Why does it seem to be unhappy people who are attracted to the JWs?

by new boy 42 Replies latest jw friends

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  MsMcDucket

  Because the scriptures they present are about tears being dried and happiness being restored to everyone.
  And the many pictures depicting the handicap throwing away their canes and old growing young and loved ones walking out of the graveyards to the waiting arms of their families.

  You're right on about that with me. At the time that I went in, my husband had just had his hemipelvectomy. I was around 26 years old. My whole world had changed. I had a handicapped husband. My husband took part in the studing for awhile. He became an approved associate. I remember when he'd get up there with only one leg on crutches (he couldn't wear a prothesis the amputation to part of his pelvis). I had no idea how they were using us. My husband stopped going to the meetings before I did. I'm glad that he never got baptised.

  At least this way when they're dad is sick, our daughters don't have a restriction to not visit him.
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  diamondblue1974

  I don't think it is JW specific; I think unhappy people are generally attracted to religion, especially the more fundamentalist religions. These are people who are not functioning at a very high level in society. They are viewed as low achievers by society, then, via the magic of religion, they transform from being "losers" to being "God's special people."

  I agree, religion to some degree fulfills a sociological need in some people to explain the uknown and to give society an (albeit artificial) higher purpose. The problem with cults and high control groups and in particular the WTS they market their belief system to people who are clearly pissed off!

  They wouldnt dream of marketing themselves to academic, educated and intelligent people; that would be commercial suicide as far as they are concerned. Naturally intelligent people do become and even stay jehovahs witnesses but very few and far between are educated to a higher level that encourages critical thinking.

  People however who are struggling, uneducated, need answers, need friends are prime targets for the JW recruiter.

  Actually, I think the WTS trains its members to look for unhappy people, divorced, lost someone to death, ill or someone they love is ill, economic problems, emotional problems, etc.

  Spot on Blondie they do without a doubt.

  But its subconscious; you only need to take a look at the majority of titles for the awake magazines and enclosed articles;

  What hope for peace in our time?

  Homelessness, will it ever end?

  A world without hunger!

  Its clear that they are not recruiting people who are fulfilled, happy and content with life; no they want people who are downtrodden, have problems and are looking for a solution they can abdicate elsewhere for responsibility.

  DB74
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  DannyHaszard

  Steve Hassan say's "cults exploit situational vunerabilities and variables" cult recruiters look for the mark of a sucker

  College students are looking for the ideal my grandfather was a socialist (communist with a small "c" he would call himself) who was looking for the utopian society.

  I was born in and stuck it out till 1992 because of all my clan and i was crippled with a life long disease ulcerative colitis and i was already miserable from it.
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  diamondblue1974

  An example of this is my mother whose story I have told before but I will tell it again.

  I was a nipper at the time (about 18 months old) and she had just exited from an incredibly abusive relationship with my 18 year old father; she had put up with abuse for most of her life from her mother and perhaps her father but this has never been confirmed. I have asked whether or not her dad hurt her as I had and still do suspect it.

  I get a very deluded look from my mother when I ask; its the same look I get when I ask whether disfellowshipping is an act of love so you get why my suspicions are heightened in all this. I think she has suppressed a great deal of her childhood experiences.

  She was extremely depressed in any respect and so much so she had this one day walked over a disused and unsafe railway bridge and considered throwing herself and me over it. She didnt of course but she has recounted this story on a number of occasions.

  It was that same day and just when things couldnt get any worse, a JW armed with a handbag and her watchtowers knocked on our door offering my mother the opportunity to live in a paradise earth just as the bible had promised it. Of course she was hooked from there on in.

  Everything made sense to my mother who wasnt and still isnt to any extent educated; it was plausible and it was presented in a simple and articulate manner which she could understand. Is it any surprise that this was over 30 years ago and she is still going strong?

  Her favourite saying for dealing with door step sales people is that 'if its sounds too good to be true, then it probably is'. She doesnt get it when I pointed out that she cannot say that when she believed a bible sales person when they told her she could live forever'.

