Posts by LongHairGal

34

Elders are no longer teachers

by eyeslice in

jw
friends

back in the day when i was a young witness lad, you very much got the impression that at least the training as theocratic teachers was good.. even the bible reading back then had a short introduction and conclusion.

you had to research and prepare your own ministry school talks and then perhaps you would graduate to a half of a 55 minute public talk.

then later if you were a book study conductor, you got to decide which scriptures to read and highlight.

LongHairGal

INDOUBTBIGTIME:

When I read your posts it just makes me wonder how many Witnesses left are true believers? I would guess not many.

We can never know how many fall into your category of not really believing it all (picking and choosing) and going because they like the association and it’s ‘cheaper than the pub’. Whatever.

One thing you said I agree with is that you expect to see yourself grow old in this system. Just make very sure you prepare yourself for this financially! Don’t be like other daydreamers there. I always wondered if some there are so medicated they don’t realize the clock on the wall is ticking.

Some hope Armageddon will come in time to save them, so they gamble they don’t need to plan!.. Not wise.

8

Older Sister Disfellowshipped

by EmptyInside in

jw
friends

my brother told us that sr. so and so ,was disfellowshipped.

now ,she is in her late 60's.

i just had a feeling it was for apostasy.

LongHairGal

JHINE:

Yes, this woman WILL be abandoned by people in the congregation.

What’s sad is that other Witnesses who really like her will be ‘afraid’ to talk to her or be seen with her because then they themselves will be shunned! I know this is hard to grasp for somebody who has never been in the JW religion. But, this is what happens there.

Hopefully, she has non-JW relatives who will not shun her and she gets involved with other things and makes new friends. This is HARD enough to do at a younger age, let alone with someone older. If this lady gets desperate and tries to go back because she’s ‘lonely’, she’s going to have a hard time! I wish her all the best!

8

My experience as a JW for 37 years. I dogded the bullet that many of you experienced .

by smiddy3 in

hi friend`s ,i just had to share my experience ,and surely there must be others on this board who had similar experiences that i had.. i was a jw for 37 years ,been out for about 20 years or so .however we as a family never had the problems that so many of you seem to have had .. none of our, my wife and i , immediate families have ever been jw`s.. i converted when i was about 20 years old in about 1960 and as i say remained in converted my wife and brought up two sons in the "truth" for about 37 years .. my 1st and 2nd congregations i attended in melbourne aust.

were very conservative and not very wholesome looking back.. however moving interstate to s.e.queensland in redcliffe was a whole new experience.. it was far more liberal and relaxed.. i befriend a couple of elders and ms `s who enjoyed an ale or two which was right up my alley.. and we went on camping expeditions on both fraser and moreton islands ,both just off the coast of brisbane.. i was a ms for many years there never pioneered or served where the need was great and always had steady employment in the world which probably kept my head above the clouds so to speak.. none of my family ,wife two boys and their wives are jw`s ,we have all left many years ago.. anybody else had negative effects of being a witness for many years ?.

LongHairGal

Hi SMIDDY3:

I remember you once saying that you didn’t have the experience in the JW religion that people here in the USA had.

You were able to have your job or career with no interference from elders and other busybodies in the congregation. (Of course, you are a man and men would be less likely to be bothered over this.). Maybe things in general are more liberal down in Australia(?).

Here in the states people in congregations have been unfairly influenced in youth into making decisions which ruined their futures! Of course, they didn’t realize it at the time as they were caught up in the hoopla and getting praised and invited to gatherings.

You’ve read of tragic stories on the forum and elsewhere of people broke in senior years who can’t retire. It was only the few of us here and there like me who refused to quit careers or full time jobs - and we paid the price by being ostracized. But, that means nothing now.. Just like it means nothing now if someone popular back then can’t retire now!

Well, consider yourself very fortunate this did not happen to you and you had a ‘normal life’ in the JW religion - which is a very unusual thing.

15

This week's Watchtower Study - don't complain if ...

by eyeslice in

jw
friends

don't complain if you get kicked out of bethel after 23 years (it's really a blessing to be assigned back to the field) and don't complain if they sell your kingdom hall even if you have just invested your time and energy renovating it.. so encouraging?.

LongHairGal

HELLOTHERE:

No doubt you’re greatly relieved you never followed that older brother’s advice about going to bethel. You would now be in a panic situation at an older age with a lot of regrets.

Even though I was never a candidate for bethel 🤣, I am likewise happy I never listened to unwanted advice from older people in the JW congregation telling me to quit my full time job.. They certainly weren’t looking out for MY best interest$.

15

This week's Watchtower Study - don't complain if ...

by eyeslice in

jw
friends

don't complain if you get kicked out of bethel after 23 years (it's really a blessing to be assigned back to the field) and don't complain if they sell your kingdom hall even if you have just invested your time and energy renovating it.. so encouraging?.

LongHairGal

EYESLICE & RULES AND REGULATIONS:

If this article was released in November 2022, I wonder if it was to mentally prepare everybody for yet more bethelites to be sent home?

From what I have read, many have been sent packing over the last decade or so!.. If there was no danger of anybody else being let go, would they bother printing an article like this??

I imagine it’s a shock for somebody over 50 to be sent home if they expected to stay and be taken care of for life.😮 (And correct me if I am mistaken - with no severance package like a ‘worldly or secular employer’ would give.) ..Even this wouldn’t be the answer to anybody’s problems because they would STILL need to make a living once they got out.

