Higher Education and Career

by Ding 11 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Ding

  Suppose you were an 18-year-old Jehovah's Witness, contemplating your future, and you read the following "meat in due season" from the "faithful and discreet slave":

  "If you are a young person, you also need to face the fact that you will never grow old in this present system of things. Why not? Because all the evidence in fulfillment of Bible prophecy indicates that this corrupt system is due to end in a few years. ... Therefore, as a young person, you will never fulfill any career that this system offers. If you are in high school and thinking about a college education, it means at least four, perhaps even six or eight more years to graduate into a specialized career. But where will this system of things be by that time? It will be well on the way toward its finish, if not actually gone!"

  Being a loyal JW, you believed the end was so close that you gave up a college education and career in order to pioneer in the remaining "few years" before the new system arrived.

  You are now 60 years old, without a career and with nothing saved up for your retirement.

  The quotation is from p. 15 of Awake!, May 22, 1969.

  You are now an elder, counseling young JWs to avoid college and a specialized career because they will never grow old in the present system of things and never fulfill a career since the faithful and discreet slave says that the new system will arrive any time now.
• 

  ziddina

  "Those who can't remember [do not know] the past,

  Are condemned to repeat it." Santayana

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Santayana
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  panhandlegirl

  If I was aware of what had been said before (which I am and apparently you are) and it didn't happen, I would not be giving false counseling to these young JWs. I would tell them that they needed to get an education and

  plan for the future. I would tell them that Jesus said no one knows when the end will come, only the Father knows. Isn't that what the Bible says?
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  Ding

  I agree with you, Panhandlegirl, but how many JWs who lived through these failures are still promoting the same message?
• 

  DesirousOfChange

  . . . . how many JWs who lived through these failures?

  Shyly raising hand.

  Doc
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  MMXIV

  Good find Ding and congrats again for making your stand and getting an education!

  The WBTS still has the same message today and JW teenagers are still pressured into making such life ruining decisions. Not surprisingly lots see through this poison and leave the organisation although sacrifice contact with their families to do so.

  They could almost have written..."don't brush your teeth - why waste this time that could be spent preaching - the end is sure to come before decay sets in"

  mmxiv
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  Ding

  They could almost have written..."don't brush your teeth - why waste this time that could be spent preaching - the end is sure to come before decay sets in"

  Great example!

  I knew a JW elder who put off needed dental work because he was so sure the new system was coming in 1975.
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  sir82

  I know a lot of JWs who are in their 60's & 70's who are in exactly that position.

  I even know one couple, close to 80, both of whom have to work full time to make ends meet. They sold their house maybe 15 years ago and lived off the proceeds for a number of years, pioneering, because they were so certain that the end was close. Now they both work and rent a house, as they had no retirement savings and very little Social Security.

  And how about the thousands of downsized Bethelites thrown into the street? A few continue to be paid for as special pioneers or COs, but the majority are not on the Society payroll. Most of the ones let go were in their 40's & 50's. What are they going to do in another 10-15 years, when they are too old to work menial jobs and end up with only ~$500 a month from SS?
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  bucketbot

  One of the elders in my hall has a PhD. But don't worry. It's okay because he got it before he was assimilated. Now, of course, he gets to give talks on why we shouldn't be pursuing higher education, while he enjoys all the benefits of a high-paying job, thanks to his degree. Meanwhile, many struggle to pay their bills on their limited income and, of course, they still have to find a way to make their regular contributions to the b0rg.

  Sickening.
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  wha happened?

  wow so a person taking that advice would really be praying for the big A now. Close to retirement, likely has no benifits, probably going to work odd jobs till they keel over