You Never Did Enough As A Witness!

by minimus 30 Replies latest jw friends

  • restrangled
    restrangled

    To quote Arthur:

    This is one of the ugliest aspects of the Watchtower as an organization. The Watchtower's version of Christianity is a twisted "performance-based" version of Christianity. The modern organization has taken on much of the characteristics of a large sales organization rather than the first-century congregations. It is a perversion of Christ's teachings.

    BINGO!!!!

    No matter how much anyone in our family was doing, someone was always falling short. Not enough personal study; not enough hours in service; when was the last time you pioneered?; only one answer at the watchtower study?; how many meetings have you missed and it better not be a Watchtower Study!; You actually have free time...whats wrong with you?; Don't worry about high school, you need to concentrate on Jehovah's requirements, the end is coming!....STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND SERVE JAH! ......1967-1974..........continued......

    AND HERE WE ARE 40 YEARS LATER.....those leaders exacting those terms are dead and dieing.....

    For all others:

    No special apartments, no laundry done and ironed, meals cooked, or housing paid for, retirement funds not exactly at the level they should be or non- existent. No Pent houses with views of Brooklyn in exotic old apartments maintained for your self. No need to have car insurance, homeowners insurance, pay taxes, grocery shop, or worry about health insurance or long term care should you become disabled.

    No worry about paying for those prescriptions to keep you alive or those Depends to keep you from wetting yourself.....it goes on and on.

    WHAT A CROCK!

  • minimus
    minimus

    I especially love Sundays where we ("apostates") can lounge around the whole day if we so desire.

  • nvrgnbk
    nvrgnbk

    I've been meaning to ask you minimus- where do I hand in my JWD field service report for the month?

    Nvr

  • greendawn
    greendawn

    That is indeed their mentality whatever you do is not enough and if one leaves the dubs even decades of loyal service are written off at one stroke, something not nice for those that toiled so much for the org. They suddenly become totally unwanted and excluded.

  • Numinous
    Numinous

    Every picture tells a story. Just take a good look at pictures from when you were in. I looked completely exhausted and I was. No matter what your circumstance, from the outside it would seem that you could pioneer or do more. "Quit your job and pioneer!" I remember hearing...yet my clean laundry was still in the basket while the dirty laundry started to pile up on top of it. RELATE anyone???

  • Quandry
    Quandry

    I looked completely exhausted and I was. No matter what your circumstance, from the outside it would seem that you could pioneer or do more. "Quit your job and pioneer!" I remember hearing...yet my clean laundry was still in the basket while the dirty laundry started to pile up on top of it. RELATE anyone???

    Yes, yes, I can relate. I have a small settee (that's old south for small sofa) in the corner of my bedroom. Sometimes several loads of clean clothes would be piled on it. I would just reach over to get a towel off the pile before a shower. Then of course, I felt ashamed because my house wasn't as clean as a good Christian example should have. I couldn't quit work, because my husband was self employed at a service job so that he would never miss a meeting. O.K. pay but no health benefits, so my job gave us that. Boy, did I feel guilty because I didn't quit to pioneer.

    My hubbie just told me today that he wouldn't listen to the singing group STYX because it was the name of the river that ran through the Egyptian underworld, but he liked the group alot, and every time a song by them would come on and he listened, he felt guilty. (He was a do everything elder for more than twenty years). I never even knew he had felt that way.Ah, yes, the GUILT TRIP WE WERE ON!!!

  • WTWizard
    WTWizard

    This was built into the system. I have actually seen other threads where assembly talks were essentially titled "You Are Not Doing Enough". No matter what you do, it's not enough.

    This starts immediately. It starts with one hour a week for the study. Then soon it isn't enough: they want one meeting per week in addition. This grows to three (actually five, but two are segued so it is three trips to the Kingdumb Hell). Soon after, they expect talks. At first, this isn't too bad but eventually they will put you with a talk that you are not able to do without being a hypocrite and mark you a W.

