My Dumb Ass JW Brother

by Reborn2002 41 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  freeman

  While in high school (which thankfully the Dubs dont discourage or matters would be even worse) my brother was in all AP and honors courses, graduated with a 3.9+ G.P.A. and was ranked in the top 10 of a class of over 400.

  Scholarships and opportunities awaited him

  Wow he was a smart dumb ass indeed.

  Never give up hope, sometimes you never know what it takes before they see the light. In my case it was the decision to provide for my family or please some men. My gut told me I needed to get out of debt and start earning enough money so we did not have to live on the edge anymore.

  My brother never went beyond high school and an aviation vocational school but he sure is smarter then I ever was; he never joined a cult now did he? He saw them for what they really are, I was a dope, we all were dopes. Its just some dopes take more time to smarten up and some regrettably never will.

  Freeman
• 

  Coqui

  Reborn 2002,

  Thanks for replying to earlier posts of mine.

  Been there, done that! Your'e brother must read these posts because they are all true, I've seen this shit time and time again. Maybe one day he'll get it. Better now than when he is 40 or 45 with three kids, shitty job, no retirement (why invest, thats a worldly philosophy, Jehovah will provide) debt, bitchy wife with no way out. My dad, worldly, came to me and gave me a come to Jesus talk about this shit but to no avail at the time, but I always kept that talk'in to in my mind.

  I quit college after 2 years much to the dismay of my non-dub parents. The brothers saw no value in higher education(1984) and still today don't honestly give 100% support. I began to work in a car wash 2 hours a day (dead end but in the eyes of those bastards perfect) and then began running out of my parents home with my book bag in hand every afternoon to do the fine work auxilery pioneering. My parents were pissed!!! The brothers were drawing me into their world of freeloading, eternal poverty and ignorance.

  I finally said F---- this, and went on through many intimidating glances and suspicion to pursue a future for myself and family by going to school, accepting jobs that required me to miss those F'ing boring meetings before it was too late. In the end I did the right thing and have no regrets. I was always was on the fringe, never in the inner circle because of this, oh well!!

  Don't people get it? This is the mind control the Dubs have on their victims. The Bible never said you can't do any of this.
• 

  blondie

  Reborn2002, I read your experience about your brother. I think he is probably caught between a rock and a hard place. Recently, at the district conventions, that very issue was directly hit on several times, brothers missing meetings/field service because of their jobs. Since then, that has been addressed specifically in 2 WT articles and 1 KM that I can recall off-hand. So if he had taken that job, the elders at his KH would have been all over him. Of course, his motives may have different, but the WTS is coming down hard on brothers who allow work to interfere with "the more important things."
• 

  Shakita

  Reborn:

  I wish that I could shake your brother and help him to see reason. He may think that he is doing this for Jehovah, but he is actually doing this for evil men. I bought into the WT's philosophy on being content with sustenance and covering. Following that advice has resulted in years of financial hardship and depression. We have suffered greatly as a result of listening to the WT boneheads. We are doing better financially, but it is only because we work our asses off at two back breaking, mind-numbingly repetitive jobs. There is something to be said about having a fulfilling career, making a good salary. Every elder that has ever counseled me on this subject has always been better off financially than our family. They all had the gall to tell me to "be content with sustenance and covering." In the end all our efforts of hardwork and self-sacrifice went largely unnoticed. We have very few friends in the borganization. What a grand reward for living like paupers for so many years.

  To Reborn's brother: If you don't want to end up bitter and depressed after many years of hard labor at unsatisfying jobs, you had better wake up. I know of some elders that miss meetings because their high-paying jobs take them jet-setting across the country and across the world. And yet, they are still members in good standing. You had better take my advice. Go to school and learn a trade, or get a college education so that you can support your family and have a decent life . It does NOT mean unfaithfulness to Jehovah to miss a few meetings so that you can support your family. Jehovah does not want you to be a martyr at the expense of your own happiness and at the expense of your own sanity and well-being. I followed very faithfully all the advice concerning being satisfied with a very little money so as to sacrifice for the Kingdom. Do you know what I got for my many years of self-sacrifice? I received bitterness and anguish and unending pain while being shunned by most people in the congregation I attended. But guess what? Those who ignored the Watchtower Society's advice and went to school and got a well-paying job are much happier and have alot of friends. Go figure. I was in the situation that you are in now. I have lived it. Use your own God-given reasoning ability. If you listen to me there is a strong possibility that you can turn your life around and live a good life. You owe it to your family. You owe it to yourself. Jehovah will not hold it against you.

