Could this be accurate? (page 3)

ambersun

I can remember reading that article for the first time back in 1969 and the affect it had on my family and the congregation as a whole. The sense of urgency was so potent, with everyone whipped up into a combination of great excitement and fear over events that were to come. These were the words of Jehovah's representatives on earth so MUST be right! Woe betide us if we were young, able bodied and not out knocking doors full time peddling WT literature when armageddon came!!

It is hard to believe they actually got away with stealing our lives the way they did, not to mention the intense disappointment and distress caused to thousands when the years passed and nothing happened, and money they had thought would last them until the end of the system ran out. Many of us young ones who were told we would never complete our education in this system are now pensioners.

Mum

1969 was an exciting year for JW's. World events were playing into our fantasies. I was 21 years old and stupid as the rest of them. I got married that year. Fortunately, my JW elder high school-dropout husband had a skilled trade and was much better off than most of the others in our congregation.

When 1975 came and went, I had a nervous breakdown or something like that. I'm not a mental health professional. All I know is that I almost wrecked the car several times, succeeded at it once, cried constantly, was an insomniac, and finally turned catatonic. I decided that I had to prepare for life "just in case" I might grow old in this system of things. My husband took everything personally. I got money from family members to go back to school (college) part-time. Of course, I was looked upon with suspicion and derided by elders.

So I left my relatively comfortable life and moved to the other end of the country. My JW husband divorced me and pressured me to "confess to adultery" so that he could remarry. There was no concern evident for my "spiritual well-being." I almost caved to get him off my back, but I didn't, as there was no reason to.

Eventually, I remarried, and my second husband helped me finish college.

I am so thankful that I was young enough to start over. So many weren't.

NeverKnew

The webpage statements in my OP sickened me the most for it appears to reflect the result of the thoughts promoted in the late 60's. I was most wondering if your personal observations supported the data's conclusions.

The elements I found most distressing in the article (http://users.adam.com.au/bstett/JwSocioeconomic86.htm) were the following:

Of the thirty sects ranked, Jehovah's Witnesses have the least number of college graduates, only 4.7%. Only 2.8% of the Jehovah's Witnesses in the sampling were students, indicating the continuation of a lower college graduation rate. One sect had a college graduation rate near 50%.
67.6% of all White Jehovah's Witnesses were high school graduates with a 4.4% college graduation rate. 82.6% of the Black Jehovah's Witnesses were high school graduates with a 7.6% college graduation rate.
The mean annual household income ranking of Jehovah's Witnesses averaged $20,900 with only 5 denominations ranking lower.
Jehovah's Witnesses ranked sixth from the bottom in home ownership.
"The overall aggregate ranking on socioeconomic status ranked Jehovah's Witnesses on the bottom of the 30 largest sects."
Jehovah's Witnesses were ranked next to the last in full time employment at 44.1%,

The JWs I've met are such sweethearts. Knowing all of this makes it hard to look at them with anything but pity.

cantleave

The JWs I've met are such sweethearts. Knowing all of this makes it hard to look at them with anything but pity.

They are mislead and brow beaten into submission by an evil cult. Yes feel pity for them, but also act; try to extract as many as you can from this despicable cult.

tiki

been there - born in....3rd generation. 1950's - oh she'll never go to school in this old world...........1960's oh she'll never graduate from high school in this old world. no need to go to college - why waste time and money on a career that will never happen? ...oh she'll never get married or have kids in this old world....well thanks to them and their perverted minds, i never did reproduce...but did eventually marry. and marry well i may add, because i was looking for someone totally unlike the run of the mill idiot that inhabit kh's. so in my 60's - about to get my degree at last....and thankfully believed in health and life insurance and saving for retirement..............

but - they really absolutely positively did say such things and promote such things.

steve2

Yep, this is correct. My dear JW mother - now deceased - apologetically and patiently went through this article with me when I was on the cusp of wanting to train to be a journalist.

