No One to Carry On!

by AK - Jeff 23 Replies latest jw experiences

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  dinah

  My great-great-grandfather and grandmother were Bible Students. My great-grandmother and her sisters all died Witnesses. I can't remember how many of them had children or how many of them remained in the organization. None of my aunts or uncles or grandparents ever joined the religion.

  My great-grandmother is the one who got my Mom involved when Mom was about 20 years old and pregnant. Gee, thanks Grandma! *eyeroll*

  It looks like the poison skipped most of two generations in my family.

  I'm out, and I'm an only child.....so maybe it dies with me.
• 

  moshe

  I saw this happening when I left over 20 years ago. Those kids who pioneered back in the 70's are now looking at a meager retirement and with no kids to help them out. Maybe one day soon I will pay my old KH here in Florida a visit and see who is still left.
• 

  hybridous

  I think Gayle sums it up best...

  Jehovah's Witnesses - not a generational religion, not meant to be, too hard to be.

  This religion makes a lot of demands. Part of what made those demands tolerable was the notion that it wasn't supposed to go on forever. Hell, it wasn't even supposed to last the lifetimes of the people who originally joined.

  I'll bet those chains are quite heavy after a few generations.

  This has played out where I live, also.

  Kids from strong witness families might stay in the cult, get married...but they aren't breeding. I don't quite get it. The WT, to my knowledge, hasn't in some time actively campaigned for young members to stay childless, so I'm left with the notion that they are choosing this on their own.

  I was born-in. Of my peer group growing up, at least 1/2 are out. Of those 1/2 remaining in, 1/2 are having families. Not good numbers for the business. Given that the WT knows this, I often wonder if the magazines will start championing having kids and raising them in the cult. It's their best source of monied growth, right?

  Of course, this will further discredit the 'end-is-near' mantra, but money talks.
• 

  WTWizard

  And they threw away any chance of my having anyone to carry the line, by making sure the "sisters" would not want me. They obviously thought I would do more than myself plus kids--which did not happen since anything kids would have done would be added to whatever I would have done (and, if you add two positive numbers, you get a sum that is bigger than either).

  Not to mention I am not going to reward any organization for aggravating this sort of problem (or any Almighty Baghead Scumbag that is going to create it in the first place). Net result: Instead of having 2 or 3 children and myself, they now have one apostate that will dog any assignment given to me by that organization.
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  Heaven

  I often wonder if the magazines will start championing having kids and raising them in the cult.

  Good point, hybridous. I have often wondered this as well. It would be interesting considering the WTS past ... "Don't get married or have children because there is much work to do in the months before Armageddon" (Rutherford - 1938)

  I seriously think the JWs are going to have to start earnestly attempting to convert Muslims to Christians. The recent stats on Christian fertility rates compared to Muslim rates says the world is becoming Muslim.

  edited to add: None of my parent's children or their grandchildren are in the cult.
• 

  JimmyPage

  On the other hand, in the congregation my wife attends, it is amazing how it keeps growing. The reason? All of the families are intertwined! In several cases offspring of one JW family married offspring of another. On the surface it looks like a lot of unrelated people attracted to "the Truth". In reality they're all there because they're all related! Not many are new ones who came to the WT on their own.
• 

  WuzLovesDubs

  The only way there is ANY growth in this organization is self perpetuation. And kids of JWs being baptized. We KNOW the baptismal numbers are down and the door to door work is a joke and a half...and it takes what...like a year and a half of study time for ONE recruit? I honestly dont think their published numbers reflect anywhere NEAR accurately the number of people still in this organization unless they are including anyone who is still NOT officially DAd or DFd and still on the roles, whether they are active or attend or never been seen again.

  I reeeeeally dont see how there is ANY growth possible. They dont have anything to offer.
• 

  metatron

  I know an ex MS who faded away. He pointed out that 17 grandchildren - all of the descendants of the originating Witness couple decades ago - are out of the 'truth', many DF'd and many embittered.

  This is the same phenomena that radically changed Russia and China in a short period of time. Communism died quickly once the Bolshevik/Long March generation died off completely.

  I believe you are seeing the same thing with the Watchtower in that various changes that were unthinkable suddenly become real because the generation in control is dead and buried.

  metatron
• 

  Olin Moyles Ghost

  I've seen this as well. For example, take the KH that I grew up in during the 1980s. Here's a synopsis of the elders with kids who are now adults:

  - Elder 1 - 3 kids total, 2 DF'd living normal "worldly" lives with "worldly" spouses and kids, 1 faded and in an "immoral" relationship

  - Elder 2 - 2 kids total, 1 inactive faded non-believer, not sure about the other kid

  - Elder 3 - 3 kids total, 1 DF'd, 1 inactive fader, 1 still going for family/friends

  - Elder 4 - 2 kids total, both still in and actually believe AFAIK

  So, out of 10 children of elders, 3 or 4 are active JWs. At least one of those 3 or 4 doesn't believe it, so that leaves 3 *at most* who are truly believing Witnesses. That's a pretty lousy success rate...and remember we're talking about elders' kids, here!
• 

  Gordy

  In my own family. ten years ago, Myself, wife and seven children, 4 children baptised.

  Now only wife and two daughters are JWs. Myself, one son, one daughter both DA'd, three children never became JWs all left home.

  In these past years I have heard of those families, who back then you would have said were "spiritually strong", but now only one or two are still in.

  I have heard of four guys who were Elders when I left, guys I grow up in "truth" with. JW brothers who had parts on assemblies and conventions, pioneers etc. Now they have all left , two did so over paedophile issue.

  Every so often I will hear that "brother or sister X has stopped going to meetings etc.

  Congregations that once had average Sunday meeting attendances of 130-150, are now down to 80-90, or for one congregation down to about 30-40.

  In a Kingdom Hall built in the late 1980's to seat up to 300, ready for the "great increase", now they are lucky to get a quarter of that.

  I recall an Elder, who was at a childrens party my wife and I held, saying about the children, "If we don't keep this young ones, the organisation is finished." Then was getting on for 20 years ago now. I thought what an odd thing to say. Yet when I think about the children who were at that party, I would say only a quarter or less, of them are JWs.

  What did one survey say about JWs, something like that only about a third of those brought up as JWs, become JWs.