Posts by LongHairGal

32

Conversation with old friend

by LongHairGal in

i recently had a conversation with an old acquaintance from the congregation i used to attend.

we talked about the recent changes in the 2023 annual meeting.

i especially pointed out the one about getting rid of hourly reporting on monthly time slips.

LongHairGal

IQUIT:

Very wise of you to have prepared for retirement whether this was because you were ‘having doubts’ about the religion’s teachings or because it’s just plain common sense!

As for those JWs that you mentioned who sold homes, etc. to go ‘where the need was great’ (a repeat of the ‘75 mistake)…and ‘never recovered from that blunder’ - they are among the ‘needy’ there looking for handouts. This is in addition to those who hardly worked and were in the ministry for decades.

I made it clear to my friend mentioned in my OP that I’m glad I’m not there and would not tolerate being in an environment where I would be targeted to give money. What others tolerate is their business.

32

Conversation with old friend

by LongHairGal in

i recently had a conversation with an old acquaintance from the congregation i used to attend.

we talked about the recent changes in the 2023 annual meeting.

i especially pointed out the one about getting rid of hourly reporting on monthly time slips.

LongHairGal

LV101:

My God, how could your friend go back there! Whether it’s loneliness or whatever - I’m sorry to hear it.

And, it doesn’t surprise me that they are asking her personal and financial information. I have no use for them. This says it all.. What more does anybody need to hear? I couldn’t even tolerate being in the same room with them now. I hope your friend doesn’t check her brains at the door! ..She’s a perfect target. 👎

32

Conversation with old friend

by LongHairGal in

i recently had a conversation with an old acquaintance from the congregation i used to attend.

we talked about the recent changes in the 2023 annual meeting.

i especially pointed out the one about getting rid of hourly reporting on monthly time slips.

LongHairGal

ATLANTIS:

Thank you for your kind words.

Back in the day I certainly was going against the crowd because I worked and did not pioneer! It felt like actual hatred from some Witnesses there.

They were determined to ‘punish’ me by making sure I wasn’t invited anywhere.. Little did they know I had friends on the outside so these wonderful ‘Christians’ in the hall were not missed!.. [Funny experience: years later but before I Retired I’m in a local deli waiting for my order and I see an older lady staring at me. I didn’t know her but smiled anyway because that’s how I am. Later, I realized it was somebody from that judgmental hall.]

32

Conversation with old friend

by LongHairGal in

i recently had a conversation with an old acquaintance from the congregation i used to attend.

we talked about the recent changes in the 2023 annual meeting.

i especially pointed out the one about getting rid of hourly reporting on monthly time slips.

LongHairGal

All very good comments!

PHIZZY:

I also had somebody say something along the lines of “you’ll never see that money”. Well, they proved to be very wrong.

People like us in the JWs who disregarded the utter nonsense were probably few and far between. Meanwhile, everybody else there was falling for the fantasy.. What I cannot forgive in my case was that ALL the older people there were collecting their pensions. THEY were obviously in the workforce. But, yet, poverty was pushed on all the young people like myself that were there! Thankfully, I paid no heed. Maybe my non-JW upbringing saved me?.. And, so what if the Witnesses hated me and thought I was ‘unspiritual’?? They aren’t paying MY bills!

There are several Witnesses I would have loved to tell off.. Sorry I never got the chance.

Fast forward to now in 2024: all the young people got OLD. The older hypocrites back then with cushy lives pushing poverty are all gone by now.. They aren’t even around to help anybody they helped to mislead!!!

The unaccountable religion goes on reinventing itself and trashing 100 year old teachings that countless people were harmed by.. These JWs are in the ‘dire straits’ you mention.. We can be grateful we are all out of the religion! ..Meanwhile, those stuck in are gaslighted and preyed upon by legions of needy and/or crazy JWs!

32

Conversation with old friend

by LongHairGal in

i recently had a conversation with an old acquaintance from the congregation i used to attend.

we talked about the recent changes in the 2023 annual meeting.

i especially pointed out the one about getting rid of hourly reporting on monthly time slips.

LongHairGal

I recently had a conversation with an old acquaintance from the congregation I used to attend.

We talked about the recent changes in the 2023 annual meeting. I especially pointed out the one about getting rid of hourly reporting on monthly time slips. I mentioned that this was a century old teaching - and that many JWs are poor today because of not getting careers and instead spending years in the ministry.. Of course, I did not follow the crowd and had a full-time job.

My friend tried to make it sound like the religion is now a great place to be and ‘everybody helps each other’ and ‘brings food and assists others…’. I said it sounds like you are expected to give money and things to people, etc. They pretty much agreed.

I said what she does is her business. I explained that I got criticized for working and would be starving if I listened to them. I would not tolerate anybody coming up to me asking for money/aid for people who did not work. What nerve!

So, as I predicted long ago, this is what it has finally come to in the JW religion. This is the outcome after a major foolish policy.. I Hate being right all the time and knew it was absurd that people didn’t work or plan for their future. But, I am super Glad I am not around any of the chaos in that place!

43

Fading is better then completely leaving...comments?

by Witness 007 in

i got the internet in my house and realised it's all lies....but as a pioneer/ministerial servant i chose to fade.

see i had family and friends who were fully strict witnesses.

so i played the poor lost soul brother who is not sure what's happening.

LongHairGal

ELDERBERRY:

In 1995 they changed the Generation teaching. This was a major teaching. They previously believed that people living in 1914 would see the ‘End’ of the World or ‘this system of things’ as they put it.. Well, they changed their minds. They very nicely slipped their ‘new understanding’ into their magazine article very nonchalantly.

