Selling homes and property - pre-1975

by Bonnie_Clyde 34 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Mary

  "Well, the Society encouraged us to sell our homes and property." He looked shocked and said that wasn't possible. I told him it was in the Kingdom Ministry. He said he wouldn't believe it unless he could see it. I told him I could find it, and I have--the May 1974 KM in the insert. I will give it to him this week.

  LOL! Make sure you've got some smelling salts with you, as he's likely to faint when he sees it written in black and white.

  My next question, I think there was a comment in the Watchtower after 1975 criticizing anyone who sold their home thinking the end was coming in 1975. Does anyone know where it is?

  All I know is that Freddie Franz gave a talk at the summer assembly in '76 and said the reason Armageddon didn't come in '75 "was because YOU (and he pointed to the audience) were expecting it!!!" Well no shit, Sherlock.........gee I wonder where we got that idea from?
• 

  Amazing1914

  Sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s the Society published a half-hearted apology for being too eager regarding the 1975 issue.
• 

  HappyDad

  I didn't sell my home or quit my job but was still in such a controlled mindset that "the end was near" that I never saved a penny. That mindset stayed with me until about 8 years ago. Talk about brainwashing!

  Too many wasted years but the experience is helping me to have a full and happy life today.

  HappyDad
• 

  AlanF

  You can find pretty thorough documentation on the Society's claims about 1975 in the following two links:

  http://www.geocities.com/osarsif/pro3.htm

  http://www.geocities.com/osarsif/1975.htm

  AlanF
• 

  Englishman

  Thanks for that, AlanF.

  My parents sold up their home too. Dad went pioneering and took part-time work. From Air-traffic controller to petrol pump attendant in one fell swoop.

  Sadly, my Mother -an intelligent woman who can rattle off the Telegraph crossword - actually denies such a thing as the 75 saga ever happened.

  When I mentioned it to her she said: "Oh. So you're a seventy-fiver too, are you?".

  Englishman.
• 

  Lewis

  Thanks for those links! It was like a walk down memory lane. And yes, there are those WT revisionists who say "1975? Huh? What? No way!"

  Even though I was young, I can remember people selling their homes, leaving careers so they could pioneer, and cashing in their stocks and bonds. Those were crazy times.

  I also remember a special talk at our hall that was by telephone hook-up. It was in 1976 or '77, I think, and the Society's speaker said, 'Just because it didn't happen in 1975, don't be fooled like some of the friends who are putting Armageddon off for five, ten, even 20 years.'

  Well, next year will be 30 years -- did I miss something?
• 

  AlanF

  Maybe it came invisibly, Lewis, like Jesus' Kingdom in 1914. If we didn't notice, it's our lookout.

  AlanF
• 

  confusedjw

  The Chess Piece said:

  Sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s the Society published a half-hearted apology for being too eager regarding the 1975 issue.

  This is what the 1980 WT, Mar 15th said concerning the role the WT played in the fallout concerning 1975:

  5 In modern times such eagerness, commendable in itself, has led to attempts at setting dates for the desired liberation from the suffering and troubles that are the lot of persons throughout the earth. With the appearance of the book Life Everlasting?in Freedom of the Sons of God, and its comments as to how appropriate it would be for the millennial reign of Christ to parallel the seventh millennium of man?s existence, considerable expectation was aroused regarding the year 1975. There were statements made then, and thereafter, stressing that this was only a possibility. Unfortunately, however, along with such cautionary information, there were other statements published that implied that such realization of hopes by that year was more of a probability than a mere possibility. It is to be regretted that these latter statements apparently overshadowed the cautionary ones and contributed to a buildup of the expectation already initiated.

  Um.......yeah "apparently" it did.
• 

  Lewis

  This is just the kind of back-door reasoning that makes me lose all respect for the WTS. For an organization that micromanaged the lives of the flock (acceptable sexual activity for married people; vasectomies; recreation; friendships; disfellowshipping, etc.), it's hard to imagine they couldn't -- since being YHWH's mouthpiece -- clearly articulate: IT'S NOT GONNA HAPPEN PEOPLE!"
• 

  cyber-sista

  Before I became a witness I heard tales of my husbands cousin who was a witness. Though we never met the other relatives had a lot to say about this person. This was back in the 70s. I recall that this witness family had sold out and moved out to the boonies and were living in poverty. One relative had gone out to visit with them and said they were grinding up acorns as they were living off the land preparing for the end to come. I knew another witness couple in the 70s that had left good job and nice home to prepare themselves for what was to shortly come. So the urgency then must have been great--can only think the society was feeding it--where else would they have gotten the idea? Why I became a witness after that I will never know...