Posts by LongHairGal

19

Reddit thread Warning young JWs that ‘Spiritual Goals’ are Not a Career!

by LongHairGal in

jw
friends

as somebody who worked full-time when i was in the witness religion, this topic naturally caught my eye.. many of the responses are heartfelt.

there are about 90 at this point.

from what i read so far.. many are people who woke up before they got old but even these are resentful over their life being derailed with wasted time pursuing spiritual goals and having to start over at a later age getting an education/job.. i imagine born-in young jws would be most susceptible to this.. in today’s world, a ‘career’ is something that earns you a living.. as many of the responses there will say: anybody who pursues ‘spiritual goals’ only will end up with wasted time in the end with no money and no retirement plan… i couldn’t agree more.. it would be a shame if this happens to yet more jws..

LongHairGal

HIDDLES WIFE:

I enjoy your term ‘D.W.T.s’. 🤣 Dubs With Titles.

As you correctly stated, these titles have no meaning outside of the Jehovah’s Witnesses religion. They don’t amount to a hill of beans in the REAL world.. I once read a post where somebody felt the “term Elder has about as much importance as the president of your local book club”. Sorry if this hurts anybody’s feelings.

To many people not raised a Witness - the religion’s titles really didn’t mean anything. In fact, I was baffled at JWs who kept saying decades ago that I should try to become a pioneer, etc… They made it sound so heavenly. But, I thought about it all and weighed everything and I just could not bring myself to quit my full-time job with benefits, etc. I don’t have to tell you that today all these years later I am Glad I made that choice.

36

Few JW leader have children

by slimboyfat in

it’s been discussed before that few jw leaders, past and present, have had children.

this is in contrast with other groups, such as the mormons, whose leaders have had a lot of children.

i wonder if this has impacted jw growth.

LongHairGal

JOURNEYMAN:

You hit the nail on the head.

These childless, clueless men in the religion had NO business giving any advice to people with families and I am sorry for anybody who ever listened to a word they said - not just in child rearing but in other areas as well!👎

19

Reddit thread Warning young JWs that ‘Spiritual Goals’ are Not a Career!

by LongHairGal in

jw
friends

as somebody who worked full-time when i was in the witness religion, this topic naturally caught my eye.. many of the responses are heartfelt.

there are about 90 at this point.

from what i read so far.. many are people who woke up before they got old but even these are resentful over their life being derailed with wasted time pursuing spiritual goals and having to start over at a later age getting an education/job.. i imagine born-in young jws would be most susceptible to this.. in today’s world, a ‘career’ is something that earns you a living.. as many of the responses there will say: anybody who pursues ‘spiritual goals’ only will end up with wasted time in the end with no money and no retirement plan… i couldn’t agree more.. it would be a shame if this happens to yet more jws..

LongHairGal

BLONDIE:

You tell a very interesting story. After your medical emergency and all it entailed, you could no longer be in the regular pioneer work.

It was always my opinion back in the day that the only people who should be pioneering were retirees and young students on break or summer vacation.. Everybody else had to be in the workforce full-time if they wanted to eat and have a roof over their head.. This fantasy of hardly working and just being in the ministry was cooked up generations ago by men in a religion who didn’t live in the world we live in today!.. For anybody to be spouting the same foolishness today in 2025 is sheer insanity

And as for saying that ‘elders and/or other JWs (should) step in with financial help’…any such ‘help’ could not be indefinite. Anybody who thinks otherwise is only kidding themselves🤣.. This big assumption also assumes these ‘other’ people would be willing. (I got knocked for working so I would never be.). .That is why this latest info about elderly bethelites being sent home after a lifetime is just bad news all around for them and any Witnesses still left in the religion!👎

19

Reddit thread Warning young JWs that ‘Spiritual Goals’ are Not a Career!

by LongHairGal in

jw
friends

as somebody who worked full-time when i was in the witness religion, this topic naturally caught my eye.. many of the responses are heartfelt.

there are about 90 at this point.

from what i read so far.. many are people who woke up before they got old but even these are resentful over their life being derailed with wasted time pursuing spiritual goals and having to start over at a later age getting an education/job.. i imagine born-in young jws would be most susceptible to this.. in today’s world, a ‘career’ is something that earns you a living.. as many of the responses there will say: anybody who pursues ‘spiritual goals’ only will end up with wasted time in the end with no money and no retirement plan… i couldn’t agree more.. it would be a shame if this happens to yet more jws..

LongHairGal

SCULLY:

That thread is about a book aimed towards children and lessons to be learned from the Bible.. It’s not the one about Spiritual Goals not Being a Career. But thanks for trying to help!

BLONDIE:

And as if that were not bad enough news for anybody laid off from Bethel: - working ten years will only get somebody’s foot in the door for SS..They would still need to work for decades and make a decent salary in order to get a decent benefit.

