by Anony Mous 37 Replies latest jw experiences
What annoys me is when adult children ask the congregation to take care of their aged parents.
The Bible says it’s the responsibility of the children doesn’t it?
often brothers and sisters in Bethel or busy with some work for the org are told not to stop working for the org but instead ask the local congregation to look after their parents
MIKEJW:
I totally agree. I was raised Roman Catholic and found the Witness mentality appalling.
The JW religion has No social programs whatsoever.. They encourage members not to get college/careers - thus promoting poverty.. They promote shunning and we have seen the horrific results with family members not speaking for decades.. The most tragic is when parents are coerced into shunning their children who are either disfellowshipped or just plain do not want the religion.. So what happens when these stupid JW parents get old?
This is a mess. The religion is filled with wrong assumptions and urban legends. I always wondered where these came from. I think the religion probably floats these trial balloons with some CO or somebody giving his ‘opinion’ and then it’s repeated as gospel. They probably don’t want anybody coming to them - so they let the rumors spread that ‘people in the congregation should do this’.
Nope. The people in the congregation are not responsible for somebody else’s elderly parents!!!!! And, if a particular JW still in the religion has good reason to hate their parents because of ill treatment - they should get in touch with whatever agencies to help..
This is not the problem of anybody else. For many reasons, I am Glad I’m walked away from this chaos ages ago.
Yes they even encourage not paying into a private pension at all. Try to opt out of it and work less hours so you don’t have to pay into it at all has been the advice for decades because you will never be old enough to need it.
now all those ones who followed that direction are a burden on others
its criminal the direction from the ‘faith slave’
JEHOVAXX:
You say these people who followed that direction are a ‘burden’ on others. Really?🙄
What if these so-called others do not acknowledge this burden?.. What if they (correctly) conclude that this is not their problem? .. After all, whose fault is it that other Witnesses did not pay into private pensions in the first place???
Some might argue the religion didn’t ‘force’ anybody. That may be true but they imposed sanctions on people who worked in the form of shunning and gossip. I personally experienced this.
Of course, Witnesses should have kept their business private in the first place!!!
The reason my business became known is that a JW did my taxes and saw that I contributed to IRAs.. I’m sure they blabbed to all the busybodies. Thank God I planned because nobody would be supporting me!
As I said in my post above about wrong ASSumptions, nobody has any business believing responsible people are somehow obligated to provide charity to irresponsible Witnesses who didn’t work OR plan.. So sorry anybody bought into the fantasy.
They will be burden if they didn’t plan for retirement when they were young. Mostly a burden on the state, you eventually have to stop pushing the cart and jump in the cart for others to push
I’m sure there are scriptures talking about not being a burden on others?
JEHOVAXX:
Getting back to the OP and the elderly person putting themselves at the mercy of a stranger:..
Let us not forget this is ALL the result of abnormal teachings of the religion. Among normal society, a person doesn’t shun their flesh and blood family and look to strangers. Among normal society, people don’t pursue poverty and deliberately not plan for the future.
Remember the scripture about the lowly Ant that stores up? The Witnesses taught commands of men. They literally hated on anybody who behaved like a responsible person. Now, JWs who followed ridiculously stupid teachings and are poverty stricken think they are going to go begging to anybody with a pulse who looks responsible.. Sorry, but I’d run from them. Meanwhile, who caused all this?
As a slap in the face, the religion does away with the very teaching that caused these Witnesses to knock themselves out unnecessarily in the first place. And no apologies forthcoming.
Yeah useless publishers are thrown to the curb so damn sad!!!
A bit of an update, my mother now has full control over the finances. Apparently there was her JW friend (if I recall, that friend was also a ‘pioneer’ back in the day) who for the last few years had control over the finances due to the dementia, the reason she was alone for those days before she finally called my mother is because the savings account had 17 cents left. From what we can piece together, this friend over the past few years paid for my grandmother, her own and apparently her son’s groceries, they also went on trips, cruises, paid for appliances, restaurants, electronics, even donations in name of the friend, they used my grandmother’s money for everything.
All-in-all in the last few years $75k on top of monthly pension payment was spent. Once the money was gone, so was the friendship and care. My mother filed a police report, talked to social services, but being in Europe, financial abuse does not get followed up. An elder called about the whole situation, now he wants to talk about what happened, I gave my mother the advice not to say anything and refer them to the police if they have anything to add to the story. Weirdly enough it is just a single elder, I guess they don’t have more.
Good Thing, she hasn’t been to a meeting since, she doesn’t know how to use Zoom, her friend still has the iPad. It sounds like after nearly 60 years in JW, most of it being a full time pioneer, now with severe dementia she has finally woken up and is sorry for what she did to her children for the last 30. Now she wants to see her sons and daughters (8 in all, 2 have already passed), all of whom left the JW decades ago. My mother is close friends with the group that sued JW for shunning in Europe, although the case was lost, it was bad PR for the JW, so there may be some media attention brought to this. Hopefully more to come.
