Sad story. My family is nearly that sad. So much wasted opportunity and resources. Postponing life in expectation of a soon-to-arrive paradise that is a WT lie.
They Are an Armageddon Family
by OnTheWayOut 20 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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undercover
A sad story that is all too common with the true believers. I could see some traits of my JW family in your tale, except for owning valuable property. What little my elderly JW parents have is probably going to end up deeded to the WTS instead of us kids. At least Sally's parents aren't going to give all that valuable property to the WTS upon their demise. Then she'd be in a real pickle.
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Pistoff
This family is the lucky family; they have assets to sell later.
The majority of Armageddon families will be nearly destitute; no retirement savings, and for many, reduced SS credits.
I know an uber elder who retired early, at least 10 years ago, when the end was much closer; he took a 20% reduction in his pension from a good company to retire early.
That 20% reduction over the 20 to 30 years of his retirement will loom pretty large.
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LostGeneration
Like Pistoff said, they are the lucky ones. Far less than 1% of JWs have some sort of island property to fall back on. I know of one elderly couple in my area in their 80s, never had kids and did the whole pioneer/serve where the need was great for 60 years+. They are living in a government subsided apartment building that is probably 50 years old in a horrible neighborhood. I would love to pick their brains about the current "generation teaching" and see if they have any resentment over having the rug pulled out from under them.
The bottom line is that Watchtower brainwashing makes people make bad financial decisions in most cases. Whether its credit card spending, not buying a home, not taking that evil PROMOTION AT WORK, or saving for retirement. Its amazing the WT gets much at all from the estates of dead JWs...
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talesin
OTOW, I can give you a slight twist on an Armageddon family.
The story is similar, with the land on the sea, in the country, except it has a valuable and well-kept large house on the beachfront, which is only used for vacationing. Parents have their own home in the city... they are not rich, but comfortable.
There are 2 kids in the family. The one who is non-JW asked if she could have a small piece of land as her inheritance, being sick and unable to provide for her retirement. The other, who has remained a 'faithful member of the flock' (despite being secret smoker and heavy drinker), has managed to build a moderately successful security business.
Childless exJW daughter has been told that 'we want to keep the land in the family' (? what??) , so it must be left to the son. Not even a small plot left to me? she asks,,, considering that after Armageddon, they can have it back. Don't be so greedy!! she was told.
True believers? I think not ....
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heathen
There's nothing wrong with living a simple life , education is extremely expensive and people usually don't wind up in the profession of study anyway. The sitting around watching CNN when you could be doing something industrious is a waste tho.
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James Brown
Thats the terrible thing about the watchtower, bad information going in means bad information coming out.
Bad decisions influenced by brain washing.
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OnTheWayOut
Thanks all for your comments.
Heathen, there really is nothing wrong with a simple life if that's what people want. If Mr. and Mrs. Smith wanted to "relax" in a tropical paradise in a trailer and spend time at the beach they live at, great for them. I would hope they would encourage the kids to do more, but even if they lounged around on the beach, they would have enjoyed themselves. But this entire family has been working so hard for so long for the benefits of the Printing company. Their efforts have gone to waste on pioneering. I include my musings that they didn't get an education, but also include how they aren't working hard for themselves. There's nothing wrong with making choices for yourself concerning these things, but it's a shame when the decisions suffer from Watchtower's pressures.
I wasn't really feeling that a man in his 80's should be industrious instead of watching CNN, but it just adds to my confidence that he's been paying attention to the world just enough to prove to himself that Watchtower's great tribulation is imminent. He's a tired older man who wasted his energetic years working for the printing company and now has to lose some family land for his choices. It's clear he would not have made those choices if the family could easily keep the land.
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undercover
My in-laws are addicted to cable news networks. They flip between FOX and CNN, thinking that they're open-minded and non-partisan. But all they do is bitch and whine about the bad stuff they continue to see (repeated every hour or so) and proclaim, "The end can't come soon enough" and then talk about where to go on vacation next year.
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Pistoff
The Armageddon families in my life are similar; one in my old hall, now late 50's early 60's, have had to take in their 2 grandchildren from the daughter that can't keep her legs closed.
He had a decent job some time ago; the CO stabbed him for missing the Thursday night meeting, he quit the job and that started his slide into one bad job after another.
My BIL, who less than 2 years ago admonished me in urgent tones that "the end is so close, SO close" still splits his time between his lake home, paid off, and his city home, paid off. He got unemployment for 2 years after an accident, and never went back to work.
My in laws, who had no problem dragging us to every party their worldy relatives had when we were just married years ago, have apparently seen the light in their old age, and though they desperately want to see their great grandaughter, won't do it if they have to see their df'd grandson.
He told them they were not going to see her if they shunned him.
They all wait with baited breath for any new light about the 'end of this system of things', and go on and on, without irony, about how BAD this system of things is, all the while talking on their smart phones and talking about how they need to lose weight.