Class Distinction Within The JW Community?

by Latin assassin from Manhattan 40 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Mary

  My one sister who is still a JW, knows full well that she's in the "in crowd" too. Difference is, she absolutely LOVES it. Get gets off on people sucking up to her, being "popular" and she and her husband are invited everywhere........well, ALMOST everywhere. A couple of months ago, a young couple in their Hall got married and invited everyone in the bookstudy group except my sister and hubby!! LMAO!! Her nose was really out of joint, she was furious at the snub and said to me "I'm not used to being treated that way!"

  B-O-O-H-O-O

  She's also had a few instances of people who she thought were "friends", turn around and stabbed her in the back. Actually, they weren't friends at all. They were people who really didn't like her, but she was an elders wife and they thought hanging around her would do them some good........when it didn't they stabbed her in the back. surprise surprise.
• 

  JT

  Well i am coming from a somewhat diffferent angle- i grew up as a child of a single parent and got the shaft big time, so i decided that if i became and elder i would never cut short the single parents and their kids-

  well i finally made it to the "TOP" , elder, bethelite, and all kinds of committee titles in the circuit, my wife and i were part of the "IN CROWD". so we tried to bring along all those who felt cut short, like the old friends, single parents and thier kids, i took them with me every time almost when i gave talks in other halls

  i recall being told so many times that this was the first time an elder and his wife had invited them to go along and they had been in THE TRUTH FOR 30YRS+

  when we had gatherings with the bethel heavies who would come down, we would invite the "out cast"

  in the hall- then after awhile the other elders/wives started to dog us and say, WHY DID YOU ALL INVITE THEM, WE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE A GATHERING FOR JUST US

  and we would ask WHO IS THE "JUST US"

  so my wife and i tried very hard to include everyone, cause in personally knew how i felt growing up as a child and seeing my mom get to the meeting for service early with her 4 little black kids hoping to work with some of the more exp publishers only to be told "Sis work with your family"

  so here i was about 10-12yr and i had to work with my sister who was 8, while my mom struggled with my 2 younger brothers

  after trying to include everyone - i begin to see that i could not fight or beat THE SYSTEM-so we had to leave- while many express the pain they suffered at the hands of THE SYSTEM as an adult jw with titles and priviliges i was well treated and respected, yet i reconized the hypocrisy of THE SYSTEM- EVEN THOUGH MY WIFE AND I PERSONALLY benifited, i truly begin to understand what ray meant by CRISIS OF CONSCIENCE-

  SO WE HAD TO GET THE HE!! OUT
• 

  minimus

  James, as I was reading your comment, i said to myself,"What are they crazy, bringing these other people to these get togethers?" In my experience with Bethelites and other heavies, all they wanted to do is drink and get a buzz on. You and your wife were putting these Bethelites on edge bringing in ones that might get stumbled. shame on you, son.
• 

  run dont walk

  too many classes,

  too many levels,

  too many cliques,

  too many poor,

  too many losers,

  =

  Jehovah's Witnesss
• 

  ignorance is strength

  When I was young my parents let the congregation hold book studies in a seperate apartment near our own. However, this apartment didn't have a bathroom and you had to go to our apartment to use the washroom. We have a dog and one day the PO's wife needed to use the washroom and the dog barked (only once) and came up to the her (like all normal dogs do). I remember going out in service in a car with the PO and his wife and she makes quite a few condescending comments about how we have the dog and how it dared to bark and come up to see who it was (medium sized dog, never jumps on people). Of course she was implying in the subtlest way how much our family sucked and did it right in front of me.

  When the book study groups were changed, it was moved to another place. Now one of the earlier posts it gave a ranking system, our family was somewhere between 5 and 6, mainly because my parents do shift and extremely stressful low-pay work (due to lack of education) and missed quite a few meetings. I'd always hated how the upper cliques treated everyone like dirt and still managed to act so nice at the same time. It makes me angry just thinking about it.
• 

  rocketman

  Mary, I guess if I keep heaping such praise upon you, I will be guilty of idolatry!
• 

  wannaexit

  It always bugs me when I hear a dub say that their position is a "stepping stone to something better". I've known so many pioneers that their only reason for pioneering was so they can move on to the next level.

  Class distinction is very evident at assemblies. When a speaker is announced it has to be accompanied by his title and list of accomplishments.
• 

  uriah

  I remember in our cong where there was a 'secret' association of elders who would take their young sons to play football with other congregations on a field in our home town. My son had the unfortunate experience of working with this elder who let it slip to my son - after which the elder had no choice but to offer a feeble 'do you want to come too (thinks....say no pleases please). Of course my two sons jumped at the chance as they loved playing football but they were made to feel unwelcome by this elder. My children were all bright and showed a lot of elders children up so they hardly if ever got asked to answer paragraphs in the WT. Because I was not an elder worshipper nor brown noser I never got appointed an MS, but i could do the mags.

  When I went to bethel for the tour in NYC I noticed a distinct class spearation. Those with pagers and phones hanging on their belts and with collar and tie looked down on the housekeepers. Our tour guide was a housekeeper and was so proud of this that she took us off tour just to show us her 'trolley' full of mops and cleaning stuff and point out where she cleaned, whilst these 'pager' guys swanned around looking important.

  I did notice that the paintings that appear in the literature were hung on the wall and you could touch them, but the one of Jesus (supposedly) was behind the glass lobby of the personnel dept, you could almost see the passersby bobbing like they were in a church.
• 

  Latin assassin from Manhattan

  In this aspect I feel that other religions are better than JWs in that they don't believe in titles or positions of rank. For example, the Sikh religion doesn't believe in elders or servants or microphone handlers, yet they have over 20 million members worldwide and appear to behave more Christian than JWs. For example, imagine a homeless person walking into a KH. He would probably be escorted into a less consipicuous area of the hall, or he would get walked out. Whereas in a Sikh temple he would get fed and taught in their ways. More importantly, since they don't believe in a priest-class, there are no collisions of egos in their community.

  Though the WTS is beyond repair at this point, it would be nice to find a Christian religion that didn't have a class system. It would be nice to go somewhere and just read the Bible for what it is, a book, with other people but without all the interpretations and dogmatic practices. Is such a thing possible or am I asking too much?
• 

  Mary

  It would be nice to go somewhere and just read the Bible for what it is, a book, with other people but without all the interpretations and dogmatic practices. Is such a thing possible or am I asking too much?

  I agree, it would be nice, but unfortunately, you always have people who want to give you THEIR interpretation on the bible, and insist that they are right and everyone else is wrong.

  It's funny that the Nation of Israel had the Torah by which to live their lives the way Jehovah wanted them to. It was only when they started adding their OWN interpretations and laws and regulations, then they got into trouble. Jehovah told them not to work on the Sabbath, and they interpret that to mean you can't even turn a light switch on or ride in a car. He told them not to eat shellfish or pork, and they take it to the extreme whereby they won't eat off a dish that MAY have ever at pork or shrimp on it at one time.

  If people just read the bible for what it was and not demand that everyone accept THEIR interpretations of it, the world would be a better place.