by Cirkeline 26 Replies latest jw friends
The JWs operate a Caste system.
As a single male brother, and just a publisher at that, I was one of the untouchables.
They even warned sisters in the Watchtower magazine to not get romanticly involved with the untouchable caste, but to only court Pioneers and Ministerial servants.
No wonder so many Brothers leave and there are so many single sisters left to face spinsterhood.
Class distinctions? YES
Financial distinctions? YES
Favortism? YES
Racism? no
Misogyny? YES
was "less than" the others because of being poor, single and female
Yes. People reporting more time are favored over people reporting less time.
Since I come from a 'poor' background and a Spanish cong in the southside of Chicago, there waasn't any money 'elitism' so to speak But rank elitism was rampant.
If you were an Elder family, you would be invited to everything. Weddings, celebrations, gatherings... unless those throwing the gatherings were little rebels, and this happened, but they were chastised by other JWs so not a lot dared not invite the prominent JWs.
The kids of these families made life hell for those of us who were not baptized or who were not pioneering during school breaks. I cried many times, screamed at my mom and asked why was I being picked on, why if I tried to be nice??? It left me bitter, so much so I ended up bullying them right back, which made me feel horrible because I hate altercations, but enough was enough, especially when they started messing with my little brother and sister.
Adults also suffered the classdivision, perhaps the worst. My dad was always looked down upon, regardless of how smart, sweet and amazing and caring father he is. My mom was always heralded a great mother because she got baptized and worked her butt off in giving testimony, door to door, even though she was psychologically abusive and has Narcissitic and Borderline problems.
That system is broken, through and through.
Growing up in a 'divided' household puts you on the bottom of the totem pole ,so to speak, in the congregation. As a child we were NEVER invited to other Witnesses homes ,but my Mother was asked continually to help out single sisters ,or older elderly ones ,and she ALWAYS did .
When I married another Witness I got to see what it was like to be accepted ,because of his family we had many invitations to others homes ect . However after a few yrs once my husband refused to reach out to become a MS those invites evaporated . Even his own step brother stopped associating with us, in his words because 'we did not seek spiritual goals' like he and his wife did . So even though we were regular publishers ,always attended all meetings, assemblies and volunteered for Quick builds we just were not spiritual enough for .them
Yes...and it wasn't fun. Certain dubs received special treatments, and while the low tier dubs got the short end of the stick.
One example: one sunday afternoon after the meeting, my elderly partner and i (both sisters from poor, divided households but still in good standing) were waiting to be assigned to a car group. It was fair weather, but there weren't a lot of dubs going out in f.s. Once everyone was assigned to a car group, we were the only pair left. The elder suggested that we should make arrangements beforehand. (if only he heard the "i'm sorry, i have other plans after the meeting" lines that we get) Then my partner started crying. We ended up doing street work and taking the bus home
Their fake "love(??)" is about as sincere as the plastic smile on their faces. All the witlesses want to do is make sure you don't advance in ways that actually count. They pretend to care, and do things to make things even worse. Instead of sex, you have to go to the Value Destroyer Training School, Beth Hell, or Nigeria. Don't worry about not making rent--they want you to move in with them so they can absolutely run your life (so much for getting your root or solar chakra open, which would do more for your spirituality than moving into the Kingdumb Hell). Empty yourself (so they can enslave you). And so on.
And I notice it's not just Jehovah's Witlesses that do this rubbish. This sxxx actually originates from Jehovah and his filthy angels. They do the same fake-love crap, only to stay and drive any real love (from Satan and his demons, or the opposite sex) right out of your life so you remain dependent on Jehovah. Then they guide you into a religion that will prevent you from developing real spirituality, or deeply into a mainstream religion where you will do missionary work in Nigeria or India (again, disrupting real spiritual growth). I believe this is the reason why the hounders take special interest in certain witlesses--because the filthy angels want to prevent them from real spiritual growth.
Previous threads have divided congregations into hundreds of subsets, it would be safe to agree there are no less than ten divisions.
Yes there was definately class divisions when I was in (left in 1988), there wasn`t much race problems as there were only a couple of non whites in the congregation, and they seemed to be accepted by everyone (as far as I knew). Fortunately for me I was in a well paid job, and was dating a pioneer who was also an elders daughter.
This is how I became aware of the nastiness and back biting that was rife in the congregation, I was told alot of what went on via my girlfriend and her mother, and to be quite honest I found it difficult to ignore, infact it was one of the reasons I ended up DAing myself.
Although I made an effort to visit those I felt were being ignored, most in the "upper echelons" of the congregation didn`t seem to bother with those who were lonely or struggling.
To be honest I found that any "Christian Love" was very conditional, and basically if your face didn`t fit you were in for a very lonely existence.
I find the best way to descibe certain sections as "Snooty"
All the best
Paul UK
