AHA! Moments. When you were a JW; what struck you the hardest counter?

by Terry 28 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  RunningMan

  I suppose we all have moments where enlightenment comes to us, much like Buddha.

  Another of my moments came when I was writing a #4 talk for the Ministry School. I gave probably 10 talks a year for 34 years. One evening as I was writing, it occurred to me that every talk I gave was the same. I would think up an opening illustration, carve up the the assigned material into the body, and end by applying the lesson to our "last days" situation. Every talk was spun into the same conclusion. Using this technique, I could mass produce completely passable student talks in about five minutes. It suddenly seemed very pointless.
• 

  undercover

  There was no real AHA! moment, but I did have a lot of little "um?" moments.

  The closest that I came to an AHA! moment was during the visit of a CO. This CO was giving a talk on remaining faithful to Jehovah. Of course, staying faithful to Jehovah meant staying faithful to the WTS and following direction from them. He proceeded to tell the story of a brother who moved to the USA from another country. This particular brother was an elder in his home country. He came with high recommendations from his old congregation. He was promptly appointed elder in his new congregation. Well, when the CO came to visit(the same CO who was visiting us - he was telling the story in first person) he met this new elder for the first time. There was a problem with this new elder. The CO met with the other elders and pointed it out to them. This new foreign brother had a beard. How were the elders going to handle this? The elder body asked what could they do, there was no rule or scriptural principle against beards. The CO pointed out to them that in the US that - and I am quoting here, "it's just not done". The CO then tells us in his talk that now this brother could have insisted on his right to wear a beard. He didn't have to comply, but then he wouldn't be used. Would this brother insist on his rights or was he more interested in being faithful? The CO was happy to report that on his next visit that this brother was clean shaven and an examplary elder. This was an example on how to remain faithful.

  I was stunned. The CO admitted that the only reason that beards aren't allowed is because "it's just not done". While he was trying to impress upon everyone the importance of following direction, and I'm sure most in attendance fell for his little illustration, I saw the opposite. I saw that we were supposed to do what we were told even if there was no real good reason, only because "we said so". It was then that I started listening to the little voices in the back of my head that kept saying that something was wrong but till then I had ignored. It was only a matter of time from that point on till I realized I had been fooled for years.
• 

  Terry

  The "not wearing a beard" anecdote reminded me of my conversation with my JW friend Johnny yesterday. I asked him if elders were still asked not to wear beards at the Kingdom Hall.

  He said, "Yes".

  I asked, "Why?"

  He said that as ministers Jehovah's Witnesses had to be as dignified as businessmen and businesses do NOT allow their executives to wear beards.

  I replied, "That's pretty stupid".

  And he just replied, "No, it's not, it's true."

  This is a test of orthodoxy. The bigshots think up a test of obedience and your response to the idiocy of it shows how tame you are. Whether the policy is right or wrong doesn't have anything to do with it---it is all about POWER OVER PEOPLE.

  Ugh.
• 

  jaredg

  my "AHA" moment was in the KH during the SM. there was a talk about the blood issue. as i sat there all by myself in the back of the KH (i was df'd atthe time) and followed along reading scriptures i realised that i just don't agree with the interpretation being explained on the stage. i thought long and hard and made up my mind that i just did not agree. my idea of a loving god would not permit such and action. and if life is so important why wouldn't god want us to use whatever means available to stay alive. i'm worth more to god alive than dead right?? then i started thinking about other things that i didn't agree with like only JW's will survive, disfellowshipping, not being able to read apostate lit (i figured what harm is information right?). so i started doing my own research and found a lot of dubs and x-dubs that felt the same way i did. eventually i had to be truthful w/ my parents and tell them that i don't believe it's the truth and i'm not going to get reinstated. and that was that.
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  evergreen

  I was only a spring chicken in the"truth " about a year when i had a very interesting conversation with a woman at a door in london in 1991.At the time i might add i was full of the zeal for the"truth"when AHAAAAH.She said she had been studying for years with the witnesses BUT she became dissillusioned over the 1975 THING.1975 THING i said to her and the brother to my right said yeah there was the 1975 Thing!.

  The other AHA was when we were having a meeting for ministerial servants(i was one) and elders meeting and the CO suggested to us that we shouldnt pray for those who are spiritually sick when on the platform .I thought to myself ,what!.surely he didnt mean that .Who are we to jugde a person for not attending the meetings.Then he emphasised "why should we,they know its the truth ..they know they should be here so dont pray for them ".That really made me think!

  There are probably a few more but maybe another time.....
• 

  Freethinking76

  I was looking for a video in YouTube,and the video of jaw struggle came up ,...weir cause I was looking for funny cats videos to show my kids...I started

  watching it even knowing I was not supposed to.I always felt that there was something there that I couldn't explain,I did not felt the love and unity they

  proclaimed to have.I felt confuse thinking that something was wrong with me.I was not spiritual enough ,that expression was told to me enough times by

  jws.I felt depressed because I did not read enough or preach enough.plus my hubby was not in the "truth" and the ipocracy was too much..from the stage

  my hubby was being rip apart,but in person ,face to face was: what a loving husband you are... Lol,, ridiculous !..some sisters would talk about worldly

  people and how horrible they are,but when it came to riding in my hubby's car,eating the food he purchased,sleeping over where he pays the rent..he is

  good.see what I mean?
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  Julia Orwell

  Like many others have said, the repetition of the meetings over 14 years of guilt upon guilt upon guilt sent my system haywire.

  However, a very telling moment for me was when I decided to take a look around the local cemetary and when I looked at the graves from 1890-early 20th C (The graves only go back to about 1890 as this is a young town) I noticed that so many people died young and that so many more children died. When I saw people commonly dying at 20, 30, 40- and then compared it to the modern graves and saw very few children, babies and young people, I thought, "Are we really in the last days if people are living longer than ever before? If 100 years ago, people died for basic lack of things like antibiotics?"

  I saw hard evidence right in front of me that the world was better now than it had been.

  A zillion things piled up over the years like most here have said, but another one was a documentary which brought out the fact that for millions of people supposedly having lived in the Sinai region for 40 years, there was not one sign left such as midden heaps, belongings, graves- zilcho!
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  frogonmytoe

  I too had 'um' moments rather than AHA!

  -The LOVE, with sisters who would ask after my house-bound mother, then I'd see them doing Return Visits (tm) 2 minutes walk from her house.
  
  -An attendant expecting me (as another attendant) not to enforce the 'one way rule' on a CO, just because he was a CO (obedience in small things??)

  -The CO and DOs getting silver-service dinners at the District Convention

  - How languages and races could have developed so independently in only 6000 years (starting off this just the 2, of course)

  - How much I wanted to have someone to share my life with but because that person would be of the same gender, I was expected to stay 'chaste'...

  Thanks to these and others, my Sunday mornings are all 'mmmmmmmmm' *turn over and go back to sleep* moments.
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  Seraphim23

  My first ahha moment was a dream I had when I was six or seven. It was very vivid and told me that the JWs faith was false. In the dream I expected it to say true but that it not what it said. Years after that it was other dreams I had that told me things that came true and prayer did not stop this phenomena, even though JWs said God would `cure` a spirit of predication. After that it was a voice I heard after a nervous breakdown due to being gay and a JW, that said I would be OK. After this the ahha moments were more intellectual and conventional. One brick built upon anther and here I am today, free and happy.