by kid-A 25 Replies latest jw friends
In the years leading up to 1975, there was an implicit (if not explicit) discouragement of having children given the proximity of armageddon.
I don't understand the logic behind this.
So, their "new system" isn't supposed to contain any children? Would children slow them down as they run from Jehover's fire and brimstone of love?
I don't get it.
The Watchtower Society has for many years discouraged its members from having families. They point out that more time can be spent in the door-to-door work without the distraction of children. They say it is unwise to have a family when the “Great Tribulation” leading to Armageddon is almost upon us, and it will be harder for those with babies and children.
Many members have remained single because of this. Others have married but been afraid to have children and have lived their entire lives in anticipation of “The End,” and passed away childless.
The pressure to pioneer instead of marrying and raising a family reached its peak in the 1970’s, and then faded. In more recent years it was thought by many that the Society had altered its attitudes. As some who had passed by the opportunity of family life felt they had been wrongly advised, it was thought that the Society would continue to lay low on this subject, and allow the members to think for them without interference.
Unfortunately the Society knows that single or childless people who have devoted their lives to furthering the interests of their organization are too valuable to lose. Frightening members into pursuing such a course in life has gained them many pioneers in the past – too many to let sentiment stop them using the same tactics again. Raising children is not the most reliable way of enlarging the organization and takes far too long. Full-time pioneers are by far the most effective way.
At the 1987 summer assemblies, the pressure to avoid parenthood, or better still marriage, began to be applied again at the stadiums around the world. Later the Watchtower contained two articles, “Childbearing Among God’s People” and “Responsible Childbearing in This Time of the End.” Among the many pages of advice and direction they stated:
“While Paul (the Apostle) forbade neither marriage nor childbearing, he obviously felt duty bound to warn his fellow Christians that such could bring about problems and distractions that might hinder them in their service to Jehovah…. Obviously, rearing children in the time of the end would not always be a pure joy. It could bring heartbreak, disappointment, and even danger.”
The articles do not point out that this is a personal decision but liken the time we are living in to Noah’s time and say of Noah’s sons:
“Second, they doubtless felt disinclined to bring children into a world where the badness of man was abundant in the earth….”
Our present day is also likened to the years leading up to Jerusalem’s destruction:
“Jewish historian Josephus relates that during the siege of Jerusalem in 70 C.E., children snatched food from the mouths of their fathers and mothers took food from the mouths of their infant children. He recounts how a Jewish woman killed her suckling baby, roasted the body, and ate part of it. Bringing children into the Jewish world in the final years leading up to the execution of Jehovah’s judgments against Jerusalem in 607 C.E. and 70 C.E. could hardly be termed responsible childbearing.” (1st March 1988)
Many Witnesses who have reached middle age unmarried, childless and uneducated are told that the choices they made were their own responsibility and that the Society have never tried to predict when the “Old World” will end or tell its members how to live.
Trevor Willis
I remember back in the 1980's they discouraged witnesses from having kids, because we were to close to the end, but a good thing that they didn't listen to them...because there wouldn't be too many left at the hall...
I remember back in the mid-nineties when I was having a crisis within myself. I was pioneering with husband and we so desperately wanted children, yet the pioneers around us talked about children as if they were the devil's spawn.
I wrote a letter to the society asking for a clarification on whether having chidren was okay. I never heard back even though it was written in a very sincere way. It made me so angry that they wouldn't respond.
When we eventually did get pregnant, all of our "friends" that had hung on after we quit pioneering left us. We'd see them later and they would talk down their noses at us. It makes me physically ill just thinking about it now.
Another thing that really bugged me was my great-uncle. A faithful pioneer/elder in his 60's. One time we got him talking (I still love his so much) and when we asked him why he never married and had children he got a sad look on his face and said that he was following the direction of "mother". How very, very sad.
The ones who don't have children have made a huge sacrifice. They didn't sacrifice one son like Abraham or God, they sacrificed ALL their children.
The WTBTS has always put forth these outrageous demands quoting scriptures and pontificating at their altar of phoney "specialness". For some reason entire cadres of young married people in the Halls I went to ignored these tirades and merrily went ahead and had as many kids as they pleased. I saw large families of four and five kids and this was in the '60s and '70s. Don't know why we never seemed to hear that part of the du(m)b message at all. I had two kids myself.
I do recall some of the older "childless by choice" couples saying they wished they had gone ahead and had children instead of listening to the org. Very sad. Some of these women would hold your kids at the meetings and you could see the regret on their faces. I had a couple of these older ones ask if they could put their hand on my abdomen to feel the baby move during my pregnancies. Now that I know more about this problem I feel very sad for anyone who followed this insane, cruel and invasive rubbish!
This religion goes deep into private lives like Gestapo in jack boots. There's no regard for the individual, no thought for the eventual great harm done to good and honest people who believed the lies and manipulation and ultimatly sacrificed their financial and emotional security. It's just one evil demand upon another then when you're used up you get chucked aside like yesterday's trash. And they have the gall to tell the followers who gave up their right to have children that this was THEIR problem and no one told them to do this?!?!?!? Give me a break!
