Were There ANY Advantages To Being a Jehovah's Witness?

by minimus 44 Replies latest jw friends

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  Oxnard Hamster

  Were there any advantages? Absolutely. As a matter of fact, from the two years I studied with them, it didn't seem all that bad, except for the fact they are too controlling and a lot of their "insights" to the scriptures are pure garbage.

  Let's see. Some of these may have been mentioned:

  - Don't have to worry about holidays. (But this can be a bad thing if you don't mind shopping.)

  - Join and you instantly have lots of friends. (Even though they are more or less forced to like you.)

  - Some of the nicest people I've met are JWs. (Granted, most are elitist jerks.)

  - If you buy into their doctrine, it's sort of tranquil. I mean, who wouldn't want to live on a paradise earth?

  - Going out into field service for return visits can be fun. At least you get to go out and meet new people. Sometimes, you can get some interesting discussions going.
• 

  Guest 77

  All their mistakes are bringing people to forums of this nature! Your question can be answered in a positive or negative setting, to each their own.

  Guest 77
• 

  Sassy

  I am sure it kept me out of trouble as a youth. I sure wouldn't have been a virgin for my first husband. I have never started smoking and so it is an advantage not to deal with trying to quit.
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  freedom96

  At least one has a roof over their head for a few hours a week.
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  minimus

  The biggest advantage of being a Witness is that you get to save lives.
• 

  Yerusalyim

  The only gift you have to buy is a wedding anniversary gift...no B'days...no Christmas...just that one date to remember.
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  jgnat

  I've said it before, hopefully the joke is not old.

  Unlikely to die from emphysema.
• 

  Oxnard Hamster

  Some more:

  - Helped me with my public speaking course.

  - Helped me become a better student.

  - Helped me become a better reader, to an extent.
• 

  minimus

  One thing that I have as an ability is to SELL. I'm not intimidated by anyone and I'm not uncomfortable around people and generally read people quite well.......All due to Watchtower training.
• 

  patio34

  Most of the presumed "advantages" mentioned have been experienced by me too.

  But I think it's an unbalanced question because it doesn't factor in the other side of the equation, such as most of us would have gotten those same advantages through other sources and would have received probably far more (e.g., college, school clubs, support groups, and our own abilities).

  Another factor to remember is the price paid to gain those "advantages": loss of freedom, ability to think, isolation from most social structures that could have helped kids, being isolated from people you work with, etc. to ad nauseum.

  Of course, in some instances the strong structure of the mind-control group did, in fact, confer true advantages, but then as Blondie, I think, said, so would being a Quaker (or Amish) or for that matter, being in prison, lol!

  I used to think the advantage to me was all the reading I did, but I would have been reading a lot anyway because that's my nature. Only it would have been better reading and more educational instead of now knowing an incredible amount of worthless Biblical trivia, lol.

  Pat