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To just go to a jehovahs witness meeting?

796 replies

blobtobetter · 07/04/2012 21:05

One of the older women at work is a Jehovah's Witness. I don't really know what they are but they don't like blood or birthdays. I thought they were just another type of Christian but apparently not.

She keeps asking me to go to a meeting and I keep putting her off. Thinking now that I should just go once and then never again!?

It sounds really shallow but I wouldn't want to give up Christmas!!

Part of me wonders what it would be like. Would they be over friendly? Would they be distant as I am a heathen type? Can't imagine it really.

OP posts:
hiddenhome · 10/04/2012 23:25
Shock
BonfireOfKleenex · 10/04/2012 23:30

Oh dear, they really don't like being disrespected, do they.

MmeBucket · 10/04/2012 23:51

Nobody likes being disrespected. While there are definitely those out there that are very disrespectful and downright hateful toward them, it isn't just a matter of respect, they don't like being questioned.

Collision · 10/04/2012 23:52

Do you have anything good to say about them?

MmeBucket · 11/04/2012 00:13

I think the vast majority or rank-and-file JW's are very devout and very nice to each other as long as one is following the party line. However, it is rather hard to come up with great things to say about a people when one has lost 26 years to the religion, all their friends and family to the religion for the only reason of doing research and not believing any more. I don't use hateful speech about them but have myself been told by various JW's, or through their magazines that I'm: worldly, stupid, bad association, mentally diseased (this is the only one that I took from a magazine, everything else has been said to my face from an actual JW), dumber than an animal, like a dog returning to it's own vomit, influenced by Satan and that because I married a worldly man he will cheat on me and I will be left with nothing to name a few.

blobtobetter · 11/04/2012 07:10

Jehovah's Witnesses seem to divide opinion a lot! Doesn't seem to be much of a middle ground.

OP posts:
Overcooked · 11/04/2012 07:41

It's interesting how the JW's just pop up and then run away when anyone questions anything too much - like MmeBucket, as it's clear she knows her stuff.

Not one of them has asked whether they would 'sacrifice' their child to the religion if she/he needed a blood tranfusion.

PosiePaques · 11/04/2012 08:03

JW's come from Millerites, they thought the world would end years and years ago, it didn't. So there was a new cult way thought up.....doesn't that say enough. Bit like all these religions that just reinvent an old oneHmm.

blobtobetter · 11/04/2012 08:35

The world ending is a pretty big thing to get wrong! Glad it was wrong though.

The blood thing is odd but I suppose not every thing that people believe is rational. Just believing in God is weird to some.

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SparklyGothKat · 11/04/2012 08:46

Lol I remember in the 90s being told that the Internet was evil! That Satan would get us through the wires. And now the jws have their own website Hmm
I have family in the religion but I question it too much to go back.

stressedHEmum · 11/04/2012 09:11

MmeBucket, what you have said are mostly why I disassociated. Especially the Deut. scripture and all the various predictions of The End. Things were always changing and everyone else just seemed to swallow it whole. I couldn't so I left before I was disfellowshipped. (I also had to much of that pesky, worldly education.) It took me ages and ages to lose the fear, though, especially the fear for my kids.

if anyone is looking for silly examples of doctrinal changes: it used to be that you weren't allowed to clink glasses in a toast because that was linked to spiritism (making noises to chase away evil spirits), then it became a matter of conscience, don't know what it is now. It was also not allowed to say "bless you " or the lie when someone sneezed for much the same reasons.

The rules governed even the minutiae of your life and breaking any of them, even the small ones like above would get you a hard chat from the elders.

SGK, yes, I remember the internet being EVIL, as well. WE were all told not to use it because it would lead us into apostasy and sin because we would be unable to resist the Devil leading us to read false religious material. It would also lead us into to sexual sin and immorality because we would be continually exposed to porn/sexual references, smoking, drinking, drugs and other worldly stuff.

When I was active, there was a new anointed (they were still teaching that all the places had been fulfilled years ago). it caused a bit of a stir and a lot of speculation and gossip about who had fallen away. Turned out that it was one of the GB, but it was all very hush-hush.

The other reason that I left was, frankly, the absolute lack of grace and forgiveness. The girl who converted me was disfellowshipped when she was in her 30's, basically for having a nervous breakdown.

She had been a pioneer since she left school when she was 16 (as was encouraged then, particularly for girls.) In her late 20's she started courting a JW man, but her family and the elders felt that he was unsuitable for her. He was much weaker in "the Truth" than she, apparently. So she was hounded and badgered: elders coming to her house, sending for her to go to meetings with them, phoning her.....all to try to persuade her to stop the courtship because it endangered her eternal life (and their recruitment figures) because he wasn't "strong enough in the Truth" and bad associations spoil useful habits. Eventually she had a breakdown through the whole thing. She was disfellowshipped and lost everything, even her home because she house shared with other pioneer sisters. She had no qualifications and no work experience because she had been in the work full time for years, so she couldn't get a job, even when she was better. She lost all her friends and family, everything. It was absolutely awful.

blobtobetter · 11/04/2012 09:12

Passed my list of questions on to the lady at work and she was beyond excited. Couldn't chat about it much as she doesn't really discuss it in front of people here.

