The Watchtower Ruins Children and Families

metatron

I repeat this subject because I see it come up as a defense
of the organization ("Do The Math"). It makes my blood boil!

Some defend the organization by saying "OK, even if you have
false doctrine - and even if you have protected child molesters,
it's still the best way to raise your kids!"

WRONG!

I speak from bitter experience - having encountered child
molestation, and corrupt, lying elders amidst a legalistic,
ignorant and secretive cult. My experience and that of my
family collectively goes back to Studies in the Scriptures!
This group has ALWAYS had a narrow, twisted view of sex,
marriage and childbearing all the way back to Pastor Russell.

How does the Watchtower damage kids and families?

1) By discouraging education and intelligence - don't ask too
many questions, don't think too deeply about any of it. Lately,
they are trying to backtrack on college - to enslave the next
generation of window washers.

2) By destroying parental authority thru extremism - dragging
children to 5 meetings a week PLUS painfully boring assemblies
in unpleasant surroundings (like Vets Stadium), week after week,
year after year nearly guarantees that countless teenagers
will reactively abandon ALL parental authority by saying to
themselves:

"My parents are crazy! They're blind religious fanatics
and nothing they say carries any weight with me!"

Wake up, Witness Parents! Does this last sentence explain
to you WHY Witnesses and Pentecostals alike produce so
many bad kids? Keep reading!

3) they fill kids heads (and adults) with endless guilt. Is that
'token service'? Attending all the meetings? Why aren't you
pioneering? blah, blah blah. EVENTUALLY, if you do this enough
PEOPLE GIVE UP! They tell themselves, "I'll never make it, anyway"

4) they wreck young lives by emphasizing FUTILITY. Nothing you
accomplish 'in the world' has any meaning or lasting value.
All your friends will die at Armaggedon because they aren't
Witnesses. Want a good job and education? You're materialistic!
and forget about joining the football team - that's bad
association. You need to see a wonderful lifetime ahead of
you selling magazines to uncaring people and waiting for the
End to come - just like your parents did.

5) THEY FAIL TO TEACH LOVE!!!!!!! Love, mercy, and generous
compassion SHOULD BE EMPHASIZED over meetings, field service,
and stupid rules. Want loving children? TEACH THEM TO BE LOVING!
not hypocritical Witness drones who rejoice whenever a
disaster kills thousands of 'worldly people'- Wow! maybe it's
Armageddon!

6) They ruin extended families - Sorry kids, I don't think it's
a good idea to visit Aunt/Uncle/Grandpa/Grandma around Christmas/
New Years/Thanksgiving/Halloween. I know that means we may rarely
if ever see them (Note: will you even bother to attend their
funeral?!!) because even though HOLIDAYS are days off from work
and school (when the whole family can ACTUALLY go!) WE DON'T
CELEBRATE ANY HOLIDAYS!

I could go on and on
It struck me hard when I saw how many 'worldly kids'
loved their parents, in contrast to how screwed up loyal
Witness kids ended up. Some kids turn out OK no matter
what. If you persist in trying to raise your kids as good
little Witnesses, I hope they turn out OK inspite of it all.
(as some do)

metatron

joelbear

Hi Metatron,

Wow, you said it very well. I see myself and my friends all over your post.

take care

Joel

Pathofthorns

Thats a good post Metatron.

I know many parents will admit that things aren't right with JW kids. I tell them if schools were turning out kids that couldn't read or write, do u blame the kids or do you look at the education system?

If 5 meetings/service a week isn't helping their kids, then we need to look at the system and stop blaming the kids.

Of course, young people are just trying to be young people in a system that denies them of their youth. Maybe they are just fine.

Path

Sirona

Hi Metatron,

I agree with you. One by one, the teenagers in the local congregation leave.

One I spoke to recently is just waiting to be 18 and is outta there! Another is now lesbian and living with an older woman (she can finally be who she is). The problem is, many of them, once they do leave, are left naive and alone. This is the result, it seems, of such a *great* upbringing!!!

Good points. All of those points affected me as a teenager.

Sirona

TR

Good post Metatron.

It seems that the JW kids that want power and influence stay within the borg. Then there are those who are so socially stunted that staying within the borg is their only option for association. I would say roughly 75% of the teenagers that I knew while a JW are now out.

TR

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
—Edmund Burke

Stacey

I also have seen most of the kids that I grew up with in my congregation leaving the organization. Some continued, and lived the double life. I think that 75% number is about right.

This org really does screw up kids though. Guilt and fear are no way to bring up healthy children with healthy attitudes. All I can say is that my parents did a good job at "trying" to be good JWs. Thank goodness they failed, and were "bad" JWs. The Watchtower didn't ruin my family, because we all escaped! We are OUT and FREE.

Stacey

lauralisa

Metatron,

Your post is articulate and succinct, and so accurate...

It is refreshing and healing to realize that there actually ARE people out there who can just say it like it is so well... helps me organize my thoughts and own internal struggles.... why is the phenomenon of global denial so endemic in this religion? I still have to fight the impulse to "go back there" even after a year of complete inactivity and more awareness than I can tolerate at times of just how completely screwed up the entire organization is from top to bottom.....

Maybe it's like addiction.... I've not been addicted to drugs before but have known people who are in recovery. They speak about the "substance" they abuse providing them at first with this initial blast of euphoric wonderfulness, and each time they use the substance it's an attempt to get back to that first initial experience. But usually it doesn't work... then the hamster wheel behavior begins and they can't get out of the cycle.

I wasn't raised a jw, came into it at age 31, and had no family or friends involved... but my initial experience when I started to study was such incredible relief and joy. I just believed in this dream world - was led to believe - that absolute love, peace, truth, knowledge, all those absolutes that some of us simply crave - were available HERE and NOW..... they were practiced and were daily experiences of those who were "worshipers of Jehovah". For years I believed I saw these things and people were actually capable of living this way (like the "new system" had already started.... yes, we had these pesky imperfections to deal with, but with enough determination - enough insertion of ingrained, BS platitudes - they could be, well, just ignored?). Then over the years I began to see that it was not only a charade, it was a blisteringly-wrong, even deliberately evil deception of a type and on a scale that is still difficult for me to grasp intellectually......

But I still want to recapture that feeling of safety and security and hope because it was the greatest drug imaginable. Ick... thank you for having the insight and courage to just say it like it is.

have a good one, lauralisa

It's only water from a stranger's tear (Peter Gabriel)

RN

Well said, Metatron.

My mother was a manipulative control freak before she became a Dub, and being a Dub just made it worse. It's a wonder I have any sanity or self-esteem at all. The end result of her "madness" is that both my brother and I have very cautious, superficial relationships with her. Sad.

RN

metatron

As you say, RN

Sometimes I get angry, other times, I just want to cry.
It is just so upsetting to see people who are emotionally
damaged 'turned into concrete' (all mixed up and firmly set)
by the "truth". Far from transforming people for the better,
I see countless cases of people confirmed and solidified
in a course of silent hate by the practise of cult loyalty.
How naive Witnesses are when they criticize people who won't
give up holidays or who object to relatives joining the 'truth'!
THEY UNDERSTAND how this transformation will edge them out as
family members - avoided at holidays - and viewed as salvationless
outsiders.

metatron

The Watchtower Ruins Children and Families

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