Like Blondie, I’m ‘old enough’.
Raised Roman Catholic, came in late ‘70s. So much didn’t sit well but I left after that 1995 Generation teaching.
They had lost all credibility at that point as far as I was concerned.
LongHairGal
JoinedPosts by LongHairGal
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64
Ages of each user here?
by ukpimo ini'm interested to know the age demographics here.
it must be significantly different to other exjw forums.
it would be a damning report for watchtower if most of us appear to have left for decades.. you don't have to mention your exact age, you could always say "in my 50s".. i am in my 70s.
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It's been ten years since congregations surrendered their finances to HQ
by truthseeker inanyone have any anecdotal reports of individual congregation finances since the stealth takeover by the wt of their checking accounts?.
are donations up?
can they pay their bills?.
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LongHairGal
THOMAS MORE:
I have been Out like twenty three years, so I guess I must’ve read it on here about the JW religion taking possession of kh titles and congregation bank accounts, etc.
If the goal was them selling off halls, was this because of lawsuits or declining membership or a little of both?
Reading your No. 5: ‘displacement of congregations and individuals’, consolidating congregations.. This is like the game Musical Chairs, only when the music stops the people are left without a hall.. How many times can they rinse & repeat??
You are probably right that if somebody sees their hall is getting a major facelift there’s a good chance it will be sold. The result of all this happening too many times is the incredible shrinking religion. Is it the religion’s goal to go completely online with hardly any brick & mortar presence aside from an assembly hall??
If this is the case, there’s going to be some high & dry and disillusioned members that will be very upset.
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Reddit thread re Oct 2024 WT with picture of window washer - Theme knocking people who Planned
by LongHairGal inthis thread currently has over 300 comments.. it shows a picture of an older man washing a window looking wistfully… then it talks all about how some may have doubts about not having planned and the situation they are in now that they are older, etc.
it refers to others who did plan and who supposedly have ‘apparent’ financial security.
in my opinion, the whole gist of this article is to make older witnesses feel better who did not pursue a career or plan well for retirement.. it tries to imply that those others who planned only have ‘apparent’ financial security - which is to say they don’t (?).
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LongHairGal
HOSER:
Yes, I saw that the ‘popular’ JWs were so chummy.
Of course, I never realized what you said about buying new cars and getting them used up in ‘theocratic activities’ which is to say you were providing charity to everybody else! 👎 No good!
I was not raised a JW so this would be absurd. It seemed to me the JWs somehow ‘hypnotizes’ people to act against their better interests. I’ll tell you one thing - After I got all the hate and shunning because I worked, I was determined never give charity of any sort to anybody there. I also never did favors either.
This is why I really wouldn’t have pity for the fictitious window washing brother depicted in the article! His ‘spiritual’ friends would have to help him.
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Reddit thread re Oct 2024 WT with picture of window washer - Theme knocking people who Planned
by LongHairGal inthis thread currently has over 300 comments.. it shows a picture of an older man washing a window looking wistfully… then it talks all about how some may have doubts about not having planned and the situation they are in now that they are older, etc.
it refers to others who did plan and who supposedly have ‘apparent’ financial security.
in my opinion, the whole gist of this article is to make older witnesses feel better who did not pursue a career or plan well for retirement.. it tries to imply that those others who planned only have ‘apparent’ financial security - which is to say they don’t (?).
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LongHairGal
SKIN:
Yes, I remember it well about financially secure Jehovah’s Witnesses telling other gullible (mostly younger) people to pursue poverty. The poverty they were pushing was certainly not for them!
The Witness religion is filled with such hypocrisy.
Usually they were affluent because they were older and already earned their living and collecting a pension or had their own businesses and were doing very well. My pet peeve was married women who made stupid remarks. They never worked and were married to non-JW men who let them do their ‘thing’.
All these people did not relate to me as a person who worked full-time to support myself.. Most of these people are gone by now and went to their graves living a cushy life.. Me? I’m glad I never listened to any of them.