  Reborn: I am no longer attending meetings, but I hoped that relating my experience might strike a chord in your brother and help him to come to his senses. By the way, that 80,000 dollar a year job wouldn't still be available, would it? I am willing to miss all the meetings and work every Saturday.

  Mr. Shakita
• 

  Dismembered

  Hi Reborn2002

  Just needed to put in my 2 cents worth regarding your brothers mess. I say mess because that's what it is. If misery loves company you have lots of friends here.

  It's extremely frustrating what this JW cult has done and continues to do, to DUMB people down regarding reality. The notion that "Jehovah will provide" directly in ones own affairs defies logic. But it is a constant, and an end result of the brainwashing that pervades many of those who go to the 5 meetings a week and hear the same shit over & over & over again. I have seen the same the types of situations that confront you regarding your brother again and again. And I admit they are certainly a cause for anger. The feelings you have regarding your brother (in my opinion) are quite normal, and well founded, and is difficult to be pacifistic and/or numb to all of this. Ostensibly you care for them.

  Anyone who has been involved in this cult for any length of time, and is honest enough to admit it, knows that what your brother is doing is NOT the exception to the rule but rather the rule. Many of the people I have known in this cult maintain the exact same mentality. The " go on welfare and pioneer" and "we'll wait on Jehovah" mindset has been the demise of many especially as they get older. Many of them don't have shit and rely on the goodness of others, and because of their JW mentality EXPECT IT and DO NOT appreciate it when something gets done for them. They think it's from Jehovah.

  So anyway regarding your brother unless he changes his mind on these things this system especially in this country will eat him alive. A real conundrum for sure.

  Again just my 2 cents worth Hang in there, maybe he'll come to his senses soon!

  Dismembered

  Edited by - Dismembered on 12 October 2002 10:32:26

  Edited by - Dismembered on 12 October 2002 15:18:1
• 

  TTBoy

  WOW reborn! I haven't read all the posts yet but yes...your brother is an idiot. (as you seem to agree)

  My family also has NO PROBLEM asking my non-JW grandfather for money either.

  Some people can't think rationally. Remember it's hard to talk to someone who has no brain.

  I'd use your dad's employee discount and buy a new Mustang or something, and park it in front of his house with a sign that said,

  You're a Dipshit

  That is so sad that he's making his family suffer. Some people are too stupid and should not procreate. (not meant to offend). Then to tell his kids you're evil when you've helped him out financially......I hope the WT rots in jail and dies financially.

  TT
• 

  SYN

  This has to be the best thread I've read on here for a few weeks now. It always breaks my heart to hear things like Reborn tells us. What gets my ire up the most is the CHILDREN who are being dragged into this against their own will, because they are far too young to be able to say no. THAT is a terrible tragedy, aside from the original tragedy of your brother basically having a great job thrown in his lap, and then brushing it off to sell books for a bunch of men in Brooklyn. It honestly surprises me to this day to when I see just how much power the Tower still wields over it's members. Sort of a reality check for those moments when I begin to think it's really not too bad after all, then a thread like this comes along and it opens many old wounds for me.

  Thank you for a very moving piece of writing.
• 

  JT

  KESLEY ASKED :

  "Why would anyone post ugly things about their families on the internet? "

  #########

  I WILL givw this poster the benifit of the doubt perhaps he has no idea of how a jw thinks

  under normal circumstances your point would be valid perhaps , but this post is not to show ugly things about his family but to show how the wt is indeed a high control group

  while you may consider this as ugly things in the mind of a true dyed in the wool jw

  "THE BRO MADE THE RIGHT CHOICE"

  ALLOW me to ask you, would the CO put him on the District convention if he had taken the job? or would he put him on the convention due to turning the job down?