My JW father, perhaps not as invested as my mother was in stopping me, nonetheless went along with her final decision. While my mother was a lovely woman, she ruled the roost. I left school with no qualifications and in short order was baptized and, just before and after 1975 pioneered for a period that seemed to last forever but was no more than about 4 years. In 1982, I finally woke up, left the organization and soon commenced my university studies. I never became a journalist but I became a clinical psychologist and am currently registered as a psychologist within a local hospital's mental health service.

My dear but mistaken mother declared in 1969 it was a waste of time to study for a career because the new system of things was just around the corner. How could I ever forget that article and its huge impact on my life? But if you ask me, I'm stronger because of it - and without meaning to, the organization helped me develop resilience and determination - I just don't use them any more in the service of the men in Brooklyn New York.

LoisLane looking for Superman

NeverKnew ....... . I am screaming in my mind......... . The cruelity ...of it ALL. The Big Smiles trying to cover up broken lives, broken spirits...broken hearts.

The Shame of it all by The Watch Tower Society...But...They will never admit they are wrong. If we, the hurt victims, say anything...we are OUT, so then we have to deal with decades of history with family and friends, down the drain.

The Governing Body, are white washed graves. They are filthy, stinking, corpses. Their message is death to anyone who listens to them. No one should even think they have God's Holy Spirit. What does goodness have to do with badness? They are past bad. They are evil.

Just Lois...trying each day to smile and not have a broken life, a broken spirit or a broken heart.

NeverKnew

Can'tleave - I'm trying. I'm really trying.

Snare - I agree.

Tiki, Mum, Amber, Fink, Clarity and dear Gma - I hate that you have such a personal knowlege of this reality. I'm having a tough time with the potential that was ripped from everyone. I just wish there had been more exposure to the outside world to have created a much larger public debacle the WTS would have had to have answered to. It seems like this passed quietly by and I'm sorry. Heck I was born in the 60's so there was nothing I could have done. I just wish the world could have protected you.

Steve, Talesin, Mum, and Tater - Looking at the numbers I just read? I am incredibly proud of you and will use your stories.

LisaRose, Lois & Mum - Bad relationships hurt while you're in them but make you stronger. Over time, you recognize a confidence within yourself that some have never known. I'm grateful for that SOB I married. *giggling*

I can't even begin to tell you how many of my non-jw friends have come to me with circumstantial challenges I can barely stand to listen to anymore. When someone comes with a challenge that requires a reset of everything they've ever known - I'm sure I'll be more tolerant.

All - You are all survivors of a hand of cards that was hard to beat, but even by being here, it's clear that you're doing everything you can to change your personal score!

DesirousOfChange

scotoma: Here is the sore point. They continue to claim to be directed by holy spirit. They punish severely anyone who questions their authority. At the same time they hide behind the curtain of being "only human" with regard to these serious errors.

Just Lois: NeverKnew ....... . I am screaming in my mind......... . The cruelity ...of it ALL. The Big Smiles trying to cover up broken lives, broken spirits...broken hearts.

The Shame of it all by The Watch Tower Society...But...They will never admit they are wrong. If we, the hurt victims, say anything...we are OUT, so then we have to deal with decades of history with family and friends, down the drain.

The Governing Body, are white washed graves. They are filthy, stinking, corpses. Their message is death to anyone who listens to them. No one should even think they have God's Holy Spirit.

YES! I'm confident everything in that report is factual. They damaged SO many peope -- SO many families. By keeping them on the lowest rung of the ladder they were more likely to keep them involved in the religion that promised them a better future. They all needed and wanted a better future because of the horrible present life they suffered.

I a shocked that is says there are more minorities in the US than white members. But perhaps that is due to the region in which I live. Not much cultural diversity in the Congs in which I have associated.

Doc

NeverKnew

By keeping them on the lowest rung of the ladder they were more likely to keep them involved in the religion that promised them a better future. They all needed and wanted a better future because of the horrible present life they suffered.

I read this statement earlier this afternoon and had to digest it.

DoC, over the last year and a half, I've observed and cringed at the circumstances of my dearest friend's family. This statement suggests a huge contributing reason for their mindsets. There really IS nowhere else to go because going means a disintegration of the hope they've been sold.

I'm still digesting but .... Is it possible that they're all just waiting for their deliverance?

Could this be accurate?

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