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Reddit thread re Oct 2024 WT with picture of window washer - Theme knocking people who Planned
by LongHairGal inthis thread currently has over 300 comments.. it shows a picture of an older man washing a window looking wistfully… then it talks all about how some may have doubts about not having planned and the situation they are in now that they are older, etc.
it refers to others who did plan and who supposedly have ‘apparent’ financial security.
in my opinion, the whole gist of this article is to make older witnesses feel better who did not pursue a career or plan well for retirement.. it tries to imply that those others who planned only have ‘apparent’ financial security - which is to say they don’t (?).
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LongHairGal
BETH SARIM:
Probably.
When all is said and done - after a further decrease in membership which will come with time and Boomers passing away and younger people leaving, there will be the inevitable sales of more Halls... Whatever is left of the religion will probably be online. They will have then joined the ranks of other obscure religions in the U.S.
Possibly the once bustling religion might similarly ‘disappear’ into the sky like Professor Marvel did at the end of the movie “Wizard of Oz” . There would be some very outraged and disappointed people but those are the breaks!
While this is conjecture, nothing at all would surprise me.
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Reddit thread re Oct 2024 WT with picture of window washer - Theme knocking people who Planned
by LongHairGal inthis thread currently has over 300 comments.. it shows a picture of an older man washing a window looking wistfully… then it talks all about how some may have doubts about not having planned and the situation they are in now that they are older, etc.
it refers to others who did plan and who supposedly have ‘apparent’ financial security.
in my opinion, the whole gist of this article is to make older witnesses feel better who did not pursue a career or plan well for retirement.. it tries to imply that those others who planned only have ‘apparent’ financial security - which is to say they don’t (?).
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LongHairGal
FEDUP JW:
Yes, and thank you everybody for the great comments …..That Menlo Park story is a tragedy and the world should know about this and what goes on in the JW religion (a brother being run off the road???). Sounds like a whistleblower movie.
Getting back to the diehard ‘brother’ portrayed in the picture: somebody on Reddit commented that in all likelihood this brother is shunning some people, maybe relatives.. Also, maybe he gave up having kids for the religion. Somebody thought he looked lobotomized…Maybe he’s happy and gets by with a little help from his friends(?)
But, as I have said before, nobody there was looking out for me. What a hostile and cold environment.. Thank God I held onto my job until retirement!!
What I do feel is going to happen: ..sell-offs of halls everywhere and consolidation of congregations, declining membership, etc. and people driving ridiculous distances to wherever; the JW religion will be mostly online.. That means there will be NO physical presence of the religion in their neighborhood. There will not BE somebody they can go ask for handouts and assistance of any kind like in the past.
They will have to go to the churches of Christendom for aid of any kind.
All the faithful Witnesses left over who sacrificed so much and did without who are needy in their old age will be HIGH AND DRY. The religion just won’t be there.. I would not be surprised IF this is the direction it is going!
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Reddit thread re Oct 2024 WT with picture of window washer - Theme knocking people who Planned
by LongHairGal inthis thread currently has over 300 comments.. it shows a picture of an older man washing a window looking wistfully… then it talks all about how some may have doubts about not having planned and the situation they are in now that they are older, etc.
it refers to others who did plan and who supposedly have ‘apparent’ financial security.
in my opinion, the whole gist of this article is to make older witnesses feel better who did not pursue a career or plan well for retirement.. it tries to imply that those others who planned only have ‘apparent’ financial security - which is to say they don’t (?).
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LongHairGal
This thread currently has over 300 comments.
It shows a picture of an older man washing a window looking wistfully… then it talks all about how some may have doubts about not having planned and the situation they are in now that they are older, etc. It refers to others who did plan and who supposedly have ‘apparent’ financial security.
In my opinion, the whole gist of this article is to make older Witnesses feel better who did not pursue a career or plan well for Retirement.. It tries to imply that those others who planned only have ‘apparent’ financial security - which is to say they don’t (?). Whatever.. It sounds like gaslighting and sour grapes to me.. It might also cause even more resentfulness towards JWs who did plan - which is one reason I’m glad I’m Out.
The truth of the matter is that somebody who planned for their retirement is vastly better off than someone who did nothing. In some cases maybe a person who planned doesn’t have the best retirement and may need a part time job.. But, even this would be a better scenario than somebody who did absolutely nothing and has to work at hard physical labor at an advanced age!
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Interesting that the other cult-cousins are going thru nearly identical hemmoraging of members.....
by WingCommander ini still read on reddit.
