Posts by LongHairGal

33

Merry Christmas

by jhine in

i don't think that it's too early for my annual merry christmas thread .

merry christmas everyone.

jan .

Pioneer couple sense of entitlement

by nowwhat? in

so there's this middle age pioneer couple.

he works part time and the wife doesn't work at all.

their daughter is getting married and even though it is known they go on multiple vacations a year, they expect the grooms parents to pay for 100% of the wedding!

LongHairGal

BETH SARIM:

I see your point. You feel sorry for them and think the religion has more ‘accountability for pounding this mindset’. Nevertheless, I am not being subjected to appeals for money!!

I also would never get involved with any other religion/organization/movement either.. Even if the people there don’t have the same wrong sense of entitlement that some pioneer Witnesses have, the bottom line is people there are all looking for the moolah.. Because of all the social ills in the country, all churches have their fill of people looking for something - and not just from the institution itself. They are looking to latch on to people in the congregations!.. That’s all I need 🙄. I know somebody this happened to.

I won’t knock anybody who wants to ‘belong’ to something.. But, I’m not interested.

33

Pioneer couple sense of entitlement

by nowwhat? in

so there's this middle age pioneer couple.

he works part time and the wife doesn't work at all.

their daughter is getting married and even though it is known they go on multiple vacations a year, they expect the grooms parents to pay for 100% of the wedding!

LongHairGal

BETH SARIM:

You know, it’s not about gloating or wishing evil on anybody..but these people have selective memory loss.

The JW religion discourages careers/decent jobs and attempts to ‘punish’ anybody who has it. The hateful attitudes in the congregations and class distinctions are encouraged by somebody.. It didn’t come from nowhere.. People (who meant nothing to me)..made sure I was marginalized and not invited anywhere. I heard remarks about ‘not spiritual’. I ignored it all and am retired today.

As I said, I’m not interested in anybody who fell for all the BS and is looking for handouts today. There is an unaccountability and a panhandling mentality that is present in the religion that wasn’t there when I was in. I’d never tolerate this.

It’s also hard to believe that even at this late date after seeing people in bad shape for not getting decent jobs, saving and the economy being what it is..that there are people who STILL want to pioneer and live on the edge. These JWs have NO business clinging to the fallacy that people are going to give them handouts - especially anybody there who got criticized for their career or good job.

Brothers with businesses are going to have to help all these gullible old pioneers who were in their heyday decades ago. They looked down on me for working and being conscientious.. Sorry, but I don’t want to know about any of them now.

33

Pioneer couple sense of entitlement

by nowwhat? in

so there's this middle age pioneer couple.

he works part time and the wife doesn't work at all.

their daughter is getting married and even though it is known they go on multiple vacations a year, they expect the grooms parents to pay for 100% of the wedding!

LongHairGal

FOOLEDNOMORE:

So they had the balls to ask your family to make a cake for their get-togethers which you were never invited to? I hope your answer was No.. I’d never even say hello or look at them either. This religion encourages class distinctions and hateful attitudes in addition to the wrong sense of entitlement.. And they THINK they are in a ‘brotherhood’??

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH:

I certainly wasn’t one of the ones who put anybody on a pedestal. 🙄 I also heard about all those special gatherings, etc. Naturally, I was never invited because I was hated for my full-time job…These JW pioneers (who wouldn’t be caught dead in a full-time job) were really riding high back in the day. People were fawning over them and inviting them everywhere like they were mini celebrities.

Well, here we are today almost 2023..and if these pioneers didn’t wisely plan for their retirement.. they better go track down all the JWs who fawned all over them plus the ‘great ladies’ who hosted these dinners back then and ask THEM for a$$istance!..

I have no tolerance for their sob stories. If anybody came up to me with an envelope looking for $..my answer would be ‘Hell No’.

33

Pioneer couple sense of entitlement

by nowwhat? in

so there's this middle age pioneer couple.

he works part time and the wife doesn't work at all.

their daughter is getting married and even though it is known they go on multiple vacations a year, they expect the grooms parents to pay for 100% of the wedding!

LongHairGal

DESIROUS OF CHANGE:

Yes, I remember the term ‘Gleaning’. I always loved how they tried to shoehorn a scripture from ancient times and tried to make it fit in modern times. As far as I was concerned: Let any of these people who want to ‘glean’ (instead of having a career/decent job) go and glean off their so-called spiritual friends who invited them to all those gatherings!.. They better Not be looking at anybody who they criticized for working!

FOOLEDNOMORE:

Understood that you are not a charity and you certainly don’t ‘owe’ anybody anything - regardless of what any would-be moocher or jealous individual anywhere thinks!

As for the sense of ‘entitlement’ that some JWs had.. I was appalled at what I saw. As others have said, not every pioneer was like this. Some were dignified and took care of themselves. But, these were usually older people in retiree category or a woman with a ‘worldly’ husband who supported her. The others were younger and probably shouldn’t have even been on the pioneer list. Remember ‘count the cost’? Nobody paid attention to that. But I did. I knew I had to work full-time. Got a lot of flack and condemnation for it but all these years later it paid off and their arrogant words mean nothing.

39

why celebrate xmas?

by enoughisenough in

many on here are ex jw....they have left the jws because of coming to find out the many false indoctrinations.

one of the things learned as a jw is that there isn't anything true about xmas being the birth of jesus.

( matt chapter 2 tells a whole different narrative about the baby jesus than what is portrayed by the christian churches) they learn the ways that are celebrated are pagan practices jesus told the samaritan woman that god wanted to be worshipped in spirit and it truth.

LongHairGal

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH:

Many ex-JWs don’t celebrate Christmas because they never did when they were children and that’s fine. My family did so I have happy memories.

