hated guilt-tripping expressions

by nancy drew 16 Replies latest social entertainment

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  nancy drew

  I always hated when some idiot got up on stage & said "we all have the same amount of hours in the day" than pull a pioneer out of his hat who is a single mother w/kids who works & has a debiliting medical issue. all designed to make everyone feel like somehow they're playing around & wasting time. at the DC's or assemblies I also hated when for experiences they would drag up some 90 yr old pio in a wheelchair & some "brother" who works part time but somehow supports a family of 6 and their all pio's.

  my thoughts were "what idiot thought this stuff would be encouraging"
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  Paulapollos

  It's very interesting - I never felt discouraged by these examples, rather encouraged to do more. Yet, the more I speak to people, the more it seems people were discouraged by this kind of thing.

  At one assembly, there was a person who looked like he needed to rest and get as much medical treatment as possible - he was in a wheelchair, and when I saw him up close, he was haggard and drawn, a man who was too obviously burning the candle at both ends in the service. Yet when he went on the platform, all the brothers applauded the fact that he was killing himself.

  A very guilt-tripping, effort based, religion.I seem to remember an article once talking about planning TV viewing and so forth, so as to spend more time in Jehovah's service.....

  PP
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  LongHairGal

  NANCY DREW,

  I remember those guilt-tripping expressions and they made me angry because I saw through them as being disingenuous. They simply insult the intelligence of the listener and imagine nobody will think it through.

  While there are 24 hours in a day, that does not mean that we are free to have all those 24 hours to ourselves. What about somebody who is in some form of servitude? They certainly don't have 24 hours in a day to do what they want. What about the rest of us responsible people who work for a living - including me? I CERTAINLY DON'T have 24 hours to waste (even if I believed the religion's teachings). This is why these guilt-tripping expressions never worked on me.

  And all those unbelievable stories they showcase as examples to everybody are just that - unbelievable. There is more to it than meets the eye.
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  gubberningbody

  I'm with you on that nancy.

  The other thing I thought was really dumb was when they'd try to encourage pioneering by trotting out some bearded fat woman as a "fine example" by "putting Jehovah first", or some really nerdy-looking teenager...

  I can see all the kids in the audience going...

  "So if I do what YOU do I'll be like YOU?!!!....Hell no!"
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  White Dove

  My grandmother, an elder's wife, believed that they all pioneered but on others' strength. She said, "And who do you suppose pushed that 90 year old's wheel chair door to door, in and out of the car, and to the bathroom day in and day out? The kids of pioneers certainly weren't cared for properly if the parents also worked full time, you can bet. And that 90 year old pioneer sister on oxygen and incotenence pads said that if you can breathe you can pioneer. Yeah, on whose strength?! Hog wash!"
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  JWoods

  "Spiritually Weak" - this had nothing to do with true spirituality. It meant going to the meetings and especially going out in service.

  You could spend 12 hours a day reading the bible and still be "spiritually weak" if you weren't out there selling magazines.
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  Hadit

  Then they add in the fact that Jesus said "my yoke is kindly and my load is light" after pushing all the things we should be doing on us. They confuse Jesus with the WTS who wants us to make recruits so they can have billions of dollars in real estate. Encouragement at it's best.

  Rarely were the people used in those demonstrations truly happy in their lives - it's all an illusion. How sad.
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  snowbird

  All true.

  Syl
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  keyser soze

  The whole premise of "stumbling others" was meant to induce guilt. It was simply another form of control. It was something a certain elder thought you shouldn't do, but had no scriptural support to outright forbid it. So they would use the idea of stumbling to get you to decide on your own to not do it.
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  Mad Sweeney

  The Borg has redefined the word "encouraging" to mean "motivating toward obedience" when it doesn't mean anything of the sort. These parts are supposed to be "encouraging" in that the listener is supposed to feel DIScouraged about their current behavior and therefore motivated to conform to the expectations of the Borg.