  for the avg jw his choice was a good choice, of course for folks like you and i would live in the real world we know that there will be "No Jehovah to save his A$$"

  so while i would say he should call his bro "Names" because many of us did the same thing

  i too had the chance to go to college --in fact i would have graduated with Michael Jordan from the same school , but i turned it down to go to BETHEL i chose what i believed to be THE BEST PORTION

  so it's not that he is showing ugly things persay as much as he is showing REALITY

  and sometimes realty is UGLY
• 

  JT

  REBBORN

  we hear your pain, but just a thought and you can take it for what it's worth

  while i understand fully why you called your bro a DUMBASS

  WE all know it goes further than that- for many of us would have made the same choice and one must ask Why- when you consider that the avg jw will see and hear 1000's perhaps of exp of over and over of other jw WHO PUT THEIR TRUST IN JAH, WAITED ON JAH - it becomes at least something that we can understand what influenced a person to make that choice

  we see once again just how many lives are impacted by wt

  consider this many of us here have left wt many for years, but i wonder how many of us when we were at the top of our game as far as being a jw, would have turned down blood for a loved one

  it scares the hell out of me to think of how many of us including myself may have felt that THIS IS JAH WILL AND allowed our love one to die, while i realize that some here would have never done that,

  my point is as each one of us look back at our life as a jw, we see so many things that as we look at them now WE CAN'T BELIEVE WE THOUGHT THAT WAY OR ACTED THAT WAY

  involving so many issues family, job , medicine, careers etc.

  i lok at the love ones in my family who are still in and all the bad choices that they are making thinking just like your bro JAH WILL PROVIDE WHILE the fact is all HELL IS FALLING APART AROUND THEM

  AND THEY DON;T EVEN SEE IT.

  YOU exp reminds me of this old jw lady in my moms hall,

  her son was DFed back in 1980 and he was an adult and living at home- well we all recall the powerful Sept 1/15/81 wt on HOW TO TREAT FAMILY DFED

  well at the time she was a young 53 yr old reg pioneer in the hall, well the elders told her that she had to kick her son out IF SHE WANTED TO STAY ON THE LIST- well that is what she did and she had NOTHING TO DO WITH HIM AT ALL in fact as i read your post i saw so many of the same comments that were told to you were told to him- my mom and this sister were field service partners so they talked alot, she felt like most jw that it will SHAKE THEM TO THIER SENSES and they will return

  well he went on to college, she was not there when he graduated, and got a job for a high tech firm out in northern VA - he mother had nothing to do with him, he married had a child, she didn't come up to see the child , he sent her a picture of her grandchild, and she returned it- while many jw would not go to that extent, doing stuff like this gets you on the conventions to relate your exp of how you have remained loyal to jah org, etc

  well the kicker is she has been out of touch with him for over 20yrs and now that she is in her 70's her health has started to fail her and she is in need of $$$$$$- so she figured that she has been loyal and faithful and the apostale paul said somthing about the aged folks on the LIST

  so she figured that the congo would assist her since she had aided so many folks into THE TRUTH

  well do you know what the Elders told her- damn right you guessed it they took Girl Friend straight to the Society's publications and showed her that the FIRST OBLIGATION IS FROM HER KIDS

  she was crushed for as she told my mom "How can i ask him to help me and i have not spoken/dealt with him in over 20 yrs"

  well she is now an old broken spirit jw who just drags to the meetings,

  my mom IS OUT AND HADS PLANS TO go up to Atlantic City to pull slots this Christman

  smile

  so yes your brother is in someway i guess a dumbass persay, but it really is about the control of ones ablitly to reason and make good and wise decisions that the wt takes away from so many of it's memebers

  while there are those here who would say I WOULD HAVE TAKEN THE JOB and perhaps so, but there are other issues in which we all would have shown to NONJW and former jw that we too were at times a DUMBASS
• 

  TresHappy

  How horribly frustrating for you because of your brother's crazy thinking and decisions. However the JW cult is perfect for people like him, because they can't see the forest through the trees. I remember when I was a JW I heard an elder say that some JW's treated Jehovah like a good luck charm. I think that's the only sensible thing I heard that elder fellow ever say. Your brother will continue to think this way as long there are people around in his world to give him the thumbs-up whenever he makes these slanted decisions.

  It doesn't just happen in JW's. My good friend for 20 years, I love her dearly, however she has 4 children and her husband hasn't been able to hold a job for any length of time. She home schools the kids and they are currently on government assistance. She still however, thinks that its OK to bring in more children into her family and doesn't do anything to keep from getting pregnant. She refuses to work and has even said she would take her home schooling underground if they make it illegal. Sometimes when I hear her spout these things I want to scream.