by sandy 7 Replies latest jw experiences
Back in the day before the donation arrangement for literature did any of you find it difficult to go out in field service?
I am not trying to embarrass anyone or make anybody feel bad.
I just want to know if having to purchase literature to go out in field service was a financial burden?
Did lack of $ for literature prevent any of you or your friends from participating in field service?
If so did you feel guilty?
Intriguing question. Raised in the truth I just took it for granted. Plus the magazines were dirt cheap, and having "value" actually helped sell them in my mind. My family was never rich, but we never seemed to have a hard time footing the bill. I mean, what better thing could you be spending your money on, right?
However, now the literature is free and I have the opposite answers to your same questions. I watch very carefully to JWs in service and during demonstrations at the meetings. No one asks for a contribution. They are embarrassed and would rather foot the bill themselves.
How do you answer that?
I even used to turn over a small amount (enough to buy my lunch, often), as Pioneers got literature at around half price.
That went by the wayside in January '93, when the arrangement came in, in Britain.
Mags were three cents apiece and we sold them for a nickel standing on dirty street corners. The burden on my family was gas for the car. That came out of the grocery allowance. Many a dinner was pancakes with homemade water syrup or boiled white rice. My brother and I went to bed hungry every single night because we were not allowed to eat anything after supper at 5 pm.
My dad made half enough for us to live good and all his spare time was spent working for the Watch Tower Publishing Corporation, either distributing their books or attending their sponsored meetings and rallys. My mother did not work or drive. Our house was a converted 2 car garage without running water. There was little time for lawn mowing and home improvement. Our place was overgrown with weeds and it reflected the same level of neglect my brother and I experienced. Our home looked exactly like the homes of alcoholics and drug addicts.
The nice homes in the area were owned by the people we thought were less than us. The doomed class.
Witness meetings and literature distribution came ahead of everything. My brother and I had miniature suits and white shirts and ties and we went to bed hungry every night.
Our mother had an untreated mental illness and she would have giant mood swings. She would be silent and sulking or she could go into violent rages without warning. At times she could be rational and loving. She saw the "new world" as the solution for her problems. She is still waiting. She spent a lot of time and money going to medical doctors for her neurotic ailments and headaches. They told her her problems were mental and she just moved on and found a new doctor and a new prescription for pain pills. Later her whole life was insolating and medicating.
My father enabled my mother to avoid practical treatment and he saw any criticism of her behavior as a personal attack on her and on him. He was a Watch Tower Company man all the way and his loyalty was to the group leaders rather than to the teachings and beliefs. He is proud of being a Witness all his life even though virtually all the beliefs have changed during his 83 years. His loyalty was always to the Watch Tower Corporation(s) before my brother and me and that has not changed.
My dad's loyalty was my debt to pay with my life. He is angry that I quit the group before it sucked up my whole life like it has done his.
So to answer the topic:-) Literature and meetings came first. Food and fun and everything came after.
I remember well, that it was a financial hardship. We would get them on account, then mom would bring in the cash on pay week.
JEEZ, you have handed me another good reason to hate the WTBTS!
We barely had enough to eat, never had 'new' clothes. But we always had the publications.
talesin
My non-JW father was a controlling b......
We had little extra money. My mother had to "cook the books" to get money for a subscription and placement copies and books for the book study. My aunt helped out sometimes.
Blondie
<shudder> I don't know what was worse...asking for money, or asking for a donation. I hated service anyway - that was just another component as to why I hated it.
I don't remember it being a financial hardship, though. I remember when I was 'old enough' I had to pay for my own literature out of my allowance, which really p**** me off. I grew up in South Texas and quite a few of the publisher's in our hall were low income and I do know that at times it was hard on them.
The Society is pretty smart, though. They knew that by making it a 'donation' system that the publishers would still pay for the literature whether or not they got the $$ for it at the door. It was good business sense and good PR sense, 'cuz they made their money, while knowing that many publishers would not ask for the donation at the door, so it would remove the image that they were 'selling' literature.
Actually I found it harder going after the donation arrangement.. I felt like we were asking for money ... where as before we were telling them the cost of what we had paid for the literature ourself so I could explain that..
when asking for donations, it was like being greedy and wanting more than the printing cost..
so I mostly just paid for the literature what I could afford and then not even ask..
but mostly I just got the literature and avoided field service all together.. I have never liked FS
on the comment by TallTexan about people paying and still getting money..
that is the thing.. that is exactly what they wanted.. I remember when they announced from the stage after the new arrangement was set that we needed to make sure we paid for the literature so they WTS didn't go broke... so they could afford to keep printing.. but then when we got donations in the field, because we were not asking for reimbursement.. we were telling them it went for the World Wide Work, we couldn't be liars then, we MUST put every dime they gave us in the contribution box..
I was very vocal at the time that something is just NOT right here? why are we both paying??
that really bothered me.. in a way, that probably was the first thing (outside of the shunning) that bothered me about the WTS
