by venus 36 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I was told they were having sex everywhere in the universities.
Another one was 'knowledge puffs up love builds up'.
I was told pioneer or be blood guilty for all the kids Jehovah is about to murder. (Slightly edited by me)
The real reason they hate higher education is it's so much easier to indoctrinate uneducated people.
Schooling make you learn, learning makes you think. WT doesn't want those who think. WT does the thinking for its members. Follow the $$$$$$!!!!
This is a very old policy that goes back decades. There is nothing new about it.
RainbowTroll: This is a very old policy that goes back decades. There is nothing new about it.
The policy is older than decades. It dates back to the days when the International Correspondence School was being established and was being promoted as a way of getting an education in the comfort of your own home. Over a hundred years ago.
Two of the textbook writers for the ICS were also writers for the Watchtower Society - Clayton J. Woodworth and George Fisher. The early format of question and answer in the WT magazine and in the Studies of the Scriptures was based on the ICS model. Studying the Watchtower material would give you a "Bible education" and qualify you to become a colporteur that could sell a program of Bible Study to others - "in the comfort of your own home". Learning a trade as opposed to a university education was promoted in the Golden Age magazine. It was a double whammy for the ICS textbook writers who also wrote for the WT.
WB, Thank you for the link. The elders might have been using this source. I thought something new.
As OrphanCrow correctly states, the teaching stems from over one hundred years ago:
w1910 March 1, p. 84-85
"we have more than once called attention to in these
columns, that the spread of education,
and increase of wealth, are not tending to make mankind happier, holier or more
content, but rather the reverse."
It was most recently reiterated last year:
w16
June p.21 para. 14 Jehovah Our God Is One Jehovah
"Or
the love of the world might involve efforts to attain "great things,"
such as through the pursuit of higher education."
However this does not prevent the WT from reading letters to the congregations asking for highly educated and degree qualified lawyers, or from having doctors, dentists, architects, pilots and fund managers at Bethel.
In most countries jw parents are required to meet some standard of obligatory education for their children. While some jws home school, most send their kids to public schools with tend to be general in studies, basic for getting a job. University is to advance critical thinking and to get a better paying job. The WTS does not want jws to be exposed to the "world's" critical think and be drawn away from what the WTS teachers. So early school fine, learn to read, write, math. But not philosophy, psychology, exposure to other religious views as research. And then of course students at the uni are worse than people at work right as to moral abilities? Not in my opinion.
One thing to remember....there are A LOT of Elders who are not being obedient to WT when it comes to sending their kids to college. The rank and file typically look to the Elders and they have the mind set, "if the Elders are doing it, it must be ok." It makes WT look bad and we know WT and JW's have to "look" good. lol
The kids who went off to college are moving forward with their lives. They are getting married, purchasing homes, having kids and making it financially. The kids who did not go to college are possibly getting married, living in the parents basement and struggling financially. This now pits the two groups of kids against one another. Little Johnny is an Elder and has a nice home, wife, kids and does not struggle financially when Little Jimmy (an Elder also) over here pursued "kingdumb interests." He and his wife are struggling financially, living with Mom and Dad. Both men are Elders. You don't think there is resentment on the part of Little Jimmy. He was a good little JW and did not go off to college but damn, Johnny and his wife just bought a nice new home and BMW. Little Jimmy then feels a little more superior than Johnny, when WT puts him on the assembly program, telling all the young ones how he sacrificed for Jah and how happy he and his wife are. Really Jimmy, you are happy? We have actually witnessed this scenario above. It is pretty amusing to watch.
VENUS:
I am really sorry to hear this because it means YET another generation of young people being groomed for poverty.
The ones pushing this have a luxury retirement complex and will be long dead when the gullible young people who fall for this reach middle age and have next to nothing!!!.....The fact that they're still saying this foolishness in the year 2017 when it is painfully obvious with struggling older people who DID listen - means they are afraid education will make more leave!
How hypocritical to want educated people for certain professions in bethel....An education is good as long as it benefits the religion. Otherwise, a JW should starve to death earning meager wages, right?
The situation in the congregations must be unpleasant with elders being asked to "help" those who are in dire financial straits. They must be passing the envelope around for contributions pretty frequently!! You can bet that they are targeting anybody still working (even those criticized for having a full time job)...or anybody else who looks a little affluent.
I'm glad I'm not there because I would have NO tolerance for this.
