When I was growing up most of the JWs around me were poor and lower middle class . Some were middle class , but very few were upper middle class. Only (maybe) about 1% were college educated. It is obvious how and why uneducated and poor people are easily coerced into joining the religion. So how is it that well educated people who have stable careers become Jehovah’s Witnesses ?
How is it that well educated and financially stable people become Jehovah's Witnesses?
by 21stcenturywoman 37 Replies latest jw friends
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WTWizard
They might see what is going on in the world, and realize that their security is threatened. Due to the fact that the Establishment doesn't want them preparing for it, they are left in the dark. Along comes the witlesses, and they provide the answers. Of course, those answers are wrong, but they are plausible enough. Then they study with the witlesses--and get pressured. Remember, being hypnotizable is a risk factor at this stage--if you are well off, they need to get you hypnotized to get you into the cancer.
At least with those barely making rent or that are suffering, the witlesses can use standard scam techniques that do not rely on hypnosis.
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Gayle
baffles the heck out of me! There has to be some emotional thing going on for sure.
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scooterspank
Let me take my well educated financially stable husband to a meeting and I'll see what happens mmmmm... on the other hand, maybe not.
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InterestedOne
My JW friend comes from an upper middle class non-JW household & converted to JW in her mid-late 20's. She was coming out of an abusive relationship. She had a JW friend who talked to her during her difficult time & indoctrinated her. She was vulnerable, and the recruitment tactics worked. Now when we speak, I can also see that the tactics for retaining members are working with her, e.g. exploiting her feelings of loyalty - not wanting to feel like she went back on her commitment. Bastards.
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Snoozy
Of the two that comes to my mind , the husband of one ws a control freak..he insisted his house be imaculate at all time even tho they had 2 children. She decided to pioneer one month and would get up at 4 am to do housework..he eventually joined because he liked the fact he could continue to boss his wife and kids around legally so to speak..
The other couple couldn't have children and were heartbroken..they were given the hope of having children in the "New System".
Come to think of it many either had controlling husbands or couldn't have children..do I see a pattern in the 50's and 60's?
Adopting was really hard to do in those days..
Snoozy
Edited to add that there were also those that had many kids and were just looking for some kind of hope..relief
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PublishingCult
very few were upper middle class. Only (maybe) about 1% were college educated
the same was more or less true of the four or five congregations I attended throughout the 35 years I was in.
How is it that well educated and financially stable people become Jehovah's Witnesses?
Well, does anyone else see a correllation between those being educated and having a showier display of means and positions of leadership in the congregations? I found this to be so.
There were also, of course lower and middle class JW's who held positions of headship in the congregations, but it didn't escape my notice that the more educated and well off men in the congregation were not usually merely rank and file JW's.
In my local area we had, what I refer to as "JW Royalty". These were the third and fourth generation JW families whose fathers and grandfathers were Bethelites and PO's and DO's and CO's, all of them financially more secure and prominent than the other JW families, who sons and daughters were missionaries and Bethelites and pioneers and ministerial servants, and elders and PO's, etc. These were the Barefoots, the Johnstons, the Jensens, and the Giffords. They were more spiritual. They were born-ins, and sort of JW aristocracy.
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freydo
It's the same way such people fall for liberalism, or any other scam - at some point they get to believing the lie after much indoctrination and hearing people like Walter Cronkite saying that man came down from the trees.
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SouthCentral
I grew up in one of the worst neighborhoods in America......I now live in one of the 25 safest cities in America. Many (40-50%) of the people in the hall are college educated. People in the hall comment and pioneer, but it's almost amusing at times during the meeting. Most brothers own their own businesses, so many miss the meetings. I have learned that it is all a game.....
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steve2
Some have probably left the organization for a few years, got their education, landed lucrative jobs and come back. it's called trying to keep in good with Mom and Dad. I know: I did it for a few years after I got my doctorate in the 1980s.
But, hey, compared to the truckloads of uneducated masses who have put their Xs on the dotted line in the organization, it remains a conspicuously uneducated and low employment rung group. Windowcleaners and janitors outnumber doctors and CEOs several hundred to one.
As a general rule, a few university degrees here and there among the scattered kingdom halls doesn't mean intelligence and good education is making a come back, okay!