It was at a Sunday meeting that I did not prepare for and I just learned about it as it was read.. It hit me like a bolt of lightning that they were just stringing everybody along.. I knew right then that my time in the Witness religion was over and I planned my ‘Fade’. There wasn’t much fallout from other people initially and I kept my feelings to myself. There must have been a delayed reaction though because many people left the religion over the next several years.

Hopefully, this was a wake up call to some Witnesses that they had BETTER get themselves a decent job to prepare for their retirement. (There was a poster on the forum who was in this category. He got a good job before it was too late.) That was almost 30 years ago and would be enough time for somebody to have done something. Those JWs who paid no attention and did nothing? Oh well…

43

Fading is better then completely leaving...comments?

by Witness 007 in

i got the internet in my house and realised it's all lies....but as a pioneer/ministerial servant i chose to fade.

see i had family and friends who were fully strict witnesses.

so i played the poor lost soul brother who is not sure what's happening.

LongHairGal

WITNESS007:

I did a ‘Fade’ in 2001 because I just didn’t want any drama. As it was, I got the usual “we miss you” cards.

It had nothing to do with keeping in touch with family because my family were Roman Catholic and, thankfully, never in the JW religion. When I left I re-established contact with everybody. I admire when people disassociate the loud way and if this works for some, great!

With the recent changes at the 2023 annual meeting, there may be many angry Witnesses who feel they are done with it. I don’t blame them. Whatever they choose: whether Fading or DAing, I wish them all the best. Maybe this was the ‘last straw’.

The 1995 Generation teaching did it for me. But, if I were those who knocked themselves out in the ministry (for decades) when they should have been gainfully employed/paying into retirement, I would be physically ill.. I’m Glad I never listened! ..What difference does it make now if they hated me or never invited me years ago??

37

My grandmother called my mother

by Anony Mous in

so, i’m just posting this as a warning to lurking jws.

if you’re still on the fence, here is a story.. my grandmother, now in her 80s hasn’t talked to anyone in the family for over 20 years ever since my mother was the last one of her children that left ‘the truth’, she had sent my mother a card to never talk to her again.

so here we are 21 years later, she gets a call out of the blue that she needed help, she hadn’t been able to get into her kitchen.

LongHairGal

JEHOVAXX:

Getting back to the OP and the elderly person putting themselves at the mercy of a stranger:..

Let us not forget this is ALL the result of abnormal teachings of the religion. Among normal society, a person doesn’t shun their flesh and blood family and look to strangers. Among normal society, people don’t pursue poverty and deliberately not plan for the future.

Remember the scripture about the lowly Ant that stores up? The Witnesses taught commands of men. They literally hated on anybody who behaved like a responsible person. Now, JWs who followed ridiculously stupid teachings and are poverty stricken think they are going to go begging to anybody with a pulse who looks responsible.. Sorry, but I’d run from them. Meanwhile, who caused all this?

As a slap in the face, the religion does away with the very teaching that caused these Witnesses to knock themselves out unnecessarily in the first place. And no apologies forthcoming.

37

My grandmother called my mother

by Anony Mous in

so, i’m just posting this as a warning to lurking jws.

if you’re still on the fence, here is a story.. my grandmother, now in her 80s hasn’t talked to anyone in the family for over 20 years ever since my mother was the last one of her children that left ‘the truth’, she had sent my mother a card to never talk to her again.

so here we are 21 years later, she gets a call out of the blue that she needed help, she hadn’t been able to get into her kitchen.

LongHairGal

JEHOVAXX:

You say these people who followed that direction are a ‘burden’ on others. Really?🙄

What if these so-called others do not acknowledge this burden?.. What if they (correctly) conclude that this is not their problem? .. After all, whose fault is it that other Witnesses did not pay into private pensions in the first place???

Some might argue the religion didn’t ‘force’ anybody. That may be true but they imposed sanctions on people who worked in the form of shunning and gossip. I personally experienced this.

Of course, Witnesses should have kept their business private in the first place!!!

The reason my business became known is that a JW did my taxes and saw that I contributed to IRAs.. I’m sure they blabbed to all the busybodies. Thank God I planned because nobody would be supporting me!

As I said in my post above about wrong ASSumptions, nobody has any business believing responsible people are somehow obligated to provide charity to irresponsible Witnesses who didn’t work OR plan.. So sorry anybody bought into the fantasy.

37

My grandmother called my mother

by Anony Mous in

so, i’m just posting this as a warning to lurking jws.

if you’re still on the fence, here is a story.. my grandmother, now in her 80s hasn’t talked to anyone in the family for over 20 years ever since my mother was the last one of her children that left ‘the truth’, she had sent my mother a card to never talk to her again.

so here we are 21 years later, she gets a call out of the blue that she needed help, she hadn’t been able to get into her kitchen.

LongHairGal

MIKEJW:

I totally agree. I was raised Roman Catholic and found the Witness mentality appalling.

The JW religion has No social programs whatsoever.. They encourage members not to get college/careers - thus promoting poverty.. They promote shunning and we have seen the horrific results with family members not speaking for decades.. The most tragic is when parents are coerced into shunning their children who are either disfellowshipped or just plain do not want the religion.. So what happens when these stupid JW parents get old?

This is a mess. The religion is filled with wrong assumptions and urban legends. I always wondered where these came from. I think the religion probably floats these trial balloons with some CO or somebody giving his ‘opinion’ and then it’s repeated as gospel. They probably don’t want anybody coming to them - so they let the rumors spread that ‘people in the congregation should do this’.

Nope. The people in the congregation are not responsible for somebody else’s elderly parents!!!!! And, if a particular JW still in the religion has good reason to hate their parents because of ill treatment - they should get in touch with whatever agencies to help..

This is not the problem of anybody else. For many reasons, I am Glad I’m walked away from this chaos ages ago.