Some, like yourself, say it’s ‘pagan’ and you want to serve God in ‘spirit and truth’. A lot of Witnesses think they are purists with regard to their religion. First of all, many things have pagan origin (the calendar for one). You’d have to get off the planet to escape it. But, remember, the JW religion differs for the sake of being different!.. Just because they got rid of the statues, don’t celebrate the holidays and call their building a kingdom hall instead of a ‘church’ doesn’t necessarily mean their beliefs are correct.

With regard to Christmas and the holidays: I believe the religion does not want their followers to celebrate them because they do NOT want them associating with non-JW families and friends.. In my opinion, they are afraid once JWs experience real love and friendship with people who are not judging them - they may not want the religion anymore!

In my case, they made a real effort back in the day to get me to stop my associating with relatives & people not in the JW religion. Meanwhile, I had no real friends at the hall..I had a rude awakening one holiday season when I was left alone staring at four walls. Believe me, I hold this against them almost as much as them knocking me for having my job!.. All this was intended to isolate me.

That’s why when I ‘Faded’ years ago the first thing I did was send out Christmas cards and rekindled old relationships before it was too late!

42

WT Ruining Members' Futures

by HiddlesWife in

what i mean by the title of this thread is what has happened to a relative of mine, one who is really upset about this factor:.

this relative is a distant cousin on my mother's side of the family.

she studied as a child and got baptized at 14 1/2 years old.

LongHairGal

RATTIGAN350:

Sorry! What you said isn’t totally accurate! It’s superficial and doesn’t tell the whole story.

Yes, it’s true there are many people around who have little to no savings…HOWEVER, they did not belong to the JW religion that tells people Not to plan, not to get an education and Not to get a decent job. This is a guaranteed recipe for failure!

These non-JWs predicament is partly because of an appallingly bad economy plus poor planning, etc.

Not only that, the broke baby boomers in the JW religion had a great economy back in the day but didn’t take advantage of it.. Even somebody without a degree could have a fairly decent retirement if they stayed with a job long enough!

But these JWs threw it away with both hands and made sure people like me who worked full time weren’t invited anywhere.

Are these ‘worldly’ people in the same boat now as JWs? It may seem that way but they are not hampered by a religion so at least they can take on work and not worry about ‘missing meetings’ 🙄.

42

WT Ruining Members' Futures

by HiddlesWife in

what i mean by the title of this thread is what has happened to a relative of mine, one who is really upset about this factor:.

this relative is a distant cousin on my mother's side of the family.

she studied as a child and got baptized at 14 1/2 years old.

LongHairGal

SIMON & BETH SARIM:

I mostly agree. But, there is the factor of people waking up before it’s too late!

They will have to ‘go against the grain’ and take themselves off the pioneer list and concentrate on pursuing a decent job. This will certainly invite criticism and unwanted intrusion into somebody’s life!.. They have to be courageous enough to fend off the remarks and busybodies and stay focused on what they need to do.

This will also result in their ‘popularity’ ending abruptly. They will no longer be the congregation darling invited everywhere! They will have to accept this like I did back in the day.. If I was hung up on being popular like the woman mentioned in the OP.. I would not be retired!

18

The use of "Stumbled" as a Control Technique.

by Phizzy in

i thought about this when i read the expression in another thread, "someone was stumbled", they would never tell you who the person was, and simply used it to control you, or it got worse, some times it was "you might stumble someone" .. who were these stumbling loons of which they spoke ?

not only was it a control mechanism, it encouraged you to not be your real self, ever.. i liked the response of one of my jw relatives to this, where they expected him to change the person he was, he said "these people accusing me are not perfect are they ?

no, well then, they cannot expect perfection from me".

LongHairGal

BETH SARIM:

That could be the case sometimes. But, I came to see in the JW religion it depends on who you are and WHO is bringing the ‘complaint’.

If you happen to be somebody attractive, stylish or look well off - and somebody more popular or ‘influential’ (in a bad way - like an eldress) is making a complaint (whether it’s your clothing, something you own, etc.), you might be made to feel you are in the ‘wrong’ - even if you are technically not. It could be a grey area.. Some things are none of anybody’s business and I wasn’t there to be on edge worrying about what everyone thought.

In my opinion, they went too far with this ‘stumbling’ nonsense!

18

The use of "Stumbled" as a Control Technique.

by Phizzy in

i thought about this when i read the expression in another thread, "someone was stumbled", they would never tell you who the person was, and simply used it to control you, or it got worse, some times it was "you might stumble someone" .. who were these stumbling loons of which they spoke ?

not only was it a control mechanism, it encouraged you to not be your real self, ever.. i liked the response of one of my jw relatives to this, where they expected him to change the person he was, he said "these people accusing me are not perfect are they ?

no, well then, they cannot expect perfection from me".

LongHairGal

PHIZZY:

I always thought that the ‘stumbled’ card that Witnesses play was a control mechanism. In my mind, ‘stumbling’ had to do with refraining from doing something around a person who had a problem in a certain area. For example: maybe I wouldn’t order an alcoholic beverage if I were out with a person who was trying to quit drinking.

Unfortunately, the JWs take this too far and use it to give unwanted opinions to people about everything. What I came to believe is that sometimes Witnesses were just plain ENVIOUS. If they made a remark about somebody’s stylish clothing, etc., maybe because the person looked better in clothing than they did or could afford stylish clothing. Also, with regard to somebody being talented in some area (or educated) they didn’t want to hear about it lest somebody there get hurt feelings over feeling inferior. They would be ‘stumbled’. But, this doesn’t fit in with what I consider to be stumbled!.. They should pray to Jehovah to be less jealous or envious.

FOOLEDNOMORE:

I wouldn’t have bothered with that awful JW woman either.. Let her go elsewhere. Sounds like she has a serious case of envy and some other things as well.