Broken Promises - no, I think they struggle with aspects of the religion and water some of it down, but other bits they take very seriously and can't cope without - basically, this is a conversation with family, and that's probably why it upset me so much - I fill they should help me to do my best, they don't. I also see siblings in full-time service without a full education, and my parents with pension because Armageddon is soon here.
[...] on issues like education the parent has to have a role in motivating good career choices, since many teenagers aren't inclined to do it themselves. I knew other non-JW kids from my neighborhood who didn't pursue a worthwhile career, not because of being in a cult but because the parents just didn't do their job in encouraging it.
Hi Chaserious, yes, I think kids are not generally very motivated, as they don't see the big picture, at a young age we are all naive to life, especially if isolated in a cult, some JW kids are homeschooled. I wonder why my parents, like so many JW parents, don't encourage me to study. If I made by myself the decision to go to college, well, if my parents had supported me, I could have achieved a good job. I have to put it down to the religious indoctrination, because I can't see why a parent would not want the best for their kids. Though I did notice most parents at the Kingdom hall had the attitude, "I was ok without uni, so my kids will be", which I think could even subliminally be jealousy.
BillyTheBethelite - found your post amusing.
Blondie - oh, the pressure to remain single. I hate the attitude toward dating. I'm sure as a teenager I may not have made a good choice of wife, so parents concern would be fair, but in one's twenties it's insulting to have people meddling.
Elders, parents, busybody sisters (who wish they were elders) being so interfering when I dated a sister, elders took me into the small hall at the Kingdom Hall and gave me a stern lecture on the benefits of singleness. Then I got caught holding my girlfriend's hand (supposedly 'girlfriend' was a worldly term that implied living in sin), and the prompt meeting with the elders, who went through a list of body parts asking which I had touched, didn't want to believe all we did was held hands and kissed, and then later elders checking up things were clean, basically ruined any romance. The irony was the elders' sons could flirt with sisters and it was accepted.
Aware - " painting a boat that's about to sink " - well, pioneering is " painting a boat that will never float " ! Don't distract your self from studies banging doors, do homework and get a job and house Supposedly there is such a letter, some of it was read to us at a MS meeting. Whatever, when I see any young JWs I tell them to go to college and let them know how bad jobs I've had were - one agreed with me I think they remember the 75 nonsense, but ignore it, because they can't cope with life without the hope of a paradise, otherwise it's day after day of a rubbish job, perhaps family problems, ill health, and they get depressed - paradise is the light at the end of tunnel that keeps them going.
Finkelstein - I've met Losch - people reacted like he was Jesus - he was just an old chap giving a speech; wasn't an amazing talk, for someone anointed, and when I went up to say hi, he didn't want to talk, or perhaps he was fed up with everyone wanting to shake his hand and have met the big man. I would ask him about university if I met him again