This thing with them proposing to ‘reassign’ very elderly from Bethel back to home congregations sounds bad.👎 Before this it was people in their fifties.. Those people at least had half a chance to get some kind of employment. Not so with the elderly. These people would expect to be supported. If the congregations continue to dwindle as they have been - what will the religion do? I often wondered if things got super-bad would the elders make cold calls in the community out of desperation? I don’t mean preaching. I mean asking for donations. I wonder how far fetched this could be(?) Some might say ‘never’ but who knows.

19

Reddit thread Warning young JWs that ‘Spiritual Goals’ are Not a Career!

by LongHairGal in

jw
friends

as somebody who worked full-time when i was in the witness religion, this topic naturally caught my eye.. many of the responses are heartfelt.

there are about 90 at this point.

from what i read so far.. many are people who woke up before they got old but even these are resentful over their life being derailed with wasted time pursuing spiritual goals and having to start over at a later age getting an education/job.. i imagine born-in young jws would be most susceptible to this.. in today’s world, a ‘career’ is something that earns you a living.. as many of the responses there will say: anybody who pursues ‘spiritual goals’ only will end up with wasted time in the end with no money and no retirement plan… i couldn’t agree more.. it would be a shame if this happens to yet more jws..

LongHairGal

MIKEJW:

This is a human tragedy of big proportions and I am surprised it has not gotten more publicity!!!

Back in the day, I was treated like Typhoid Mary in the congregation because I had a full-time job and didn’t pioneer!… Thank God I resisted all their scorn, criticism, shunning and whatever other unchristian behavior!…The sobering reality is that the Witness religion would not be supporting me or anybody else today. They don’t even have soup kitchens or food pantries to help the needy like other Christian religions!

I wish you best of luck trying to get by in this difficult world.😞

19

Reddit thread Warning young JWs that ‘Spiritual Goals’ are Not a Career!

by LongHairGal in

jw
friends

as somebody who worked full-time when i was in the witness religion, this topic naturally caught my eye.. many of the responses are heartfelt.

there are about 90 at this point.

from what i read so far.. many are people who woke up before they got old but even these are resentful over their life being derailed with wasted time pursuing spiritual goals and having to start over at a later age getting an education/job.. i imagine born-in young jws would be most susceptible to this.. in today’s world, a ‘career’ is something that earns you a living.. as many of the responses there will say: anybody who pursues ‘spiritual goals’ only will end up with wasted time in the end with no money and no retirement plan… i couldn’t agree more.. it would be a shame if this happens to yet more jws..

LongHairGal

WING COMMANDER:

Sorry, I had trouble posting the link. The thread is five days old started by PIMQ-Elder.

FULANO:

I hope you are able to make up for that gap in your pension. When you say ‘At the end you can only blame yourself’ this is unfortunately true. However, people who were influenced at a young vulnerable age and who were in a secluded ‘cult like’ situation didn’t have much control over it. If they ‘woke up’ when they weren’t too old, maybe they could catch up to some degree.

For somebody like myself who came into the Witnesses as a young working adult, there would be even less excuse if I harmed myself by doing something stupid like quitting a good job to pursue poverty in the ministry and doing pt. time work.. Who would feel sorry for me if I did this?? 🤣 The religion would laugh at me and I would be told that ‘nobody forced me’ and that ‘I didn’t use discernment’ or some such garbage that is said to Witnesses who got burned. They followed unwise advice and caved in to peer pressure in the religion’s culture.

In the end, I was left feeling I dodged a missile. This was still an uncomfortable feeling because I thought of the terrible predicament if I had listened all those years ago!

19

Reddit thread Warning young JWs that ‘Spiritual Goals’ are Not a Career!

by LongHairGal in

jw
friends

as somebody who worked full-time when i was in the witness religion, this topic naturally caught my eye.. many of the responses are heartfelt.

there are about 90 at this point.

from what i read so far.. many are people who woke up before they got old but even these are resentful over their life being derailed with wasted time pursuing spiritual goals and having to start over at a later age getting an education/job.. i imagine born-in young jws would be most susceptible to this.. in today’s world, a ‘career’ is something that earns you a living.. as many of the responses there will say: anybody who pursues ‘spiritual goals’ only will end up with wasted time in the end with no money and no retirement plan… i couldn’t agree more.. it would be a shame if this happens to yet more jws..

LongHairGal

BLONDIE:

It sounds like you were viewed more favorably for working than I was. I wonder if you being married was why?.. I also agree about women with cushy lives giving unwanted advice and I had No tolerance for them.

I think the religion hated single women. They imagined I was going to be groomed to do favors for all the Users there.. Boy, were they mistaken..🤣 I had a non-JW upbringing and it was drilled into my head that both men and women needed to get decent jobs/careers. I had some college and technical courses.

