JW Education Status

by Scully 37 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  LB

  I recall a young man doing a part during the ministry school a couple of years ago. He had just graduated from highschool. The elder was doing a part about youths and he asked this kid what his plans for the future were. He said he had thought about going to college but why bother, he could better serve Jehovah in the ministry. The end was nearly here anyway.

  Well it's 4 years later, he is 22 and married with a child on the way. He works in the lumber mill these days. Wonder how well he's serving Jehovah there?

  Pretty sad stuff. Althought the society has "opened the doors" for an education, the kingdom halls still seem to discourage it.

  
  Never Squat With Yer Spurs On
• 

  Erich

  RunningMan:
  

  The Watchtower Society teaches that Jehovah will soon destroy all non-Witnesses and that Witnesses will be the only ones left on the planet.

  Forget it. Old light.

  Read: http://www.watchtower.org/library/jt/index.htm

  >Many now living may yet take a stand for truth and righteousness before the "great tribulation," and they will gain salvation. Moreover, Jesus said that we should not be judging one another. We look at the outward appearance; God looks at the heart. He sees accurately and judges mercifully. He has committed judgment into Jesus' hands, not ours.— Matthew 7:1-5; 24:21;<
• 

  JeffT

  I wonder how many of that 4.7% are people like me, who completed college before we became dubs? The number looks to me like practicing dubs that have a college degree, not the ones that go on to college. It makes a difference.

  This issue was one of the big reasons I started looking into the history of the Watchtower. My older kids were going into later middle school/high school and the society was telling them to go wash windows? I don't think so. I got really incensed at an circuit assembly program on this. Started my independent research shortly after that.
• 

  Room 215

  Erich,

  You must be kidding, right? That statement is a prime example of Watchtower double-talk and disingenousness. Even it suggests that the ``many now living'' non-Witnesses who eventually stand to ``gain salvation'' have to accept the WT version of making a ``stand for truth and righetousness'' beforehand, or it's curtains for them.

  It's beyond debate that JWs fully expect 99.9 percent of humankind -- including infants -- and the substantial portion of their membership who slack off in meeting attendance and field service -- to be vaporized any day now at Armageddon.

  For any JW to pretend otherwise so as to appear more moderate in a bid to attract outsiders -- is simply dihonest.
• 

  voltaire

  This is a classic case of doublespeak and doublethink. Every witness worth his salt knows that college is "bad". (I do think there's a bit more of an open attitude in the big city, what I'm saying is, of necessity, a bit of a generalization) I think the society had to come out with a public stand in favor of higher education. Their position was no longer intellectually defensible. Now if someone asks about our view of college, we can say, "oh, the society encourages education." We even have it in print. Of course, they encourage an education that allows you to pioneer. (Funny, their aren't many fields where you can find work part time.) Witnesses are deceiving themselves and those they speak with when they assert that the society is in favor of, or supports, education. (Of course, the JW may have in mind the education at the kingdom hall, knowing full well the householder has in mind a college education)
• 

  teenyuck

  I saw the ARIS study in USA Today last week. The study also showed that the JW's enrollment declined by about 4%. It was the only religion listed that had membership decline. That is good.

  That must indicate that the education level is going up. As more dubs become educated they will leave.

  I am very lucky that I had an enlightened mother who allowed me to go to college. It opened my eyes to the cult.
• 

  ThiChi

  ""That must indicate that the education level is going up. As more dubs become educated they will leave.""

  So true.

  “Cancel my subscription to the resurrection. Send my credentials to the House of Detention, I got some friends inside.....” The Doors
• 

  RunningMan

  Erich:

  That quote is not my view. It is simply part of the article cited. However,
  I do agree with it. JW's believe that everyone on the planet, except them,
  will be killed. In fact, they even believe that not all JW's may make it -
  you have to be a really good one. Every now and then they print an
  article for the public, so that they don't look like completely bloodthirsty
  idiots. Insiders know that it is for public consumption only.

  I would also like to mention that last summer, there was a series of KM
  articles and service meeting parts about not going to college. It is still
  actively discouraged, even though the door has been opened. One of the
  parts had a family demonstration, with all of the kids proclaiming the
  uselessness of a college education. After the meeting, my daughter, who
  was 10 at the time, said "It sucks to be them".
• 

  Erich

  Room 215, RunningMan:
  
  Fact is: I am a JW, and I do not believe that everyone on the planet, except JW's, will be killed in armageddon. I further do believe that there will not happen a global slaughter which kills 99% of people.
  
  I told you since I came here to this board:
  I do believe that the entire story will happen in an other manner than previously expected. And I am sure to be in accordance to the bible's prophecy and in accordance with the last "new light" which got revealed from WTS.
  
  If any JW's have got other suggestions, then it is their own business. And if the society would go to df' me for "apostasy"-reasons, then it's their own business too. Not mine.
• 

  Erich

  RunningMan:
  
  My son studied graphic arts and design (5 yrs). After finishing the college he became commercial artist. This is a job which the WTS had condemned in their literature... Nevertheless, I would have been allowing my son to learn or study every sort of profession or graduation of his choice.

  He is still an active JW. Others, who were sons of hardliners, are not anymore. Meanwhile.