Appreciating the Little Victories

by metatron 6 Replies latest jw experiences

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  metatron

  In my personal fantasy, members of the Governing Body are dragged off by pitch-fork wielding peasants bearing torches

  at night. They are thereafter hung by their heals, Mussolini-style, after which, three well aimed asteroids create smoking craters

  in Brooklyn, Wallkill, and Paterson, NY.

  (Sigh) Well, I can dream, can't I ??

  The reality is that, with a little patience, we can savor the little victories as they arrive. Such as:

  Noting that the congregation with the most corrupt elders I know - is steadily losing meeting attendance

  Seeing extended Witness families with the grandkids almost entirely disaffiliated.

  Going to non-denominational weddings involving faded Witnesses.

  Young Witnesses who secretly ignore shunning of their friends

  Lots of Witnesses suddenly going to college, unthinkable years ago.

  Finding zealous Witnesses put on the defensive and getting tired of all of it.

  Finding older Witnesses adapting to ordinary life, like opening their eyes to sunlight , after years hiding in the shadows.

  I savor these little victories as I encounter them becoming more and more commonplace.

  In this life, there are no ordinary moments

  metatron
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  willyloman

  meta: I see a lot of this, too, and it's not just wishful thinking. Case in point:

  Lots of Witnesses suddenly going to college, unthinkable years ago.

  My grown daughter decided to go to college and is attending a nearby school. There have been several parts on the service meeting in recent months demonizing higher education and criticizing dubs for wasting their time going to college. This has only made her more determined, as she is learning things she never imagined and is totally immersed in the educational process and views college as her oasis of sanity. Meanwhile, just the other night, she learned that the son of a "prominent' elder in her congo has enrolled for four years at the local university. This makes half a dozen "kids" from that congo who have enrolled in college in the past few years -- despite all the criticism, sideways glances, arched eyebrows, and ignorant talk!
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  minimus

  Met, you're right. We should savor the things we're seeing. The implosion is occuring!
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  Scully

  Here's an excerpt from Jon Krakauer's recent book, Under the Banner of Heaven, these are the words of a Mormon "apostate" (yep, they use the A-word too).

  ?I remember wondering about contradictions between what the religion taught and scientific truth. But Uncle Roy told us that the way to handle that was to just avoid asking certain kinds of questions. So I trained myself to ignore the contradictions. I got good at not letting myself think about them.?

  ?I loved college. Looking back, I suppose it was the beginning of the end for me. I stayed in the religion for another twenty years, but going to college in Cedar City was when I had my eyes opened. That?s where I took my first geology course. Afterward I came home and told Uncle Roy, ?There?s a professor over there trying to tell us the earth is four and a half billion years old, but the religion says its only six thousand years old. How can that be?? Which shows you why education is such a problem for the Work. You take someone like me, who was always as stalwart as could be, and then you ship him off to get an education and the guy goes and apostatizes on you. Happens over and over again. And every time it does, it makes the leaders more inclined to keep people from learning.?

  It sure seems that education is a thorn in the sides of the leaders of these high control religious groups.

  Love, Scully
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  kls

  Metatron, yes these are some victories, small but none the less a dent in the org. I only hope i see the demise of this cult in my lifetime and see them perish and hurt the way they have hurt so many.
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  willyloman

  Scully: What page is that on, please?
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  Banshee

  If you can control the information, you can control the people. Ergo, the opposite holds true....if you can't control the information, you can't control the people. Let's hope more JW's will seek higher education and other sources of information rather than just going along with the FDS/WTS-approved ignorance.