She is going to get back to me with some answers and get me some books that they produce!

OP posts:
stressedHEmum · 11/04/2012 09:22

Blob, she is excited because you have shown n interest and she has sniffed a possible convert. Please, please take the books with a pinch of salt and check what they say against your own bible and the teachings of more mainstream churches and don't be sucked in by any arcane mathematical formulae or all the special language that you find in the books. If you constantly tell someone that something is the "Truth", eventually they will believe you.

Also, if you start to investigate and come up against opposition or discouragement, your friend will tell you that it is Satan trying to drag you away from Jehovah and true worship.

She can't discuss it with you at work because this is seen as stealing from your employer and is/was a disciplinary offence if you keep it up. She could also probably lose her job by doing it, someone I knew lost several jobs this way.

SparklyGothKat · 11/04/2012 09:39

I went back in my early twenties. I think I had that fear for my son about growing up
In an evil world, but stopped going again after a while.
And even now when I say about the world today (it's ain't great) my mum will say it's coz we are living in the final days. (which we have been living in for at least 33 years as that's how old i am) anyway i tend to ignore any reference to the religion and agree to disagree with my family. It's their choice as it's mine.

LadyMontdore · 11/04/2012 09:43

OP - haven't read whole thread but you sound niave and vulnerable. You are about to be sucked into a cult, you must be mad to be entering into something that so many people have told you is a bad idea. Sad What do your family think? Do you have a DP - what does he think? You must put your family first.

Why not just do some volunteering if you think you need some purpose - at least that would help other people.

BonfireOfKleenex · 11/04/2012 09:46

"Jehovah's Witnesses seem to divide opinion a lot! Doesn't seem to be much of a middle ground."

Well there is probably a reason for that. Organisations (religious and otherwise) which rely on mind-control and guilt tend to have the effect of polarising what people will openly say about them. They set impossibly high standards of behaviour and loyalty, and then shower blame and guilt onto people to keep them in line when they fail. The most insidious also shower them with love when they appear to be complying.

SparklyGothKat · 11/04/2012 09:48

Do I believe in God? Yes I think I do, but I believe that as long as you live your life good, don't murder steal or be an arsehole etc then maybe god will see that anyway. I believe faith is inside you and you don't need a church or a kingdom hall to prove that.

stressedHEmum · 11/04/2012 09:57

Oh aye, you are showered with love when you are new, particularly as you start to respond to the studying and seem to deepen your commitment by going to a meeting or two. it's not until you're actually a baptised JW, that the harsh stuff starts to kick in and you see how totally numbers driven they are. Folk who are seen to be "not pulling their weight" in the preaching are the brunt of endless malicious bitching and there is hot competition over hours in the field/number of studies and the like You have to meet your targets and this is what Blob's workmate is doing.

Bonfire, JWs do rely very much on mind control, fear and the fact that folk don't like to be different from all their peers, and seeing as you're not really allowed to have friends etc. outside the faith, your peers are all JW.

SGK have we not being living in the End Times since 1914 any more? I remember that there was great hope that the end of the last millennium would usher in the New System. Sadly, once again, it didn't.

blobtobetter · 11/04/2012 10:13

I am going to compare the books and bible against my bible. Just to see if there is much difference.

I kind of like the old fashionedness of it but with my family not even approving of me believing in God it is more of a study of what they believe rather than a conversion.

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SparklyGothKat · 11/04/2012 10:13

Well it's been almost 100 years now so who knows? I know that my young life was in fear of the end of the world Sad

blobtobetter · 11/04/2012 10:34

Is the end of the world thing why higher education wasn't encouraged? Not sure if it is encouraged now.

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BonfireOfKleenex · 11/04/2012 10:42

blobtobetter - I don't think you'd have to be terribly cynical to deduce that higher education isn't encouraged for reasons of social control, rather than for whatever other excuse might be given.

blobtobetter · 11/04/2012 11:04

It would certainly limit the chance of children being exposed to outside influences. I just thought that if the world was going to end their wouldn't be much point.

Still seems similar to the Amish in a few ways. They finish education at 14!

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stressedHEmum · 11/04/2012 12:37

Any education post 16 was heavily discouraged, especially for girls, because it took time away from the preaching work, was putting worldly knowledge before the knowledge of the one, true God and his people, and would expose you to Satanic influences. Also, worldly knowledge was not important because it was irrelevant to the new System. if you expect the end of the world any day, what good is education.

The position was slightly different for men because they needed enough education to be able to provide for their families, but even that was limited. Men were expected to take jobs that just provided enough to live on and them spend the rest of the time doing Jehovah's work. That's why a lot of them at that time were window cleaners, snack van owners and the like. "Worldly" success was very much frowned upon. Plenty JWs at that time also exploited a thing in the benefits system that allowed them not to actively seek work because they were ministers of religion. They were able to pioneer and claim benefits without the pressure of job hunting.

But Bonfire is right. Lack of education was primarily and issue of social control.

Blob, they are an apocalyptic sect, so they use fear of the imminent end of the world to control everything that you do.

NarkedPuffin · 11/04/2012 13:01

Wow. I only ever knew about the blood issue and the needless deaths that it caused. This thread has made me see that they are closer to a cult than I ever realised.