Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: cj@modernlvr.wpd.sgi.com (C J Silverio) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Questions for Jehovah's Witnesses, part 2 Message-ID: Date: 14 Nov 90 08:39:08 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: SGI TechPubs Lines: 77 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu --- wcsa@iwsgw.att.com (Willard Smith) writes: |I think that we have to be a little bit careful in dealing with the |significance of 1975 to Jehovah Witnesses. |I honestly don't know the significance of 1975 for Jehovah Witnesses, |they wouldn't tell me. I do know that it was not a local phenomenon, |having occurred throughout England, France, and Italy. I frankly don't |know what was going on in the "states" at the time except for Watergate. |Gene Gross's reprint of articles from _Watchtower_ and _Kingdom Ministry_ |are interesting, but still inconclusive. After all this time, I would like |to know (either from a Jehovah Witness who was around in 1975 or from their |literature, preferably both) the significance of 1975 and an explaination |for the behavior which I observed. Hmmm. I don't know how helpful this will be, but I can give you some scraps of information. My parents have been Witnesses since 1970 or so, and hence were around for the 1975 thing. (They are still Witnesses.) I was ten at the time, but a fairly aware & inquisitive ten. I wasn't aware that 1975 was anything special. About ten years later, I asked my parents what the scoop was (quite frankly, hoping to learn something to the detriment of the Society, to add to my growing disdain for all christians). They told me the following: 1. The Society hadn't ever announced that 1975 was the end of "this system of things," at least not with the kind of fervor that marked their turn-of-the-century era date-announcements. 2. The Society had said, in a Watchtower article, that 1975 was the end of 6000 years of man's existence, according to their (always amusing) calculations. That is, 6000 years since Adam's creation. 3. Some people, whom my parents apparently considered quite foolish & naive at the time, jumped to conclusions. They then did the stupid things all such foolish people will do in those circumstances: get into debt, act extra-faithful by preaching extra-hard, & announce their convictions of impending Armageddon to all the world. Many of these people left the Witnesses in 1976, understandably. I did some searching through my parents' library to substantiate this. I think what they said was true: I couldn't find any literature in which the Society announced that 1975 was The Year. I *did* find the Adam article. I don't remember seeing any attempts by the Society to squelch this noisy apocalypse-announcing, so they're not entirely off the hook. (The "Kingdom Ministries" from this time are probably an excellent source for the Real Scoop, BTW.) All the "the time is short, pioneer now" references from 1975 really prove nothing: they've been improvising on that theme since their beginning. They are doing it now, I imagine. They've always been willing to laud people who sell houses, defer children or marriages, and give up much of the lives to submerge themselves in "the Truth". (I do wonder how they're dealing with their self-imposed "one generation since 1914" deadline. That one is well-documented, and running out fast. Hmmm.) I'd be interested in reading something from a Witness who was an active adult at the time, to confirm any of this (perhaps provide references), or to set me straight on any of these points. Let's hope that whoever it is can manage to be honest, and non-revisionist. I no longer have access to the kind of JW library my parents have, so I can't check my facts. (It's sort of amusing for me to watch the adherents of one set of superstitions bash the adherents of another for some folly. You all seem equally foolish from where I'm sitting.) --- cj%modernlvr.wpd@sgi.com C J Silverio/Brahms Gang/Berkeley CA 94720 "It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." -- Thomas Jefferson