why does it matter whether or not the end of the world ( (armageddon) is near?
if it was next week, next year, next decade, next century?
what is to be gained by knowing how close or far it is?
TXNVSUE2023:
You can believe I’m ‘miserable’ if it makes you feel any better.🙄 Makes no difference to me.. Witnesses like to believe such things about those who leave.
I was just pointing out the fallacies in your argument.
Sorry you have to resort to insults when somebody rejects the JW religion.. And I have news for you: everybody dies.
why does it matter whether or not the end of the world ( (armageddon) is near?
if it was next week, next year, next decade, next century?
what is to be gained by knowing how close or far it is?
TXNVSUE2023:
Well..things were surely black & white back in the days when I was in the Witnesses!…..Or maybe we weren’t even in the same religion(?)
No offense, but your first paragraph is a lot of pretty talk that is meaningless in real life - and sounds scripted by the religion. It’s not for real. ‘Lower level lifestyle’ = on the balls of your a$$ poverty. Why don’t you try it?
Just try talking to some older baby boomer JWs who didn’t plan and have reached retirement age broke and are asking around for money… I’m Glad I never followed the nonsense in that paragraph!😮
Believe what you will.
why does it matter whether or not the end of the world ( (armageddon) is near?
if it was next week, next year, next decade, next century?
what is to be gained by knowing how close or far it is?
TXNVSUE2023:
Maybe you haven’t read many threads and posts on the forum.
You might have missed the part about how many Jehovah’s Witnesses have not prepared for their old age and retirement. They were discouraged from getting higher education/careers and full-time employment and told they should be in the ministry instead. They worked part-time for low wages.
I am glad that you probably got college & career.. This means you are not overly concerned about when the End comes - which is as it should be.. Unfortunately, this is not the case for many Witnesses. They are waiting for ‘this system to end’ because they cannot deal with having gotten older and being unprepared because of following bad advice (which some of them won’t admit).
I could have been in this predicament myself except I paid No heed years ago when pushy elders in the religion wanted me to quit my job. Thank God I didn’t listen.
i believe an an elder told someone who's daughter (14 yo) became sexually active with a 26 year old in the neighborhood, that maybe they should get married.
so, they did... with parental consent.
he turned out to be a ex-convict who shot his first wife in the face with a shotgun.
WING COMMANDER:
You said a lot. I’m sorry you lost all the people you cared about. And, yes, the Witness religion is now unrecognizable. Those JWs must be turning in their graves!
I know you have regrets about not having a so-called normal childhood and that is understandable. I seem to remember you once mentioned your mom was an RN. So, you at least were exposed to somebody who had a responsible job. I have to assume you are decently employed. At age 44 you are relatively young.
Just imagine the many thousands of JWs who have now reached retirement age after hardly working at all?.. No preparation whatsoever.. Assuming any of them have any skills at all, how many are getting a job tomorrow? Not many I would wager.. This is a dreadful predicament and I would get ill just thinking about it - and this is why I thank God I was that ‘low hour publisher’ all those years ago!
i believe an an elder told someone who's daughter (14 yo) became sexually active with a 26 year old in the neighborhood, that maybe they should get married.
so, they did... with parental consent.
he turned out to be a ex-convict who shot his first wife in the face with a shotgun.
WING COMMANDER:
Yes, that certainly does explain what happened back then in the Witness religion in the eighties and you described the very feeling inside the hall!.. I can almost remember it.
Many of those older JWs are gone today and I wonder what they’d have to say about everything... But, when all is said and done, I’m Glad I followed my gut.
i believe an an elder told someone who's daughter (14 yo) became sexually active with a 26 year old in the neighborhood, that maybe they should get married.
so, they did... with parental consent.
he turned out to be a ex-convict who shot his first wife in the face with a shotgun.
DIOGENESISTER:
What I observed were that all the older JWs in the congregations were either collecting their pensions or about to…..Quite obviously THEY were in the workforce- so why would I not be.
