Jehovah's people are not happy people

by Phoebe 50 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  punkofnice

  I spoke to a jobo once that worked with old jobos.

  'You can see the hope in their faces.' I was told.

  The next day I was told, 'they're all on meds for depression.'

  Make up your mind, methinks.

  As for me, I seem to have gone past giving a monkeys about the jobo cult. I believe the Governing body are vile individuals that are basically scam artists. However, I have other people I want to punch up the hooter instead, now.

  I'll talk to and be friendly and helpful to anyone, jobos included if they're not shunning me.....apart from the punch up the conk people.
• 

  Phoebe

  ttdtt

  I agree with you. Growing up in the truth in the 60s/70s until about the 80s, the JWs I knew and mixed with seemed happy enough. To be honest, in the 60s the JWs, especially older bros and sis of the anointed, were fun to be around and very, very kind to us kids. Then I remember talking to an elderly sister in the 1980s and she said 'the brothers are getting tired now' and I think from then on it seemed to get harder and harder to keep going.

  When we all really thought this generation wouldn't pass away, the anointed were already chosen and the numbers of them declining, there seemed an end in sight. I think maybe then they were mostly happy. I remember some very happy times especially at conventions.

  But I've noticed these past few years brothers getting more and more stressed out. More on medication for anxiety and depression. More suicides. More marriage break ups. Something never heard of when I was growing up in the 60s/70s. I now constantly hear the phrase ' Satan is attacking the witnesses' to explain every single problem they have, forgetting people in the 'world' have many of the same problems.

  When you have elders saying things like 'Only ACTIVE Jehovah's Witnesses will survive Armageddon' making the brothers think 'oh no, what if I'm not doing enough??' add that to the strains and stresses of everyday life, no wonder people are miserable to be around.
• 

  flipper

  I agree with Anon's statement, " one reason they are so mean spirited is in part due to their own unhappiness. Seeing other people happy, ....... seems to eat away at them . "

  This is SOOO true. What's the old expression ? Misery loves company ? I believe it's not just that the JW cult mind control over them turns them into control freaks themselves - but just seeing US EX-JW's enjoying life absolutely causes them anguish because it makes them question the validity of their beliefs ! They are told that they are " a people for special possession, that Jehovah's people and organization are happy " so if they aren't " happy " then they think they're doing something wrong. Or it causes them to doubt or ponder things within. Then they feel MORE guilty for doing that !

  My extended JW family cannot understand how I can be so happy in my own life and I simply tell them I have a lot to be happy for. The love I share with friends & family. It's a concept that's foreign to them because they are taught to NOT open their hearts to any non-JW's
• 

  ShirleyW

  Hey Flip, forgot all about that one when I posted a few pages ago, "Misery loves company" , exactly !!
• 

  ttdtt

  Phoebe

  I agree with what you are saying too. I would extend it to the 90s, at least till 95 when the whole Generation thing started to really change.

  This last decade, so many JWs are depressed and unhappy an stressed that (as I used) the anxiety, depression card is being played by many Elders/MSs to get out of those roles. And it always works.

  The hall I left had more people on Meds, and more divorces in total than the average population.

  Besides ALL the failed timeline promises coming and going, a big factor that you alluded to is the CONSTANT message from the top that - YOU CAN NEVER DO ENOUGH - what ever you do is NEVER GOOD ENOUGH.
  
  You get 10hrs a month - no you should get 15 - you get 15 you should aux pio - you aux pio really you should regular - you regular you should sever where the need is great.... and on and on at every level.

  It is a religion that (unlike just about every other one) SUCKS YOUR SOUL DRY - instead of giving you a LIFT and a positive outlook - and joy. Guess that's why it is a cult.

  I knew old GB like Sydlik and Barber. They were good guys, loving, kind, not mean or over bearing.
  Sydlik would say - go do something fun, enjoy our life. He liked to watch Football and have a Scotch.

  Those kind do not exist anymore.
  And the vast majority of COs are just giant ass#oles now. We had a real string of COs that just Beat down the congregation.

  I remember being a CO Pio meeting (I was an elder) and after this one meeting I had to console many of the pioneer sisters because the CO made them all feel like S#it.

  This is what will eventually KILL the org and make it dwindle.
• 

  pale.emperor

  This is why i have a real joy to be in the real world. My new friends and people i meet always tell me that im so upbeat and sociable. When i tell them why they're amazed. It's like im trying to catch up with what i missed growing up in "the truth". Little things people take for granted are still wonderful to me. Sleeping in on Saturday/Sunday is still something i look forward to.
• 

  Ding

  An elderly JW (now deceased) who joined the WT in Rutherford's day and eventually left once told me, "Things used to be a lot more fun and relaxed. Now everything is pressure and doom and gloom."

  Funny, I always thought of the WT as pressure and doom and gloom because of its apocalyptic and field service emphasis.

  Maybe it was a combination of Knorr's organizational efforts (trying to make the WT run like a business with millions of salesmen) and Freddy's "endure to the end" emphasis that changed things for him.
  
• 

  Christian Gutierrez

  So many write the same thing on their Instagram "Living the best life ever" along with their website
• 

  sparrowdown

  Yeah, the whole "Living the best life ever" mantra lol, they have to keep telling themselves that. People that are actually living the best life ever are so busy doing it they don't have time to crow about it.
• 

  Alfred