by little witch 4 Replies latest jw friends
I have been out for over twenty years, I left a soon as I was legally able. It seems that around the same time, most of the teens who were my age, left around that same age.
For those of you who still attend meetings and so forth, are teens still going? Do they get df more often? Do they leave when they are of age?
As a side note, I have not seen a teenager in ''service'' for a very long time, mostly older women.
The congregation I just stopped attending had only 3 teenagers (2 boys, 1 girl) and 4 pre-teens (11-12). That is out of 100 publishers. Out of those that reach 18, 90% either stop coming or are DF'd. Only 1 in the last 5 years became a pioneer (the 10%). If is difficult to find teenagers "in good standing" so that the same ones will be used on for both sides of the circuit (assembly).
Blondie
I still have some contacts at my old congregation and there are 5 teenagers. Only 2 are considered spiritually strong and most people think that the other 3 will leave when they turn 18. I did find out that there is a 14 year old that attends and she had herself removed as an unbaptized publisher. Her mother is acting like she DA'd herself and is treating her as such. She still forces her to go to KH when she has her. Fortunately she lives with her father 50% of the time and he is taking steps to get full custody of her now that she has reached an age to where the courts will listen to her.
Hi Littlewitch,
The teens are alive and well in dubland. There is, have been, and will be...(as long as the borg exists) psuedo/dub witnesses teenagers.
Many go for family pressure, others for fear of NOT going, and others who actually believe and enjoy dublife.
As far as the numbers decreasing among teens in dubland.....I wouldn't doubt it, as each generation of dubs progressivly seems to be losing the glue that once held them so tight.
Gumby
Thanks for your responses. I was just curious, because, our social fabric has changed so drastically in the past decade or so, that I would imagine it would be quite hard for young ones to cope with the dubs lifestyle.
I think that most people are better at parenting skills than they used to be too. When I was young, it was not only ''normal'' to beat your kids, it was encouraged. Try that now and see what happens to those wooden spoon weilding puppetheads!
Also, I would think the shunning has been ineffective more so than it used to be. I don't imagine it would work on a large level anymore. Most grandma's and grandpa's don't wanna do anything to not see the grandkids. I am not saying it doesnt happen, I am only saying that it is not as effective. That these are undoubtedly some of the reasons for the big decline.
