by NotFormer 23 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
It would be perhaps easier to list the things which JW kids are permitted to - a list which would be very brief in size.
Little wonder the JWs manage to retain only one third of their young people!
In fairness to my parents, they couldn't even afford to celebrate holidays and birthdays, sports were definitely out of their league. Window cleaners were far from wealthy in the 80s and 90s.
Just on a side note.
If you ever watch Verns 'Fixing my Faith' channel on youtube.
He illustrated a strong point about the Borgs shunning policy. These groups should not be granted tax free status and reap the rewards of such from abusing human rights like they do.
Nor should they be getting money from anyone,,who indoctrinates children then turn around and shun them for something simple like believing different.
He explained that inmates in maximum security prisons who are confined to a cell their entire lives are given at least 1 free hour a day to see visitors,,or whoever...
And that the Borgs shunning policy is more cruel than prison in that respect.
Its quite a good channel Vern has over there on youtube.
No.
Dont let anyone ever tell you or try to convince you that JWs are NOT an abusive, coercive group.
Or JWs are NOT extreme.
Something has to be done.
It really is the children of JWs who get blindsided by the Borg.
They get roped-in to something from birth when they have no choice of what they're getting involved with.
They heavy-handedly are strong armed into it and its policies and later in life they realize what happened and get out of it without life altering consequences.
some parents I knew wouldn't let their kids go on school field trips to museums of art and natural history
you can't date like a normal human being. Everything is group dating, or dating with a chaperone, which weirdly can mean you have to take a younger sibling if no one else is available or willing.
No R rated movies. All the parents I knew wouldn't let kids see movies or TV shows that contained: magic, supernatural creatures, gun violence, even straight-forward sexual language, spiritual shows. I couldn't watch 7th Heaven or Highway to Heaven because they had the wrong religious views in them. No smurfs or rainbow bright. But weirdly, Benny Hill was okay. My mother didn't even like Mr. Rogers because of the magical creatures in pretend land. I still watched it anyway. There were a lot of mixed messages because a lot of choices made by parents seems to be both arbitrary and based on their own opinions about things that had nothing to do with JW doctrine.
We couldn't have toys that in any way looked worldly or had non-JW appropriate context/content. I could have a cabbage patch doll but I couldn't have a my little pony. I'm sorry, but what kind of kid naturally grows out of a cabbage patch? To me that is way more freaky than a brightly colored pony that may or may not have magical powers.
Music was heavily monitored. It depended on the parents if kids were allowed to go to concerts. My siblings and I were not, but other kids I knew were. Michael Jackson was okay at first because he was a JW, but then his behavior wasn't JW enough and we were discouraged from listening to him. Prince was not allowed even after he became a JW because his content was too racy.
Parents monitor their children for anything too sexual, violent, political, non-JW spiritual content, demonic, supernatural, educational, etc.
The biggest problem with all of this is that while parents are constantly censoring what their children can do and see, they are not actually watching out for their children.They care about the wrong things and I can't imagine this has changed very much.
To this day, my parents don't know that every time I went to a sleepover with my best friend (she had them all the time, always inviting all the girls from her age range) her father would sit in the room with us, drinking scotch, while wearing nothing but his whitey tighties. He would sit there watching us. So gross and creepy! And all the parents sent their kids to these slumber parties all the time.
I found myself in so many dangerous situations because my parents only cared about telling me what I could and couldn't do but they didn't actually pay attention to what I did do.
What I was allowed to do and what I actually did were two very different things. And the JW organization encourages this type of mentality. Guard your children but maintain your focus on what you need to be doing in order to be saved as one of the chosen few.
I lucked out in a lot of situations, but it could have gone the wrong way easily.I was allowed to have worldly friends on the premise of helping them and preaching to them, which I said that I did, but didn't actually do. One of those friends took me to go meet a guy, and his roommate, at their house. They were college age and we were in high school. I was in an adult worldly man's bedroom while she hooked up with his roommate. He was like, 'I can't do anything with you because that would be statutory rape' while his roommate was banging my friend. So creepy and weird.
The internet was new, but I had access and my parents didn't monitor everything... just the obvious things. I can only imagine that is so much worse now. And predators abound online in seemingly safe places for kids. But with lack of education also comes lack of technological savvy that parents in this day and age really need to have.
I grew up in an area that was heavily settled by Germans, so a lot of German-American heritage. I've been told this is one reason that so many of the parents treat their children like little adults, but I kind of feel like the JW organization has a lot to do with it also. Kids are expected to make adult decisions without the insight or experience to make good adult decisions. There are high expectations with little guidance from JW parents.
This was my experience of parenting among the JWs.
For a religion that offers a hope of everlasting life on a paradise earth,,,,is one of the most coercive,,abusive, demanding,regulating,manipulative,sexual repressive groups out there.
"For a religion that offers a hope of everlasting life on a paradise earth,,,,is one of the most coercive,,abusive, demanding,regulating,manipulative,sexual repressive groups out there"
I can't help thinking that it's by design. Create a horrible, joyless existence for your followers, so that they are incentivised to work towards the joyful Paradise you promise them.
jwundubbed, Wow, that is an amazing story. I'm glad you came through it all relatively unscathed! I'll mine your post for more points to add to the list later. 👍
By design?
Good observation. Make your life as cumbersome and as difficult as possible. Work,work, work, work,work make it horrible and put that paradise in the future,, a mirage.
It fits that carrot and stick mentality beautifully.