    Soon after that, service starts. At this point, one or two hours per week is enough. But they will continue hounding you to get baptized. From that point on, it's all uphill. In fact, I have heard a few talks during service meetings that if you can put in 30 or 40 hours a month (which could well be the absolute best you can do), then you can pioneer. Back then, it took 60 hours to auxiliary pioneer each month.

    So you get your hours up. If you do 10 a month, soon they want 20, then 30, then more. And they want you to pioneer. I got a KM with an insert that suggested that August (hot and muggy, dodos) be used to auxiliary pioneer and use that as the stepping stone to regular pioneer. Little did anyone that blindly followed that advice know that if you can't handle auxiliary pioneering (or can barely), you will then have the commitment to regular pioneer after that. And there are those months with five Saturdays, five Sundays, or five whole weekends where the KM would invariably suggest that if you don't pioneer during those months, something's wrong with you (perhaps those people work many or all weekends, dopeheads?).

    Beyond there, it gets worse. So you regular pioneer. Soon they are going to want you to go where the "need" is greater. Missionary work is always beckoning--especially in Nigeria where they need more Witlesses as much as I need a virus in my computer. Special pioneering is also recommended. And the hours are escalating: they get 140 in a month, and soon they are going to compare you to a brother who is getting 240 or 250, or more with a handicap. And it goes up from there. Remember, there are only 744 hours in a month that has 31 days (720 per 30-day month).

    Men have it even worse. The entry level is not good enough, since there is always the "Reach out" theme in many a service meeting part. They become assistant hounders, then hounders. (I call them hounders because they spend so much time hounding people to do more). Beyond that, they have the traveling work. There is the hounder-hounder, who hounds the hounders in congregations throughout the circuit. This is why they crack down on the congregations after the CO shows up: I call him the hounder-hounder for this reason.

    The DO is the hounder-hounder-hounder for the same reason. He hounds the hounder-hounders to hound the hounders to hound the flock. And it works all the way up the chain. Anyone not reaching out is going to be hounded to death. And if the local hounders don't, the hounder-hounders will make sure they start. And anyone who gets left at one level is probably going to find out that they don't like people that get stuck in those "ruts": stop doing (insert anything fun) and start doing more service and better service, and Jehovah will remove those "blocks" that are stopping you from advancing. And then when you make the adjustments, nothing happens and you have to make even more.

    No, they do not appreciate anyone at any level. No matter how much you do, they want more. I wonder if someone were to single-handedly get the whole world in the cult, if they would still find something they could have done better.

  • ithinkisee
    ithinkisee

    I remember the first time as a kid I comprehended that I could never do enough. A Circuit Overseer was giving a talk and said,

    "Sunday is meeting, and since you're dressed up you might as well do some field service after the meeting."

    "Monday you should spend an hour or so in the evening preparing for the book study on Tuesday."

    "Tuesday is book study."

    "Wednesday should be time for your family study, personal study, or preparation for all three. Or perhaps preparation for a part on the school if you have one."

    "Thursday is Service Meeting and TMS."

    "Friday you should be preparing for Saturday field service."



    Saturday is field service. And there are always things that can be done around the hall."

    "The bottom line is brothers - if we are ever feeling 'comfortable' in Jehovah's service we probably aren't doing enough."







  • minimus
    minimus

    ithinkisee, very well said! Yes, we were like little hamsters running in circles going nowhere. And they made you feel guilty if you didn't go along with the program.

  • undercover
    undercover
    "The bottom line is brothers - if we are ever feeling 'comfortable' in Jehovah's service we probably aren't doing enough."

    I remember statements like that.

    I have a CO to think for nudging me out of the zombie-like stupor of being a JW...he said, "If you aren't doing all that you can possibly do in Jehovah's service, then why bother?"

    I decided he was right and that was the beginning of the end for me as a JW.

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit