by blondie 24 Replies latest watchtower bible
This is interesting in light of where I was yesterday...helping my stepkids get their college admissions stuff going...One is planning to be a nurse and the other one I'm not so sure...seems the WT is losing it's hold...and these kids literally grew up in the KH. One of the kids I don't think is that into it...the other maybe moreso.
We'll see...
TB
Is this the best WBTS can do? The org is hemorrhaging its youth. The comment I get from 16-25 year olds is "WE ARE BORED AT THE MEETINGS! JWs: Your youth are some of the smartest kids there are. They are trained for public speaking and high marks. They have been trained to be smarter than the organization they belong to.
I think this is the reason college was "banned" so long. Even paltry 2 year college.
1. You will find "evolution" is a fact in the present and not something people just think happend in the past, and belief in a creator is a choice not a "fact".
2. Babylon the Great invented 98+% of the JW religion long before them.
3. An introductory argumantation class will allow you to decypher your spiritual food.
Number 3 is the most trobling because you soon realize that the person writing the "meat in due season" is most likely formally trained in argumentation. Yet they are exploiting the fact most JWs are not. So they fill most articles with glitter instead of gold. If I did not know better I'd swear the WT staff is mostly college educated but may not posses degrees to forgo "stumbling" their brothers.
I agree ezekial. The kids are smart and that is why they are dying in there. I think that the younger JWs, despite all the mind controlling spiritual food they have been fed, have also had their minds disciplined to take in an incredible amount of knowlege through the Org's constant bombardment of information, despite much of it being bogus. Thus, I think they have developed a certain form of intellegence and this is now backfiring on the Org. But despite the fact that these kids are smart many are emotionally and mentally unstable due to their warped religious training. This is a very sad thing to me.
Thanks again blondie for making us think.
Thanks for the review Blondie!
The congregation I "attend" is very large, 140+ publishers. Of course, there aren't that many on the best attendance day - Sunday, even including many visitors from outside the city/country, since this is the only downtown English speaking congregation. There are many, many young ones in this hall, early 20s, and many are pioneers. They have moved into this congregation because of their friends them to move in, so they all hang out together and are therefore able to have a somewhat "normal" life in that they go out on weekends together, movies, restaurants, maybe an Irish pub, etc. Of course, this drives the elders crazy 'cause they feel these ones are playing dangerously close to the "world" and may get themselves in "trouble" (Watchtower definition of trouble).
I think that if the WTS survives at all, it will because of ones like these, who manage to toe the party line somewhat while trying to get on with their lives in their own way. What it will all mean when this younger generation starts to move out, settle down and have kids of their own will be interesting to see.
acscot,
It is good to know that not all are faring badly. Maybe we are in an especially bad area. My adult daughter (who is out now too) has observed that city witnesses have a lot more freedom and opportunities than the ones in rural congos, such as the one we were in, but even the upscale college educated ones are confused about their religion and we have seen some of those crack too.
I do think it a shame that they discourage education after high school . I think they should look at what happened to alot of the people that were told these kind of things in 1975 and how long it's been that people are strugling to survive because they didn't prepare . Unlike the times of the apostles, todays world is fast paced and ever changing , technology has become the corner stone of society and to understand it one must have a college education .
Keep busy at the Kingdom Hall and in the field service. During your school years, share in the auxiliary pioneer service from time to time.
Only Field Service grows the congregation?? How about the good effect we have on people by living our daily lives as Jesus taught us...The Lamp on the Lampstand??
Blondie, thanks for the review.
I cringe when the WTS downplays getting any sort of education after high school. In todays world, it is a big mistake. I followed the wts "advice" and chose to pioneer rather than go to college. 10 years later I am df'd with no degree and no reputable business will look at my resume with "high school diploma..." Living in a large city makes it 10 times worse. And its not like I could plead during my judicial hearings that I skipped college and pioneered, worked at the kh etc. None if it is good enough if you don't follow the jw rule book.
My advice to jw youth is to GO FOR YOURS. Like earlier posters mentioned, jw youth are some of the smartest kids out there. And yes, my guidance counselors were perplexed that I wanted to skip college in order to do "volunteer work". They asked, can't you do that on the side and still go to college? The WTS would like you to beleive that you cant. And they guilt you by using terms such as "whole souled service", and "seek the kingdom first". I had to learn the hard way that it is not that black and white.
I will be going to school in January, by the way.
LS
Omigosh! I hadn't thought of these replies as comments, as in comments at the WT study! Ooh ooh, can I just read a couple paragraphs verbatim? Would that count? :-)
You're a way cooler conductor than any I've ever had. Go Blondie!
SNG
