You can lead an elder to college but you can't make him think
I was a young man at Bethel about 30 years ago, back in the early 80's and I was going home on vacation. After a long stint in Bethel, I finally took my first vacation and couldn't wait to see everybody again. In Bethel you don't get a whole lot of vacation time. I don't remember exactly how much it was (maybe two weeks per year?) but it wasn't enough. Given that Bethel doesn't give any national or personal holidays off, nor does it have a sick day policy and you have to work a complete year before you can use your vacation time earned, this was meager time off. If you compare it to just about any "worldly" job, the Bethel vacation time off policy is pretty darn pitiful.
Still, I had finally earned mine and I got the money together to get my ticket home and I was jazzed. Now, by then, one of the things that hit me hard was that I was working as a "flunky" at the factory. One worldly person there called me that to my face once: flunky. Ouch. I had never flunked anything in my life and here I was labeled that by others just because I wanted to do something I thought was noble and was doing good for other people. Oh well. I realized that sooner or later, I was going to get a college education and get a real job and not be a flunky anymore.
As it turns out, I had an elder in my congregation that I had grown up with that we counted as a "family friend" that had done just that. In fact, not only was he college educated, he was a college professor! Who could be better to ask for advice in this regard? So, the first meeting back home where I knew I would find him, I thought I'd bring up the issue of college and ask him which college to choose, what classes were good and so on. You know, get the lay of the land college-wise. This guy had all the inside information as he was at a college every day. I figured that now that I had pioneered and gone to Bethel I had paid my dues. Certainly he would see that it would be OK for me to do the same thing he had done: go to college, get a degree and get a white collar job earning good money.
Since he was a foreigner with an accent as well as a minority, I thought that he would understand the value of education in order to make a dollar in the good old U.S. of A. He was short, funny looking and had a badly pock marked faced, yet he still had a pretty decent looking wife (well, for him anyway) so I was sure he would be on my side, especially since we were both minorities. And, after all, it was conventional wisdom that was the reason he had his white "trophy" wife in the first place: he had a fairly prestigious job, a few bucks in the bank and a decent house for her to decorate and entertain in.
So, I approached elder Pockface at an opportune time and mentioned my goals to him. To my surprise, he told me he didn't recommend me pursuing a college education at all. He said that he supported the Society's "counsel" that worldly education and other similar selfish pursuits were not in the best interest for Christians. Basically, he didn't want to help me. I was dumbfounded. Didn't he see the duplicity in this, being that he himself was a college professor? The rest of the conversation went something like this:
Me: [pleading voice] I can't believe you brother Pockface. You, of all people, a college professor no less, are discouraging me from going to college???
Him: [seriously] Look, it's a bad, worldly environment to put yourself in, and besides, worldly pursuits like that only hinder your spiritual progress.
Me: So, what am I supposed to do the rest of my life, work in a factory? I was Valedictorian of my high school class and accepted to various universities with honors, but now that I've gone to Bethel I'm supposed to forget about that?
Him: I know you are a smart young man, but trust me, you don't want to go to college and inundate yourself into that environment. You're doing fine now on a good spiritual path, why ruin it?
Me: Sorry, but I think that is patently hypocritical of you to say that since you went to college yourself. On top of that, you still teach at a college.
Him: Well, I went to college before I knew The Truth, so that is different.
Me: I don't get it, how is that different?
Him: Well, I didn't know any better then. I was worldly. So, I did what worldly people do.
Me: But, you still benefit from having done it! Also, you still support the concept of college by teaching at one for heaven's sake! So, you would teach worldly people how to "get ahead" but not your own brothers?
Him: It's not that. College just isn't for Christians. I have to do this as it is my profession. I've spent too long doing this in my life to simply give it up now.
Me: [sarcastically] So, if you would have sold drugs or ran a prostitution ring before learning The Truth, then you would still be doing that anyway? I mean, after all, you would have spent too long building up those businesses to give them up now right?
Him: [angrily] That's not the same thing and you know it!
Me: [defiantly] OK, so, if you would have been cheating people in a shady used car dealership or had been a con man or had worked at a casino, or had been a policeman or been in the military, then the same thing? You'd just keep doing those professions too because you already spent too long doing them? But at the same time you would dissuade your brothers from doing them?
Him: Those are not...
