I remember moving to an area where the cost of living was much less than where I was, which allowed for a much nicer/larger apartment for about the same price. I had invited some over from the congo to visit. Shortly after that start getting comments of being materialistic, blah, blah, blah. They being clueless that where I lived prior was very tiny and not that nice of a place. Jealously.
WAS THIS TRUE IN YOUR CONGREGATION ?
by juni 33 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
Finally-Free
Money was part of it, but some who were poor were still popular because they came from prominent families.
I was rarely invited to JW get-togethers, but on one occasion when I was most of the people present were laughing about one sister™ who was the only pioneer™ who deliberately wasn't invited. They were planning how they were going to talk about their get-together in front of her at the hall the next day because they knew it would upset her. Hurting her feelings was a big joke to these piece of shit elders kids, who were mostly pioneers™ and ministerial servants™. Being a very new cultist, it was an eye opener for me and made me regret getting involved with them.
W
-
Freedom Fighter
Have to agree on this one. In my old congo the most popular people were the one's with money. New converts who had businesses etc soon shot up the ranks as everyone flocked around them. Women with unbelieving husbands were part of the underclass, and were never invited to gatherings etc. It was very cliqueish with a definite pecking order depending on your status. I remember the CO commenting on how materialistic the congregation was - which was very true and apparently still is. Kids like me were always told not to seek material things and spend the rest of our lives knocking doors, but Brother and Sister Christian Capitalist were allowed to buy a big house, drive a beamer etc, whilst employing and in some cases exploiting poor Sister Pioneer.
-
xjwms
OH, ... YES
The have not's always would judge those who have as material - istic.
.
-
White Dove
I was always a have-not but seemed to get invited to one or two events a year. I never thought about it before, but might there have been many more events that I was not aware of??? I did get irritated with a couple of couples and their families who got together for an opera trip to Seattle and talked about it right in front of me as if I was not even there. They even passed around pictures at the hall of them dressed up as if for prom, which is what you do for an opera, but at the hall??? Show offs! Hmmm...now that I think about it, there were a lot more events that were talked about among the attendees at the hall of which I was never invited to be a part. So much lip service about materialism and it's never put into practice by the leaders. They even said from the platform not to talk about plans in front of people that you had no intention of inviting for hurting their feelings. People will be people and WILL flaunt their goods in front of the have-nots.
We have-nots need to develope a tougher skin, get past it, and start inviting people over to our homes for tea and toast, at the very least.
WAIT!!! I did that! Many of them did not have the time. WHY, you may ask? They were PIONEERING and preparing for the meetings! UGH! Self-righteous snobs.
-
TopHat
In the cong I attended...There was a mix of poor and middle class but no one was wealthy. They did try to include everyone in their get togethers by renting a commuity center type place next to a lake. North and South congs invited....... Those who were close friends had each other over to their homes for lunch or dinner just as people of the world do. Our cong was half and half black and white. The Spanish speaking cong shared the KH. All in all we all got along. However, there was one Elder no one liked. He and his wife had verbal fights in the car out in field service in front everyone. He once gave a talk where chastiesed the fancy cars sitting in the parking lot of the KH...you know the two door ones....oops I was guilty of having a two door mercedes. I didn't like feeling guilty.
-
minimus
Those with more means either invited others less fortunate to come to their homes or most usually associated with those that were similar to them, financially.
-
Warlock
Kids like me were always told not to seek material things and spend the rest of our lives knocking doors, but Brother and Sister Christian Capitalist were allowed to buy a big house, drive a beamer etc, whilst employing and in some cases exploiting poor Sister Pioneer.
We had a couple like this, but the Brother tried to pioneer and his wife was a pioneer. I will give them credit for doing that, but......................the reason they could, was because he used to own a business and was making big bucks for quite a few years. Obviously, he heeded the counsel to pioneer AFTER getting some financial security.
Warlock
-
XJW4EVR
No, that was not true in the New Mexico congregation I grew up in. We were all pretty much scraping to get by.
In northern Califronia, there was. It was basically the Dubs that were from the area, and the ones that moved up there from other locations. We were in the second group, as was my best friend's family. My dad and his dad golfed together a lot. My dad got a number of plum assignments, mainly because the CO for that Circuit knew my dad in NM. This irritated a number of the Old Guard in that Hall.
-
Confession
Occasionally I did notice certain well-to-do couples who preferred only to socialize with such others. You could also see cliques develop, but while they mostly socialized within their group, it's true that occasionally they did invite lots of other people to their home or on outings. My last congregation was, in my opinion, quite free of the clique-ishness. They had lots of get-togethers, and were really good about inviting everyone.
And I'd say that inclusion was usually based more on popularity than income level.
I can recall some individuals or families who would complain about not being included. One couple springs to mind. They were always down in the mouth about something. When they were invited, they usually declined. After meetings they would bolt out the door within two minutes. Yet their constant refrain was, 'Ohhh no one wants anything to doooo with ussss. No one inviiiiiites us anywherrrrre.' Do you think, after hearing this, we didn't try harder to involve them? We did! But it was like, 'Oh, don't worry about ussss. We're just gonna stay home and wallow in our depressed state because no one ever wants anything to doooo with ussss."