I hope most (especially the younger ones) who have already been let go in recent years have found a way to support themselves. I imagine older ones would definitely have a problem even with help since almost nobody wants to hire an older person - especially with No college or useful skills!

As an observer, since this seems to be the ‘handwriting on the wall’: anyone still at any of the bethels had better be prepared with a plan and a list of contact phone numbers!!

34

Everyone else burns new UK sitcom

by Mickey mouse in

jw
friends

i'm looking forward to this, having watched a trailer i think ex-jws will enjoy it https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/comedy/everyone-else-burns-simon-bird-first-look-exclusive-newsupdate/.

LongHairGal

JAMES ANDREW:

Sorry to hear your experience! The stories never seem to stop about JWs who were prevented in their youth from either getting college OR having a well paying job! I hope you found a way to at least find something decent.

I saw a thread on Reddit the other day about ‘How do JWs get/earn money’. One very good post that I could relate to told about how somebody (as a younger person) worked for the USPS full time and somebody urged him to quit and take up a menial type job. He wisely refused.. He also noted the elders there were working railroad jobs and were either collecting pensions or on their way to. But yet none of them even suggested he apply to the railroad for the decent jobs they had!!

He surmised (correctly) that not only do JWs discourage higher education BUT also gainful employment!! This was my experience EXACTLY as all the older people in the congregation were collecting their pensions!.. Yet they had the audacity to tell ME to quit my job and take up housecleaning! The poverty they were pushing on younger people certainly was not for them!.. Thankfully, I never listened to any of them!

43

Research paper on Effects of Shunning

by peacefulpete in

after being around this site for 21 years now, i've heard many recount their stories and feelings.

many times i can immediately relate but other times they seem to have had a very different experience with the church.

i'm sure that is because not only are all of us different in personality, but congregations and family dynamics vary as well.

LongHairGal

JHINE:

I totally agree.. I remember when I read the book “Crisis of Conscience” that I was immediately struck by what I felt was a similarity to a dictatorship. I remembered the part about people being accused by secret informants.

I also agree that the JW religion provides No real physical charity to anybody! (And free ‘bible’ studies don’t count, as far as I’m concerned). Other religions in Christendom provide the NECESSARY material help such as food pantries, soup kitchens, programs to help youth in the community, etc.

What’s worse is when the JWs study with people they tell them they will be ‘taken care of’. I had this said to me. This is not true. What REALLY happens is that responsible looking people there are cornered to give money since the religion itself has NO programs!.. Meanwhile, college is knocked and they make sure people who worked full time (like myself) were considered ‘not spiritual’.. Thankfully I never listened to this foolish talk and held onto my job until retirement.

6

Shameless Watchtower Study...How Strong Will Your Faith Be?

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

the watchtower—study edition | november 2021. .

16 note the example of geydi, a sister from guatemala.

her husband, edi, was murdered as they were returning home from a congregation meeting.

LongHairGal

BETH SARIM:

I would more likely think it’s the second choice although choice no. 1 is supposed to somehow make somebody ‘feel better’.

The real moral of the story is that they should have stayed home!

43

Research paper on Effects of Shunning

by peacefulpete in

after being around this site for 21 years now, i've heard many recount their stories and feelings.

many times i can immediately relate but other times they seem to have had a very different experience with the church.

i'm sure that is because not only are all of us different in personality, but congregations and family dynamics vary as well.

LongHairGal

Regarding them speaking against college: I once had an elder admit to me that ‘college educated brothers are harder to counsel’.

I wasn’t raised in the JW religion so this didn’t affect me. But, I always felt sorry for any JWs who were denied higher education when they were younger by JW parents who were influenced to not send them to college. This, of course, had lifelong detrimental effects to these Witnesses, as we have all heard. The only exceptions were those JWs who got out of the religion at a young enough age to get that education and accomplish something for themselves!

Those who stayed and bucked the trend and DID go to college were certainly shunned or excluded to varying degrees!

20

How do JWs know that millions who were martyred as Christians before the 20th century did not have the heavenly hope?

by Vanderhoven7 in

as i understand it, jehovah’s witnesses believe less than 145,000 faithful christians existed prior to the twentieth century.

the other sheep christians did not start forming until after 1914. that means jehovah’s witnesses view millions martyred for their faith in christ prior to the 20th century as merely professed christians.. the question is…how do witnesses know that those millions who perished for their faith in christ were not christians at all?.

LongHairGal

VANDERHOVEN7:

This rejection of theirs of early Christians was one of the teachings I never accepted in the JW religion. I kept this to myself. I let it go in one ear and out the other - just like modern day people’s claims of being ‘anointed’.

Likewise, I never believed any modern day convention was a fulfillment of bible prophecy. I thought the JWs were just flattering themselves. I was raised Catholic and learned all about the Christian martyrs and saints. How could anybody presume to say they were ‘not true Christians’ but just ‘professed to be’?

This claim reminds me of something I witnessed once in class: a boy had asked the nun a question. He asked: “what if somebody thinks they are sorry but they are not?” The sister then said: “If he THINKS he is sorry, then he is.” In the same fashion, I believe those people back then who professed to be Christians probably were - not just because they thought so - but because the society around them obviously thought they were. They were even executed for it.

Anybody who wants to go ahead and try to judge and disregard what happened centuries ago just sounds presumptuous to me.