But, all the older comfortable JWs were pushing poverty to us young baby boomers. (Apparently, nobody’s conscience ever bothered them.) And this was the early ‘80s not pre-75.. There was a frenzy to pioneer all pushed by the elders.. It was like a virus and everybody caught it but me. Again, the elders pushing this were well-off.
Even though I was scoffed at (to my face) and not invited places, something held me back and I just could not bring myself to do this. Maybe it was my non-JW upbringing and being in the working world and seeing how ‘normal’ people lived that stopped me. Who knows? I just know that I am ever so Grateful today that I never listened to these fools years ago!
i believe an an elder told someone who's daughter (14 yo) became sexually active with a 26 year old in the neighborhood, that maybe they should get married.
so, they did... with parental consent.
he turned out to be a ex-convict who shot his first wife in the face with a shotgun.
HOPELESS1 & DIOGENESISTER:
Thanks. These comments are amazing and truly show the tragedies that happen when people relinquish their will and follow the direction of high control groups. This includes areas of education/careers and also domestic issues. This is nobody’s business!
I was shocked when I read that the Witness religion did away with time slips at their annual meeting.. I was super Glad I never listened and realized it was worth it to have been shunned/excluded from gatherings and special dinners years ago! 😉 Maybe I can credit my non-Witness upbringing for saving me in the end.
People in the religion who already have a career, wealth/education under their belt but push a life of poverty on some naive young person - are among the worst, in my opinion!
i believe an an elder told someone who's daughter (14 yo) became sexually active with a 26 year old in the neighborhood, that maybe they should get married.
so, they did... with parental consent.
he turned out to be a ex-convict who shot his first wife in the face with a shotgun.
Like some comments here, the remarks made to me pertained to my occupation.
I wasn’t born-in but came into the JWs already with a full-time job.
My study teacher tried her darndest to get me to quit and it was suggested that I should take up housecleaning.. I said ‘no way’ and was insulted for doing so. This self-righteous old lady probably didn’t think very highly of me as a ‘worldly’ young woman.. My dress was highly scrutinized.
Anyway, my refusal to follow intrusive and unwanted advice led to me being soft/shunned.. I ended up going to another congregation which was somewhat better but the same general attitude against full-time work (by women anyway) still persisted.. I let the criticism roll off my back like water off a duck. I ended up Fading after the 1995 Generation teaching… Thank God I resisted these people or it could have ruined my life.
the new study article 28 watchtower that has just been published on jw.org is about apostate lies and introduces new concepts in their effort to compat apostasy in the congregations.
so despite the loosening of their recent disfellowshipping rules their fight against apostates is still raging hard.
according to the foreword of this article, they will concentrate on :.
COLORADO GAL:
Welcome to the forum! I agree with everything you said in your post.
I also agree that the recent changes are about control. I wasn’t much concerned about the beards and dress thing.. It was them doing away with the counting time/slip…This was a measuring stick to categorize people in congregations as to who was ‘spiritual’ and worthy of associating with.👎 Well, I am Glad I kept my full-time job until retirement!
Like you, I also observed that they ignored single parent women and even single women in general.. All they wanted them for was to do favors, to which I said No.. If they could knock me for working, they could take a hike.
As you observed, many have walked away from the JW religion and I’m Glad to be one of them.
the new class action lawsuit against the watchtower for having covered up child sexual abuse will begin in court on may 13-14-15, 2024 in the province of ontario, canada.
it is not the same as in the province of quebec because the laws aren't the same.
i don’t have more details.
MAGNUM:
I am curious as I don’t really know you personally - just the posts you have made on here.
This OP seems to be about CSA lawsuits. Would the case you hinted at be referring to that topic? Or, would it have to do with something else - maybe being a pioneer (who technically worked for the religion) your whole life and reached retirement age totally unprepared?.. If that is the case I suppose there would be many thousands of rather upset Witnesses both current and former who fall into this category!
