It sickens me to hear the venemous propoganda against the evils of higher education. They talk so much about how it consumes valuable time during one's youth - how it takes away time from pursuing spiritual goals like pioneer service, missionary service, MTS, Bethel, etc..That's one of their biggest talking points in their argument against a college education. Their other point is that we shouldn't be preparing for a long stay in this system, so why the need to prepare for a lucrative and satisfying career by attending college for 4 years, when time is running out, and the Big A is literally right around the corner...it shows a lack of faith in Jah's promises and a materialistic attitude..etc.
Yet..they never say anything about the countless thousands of teenage or near-teenage weddings! Why?
It saddens me to see so many drone witness youth getting married at such startingly young ages as if they lived prior to the industrial revolution or something and were trying to extract every year out of life for child bearing because their life expectancy and infant mortality rate was so low.
The average "normal" person in the U.S. today gets married at a much later age..Before women used to get married as soon as they reached child bearing age..later as soon as they were legally able to wed.. - ie - 16-18...and in more recent times (20th century) maybe a few years after graduating secondary school. This was because women were always financially dependent on their husbands. They needed a man to work and provide for them, as very little jobs were available to women, and women were often intentionally kept uneducated. Since the era of the feminist movement and Women's Liberation, although some discrimination does still exist, by and large most women have no trouble getting an education and pursuing a career while earning more than enough to support themselves.
Yet, in the Leave it to Beaver society that is Watchtower land, young witness girls are always encouraged to just pioneer and attract a "hard-working brother to support you"..They're programmed to expect nothing more out of life than to reach 18 and immediately look for a husband to support them so they can be a housewife for the rest of their days.
And of course, all the horny JW teenagers who are sexually frustrated and not even allowed to masturbate can't think of anything other than to get married as soon as possible so they can screw their brains out.
These two factors together lead to one inevitable outcome = witness youth getting married at a ridiculously young age, before they're even done developing emotionally, psychologically, and intellectually..before they've firmly discovered their own identity and settled into the person that they're going to be..before they even experience life on their own as single adults..They go straight from their parents home to married life..
It's so sad..
And when they get married..they don't have time or the ability to pursue all the "spiritual goals" that are so often encouraged..They have to slave away at their menial jobs, sometimes having to work two jobs each just to support themselves, and they don't have time to pioneer and "take advantage of their youth".. Yet no one ever bats an eyelash..You never hear talks from the platform discouraging this..Why?
The answer is simple. Allowing youths to get married so soon is not a threat to the Watchtower, while a university education most certainly is. No honest, object truth seeker can learn what one learns in college, face the evidence and still hold to the bizarre beliefs of the Watchtower.
Young marriage on the other hand actually plays into their hand rather nicely. These young married couples are kept so busy working away..they'll often have children soon enough, and if not they are still often obligated to stick close to their parents and rely on them for jobs, occassional "loans", etc..and they become very dependent on the only social network they know - the congregation. If they're married they likely won't be able to go to school EVER, and marrying at such a young age predisposes them to a lower income level for the remainder of their life, leading to disatisfaction with life and emotional dependence on MOTHER and the irrational hope of a soon to come Paradise earth!