Did anyone in the congregation discourage you from going to college?

by Trapped in JW land 42 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Finkelstein

  Don't blame individual JWS for discouraging college or higher education, blame the WTS. for the constant

  propagating of this system ending soon and indoctrinating people to think this is actually true.

  Part of the WTS. corruption is lying about this system of things ending or mankind is living in the last days,

  they even did it in the late 1800's.

  It has always been a self supporting marketing strategy toward promoting the organization's

  published goods, by exploiting the basic belief in the bible.

  So to firstly attract people to the literature and to further promote people to distribute the literature themselves.

  It works by putting fear into people's minds and the WTS. knows this.

  .

  A recent public talk by one of the GB members Gerrit Lösch, he used the analogy of pursuing higher

  education is like putting a gun to your head.

  .

  So this old fear inducing provocation is till active by the WTS.

  Why ? Simply because its works upon naively and gullible people who silly are enough to

  place trust toward these men. These men who run a religious publishing house.
• 

  life is to short

  Yes! After coming back from Bethel I got a job that would pay for colleage class. So I started to take a few courses. I never told anyone in the hall that I was doing the classes and I totally enjoyed them. Than one of the classes happened to be on a Saturday morning, and I (gasp) missed field service that day for the class.

  Well being my husband was an elder, the next Saturday morning I was RIPED to shreds in front of everyone by a busy body sister who felt like she was in charge of the hall. I was asked to explain why I would waste my time taking classes when I was an elders wife knowing the system was ending any day. I was totally humiliated in front of everyone. No one stood up for me in the least as she was yelling at me so I mumbled something stupid to get her to shut up. That morning my husband suggested that I stop taking classes, because I might not be setting a good example, so I did.

  Yet others in the hall did get their AA the same way, through work paying for it. I still feel bitter over it and do not understand why I was so beat up over it, I wish I had stood up for myself better but I had no self confindence in myself back than.

  LITS
• 

  NVR2L8

  I was in high school in the late 60s and I quit before completing my grade 10...Armaggedon was near and my parents needed help to make ends meet. I went to work for the minimum wage and gave them most of what I made. In a few short years we would all be in the new system and all would be fine. Later I met the girl who would become my wife. I was told that it was not the time to get married. This time I didn't listen but several JW relatives didn't attend our wedding. In 1976 we had our first child...again against the advice of the WT...Today I am still in love with the girl I met and married over 40 years ago and I have two great adult children and 2 grandchildren that I love profusely. I can't imagine how my life would be if I had obeyed all the admonitions of the WT. My poor academics forced me to work really hard to succeed financially and things could have easily turn the other way...but all that matters is that I am surrounded by a loving family and a loving wife who sadly is still prisoner of this cult.
• 

  Band on the Run

  Do they ever consider that good JWs will survive Armageddon and the knowledge could be useful. My mom heard it for working in a factory at night. Someone should start a thread about JW busybodies b/c there are so many in every hall. There was one in my high school homeroom. My friends were in the orchestra. She overheard me telling my friends that I would attend a concert which was held on a meeting night. Do you believe in the orchestra or eternal life? I chose the orchestra. It was funny b/c the school found a serious lapse in my transcript. I had to take a music or art course or I could not graduate. Soon I was fingering the clarinet.
• 

  NVR2L8

  To add to my previous post, I had to hide that I was participating in extracurricular sports. I had good athletic skills that I wasn't encouraged to develop. When I reached adulthood no one could prevent me from playing sports...still elders threatened me with removing my service privileges if I continued to play sports...they never acted on their threats but I never became an elder...they didn't have 100% control on me.
• 

  Vidiot

  Band on the Run - "Do they ever consider that good JWs will survive Armageddon and the knowledge could be useful?"

  Maybe some at one point.

  Didn't take them long to figure out that what JW kids were learning in college and university was calling into question WT ideology, though.

  There's no way they'll ever risk that again.
• 

  Oubliette

  Yeah, I ignored them. I now have multiple degress and am working on another graduate degree.

  I have a good job with benefits and am planning for my eventual retirement.

  My JW "friends" that discouraged me are still cleaning pools and toilets.
• 

  designs

  I was part of the infamous 1960s group of young JWs who had our futures squashed by Knorr and company. My two kids were discouraged from going to college in the late 1990s, both did however.
• 

  wasblind

  When I finished High School , I threw my diploma in the cedar chest

  went straight to work in Textile that paid wages decent enough to build homes

  and send kids off to college and save for retirement

  .

  Then times changed, Jobs were outsource

  higher education became more of a necessity

  .

  I knew my daughter would need more than a 12th grade education

  to make a decent wage

  .

  The Sister who held my Bible study

  fed me the lines " Time is so short, the end might be here by then "

  and ALLLL that other crap

  .

  Even the Elders would spout that WTS crap from the podium

  I could tell that they didn't even buy the " The end is soon " Tripe

  .

  .

  So how could they tell me what to do

  when they had children of thier own who held

  college degrees

  .

  .

  And it wasn't my imagination

  that those brothers were pleased in thier childrens achievements

  .

  .
• 

  b00mslang

  In the late 70s I was down to only attending sporadically, so, when I started college no one really took notice. However, when I spoke w/ my cousin (a full time pioneer and daughter of a long-time elder) she jumped me about; "Witnesses aren't supposed to go to college".

  So, I moved to another state because a friend of mine (an MS at his Congregation) wanted me to work with him and go for an Associates Degree program locally, with him.

  I met my wife and got married and was always able to pull down top paying blue collar jobs (Operating Engineer). He "sent out feelers" into the Congregation to see if the two year college thing was going to fly. Finally, he want through a two-year/non-accredited vocational/technical course instead.

  You see, they (the "brothers and sisters") didn't seem to have a problem with him going to a vocational/technical school (because it wasn't called a "college") and receiving a "certificate of completion" but they apparently took issue with the idea of him coming away with a degree (even though most of us think of an AAS degree as a "consolation prize").

  Interestingly, a relative of mine, that suffered an on the job injury, went through a two-year degree program while and during his time as an elder in his congregation. He's still and elder and some poobah in the RBC.

  Needless to say, I ignored this foolishness and finished my education. I now work in an office/high rise and have my own parking spot (and I make exactly twice as much money as my relative with the two year degree).

  There is an obvious psychology to encouraging accolites to take vows of poverty and move into trailer parks. The mundane drudgery of their jobs and social standing is ripe for the implantion of a bright, alternative future. A future where trailer-park-elders become "Chieftains Among Men". Their expected reward is to rule as lords and ladies of the land. There are aspects of the current elder arrangment (and I recognize that we're speaking of imperfect humans) that if applied to the "New System" would render it nothing more than a totalitarian-garden-work-camp. This would likely end with the majority of the resurrected being destroyed at the end of the Millenium.

  Interestingly, a book I read many years ago (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep) contained two conflicting and competitive religions. The first (Mercerism) surrounded watching a televised image of a man (Mercer) taking an endless climb up a mountain while being pelted with stones. The "faithful" would watch this while being interconnected (networked?) via "empathy boxes" (so they could really "feel his pain"). We can think of this as the trailer park/drudge job existance.

  The competition of "Buster Friendly and his Friendly Friends", which would be the promise of the glorious "New System" with all the stuff they denied themselves, in this life.

  One problem for the Society is the failed promise and the embittered accolites that gave up everything based on "Old Light". What can they believe they gave it all up for?