I don't mean to be rude, but this is what I remember from my days in The Truth.  I remember the Awake! showcasing a particularly wretched case of a recent convert -- someone who was about to overdose on drugs for instance and was startled at the sound of her local weekend Witness warriors ringing her doorbell.  And the Awake! would lay out in great detail the miserable life of this ex-drug user and how she opened her front door to discover the Witnesses with a message from God.  And how she subsequently swallowed the whole deal and was forever saved, or so the Awake reported.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, mind you.  I mean, if you're about to overdose on drugs, you might as well be saved by something, anything, even The Truth.

But as a kid, I was struck by the fact that miserable people were prime converts.  Poor people were more likely to buy into the Witness dogma than wealthy.  An alcoholic or abused wife was more likely to swallow the "better life when the New Order arrives" thing than an educated and successful family man.

So I have been thinking about that and wondering what the results would be if we could conduct a study of Witnesses, both current and apostates, and ask them if they would have considered themselves to be happy and successful at the time they converted. 

And if we asked them today, would they tell the truth?  Is my memory right?  Is The Truth a religion for the bottom tier of society? 

Not to be rude or anything, but I think I'll revisit this question in my next blog.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (4)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

...
written by modi , July 14, 2009

That is a thoughtful question. I say the answer is "yes." However, it seems like it is like that with ANY religion, it is always the more "oppressed," that are always the ones that are looking for something more. Not always, but in the majority of cases. Similar to the "no athiests in a foxhole" kinda thing... I like JWs and frankly the ones I know always seem to be happy. I ran into this site looking for some info on them but found a lot of bashing that I think is unfounded in my personal experience. I have a graduate degree so I don't think I'm feeble minded. In fact, the way the JWs live their lives seem to be non-hypocritical if they say they believe the bible, but I really think it's their happy demeanor that attracts me to them. In fact, on their official website (finally found it), I don't see bashing at all...so it's ironic that you mention happy people when some people on this site seem to promote negativity versus talking about happy, positive things.

report abuse

vote down

vote up

Votes: +0

...
written by Scott , July 22, 2009

Hmmmm....interesting comments. I sometimes wonder why it is that the "oppressed" find religion attractive. And I think it's important to recognize that this site exists for people who are asking questions. And for people with a JW experience that wasn't pleasant. It's a little unrealistic to expect writers to comment on how happy they were as JW's when they chose to leave, often under unpleasant circumstances. And it's probably even more important to recognize that those folks left for valid reasons. "Happy demeanor" aside, people leave the JW's and often find that they are much happier afterwards.

report abuse

vote down

vote up

Votes: +0

...
written by Tori , August 20, 2009

I was good at pretending to be happy. I did it to passively witness to those around me that were not witnesses. To convince them that being a witness was a desirable thing to be. I was always on alert to be a gentle happy role model to society.
I was also good at pretending to be happy to other witnesses. When you are told what to think and feel and that if you do not think or feel that way you are losing God's favor, you sure as heck don't want anyone to know you have lost God's favor so you pretend your thinking and feeling is in alignment with everyone else's. The sad truth is that it really is in alignment with many others, you're all pretending.

report abuse

vote down

vote up

Votes: +0

...
written by Paul Stefanski , October 26, 2009

I was only "happy" for a year and a half. Then got disfellowshipped for having become a Catholic "apostate." Now I'm happy.

report abuse

vote down

vote up

Votes: +0