JWs who are now paying the price of following the cult.

by mickbobcat 35 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  mickbobcat

  My in-laws are two such people. People who pioneered and did not work and try to save, instead they made just enough to get by and waited for the end to come. Now my MIL is in Palliative care and the state is paying for her keep, My FIL lives in a dilapidated home and can not keep it up. I know of many who did not save, and instead of working extra jobs to put some money away for retirement.

  One elder I knew never saved and now at 74 he has to work two days a week or so at building maintenance to make ends meet. Another elder who was a drywall hanger did not save a dime. Some of the brothers who had a building business would give him charity work painting small jobs they had. I ended up buying his home because he was going to lose it to the bank. I lived in it for a couple of years and sold it. He and his wife applied for a FMHA loan and got it. You will never pay it off but it will be low payments based on income.

  The cult is pushing this again. Quit jobs work building the cult projects and give your dog away. So in this tread post your known stories of JWs who are now living a crap life in their old age because of the cult
  
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  pistolpete

  The cult is pushing this again. Quit jobs work building the cult projects and give your dog away.

  I don't think this is going to work anymore. Today's young jws might go work at some building project for a year or two, (Mostly as an adventure or looking for a marriage mate) but all the madness of 1975, or, "You will never grow old" RHETORIC ---is not a thing anymore.

  Most young jws today that I know want to do something with their life. Most of them are going go College under the pretense of going to serve in Bethel. So they go to a Community College to learn a trade and at the same time they get the basics out of the way, and after two years, they transfer to a University to finish their real career that they had planned all along.

  My cousins and nephew are doing this. The parents have no idea that this is the big plan. They tell the parents that they are going to Community College to learn a trade to serve in Bethel.

  But when the 2 or 3 years are up at Community College, they will tell the parents that they will continue their school at a University. If the parents get mad and kick them out of the house, these kids already have schooling in a trade and can move out, work part time in their trade and pursue their other career like Doctor or such.

  So I think there will be very few if any that will throw away their lives by listening to the Garbage the GB keeps spouting.
  
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  IWant2Leave

  I know of a fulltime pioneer sister, who became a J.W. after college. She turned town well paying jobs and did low paying, menial jobs. Pioneered over 40 years. She is now on government assistance, housing and the food stamp program. Gets the minimum social security and still has to work. Never married or had kids, and still tries to pioneer, even though she has health problems! But hey, Armageddon is right around the corner!
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  hoser

  I saw that video on jw org about the guy that gave it all up to serve at bethel. What they don’t tell you is that not everyone can go.

  Some relatives of mine jumped through a lot of hoops for a number of years and ultimately ruined a good retirement for themselves for the branch to reject application after application.
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  DesirousOfChange

  We have family like this. Just now semi-retiring in their 60's but they still owe as much on their home as they originally paid for it decades ago because they kept refinancing it over and over again, paying off credit card &/or paying for trips to go serving where construction volunteers were needed by WT. They are still convinced they will never have to pay it off because The End is SOOOOOO CLOSE.

  And they are right! At their ages, they will not pay it off before The End comes. THEIR END.

  
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  pistolpete

  I think all those jws that were born Before the internet were Conned into throwing their lives away.

  It's not their fault, it just happens that they were born in the wrong era.

  They were born when religious cults and organizations could hide behind a veil of secrecy. There wasn't much knowledge before the internet.

  Only after the internet were bible scholars like Bart Ehrman able to post his studies of the New Testament on a YouTube video and start walking up Bible believers that the Bible is not what it claim to be.

  Then you had jws who wrote books like "The Gentile Times Reconsidered"and posted it free on the internet

  Then you had a former member of the Governing Body write his books and exposed the entire organization.
  

  Then all the Child sexual abuse started being exposed on the internet.

  I think the days of jws throwing away their life for the "Last Days are Here Teaching" are long gone.
  
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  LongHairGal

  I wonder what the actual number is of Witnesses in this pathetic situation? I imagine they must mostly be comprised of the Baby Boomer generation.

  The generation before them (the Greatest Generation) has very few still surviving. But, from what I observed in my congregations, these people were generally well-off or prepared. All the older people that I saw were either collecting their pensions or about to..That means they were in the workforce when younger.. Even the ‘great ladies’ who hosted gatherings for pioneers were married to ‘worldly’ men and lived an affluent life. No poverty for these people! Hell No!

  I don’t see this talked about much but it seems poverty was preached and directed mostly at the Baby Boomers.. I had this done to me when older hypocrites tried to get me to quit a decent job to pioneer! Thankfully, I refused.

  Hopefully, fewer young people will fall for this nowadays! They have the Internet and the examples of older JWs who did not prepare.

  I am GLAD I am not around there now and having JWs come up to me with an envelope to give money to people there who didn’t work for whatever reason. whether they were ‘conned’ into not working Or just plain didn’t want to!..Does anybody think I would tolerate this after how negatively I WAS viewed and treated?? No Way.
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  hoser

  I know more than a few baby boomer converts with well off non Jw parents live the spiritual life. Even with their inheritance they are still broke.
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  FedUpJW

  A 78 year old elder who was never going to go to school in this system is now scraping by trying to get odd painting jobs to try to keep afloat financially. Always complaining that he and his wife never worked enough to build up any (United States) social security benefits to even pay the bills consistently.

  Another late seventies fellow who can barely walk due to nerve and back damage who never built up anything in the social security reserve, or saved anything through banking or investments, now slowly and painfully working in his own heavy equipment mechanic shop by himself and wishing there was someone to help him, and not able to afford either the time from work or the money to get needed medical treatment.

  Many more that I know personally, and to a person they still conDAMN me for having worked full time, set aside savings and investments, having been able to retire before I was 50, and now living on the fruits of my stored labor, and they have the nerve to still ask if I might be able to offer financial help.

  Not only "no", but 'HELL NO!"
  
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  waton

  pp, These kids, could not go to university, because their father would have lost their elder positions. They are now in good paying trades, with the measly, wt scripted spirituality as MSs, and junior "elders"

  LGH, good observation, only one or too of The Great Generation were true, no holds barred committed believers and are in poverty, many others are in above average wealth.