Might this explain why it's hard for older Witnesses to question the truth? (page 2)

OUTLAW

SBF..I`ve got alot of Dub Family..Wanna buy some?..LOL!!.....Many are getting into thier later years..All thier friends are there..Thier lives are totally tied up with decades of friends in the JW`s..If they left now,there is no way they could start a new life.Thier social world would collapse.They would have no one.They would die alone and unhappy....As much as I hate the religion,I would never wish that on them..Better to let them live thier lives out happy,with thier friends.....For an Older JW the saying:"Where else would we go?"could never be truer.A mindless WBT$ teaching for Young JW`s..A self fulfilling statment for Sienor JW`s...OUTLAW

Gregor

Outlaw, you put my feelings into words perfectly. I love my 84 year old uncle and see no good reason to expect him to repudiate his entire life. He has always been a kind hearted, gentle person (an elder since the WTS invented elders in ...'72?) and I always felt he took the WTS with a grain of salt.

sass_my_frass

And the longer they stay, the more they have bet on it, and the more desperate they are for it to be true. At a certain age, it's actually pretty cruel to try to get them to see through it.

Arthur

I once read an illustration that someone used (I believe on this forum) of a gambling casino. One can walk in and watch people sitting at a slot machine, continuing to put in quarter after quarter. They cannot bring themself to walk away and quit because they have already put in so much money. They are obsessed with the "big payout" that is sure to come. So, they just sit there and put it money until they completely run out.

I think that so many older ones have put in so much time and effort, that they just can't think of walking away now. They are sure that the "big payout" (i.e. paradise earth) will surely come. If they just keep going; they will eventually be rewarded. So, they continue going until they eventually run out of quarters (i.e. they die).

Leolaia

*** w67 2/15 p. 118 par. 26 "From a Weak State . . . Made Powerful" ***

There is a pioneer brother, still serving in the south of New Zealand at eighty-seven years of age, and his faithful pioneer wife is even a few years older. He sold his business in 1914, so that he could enjoy at least a few months of "colporteur" pioneer service before the expected big crash came in the autumn of that year. He is fond of quoting Jeremiah 20:7: "You have fooled me, O Jehovah, so that I was fooled." For though he had expected his pioneer service on earth to be for a brief season only, it has stretched out through more than fifty rewarding years, together with trials and reproaches. And at last reports, he is still going "strong," like Samson. Would he have had it any different? No! Moreover, he encourages young people to have the same viewpoint that he had back there in 1914. Make the most of the golden opportunity of pioneering the good news NOW!

purplesofa

I once read an illustration that someone used (I believe on this forum) of a gambling casino. One can walk in and watch people sitting at a slot machine, continuing to put in quarter after quarter. They cannot bring themself to walk away and quit because they have already put in so much money. They are obsessed with the "big payout" that is sure to come. So, they just sit there and put it money until they completely run out.

That is so sad, it goes the same for relationships, marriages, jobs ....that kind of thinking.

purps

Might this explain why it's hard for older Witnesses to question the truth?