What's up with JW parents taking their minor children to such desolate places? Like the English family that took their little kids to the jungles of Ecuador, and the Australians that took their little ones to Norfolk Island where hardly anyone lives, and they are the only children in a congregation of 11 publishers? Is this a new form of child abuse?
JWTV May Broadcast is up. hosted by an old burnt hot dog
by Dreamerdude 27 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Dreamerdude
Tony has an interesting way of bragging about his two Bethelite sons, that he thinks make him look good. He can probably guarantee employment for them while he's alive, even with Bethel cutbacks. He can make them look good to their Bethel heavy bosses. -
Daniel1555
I don't get it.
Why do you talk about desolate places?
Norfolk Island is not a desolate place. It's a beautiful and interesting island and anything but child abuse to live there when there are about 2300 inhabitants.
The same with the rain forest in Equador.
Or is it better to live in a crime infested mega city? Is that child abuse too?
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TheOldHippie
When other people take their children with them to spend a year sailing around the world, live for some years among highland people of the Andes, live in China to broaden their view - it is regarded an excellent thing and lots of other people sigh, thinking/saying "why didn't WE do that"? Why is it a bad thing in Your eyes? We often have planned or thought of setting off and living somewhere else for months/years, but never have gotten as far as really doing it. Wish it were me, wish it were my parents. -
Daniel1555
Tony talks about Satans diabolical attacks to destroy families.
Who is destroying families?
Doesn't the last Watchtower Study article about shunning family members diabolically destroy families if it is applied?
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WTWizard
I wasted the electricity to watch that video, and it was terrible. Most of it was so forgettable that I would view it a total waste. So joke-hova cares about the blind--that is, enslaving them. Big deal. That thing wants us all enslaved.
And yes, that thing hogs massive amounts of computer resources. Even worse than regular YouTube.
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SafeAtHome
I think I can understand what dreamerdude means. A member of my extended family recently went to Ecuador with two young children to do whatever something free for the borg. This wasnt a comfortable vacation on a sailboat with sunshine and fishing all day. This was in a very poor area. These kids are isolated, home schooled, and exposed to illness and disease they wouldn't be at home. They were out of touch during the recent earthquake. I guess the "great" learning experience would be there's no place like home? -
dubstepped
I get what Dreamer is saying too. People rip their kids away from friends and family in congregations often to move to economically depressed rural areas to help where the need is great. Screw the kids, it's all about the adults. I knew a family that decided to learn Spanish and serve there. The kids had no choice and lost friends to go sit in meetings with people and talks they couldn't understand. That marriage broke up and the kids ended up in therapy. Maybe it isn't reflective of the particular place mentioned in the DubTV video this month, but it's definitely an abusive thing that goes on. -
Dreamerdude
Dan and Hippie, I definitely see some positive aspects to traveling with children. My family and I love traveling. Traveling to unassigned territory for a week at a time was nice too, enjoying the mountains, or beaches and the local foods and such. I would like to travel to Norfolk Island. The Norfolk Island Pine is one of my favorite trees, with their beautiful symmetry. The Ecuador rainforest seems like a fascinating place. Even camping and fishing at Lake Baikal in Siberia, featured in the May broadcast, would be fun for a week or two. And if I could afford it, extended travel for a few months or maybe a year might be good for the kids.
Safe and Dubstepped picked up on the abusive aspects that I was thinking about. They read my mind.
In the case of the trip to Lake Baikal, I am sure it was fun to enjoy nature and eat those delicious fish. But asking the boy to try to recruit the locals is abusive. There is more productive work they could have done, like perhaps building latrines, or picking up trash.
In the earlier example of the English family that moved to Ecuador, It appeared to me that the parents were uprooting the kids permanently. Maybe they were happy to leave dead end jobs to spend their savings or inheritance, but how will the kids socialize and get needed education?
in the magazine article about Norfolk Island I felt bad for the two little boys, because the only friends they would be allowed to have are the 11 JWs that live on the island. If I read the article right, checking the YB, they are the only two kids. And the parents knew that going it this. But I have the admit it, Swiss Family Robinson catches my imagination.
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sir82
Had a "friend of a friend" pick up and move his family to Panama.
They lived off savings. Neither parent worked over there.
Their days were built entirely around either field serve-us, preparing for meetings, or home-schooling their kids. Nothing else.
They attended an English congregation, where there were no other parents with children.
They refused to learn Spanish. Apparently had no interest in doing so.
So, basically, the kids (both pre-teens) had absolutely 0 social contact with anyone under the age of 30 or so. Week after week, month after month.
Fortunately, the parents, after a couple of years, finally realized the damage they ere doing to their kids and moved back to the USA.
It sounded like a perfectly atrocious lifestyle. Even their "preaching work" was a fiasco - they either wasted their time preaching to US & British ex-pats who had 0 interest, or to locals who quickly realized the "Bible study" was a free way to learn English, and so agreed to a "study" for that reason only.