by silentbuddha 16 Replies latest jw experiences
SBF, I had a very zealous mother who assigned reading and studying. If it wasn't done then punishments / beatings would ensue. There was no option but to study.
Joe, he was 48. He had been disfellowshipped twice and had recently decided to go back about 4 months ago. When he was not reinstated he kind of went off the deep end...
19:00 - 22:00 = Eat lukewarm pizza and play video games with the witnessed that lived across the street.
Whaaat ??? You were allowed to play video games?? Your family must have been spiritually weak...possibly demonized LOL!
Seriously though...sorry about your friend. The only thing I can personally add too your sad and pathetic list, from my own is:
Saturday : 6 AM - 9 AM get up and drive 35 miles with a group of JW youth who were old enough to drive into the city to do "street witnessing" before regular "field service".
9 AM -10 AM Drive back to the suburbs to our Kingdom Hall to meet for regular Saturday "Field Service".
10 AM - 12 AM Engage in "Field Service" walking around in a suit and tie in neighborhoods filled with kids from my school and pray they didn't see me. Then do return visits on people who were only taking the magazines from me because they were too kind to say no.
Sunday: Go to morning meeting and Watchtower Study. Come home and change into work clothes to do Janitorial work cleaning toilets and emptying garbage cans with a brother in Congregation who paid me $5 for 4 hours of work.
Monday: Meet with other JW youth to study the Watchtower for Sunday. (this involved studying in advance so that you'd be prepared to answer at the Monday study...for the real Sunday study. The elders put an end to this eventually because they thought it was a ruse for us teens to get together.)
Wednesday: Family study with my Mom and siblings. Dad wasn't a JW so mom had to wear a dish towel on her head while discussing the upcoming "great tribulation" to show subjection to my Father who didn't know what to do about this crazy religion, so he just handed over our entire upbringing to her.
P.S. We lived in mobile home in a crummy mobile home park across from the Kingdom Hall where many other JW families lived. Mom convinced Dad to sell our nice house so we could be debt free when the "tribulation" hit. Our family along with the rest of the JW's were all hunkering down waiting for the tribulation which never materialized.
Then came the Bethel years....
I hope so much that anyone studying sociology will record this posting of 'silent buddha'.
I hope too that anyone who has exited the wt with kids will record this and give it to school teachers, and their doctors.
Joe, he was 48. He had been disfellowshipped twice and had recently decided to go back about 4 months ago. When he was not reinstated he kind of went off the deep end...
That's just terrible. I don't know even what to say. I can only say those elders have blood on their hands and do not understand what GRACE means.
Growing up and elders kid made things worse. More sacrifices for dad's spiritual career. Coming home from school on Tuesdays and Thursday meant homework and then studying with mom to prepare to answer at the meetings. So, no time to be a kid on those days. We had to try to answer to make dad look exemplary
Wednesday night after dinner was my one-on-one study with dad. Friday night was preparing doo-to-door presentations for Saturday morning field service. I think Monday night was the only school night I didn't have some "spiritual" activity.
Weekends were a train wreck. Get up early on Saturday to go out in field service. Come home, eat lunch, and now it is time for the family study of Sunday's Watchtower study. It was about 3:00PM before I had time to myself on the weekends. Not too much time. I had to get to bed early so I could get plenty of sleep so I didn't zone off during the meeting.
Sundays were pointless if it was our congregation's turn to have afternoon meetings. Even worse, that meant a full year of Sunday morning field service before the meeting. Either way, Sundays were bad. My dad would be asked to give public talks on Sundays to other congregations. Sometimes they were a good hour's drive away. Those were also the days where it was custom for someone to provide "hospitality" to the guest speaker. That often meant sitting at some stranger's home for the hours after the meeting. Many times it was an elderly couple who would have us over for lunch. That meant hours of staring at the walls while enjoying the refreshing odor of moth balls.
It is no wonder Witness kids grow up resenting the religion and their parents for forcing it on them.
“It is no wonder Witness kids grow up resenting the religion and their parents for forcing it on them.“
Actually , in my experience the majority of us grew up to be just as indoctrinated as our parents. I was approaching 50 before I realised there was something the matter. Now I can relate to the sad man’s comments about a lost youth, and a wasted life for decades after.
The whole point of the JW routine is to keep them busy and out of trouble, if you do it properly there’s no time or The will for shenanigans.
No Education, enslaved to recruit more enslaved people like you without you knowing better.