(though no longer post) occasionally, i'll venture over to the ex-seventh day adventist (sda) sub and catch up a bit.
it's been a long time.
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LongHairGal
THOMAS MORE:
Yes, surely there must be many pioneers who ‘basked in the praise’ years ago who have had their rude awakening now in their senior years. These people surely must be angry. I wonder what they are doing about it?
It’s certainly tough getting older, but to people who never prepared for it…positively devastating.. I’m so very Glad I never listened to JW rhetoric. I was shunned back then.. But, So what?… I was not raised a Witness and felt they were unrealistic anyway and I let things go in one ear and out the other…
As for JWs getting kicked out of Bethel: anybody still there had better be prepared with phone numbers of contacts to help them.
As for getting grief for focusing on your future, and some JWs not speaking to you now? How stupid.. Glad it’s all in the past for me since I’m retired and long Out.. I have no desire to be around JWs now with their panhandling mentality. When all is said and done: they were deceived by a religion and it’s not my problem.
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51
Interesting that the other cult-cousins are going thru nearly identical hemmoraging of members.....
by WingCommander ini still read on reddit.
(though no longer post) occasionally, i'll venture over to the ex-seventh day adventist (sda) sub and catch up a bit.
it's been a long time.
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LongHairGal
BETH SARIM:
Yes, I have listened to a couple of his podcasts.. As he says: they truly do ‘check their brains at the door’. I witnessed this.
WING COMMANDER:
Yes, I most certainly am a Baby Boomer like your late mom.. May she RIP.. In all probability, I would have had conversations with her. We could relate because we both worked. We weren’t like other stupid Stepford wife types there!
I confess I have NO camaraderie whatsoever with married women who never worked. They said the stupidest things and you’d want to punch them in the face. So, I got a reputation of sorts that I ‘said things’. Well, that’s because some effin’ morons thought they could say anything they wanted to a single woman!! Some of them got an answer they never expected. I wasn’t tolerating or humoring anybody like this because their shit was intolerable.
It is not just the GB that deserve to be criticized. It is the rank & file idiots in each congregation that are guilty of this unchristian behavior. There was also great jealousy I perceived if somebody worked and they imagined you were rolling in dough. These idiots thought I was ‘golden’ and had no responsibilities because I was single. Meanwhile, as anybody who works full time will tell you.. you have no time for anything and you’re lucky you got a nights sleep.
I am sorry your mom went through what she did, and that part where she had nasty things said to her because she tried to pioneer. Their remarks indicate this all-pervasive jealousy of an educated woman with a decent job.
As I have said many times: ..if I had listened to this idiot religion and caved in to pressure to pioneer I would be so screwed it wouldn’t be funny. As it is, I do have to watch my pennies. I have said it before that I have No pity for anybody who chose not to work… Starving??.. Go ask the religion for money that pressured them/promised them Paradise..or track down their spiritual friends who might still be around!
But none of these fools deserve anything from people they criticized, marginalized and slandered.
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Interesting that the other cult-cousins are going thru nearly identical hemmoraging of members.....
by WingCommander ini still read on reddit.
(though no longer post) occasionally, i'll venture over to the ex-seventh day adventist (sda) sub and catch up a bit.
it's been a long time.
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LongHairGal
BETH SARIM:
I do believe my so-called worldly Catholic parents had my best interests at heart.
However, I do Not believe that Jehovah’s Witnesses had my best interests at heart. No way.. They were out to exploit me and couldn’t give a rat’s a$$ what became of me. But, Thank God my contrary nature and ‘worldly’ upbringing saved me and I am grateful today.
As far as JWs not having their children’s proper best interests at heart it’s because something got between the parents and their children. That thing was a cold religious corporation.
The sad thing in all this:.. Witnesses believed the fantasy they were told and threw common sense out the window.. In fact what they did was cave in to peer pressure. They even ignored scriptures that promote saving or preparing. They followed men.. Hence, you have the many thousands of Witnesses today who reached retirement age unprepared.
Surely, no young person years ago invited to a pioneer dinner and patted on the back had ANY idea their financial security in old age was in jeopardy and they were being lulled into a sleep mode wasting precious Time with fantasies.