  It makes my point sufficiently do you not think?

  Gary
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  I quit!

  People that get sucked into cults are usually at a low point in their lives. They get love bombed and are tricked into believing the WT has all the answers. After they have been there a while they begin to see it isn't the perfect religion they thought it was but they have a lot invested in it by that time. Edmund Gruss referred to them as the Apostles of Denial for good reason they take all the fun things away and don't give you much in return. For Christmas, Easter, birthdays you get the memorial. A boring even where where you get to pass around wine and crackers and no one dares to partake of anything. I haven't gone in years so it is hard for me to think back to how people were at the KH however I see them going door to door all the time and the look completely bored and miserable.
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  jaguarbass

  The religion fits their depressed view of life.
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  MsUrsy

  I think people who are at a place in their lives, looking for something that works itself out on its own, (Most people in their early 20's, like I was when I came into the KH are sorting out things that may have happened to them in their lives and are looking to make things right, the Witnesses seem to have answers I suppose)! I found that I was miserable in the KH....I may have thought I had some answers to life, but looking around, seeing so many unhappy people, people who were drunkards to cope with the boring religion....and people like me who were on anti-depressants while in the orgainization, (alot of them)....I realized this was a crock! I left the JW's last year around this time, and went off of Prozac that I was taking for about 12 years, (4 years after I entered the KH), and haven't needed them since! It is a place of endless waiting.....and people just sit...never accomplishing anything in their lives, while waiting for something, I am not even sure will ever come! I agree with you...Unhappy people in that place....get out while you can and don't look back!
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  Hortensia

  "anewme" said:

  It gets to people where they are hurting. Many people are unhappy and the Watchtower gives them the hope that by joining the religion their troubles will end and their hopes will come true. In reality of course joining the JW religion only compounds and adds to a person's problems and stresses and challenges. You still have your handicaps but now you have to get your butt out in service every month and to the convention somehow once a year. You still have your depression and your unhappy home life but now you have prayer, Bible reading, meetings and field service to help you cope. And by staying uneducated and maintaining a low wage job you will not be sidetracked and distracted by material things, leisure activities and vacations you cannot afford anyway.

  It's so true. Those who are converted start out unhappy, thinking the WTBTS has something that will help them. Those who are raised in the organization are unhappy because it's a hideously repressive unfair cult where they are watched all the time and punished at the drop of a hat.

  I remember when I was very depressed, in my 20s, and I finally went to a doctor and then saw a counsellor and a psychiatrist. It helped so much, but one of the congregation asked me why I was doing that. I said it was because I wasn't happy. She said, " no one else is happy either. Why should you be so special? We'll be happy in the new world."

  So, after a while I faded out of view, of course, but still was unhappy until I saw a bumper sticker that said "Since I gave up hope I feel better." I laughed when I saw that and it was like a thunderbolt of enlightenment. They are unhappy because they are always postponing their hopes and dreams, postponing happiness. Once I gave up the JW "hope" I became a much happier person.
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  Ironhead

  I've been asking the question for about two years why was I attracted to the jws. I wasn't unhappy or depressed, in fact dubs couldn't understand why I was so cheerful, but when Blondie mentioned economic problems, it hit the nail on the head. I left the navy in June 1991, and spent months applying for jobs, but getting turned down again and again, they kept saying I was over qualified for these jobs. My self esteem was at an all time low then, and I felt employers were showing disrespect to a man who fought for his country in the Gulf months earlier. When the dubs show in the Bible that God would put an end to all injustice, and there will be plenty of work for all, yes I was all ears. It took me about 2 years to realised it was BS.
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  xjwms

  I am convinced that those who stay , ... have got to be told how to live. Because they don't know.

  They are told they are the happy-est people on earth.

  And as long as one is happy being told what the rules are, .. and , .. how to live, .. they stay.

  .