THE LINGERING SHADOW OF '75

Terry

None of you are old enough to have been there, I suspect. I had been in prison two years as a JW conscientious objector when the exciting news about 1975 spread like wildfire.
I was paroled from prison in 1969 and immediately began Pioneering. The pressures began mounting throughout the organization. You could only conduct a Bible Study for six months. If your study didn't get baptized--you had to cut them loose; time was too precious to waste!
I married and had little kids to worry about feeding on minimum wage from a part time job. It almost gave me a nervous breakdown. So, I moved the family from Fort Worth to California.
I met non JW's who were much nicer and more caring about me and my family than the Witnesses. Everybody was relaxed and enjoying life. I suddenly woke up!
My wife, on the other hand, was a nervous wreck. This was 1974 and she could practically hear the countdown clock ticking inside her head.
When 1975 came, the kettle was boiling.
Every JW on planet Earth had bug eyes.
And then. . . it got very quiet.
. . . . . . . ____________________________.
It was over.
The word you are looking for is a short and simple one: STUNNED.
Dubs were simply stunned.
Why?
Their religion had suddenly been tested for truth and proved FALSE.
Stop and think about that for a second. It was like your Mom and Dad suddenly telling you that you weren't their kid--you were adopted.
It was like finding out your best friend was a serial killer.
People were heartbroken, shaken, upset and finally depressed.
But, what happened next was truly terrible!
You know what it was?
Of course, you don't.
Instead of an angry mob of disillusioned JW's demanding a hearing and statement of accountability they just shut up and shrugged and went about their business like good little robots.
Did you ever see a documentary about the Holocaust when Nazi soldiers marched a group of condemned Jews to a pit and had them kneel down as a soldier went one by one and shot them in the back of their head? Did you ever wonder why they didn't try to run or all rush the soldier and stop him?
It was that sort of resignation.
JW's were defeated, dispirited, and depressed and they just gave up.
Those people have swallowed the whole thing and shit it out and flushed it away like it never happened.
There. That's your answer.
Cognitive dissonance.
My wife became an alcoholic. She died coming home from a bar, drunk--chased by cops because she had been stopped and her driver's license had been taken away. She tried to escape and drove off at top speed and crashed into the back of a parked car.
This was the legacy of THE TRUTH.

Sorry--I meant, "the Lie."

slimboyfat

Not sure if liking is appropriate response to this post so I write to say I appreciated it.

tiki

I remember it well....I was in my 20's and although skeptical that the whole 75 thing meant anything..the quick studies, a rapid influx of mixed up young men and women...the men back from Nam and hooked on pot and booze and trying to make sense of it all...and most of them didn't last all that long in the religion....I knew several who committed suicide. That war left more casualties than are counted. Was the 75 thing one of Freddie Franz's concoctions? That man had a very bizarre mind.

slimboyfat

In my congregation I can think of at least 14 people who were baptised in the run up to 1975, a few of them dead now. I gathered this from talking to them over the years. None of them flat out said they joined because of 1975 but they talk about the excitement in the congregation and the "sense of urgency" in the 1970s.

talesin

My pioneer buddy suicided in 1976 spring. He was 17. I never went back to the kH,

A couple of years later, was DF for, I guess, apostasy. I told them I did not believe it. Their reply? "You're fired!" j/k They considered that I would be DF if I refused to return to the collective. No, thanks. Age 20, I was DF and alone.

So yeah, i was baptized at 14, and not 3 years later (after a month spent in Quebec, SP recruitment, uhh, no thanks) 'serving where the need is greater', and Staying Alive till '75! I hated every second of pioneering, and was learning a lot about the true nature of my 'brothers & sisters'. Shocking.. Hey, i was 17! And a very good girl. ; )

slimboyfat

If I remember correctly, according to yearbook statistics, there were more people baptised in either 1974 or 1975 than in any year since, likely more than there will ever be. Locally this was true also. Again from what I gather from talking to older ones, I was born in the 80s.

talesin

I was pioneering with a group of oh, about a dozen 17-21 YO kids. Some from there, and some of us, from away. It was crazy busy, working at a hardware store mixing paint, making up hours (I was SO TIRED), got sick a lot, and met some 'interesting people'. I didn't really think about Armageddon, didn't believe it. I just tried to win my parents' love and approval. The way things transpired, I'd say I was severely 'disillusioned', not with doctrine, but the characters of my friends and elders. This could NOT be the Truth with a capital "T".

The Rebel

Terry " The lingering shadow of 75"

The Rebel:- Terry may I begin by offering my warmest condolences for what you have been through. However tuning to graver matters, the generation of 1914 will also pass away, and with that sadly the bunch of villians the G.B are, as history doesn't seem to be teaching the flock anything.

So how do the G.B get away with it?

Why do the G.B still have followers?

Well, in my opinion our old friends the G.B are always offering honors and titles such as" pioneers" " ministerial servants" and the must be won award for a male, the title of " Elder"

All you have to do to get one of these awards is read the literature, except current truth and then you are the envy of the congregation. Of course if you think more than you should, and don't walk the walk and talk the talk, these awards will be taken from you.

Occasionaly some sister, or aspiring elder will wake up and get themselves mixed up with "worldly thinking" which as your O.P clarifies can lead to tragic consequences, or it can i hope more often than not lead to a successful and happy life.

Anyway I am no great loss to the watchtower. But you Terry would have been a watchtower star had you remained inside, so I hope you appreciate what an articulate and meaningful voice for thousands you are on the outside.

The Rebel

Finkelstein

The WTS leaders (F Franz) devised 1975 as pretentious lie by using once again the fictitious 6000 year of mankind's existence scheme. People including myself weren't aware that the WTS had already used this dating scheme in 1943 and the early 1900's by C T Russell..

The anxiety and paranoia was apparent instigating a couple of suicides in my town of 40.000 with approximately 250 JWS.

punkofnice

None of you are old enough to have been there, I suspect.

I wish! No, I was there...a wee teenager at the time. I saw people get into debt because they wouldn't have to pay anything back. I saw people give up and live in caravans(trailers), in readiness for the big 'A'.

I am so sorry for what the cult has done to so many, including you, Terry.

...and of course, it was all OUR fault, according to the watchtower corporation.

The watchtower corporation is guilty of causing so much pain and suffering....if only the leaders could be brought squarely to account.........I hold my breath not!

THE LINGERING SHADOW OF '75

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