Did I imagine a brief thaw in the Watchtower injunction against going to university?

by slimboyfat 37 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  slimboyfat

  Okay I was talking to an elder and he said me going to university was a bad idea and I should have listened to the society and not gone. But I said that when I went to university the Watchtower was saying it might not be a bad idea to go to, as long as you do it for the "right reasons", don't associate with worldly people, and keep clear of "damaging ideas". But basically they said it was okay, in this "changing world" and job market to go to university. He said that never happened, the society always was against going to university. I'm making it up.

  But I'm sure I remember articles and talks at the time (this was the late 1990s) saying university was now okay. Others in the congregation noticed too and encouraged me and others to go. It was a couple of years later, in the early 2000s that the crackdown on university started again. Or did I imagine it?
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  StephaneLaliberte

  You know, I feel exactly like you do.. I just lack the time to research further on the topic right now. Looking at a watchtower from 2013... Higher Education is evil! Yet, I went to university in 1998 and didn't feel so bad. Heck I was aux. pioneering at the same time!
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  Pistoff

  In the 90's they backed off college, and said we should not judge any whose children go to school.

  They of course warned of 4 year, liberal arts studies, etc, but they did not demonize it like they do now.

  You did not imagine it.

  In those years, I was determined that my children would go to extended schooling, and we prepared them for it; all three have their 4 year degrees.
  
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  Beth Sarim

  If anything, I can't see the Borg being anymore against ''education'' than now! ''Education'' is what makes people ''think''.

  People who have been in the Borg who went to University actually use their brains, which contrary to what the Borg promotes.
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  ShirleyW

  I graduated HS in 1975 and they weren't crazy about college back then, I can count on one hand with just a few fingers of some that I knew that went to college back then. But the young folks who were in HS in the 80's, I would say the majority of them went to college, so, as usual, it's just another flip-flop on an issue like just about everything else that they do.
  
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  wannaexit

  No there has no thaw of this stance. They still equate university with higher education and they rail against every chance they get.
  
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  wifibandit

  List of WT quotes, both for and against:

  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/quotes/education.php
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  scotsman

  I became an elder the same month I started a 4 year liberal arts degree in 1999 and I learned that the CO, Ian Shanks, told the elders that they could not use my choice to go to university as a reason not to appoint me.
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  berrygerry

  As per post to jwfacts.

  In the early 90's, it had become acceptable 'if necessary.'

  Forum members have posted that this was Lloyd Barry's influence, and after his death, they went back to being anti-education.
  
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  Sapphy

  This quote from JWFACTS was the first I remember of the articles that eased up a bit. Of course they cracked down again after a few years

  
  

  Watchtower 1992 Nov 1 p.20 Education With a Purpose
  "If Christian parents responsibly decide to provide their children with further education after high school, that is their prerogative. The period of these studies would vary according to the type of trade or occupation selected. For financial reasons and in order to enable their children to get into the full-time service as quickly as possible, many Christian parents have chosen for them short-term study programs in vocational or technical schools. In some cases youths have needed to be apprenticed to some trade but always with a full life of service to Jehovah as the goal. If additional courses are taken, certainly the motive should not be to shine scholastically or to carve out a prestigious worldly career. Courses should be chosen with care. This magazine has placed emphasis on the dangers of higher learning, and justifiably so, for much higher education opposes the "healthful teaching" of the Bible. (Titus 2:1; 1 Timothy 6:20, 21) Further, since the 1960's, many schools of advanced learning have become hotbeds of lawlessness and immorality. "The faithful and discreet slave" has strongly discouraged entering that kind of environment. (Matthew 24:12, 45) It must be admitted, however, that nowadays youngsters meet up with these same dangers in high schools and technical colleges and even in the workplace.-1 John 5:19."