Me: [cutting him off] The same thing, yeah, I know. No example I could give you would be the "same thing" because you want to justify doing something yourself the Society recommends we shouldn't do. You know, I'm sick of this double standard from you guys who have already feathered your cushy beds, but discourage us young people at the same time from following in your own footsteps. At Bethel, the doctors, lawyers, computer professionals and such are treated like gods there; all of these professions require college education. Bethel begs to get people like that there and then when they do go, they treat them special above the rest of us. Many of them don't even live with us as they get their own housing and cars and food and everything else. They can come and go as they please, they get more money for being there and so on. Yet the Society keeps on giving hypocrites like you the same tired line to tell us that we shouldn't go to college because it's "worldly" and you regurgitate it even though you yourself spend every waking day working at a college!
Him: Look...
Me: [cutting him off again] No! I'm done trying to talk and reason with you and to people like you!
"Family friend" my ass. True to my word, I never spoke to mister Pockface again.
I eventually left Bethel, and finished my college education and worked my way up the professional ladder using it to build a real career. Now it's my turn to be treated special. As I write this, I am looking out my home office window at the beautiful lake my big house sits on, thinking about my wonderful career that gives me over a month off per year with the current position I hold. I like my work so much, I can hardly take that time off from because I really don't need to since it doesn't even feel like work. I can work mostly from my own home too, that is when I'm not traveling the world to exciting cities and locations in 7 different counties and 30 different U.S. states, staying at nice hotels and resorts and eating great food. I do this travel all on my company's dime while interacting with some of the worlds most intelligent, educated and interesting people. I now have a career that allows me to keep my three vehicles, a luxury SUV and sedan and a cool muscular sports car all sitting in my garage waiting for me to take them out to play with, without having to put any real miles on them because I don't commute. My career is one I wake up to every day looking forward to doing more in and one that has earned me worldwide recognition. It's one that gives me pride, fulfillment and honor while allowing me to provide for my beautiful, hot, hard-bodied wife to buy her the clothes, jewelry and other things she looks awesome in. Because of higher education, my satisfaction in life is as large and as full as my portfolio is.
I am truly "living the dream" I always had about how my life would go.
Look, I realize that this might sound like a bunch of bragging on my part, but that's not my goal in writing this since you don't even know me. I would never say these things to anybody in person. Still, I won't deny either that I'm proud of overcoming the financial handicap of growing up a Jehovah's Witness and spending my early years in Bethel. The main thing I wish to convey to everyone however, especially to the younger people, is that I wouldn't have any of it if I had listened to "The Society" about higher education or if I had heeded the advice of two-faced, sanctimonious people like mister Pockface. They would want me to be still making books in their factories for them with zero use of my talents, zero satisfaction in my work, zero money in the bank and zero to look forward to except praying for Armageddon to come and save me from my tedious existence.
My main point here is to tell everybody who will heed my example that regardless of your age, and regardless of how much time "The Society" has taken from you, there is always time to pursue education or learn skills that will improve your life. This is simply your right as a human being. You should go for it. And, if you haven't started, then I strongly urge you to start right now.
Look, money isn't everything, but this isn't just about money. It's about making the most of your life and doing what gives you pleasure in it. It's about doing what you were called to do that not only doesn't hurt anybody else, it actually improves your world and everybody else's with whom you come into contact. It's about satisfaction in life and the ongoing confidence that comes from personal success. Sure materialism can wreck a person's life or ruin their soul, but make no mistake about it, poverty can do that too. It's nonsense to argue that there is some sort of virtue in being broke or of little means and its silly to think that doing menial labor your entire life is the way to go just to avoid talking to people in college who may not agree with your views on things. If you don't have your own mind and you're that weak, you're going to have problems in life no matter which path you take.
I think back about the specious mister Pockface and recall that his wife left him for somebody nicer, younger and better looking (which was not hard for her to find.) He went and replaced her by marrying a vain, ditsy, flaky girl less than half his age who had big, floppy, downward pointing boobs she liked to show off to everybody. The congregation was shocked that elder Pockface wouldn't be more sensible to marry any number of available fine, mature, older sisters that were in his own age group. They were so surprised by that because, after all, they heard him many times teach from the podium about finding suitable marriage mates, dating appropriately in The Truth and making sure your potential mates were spiritually solid.
His move didn't surprise me one bit.
LivingTheDream