Sanderson’s “Young People” convention talk

FFGhost

So did anyone else have the misfortune of listening to Sanderson’s talk corresponding to the Saturday morning convention program?

Full title is “Young People - Choose a Path That Leads to Peace!”

The basic idea is, hey you teenagers, you ought to be pioneers, WT construction workers, and/or Bethelites.

I tried to put myself back in time an embarrassing number of decades…if I were in this talk’s target audience, how would I respond?

The answer that jumps to mind: why on earth should I listen to this fat, greasy, dumb, smirking Gen-Xer who has obviously never worked hard for even a single day in his life, and wouldn’t qualify for “Southern New Hampshire University “ much less a real school?

Then the adult in me says “It’s really shallow to criticize the guy’s physical appearance and (lack of) mental acuity. Far better to criticize the substance of his message.”

Only problem is….there was no substance.

Here’s the summary:

— you should be a “full time servant”, Jehovah will magically take care of you

— If you’re worried about finding employment, just take vocational courses in high school; then magically employers will fall all over themselves to hire you

— If you experience any unexpected challenges in your full time service, just suck it up, buttercup. Jehovah will magically help you to endure.

That’s it. No really - that is somehow supposed to motivate folks in their late teens to forego any semblance of normality and jump into the never ending hamster wheel of JW full time service.

To say they are “clueless” and “completely out of touch” is an understatement on par with “the Black Death was something of a challenge for European peasants in the 14th century.”

The talk was virtually identical to every “Hey you kids, forget about college” talk given for the past 50, yes, 50 years.

All delivered with quite possibly the most insincere smirk/grin I think I’ve ever seen.

That’s all, rant over.

joao

Nope, I'm not going to waste my time listening to dumb faces! 😀

DesirousOfChange

Better to keep 'em down on the farm than send 'em to school where they might learn something.

FedUpJW

you should be a “full time servant”, Jehovah will magically take care of you

I noticed that Ol' Tightpants Tony spewed pretty well the same verbal diarrhea. Ranted about people who think they should try to build enough savings for retirement instead of letting God take care of them. I guess that is why an older friend of mine who recently died was still struggling to perform full time heavy equipment repair at 85 years of age with a blown out back and ruined knees!

I wish those g.b. slobs would have to spend even six months WORKING instead of leeching off the gullible!

waton

There another, now again religiously tightly controlled country, that wants to bring its young back down to the lowest level. telling, but not a record to be proud of.

Note, that wt has even dispensed with it's weakly sessions of their "Kingdom Ministry School" It was weak and weekly, nowe its zilch. sales training only.

road to nowhere

Jehovah taking care of you consists of someone who ignored the same advice anteying up for you.

Drearyweather

I don't think Sanderson is wrong. He is speaking out of experience.

He himself started pioneering as a teenager, and look where is now.

LongHairGal

FEDUPJW:

Heavy equipment repair at 85 years of age?? Are you kidding me?? The average person (if lucky to still be living at 85) is usually retired over 20 years at this point with health issues.

It was largely unheard of to hear things like this and at least I can say I never heard of this until I read about it here on an ex-JW forum. Just when I thought I heard everything I hear something more outrageous. So, this is the fate of many Witnesses who suffer in silence and try to survive at advanced ages making a living. They are laboring like people from third-world countries when they live in a first-world country and this did Not have to be! No, this did not have to happen to them.

Thankfully, I never fell for this line of B.S. when they told me I should quit My job back in the day! I ignored them and was ostracized by all the ‘spiritual types’ instead. But, I’m Retired.

ROAD TO NOWHERE:

You can say that again! That’s why I’m Glad I’m nowhere near people in the religion..I’d have to run from people coming near Me with their envelope! Sorry, ain’t happening.

FFGhost

DW,

Of course! Why didn’t I think of that!

So, the solution for the couple hundred thousand jW kids is, pioneer, work your way up the ladder, and join the GB just like Sanderson. Seems legit.

Of course, they’ll need to change their policy and allow women on the GB.

And they’re going to need a bigger conference room to hold those hundreds of thousands of GB members for their Wednesday meetings.

But otherwise, hey, yeah, worked out for Sanderson so of course it will work out identically well for everyone else who follows his path.

FFGhost

Oh and while I’m thinking of it, something else that chaps my hide…

Sanderson claims that he had “scholarships” to assist him with university tuition, as well as “several grants”.

This is a common lie propounded by the GB in these types of talks. That universities and government institutions are so eager to give away free money that they go out looking for anyone & everyone, attempting to throw gobs of cash in their lap.

Meanwhile, in the real world….

Scholarships and grants must be applied for. There are rigorous requirements and lots, often dozens, of pages of paperwork that must be filled out.

If Sanderson really had the goal all along, as he stated in his talk, of pioneering right after high school, why did he spend dozens or hundreds of hours applying for grants & scholarships?

Or…..more likely: he dreams that maybe he got good enough grades and he’s “pretty sure” he would have gotten “something” for a university. And over the intervening decades, that somehow has become “I coulda been a star! Turned down scholarships left & right! All to serve Jehovah!”

Moron.

Sanderson’s “Young People” convention talk

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