The JW Effect ? Lack of life planning (page 2)

garybuss

It's a hard life when your religion makes stupidity a virtue. GaryB

Flash

Did all this false sense of urgency disrupt normal life planning?

You bet it did!! Sadly, all of us and all currant members of the Borg suffer because of it!

itsallgoodnow

It's a hard life when your religion makes stupidity a virtue. GaryB

True. Still, many Witnesses pride themselves on thinking they know more than most of "this world's" experts in most subjects. After all, they were right about that Dr. Spock! hmm..

I, for one, didn't have much of a choice about college. 1975 or not, my parents weren't going to pay for it because it was "dead works". And at the time, it was ok for guys to go because they were someday going to need to care for their households, but not for girls, unless they made the full time ministry their goal. (I should have just lied about that and said that's what I intended to do.) Still, all that doesn't stop me from trying to get a degree now. It's a lot harder that it could be, with working full time, but lots of people have that situation. Yeah, I'm way behind everyone else my age, but I really feel bad for people who are in their 40s and 50s now, who are so far behind and really need to scramble to get ready for retirement.

Undaunted Danny

Watchtower 'Golden parachute Plan'.

My catchphrase for the WT$ leaders is."Charlie Manson without the look".

Think about it,Millions defrauded of their assets! No retirement plan,no pension plan for all the faithful JW's who,"kept the day of Jehovah close in mind".

Contented with their meager JW cottage industries like washing windows etc.

Oh, and the biggie Premature deaths due to poor healhcare.Not caring for their chronic heath concerns like hypertension etc.That's mass murder!

I already got a colostomy bag at age 38 for poor healthcare attributed to the 1975 default.I never got my teeth straightened as a child because God was gonna give me new choppers any day.

Ray Franz,in,"In search of Christian freedom".touched on lifetime Circut overseers put out to pasture without even a severence plan.

Growing old in the Watchtower's," spiritual paradise " it really s**ks big time doesn't it.

the mole

i too was effect by such thinking. my father df'd for it my mom later df'd for thinking of it. just recently i wrote about how my mom and me discussed the same topic. she admitted to me she regretted listening to those me. i told how i was stunted in my education and my dream of playing baseball soured because of their false thinking in the late 70's and early 80's. so much i missed out because of the repeated talks of death and destruction of the last days. i think im stunted in making normal friend because i was always told that everyone would die so why bother having worldly friends. college and high school was so looked down upon i was forced to grad early with minimal skills. it took my courage to break away and go to college and finish my black belt later in my twenties. what sucks is i went back and got baptised only to leave again with more disgust than ever. i made a promise to my kids never shall they be enslaved in a fools paradise of ignorance. ..the mole

Gopher

i think im stunted in making normal friend because i was always told that everyone would die so why bother having worldly friends.

The JW's promoted and "us against them" mentality and the idea that everyone else was near a horrible death at Armageddon. What a terrible way to look at people. Most people are NOT evil, many go out of their way to be kind and helpful.

college and high school was so looked down upon i was forced to grad early with minimal skills.

I think high school was viewed as okay, as long as you didn't participate in 'extra-curricular' activities that would lead to 'bad association' with people who didn't serve the WT Society like we did. But a 4-year-college was definitely a no-no! I even got words of caution from a circuit overseer for pursuing a 6-month course at a technical school.

it took my courage to break away and go to college and finish my black belt later in my twenties.

This is what we have to do -- challenge ourselves, have the courage to break the 'mold' we were forced into as kids. Good for you, mole!!!

outbutnotdown

Yes, it certainly has stunted me in many ways as well. Same as a lot of the other comments made before this post..... I didn't pusue higher educatiion, never made GOOD close friendships because of the FEAR of losing them, etc.

However, I do believe that life is relative and he that has suferred greatly is also aware of how to accomplish more great things than those who haven't suffered.

I don't spend too much time slamming the JW religion because it keeps my mind in too much of a negative trap, but I certainly do everything in my power to teach my children and other pliable minds that it is best to keep an open mind and to judge others as little as possible.

I guess in a nutshell I try to look at the close-minded JW's as being unfortunate people who are caught up in a mob mentality sort of thing. If they could step back and look at it objectively they would realize how silly the whole religion is, but alas....... the founders of the religion thought of that possibility a long time ago and instituted a doctrine that if a JW opens up his mind that EVIL will come along and PRETEND to make you feel good, but that the reality is that it is just SATAN tranforming himself into an angel of light.

"What a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive."

Cheers, Brad

Elsewhere

My dad is a classic example... no savings... no 401k.... no investments...

All he has is a $40,000 pension that may or may not materialize... depending on whether the company raided the fund as badly as the lawyers suspect.

jgnat

Gopher, great topic! The JW's I see do suffer from poor planning.

Pale, frail young man, MS, (no extracurricular sports activites for him!) the pride of the assembly.
Unemployed middle aged man, striving to succeed in the studies, his last bastion of self-esteem.
A middle age couple moving from rental unit to rental unit every few months.
Half a dozen widows limping to the KH in the one remaining vehicle between them.

Your resentment is understandable. To keep in mind, though, that many people float through life on autopilot, only to wake up in middle-age full of regret. It is almost as if JW's have the chance to hit the mid-life crisis prematurely. Look at it as an opportunity to set a new course for your life, now! I totally believe that it is never too late.

Starting as a teen mom on welfare, I would say I set myself back about twenty years. Striving to make up the difference has made me a driven and organized woman. Does that make me completely "balanced" or "normal"? Probably not. But it is who I am. Before my babies I was a flibbertigibbet.

See? It is never too late.

flower

yea my life is totally behind schedule thanks to the jw's. i graduated with practically every report card i ever got saying 'M___ does not work up to her potential". Of course I didnt, why bother? I was a straight C student because I just didnt have any motivation to do well. Armageddon was coming soon I had more important things to worry about. I took college prep courses just to shut up all the counselors who were hounding me about what I was gonna do after school.

By the time graduation came around I had not even given a second thought to what I was going to do with myself. I was literally waiting every day for the big A. How sick is that?

I finally got a retail job a year after graduation so I could afford the freedom of having a car of my own. It wasnt till I started fading from the JW's that I realized how absolutely stupid I had been. I've found it nearly impossible to get back to school and do the things my heart tells me I should be doing but I do think one day I am destined to make a major contribution to the world. I can hope anyway. :)

flower

The JW Effect ? Lack of life planning

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