I am just grateful today that I resisted high pressure back then to quit my job and take up housecleaning/pioneering.. These people certainly were not looking out for MY welfare, that’s for sure.. I doubt they cornered some brother and asked him to do this!

But, I’m glad I ended up doing the smart thing.. I am sorry for young vulnerable Witnesses today who don’t have any non-JW background or at least one non-JW parent to help them resist unwise advice and keep them grounded in reality.

19

Reddit thread Warning young JWs that ‘Spiritual Goals’ are Not a Career!

by LongHairGal in

jw
friends

as somebody who worked full-time when i was in the witness religion, this topic naturally caught my eye.. many of the responses are heartfelt.

there are about 90 at this point.

from what i read so far.. many are people who woke up before they got old but even these are resentful over their life being derailed with wasted time pursuing spiritual goals and having to start over at a later age getting an education/job.. i imagine born-in young jws would be most susceptible to this.. in today’s world, a ‘career’ is something that earns you a living.. as many of the responses there will say: anybody who pursues ‘spiritual goals’ only will end up with wasted time in the end with no money and no retirement plan… i couldn’t agree more.. it would be a shame if this happens to yet more jws..

LongHairGal

As somebody who worked full-time when I was in the Witness religion, this topic naturally caught my eye.

Many of the responses are heartfelt. There are about 90 at this point. From what I read so far.. many are people who woke up before they got old but even these are resentful over their life being derailed with wasted time pursuing spiritual goals and having to start over at a later age getting an education/job.

I imagine born-in young JWs would be most susceptible to this.. In today’s world, a ‘career’ is something that earns you a living.. As many of the responses there will say: anybody who pursues ‘spiritual goals’ only will end up with wasted time in the end with no money and no retirement plan… I couldn’t agree more.

It would be a shame if this happens to yet more JWs.

40

The Governing Body is Restructuring the Org.and encouranging young ones to REACH OUT!

by liam in

the governing body just doesn't let up on encouraging the young children to reach out to do free labor for the organization.

so another generation of young people with ruined lives.

another generation of young people that will get old and wake up in their 50s to realize they were in a religious doomsday cult.. and they are getting rid of some old workers that ran the branches of the organization, and giving them different assignments or maybe they are just sending them home, who knows.

LongHairGal

HOSER:

I am sure it did piss off more than a few Boomers….The problem is that this advice is too late for millions of older Witnesses there. The religion is probably doing an about face to seem ‘normal’ to outsiders. Was I ‘ahead of my time’ to prepare for my retirement years ago - or was it my Catholic upbringing and wisdom instilled in me when I was younger?🤷🏻‍♀️

JOURNEYMAN:

You repeated the idea that never dies:: kicked out Bethelites (aged 70 or 80) who served for 40 years (in a cloistered environment) ..and the idea that their ‘families’ and ‘local congregations’ should ‘take care of them NOW’… First of all, anybody that age probably has no family left!! Everybody has passed away. Maybe there’s a niece or nephew(?) and when was the last time they saw them. So, the elderly bethelite is supposed to land on their doorstep? Right?? 😮

And as far as thinking the local congregations are going to take care of them, the religion must be joking. The congregations are already saddled with broke pioneers and so many others who never took secular work or careers seriously. Many are quietly ‘Fading’ or leaving.. NOW, broke and bewildered seniors are joining what’s left there.

SO, How’s this supposed to work? Besides the private shakedowns for money, is a bully elder going to pull some family aside and tell them they have to host this senior citizen at their dinner table? I can’t even laugh at these scenarios as it is so pathetic and I am sorry for anybody still left in the JW religion.

15

5 Shocking Reasons Why Elders Are Leaving The Jehovah’s Witnesses — The Hidden Truth!

by Golden4Altar in

5 shocking reasons why elders are leaving the jehovah’s witnesses — the hidden truth!

(kingdom wisdom).

thousands of jehovah’s witness elders around the world are stepping down… and no one is talking about it.

LongHairGal

GOLDEN4ALTAR:

This is an excellent video and all the points are 100% accurate and right on target!

There was another thing I thought of that was not mentioned but it would be an addional burden added to everything else an elder in a congregation nowadays would be faced with.

That thing would be all the people in the Witness congregations who are needy (many in old age) because of the culture of the JW religion. This no-career/no-saving ethic has proved to be a disaster in the end. (I realize they are coming out with ‘new light’ telling JWs they should plan and save. But, this is too late for millions of Witnesses today).. Many JWs are glad to have already exited the religion👍🏻 . What this means is there are fewer willing members of the R&F left to approach with an envelope…some elders who can ill afford it probably end up reaching into their own pockets to give charity to needy people crying to them! ..Who needs this?

The JW religion’s faulty man-made policies are the cause of all this. They should not be surprised that people are leaving.