a case of the reality for families of being obligated to carry out an artificial family practice. The truth is, very few kids wanted it, mothers agonised over the whole sham, and the fathers themselves had to be dragged to the family study table. In short it's yet another example of the geriatric and myopic worldview of the "Governing Body".
Cheers, Ozzie