by cabasilas 8 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Someone sent me the scans of the October 1, 2005 Watchtower article which discourages higher education for JWs. This was the WT that began the current anti-education stance by the WT Society reversing the more lenient policy from the 90s. For those interested, a PDF of this article can be downloaded from this filesharing site:
http://www.filesend.net/download.php?
f=cb12d69e0a36144475076eaf27111b76
Might be useful in documenting the current anti-education policy.
Thank you.
Cabasilas:
Thank you very much! We have had several requests for scans on higher education, and this will help greatly to answer some of those requests.
Cheers! Atlantis!
LeavingWT & Atlantis, you're welcome.
This is a subject that I'm particularly sensitive about. Just today I signed up for my Fall classes at the local university after transferring from a community college (and I graduated from high school over 35 years ago!)
I just do not understand why they restrict education! I do know why they do it- people leave the J.W. religion, they may question the religion. Yet, I do not from an economic point of view understand it. Would it not bode well for the J.W.'s to have followers who are indeed educated, well spoken and of course with money? This money would inevitably land in the WTBTS deep pockets, why wouldn't they want that? What is the purpose of having uneducated folks who believe, if they shop at a garage sale, that coffee table they bought at a bargin price, might have a Ouija board drawn on the underside? I mean really, this alone should be a major wake up call for most J.W.'s who are still neck deep in the WTBTS bullshit! BTW, I am infamous for inserting too many commas or not using any at all. I apologize for any mistakes. :) I may not know my way around a comma, but I do know my way around a damn garage sale!
JWs could do like many other religions and have some sort of campus ministry to their youth that are in college and university. It would require them to be a bit more intellectual in their faith, but in the long run would be more effective in holding onto their youth. It would probably mean that eventually the JWs would become more mainstream. However, considering the current direction taken by the Governing Body, I doubt there's a chance the JWs will liberalize anytime soon.
In the meantime, JW youth suffer.
Most of the anti-higher education counsel to JW youth is done in various lectures at circuit and district assemblies. Here's a collection of audio against higher education from JW assemblies since that 2005 Watchtower was published:
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22Anti-education%22
As people become more educated and begin to see themselves in the context of the rest of the world and as part of the continuum of history, they will question some of the ideology taught by the WTS.
I had already left over my displeasure at the way the org. handled issues of child molestation, among other things, when I decided to return to school and obtain a degree. There is no doubt in my mind that if I had been exposed to higher education in my youth, I would have seen the holes in the WTS teachings much sooner. I IMO, the WTS fears education, not because of the boogey-men of sex, drugs and rock n roll such much as having young people (and older ones for that matter) exposed to critical thinking skills. God forbid that we have people applying logic and thinking ability to the tenets of the WTS!
I think the article was very carefully worded. It said that parents want their children to be prepared to maintain themselves in the "days ahead". It said "days" since this system obviously won't be around for "years".
