by Trapped in JW land 42 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I made a very high score on my ACT test in 1967 - senior year in high school. Third highest that year, as a matter of fact.
I was interested in a science career - and Rice University offered me a tuition scholarship.
The elders talked my parents into talking me into declining it and going out to pioneer where the "need was great".
I have never forgiven the Watchtower Society Luddites for that.
James Woods,
So sad.
I had a few that would discourage my attending college. I did early admission to a junior college in my senior year of high school. I explained to those in the kingdom hall I had to finish the next two semesters or I wouldn't graduate high school. Then when I pursued my AA and BS I simply moved away and faded. The congregation I attended was fairly easy going with only a few fanaticals.
I was never discoraged but we did gossip quite a bit about the elders son that went.
This was before they put it in writing that it was wrong.
When I was 18 and just out of high school the pioneer brothers my mother made me study with
came over and told my parents and me that I should not go to college or any kind of school
as the world would end before I finished.
I was 18 in 1970, 5 years before 75 and they were sure the world would end before I finished school.
I guess it was my fault because they say you are an adult in Ohio at 18.
I was an adult and I made a bad decision listening to them.
I know it was not their fault and no blame can be placed on them or the organizatiion.
It was my fault because I was not rebellious and listended to my mother when she made me
study the bible with her bible friends from the watchtower.
When I turned 19 my father who was worldly through me out of the house because
I had no directon and wasn't going any where.
It's not the watchtowers fault though my parents were not very nurturing or supportive.
It was the easy way out for everyone involved.
BARNARD COLLEGE... Band on the Run. Wow. I am impressed! Good for you Girl!
I see you "Followed the way of reason". : )
LoisLane
They did more than just "discourage" me - I was outright bloody well stopped from even completing high school, let alone going on to university.
This is why I am currently almost half way through the Advanced Diploma course, which will get me admission to the Institute of Engineers of at least "Engineering Associate" grade (and possibly, with my previous industry experience, get admission to the next level up of "Engineering Technologist"):
- about as much as a busted @$$ electrician like me can aspire to!
As to the often-repeated pep phrase "it is never too late":
- in the absolute sense, true enough, but at a practical level, there does come a time when gaining a four year degree would be too late to make any impact on ones career. Were I to have undertaken the degree course rather than the AD one, by the time I graduated, I would be about ready to "hang up my spurs", as the saying goes. My wife would certainly be disappointed if I didn't anyway. She has already given her opinion about any suggestions of me continuing to work into my seventies! Not that I can blame her in any way for that.
In summary, for their anti-education stance, the WTS should be - using the vernacular of the district where I grew up - "shot with a ball of their own $h*t
Bill
b00slang - WOW - what a profound description of the WT culture
and the effect it has had on millions of lives. I am constantly amazed
at the power of delusion and it numbing grip on the older Dubs as
they plod along taking the blame thrown at them by the Governing Body,
who themselves never stand up like men and take any responsibility for
the misdirection, the false promises, the false prophesies or depriving so
many of life itself on "old light" blood teachings and millions more who have
copied this blame and shame behavior, an inflict it on their own children.
And to answer the question: YES I was a 15 year old convert and I was
actively discouraged from going to college. It was the reason I entered,
in defiance, years later, with a baby to take care of, going as a single mom,
instead of at the time I graduated from high school. I was encouraged to
marry a "brother" 12 years my senior (I was 18). Later I divorced my
brain dead witness husband and took off on my own with a 13 month old
baby, determined to finally get an education.
Hey - nice to hear from you again James Woods!
...Back to the thread topic:
Both JW parents and all 4 JW grandparents discouraged me from higher education when I reached that pivotal crossroads in the late 1960s.
Wasn't I wise to listen to them because the end was just around the corner?
James Brown - IT WAS NOT YOUR FAULT - You can love your parents without
being a "scapegoat" Remember the "scapegoat" in the Hebrew scriptures ?
They tied the sins of the Nation on the back of an actual goat, and sent him
off into the wilderness - This actual practice has become a term in psychology
for the description of what happens to children in families, often one is thrown out,
and blamed for everything and shamed about himself, its called , scapegoating.
