Weird habits and trends of JW's

by Junction-Guy 17 Replies latest jw friends

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  Junction-Guy

  It seemed like from what I remember the JW's were always looking into so many alternative medicines and fad diets. And those easy money schemes, does anyone remember these? instead of just getting a college education they spent so much time looking into job alternatives. In our family they sold mary kay, amsoil, everything but amway and the only reason they didnt get into amway was the religious connection to it. And to be God's healthy people they were always sick. My father used to purchase whole wheat crust on our pizzas and this was back in the early 80's when it wasnt cool, and they were vitamin freaks too, my dad and stepmom took probably 10 different vitamins a day yet they were forever more visiting the doctors office for one various medical complaint or another. I used to just want to ask them "why trust in Jehovah for your everlasting life, when you are trying your best to achieve this through medicine and health techniques" where was their faith? In God? or there own pursuit of a healthy lifestyle? please feel free to share some of your experiences as a JW and the various medical quackery and get rich quick schemes.

  Dave
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  ohiocowboy

  Oh yes, what you say hits too close to home. My Grandmother had breast cancer, and the Doctor that we went to was a Brother in our cong. The Doctor Brother told my Grandmother not to have the lump removed, but rather start taking his holistic pills. These pills were comprised of crushed veal bone, dried spinach, dried kelp, seaweed extracts, oyster calcium, and all other kinds of weird ingredients. In addition she was put on a regiment of Raw liver and spinach juice-yes, raw beef liver put in a blender with spinach, and pureed until it could be drank. She had to do this at least 3 times a day. Needless to say, I lost my Grandmother when I was 18.

  There was always some type of get rich quick scheme in the hall. The biggest one my parents got involved in. It was in the early 80's, and it was to make all natural potato chips, cooked in a really Healthy? oil. Surprizing, but it actually went quite well. Several Bros. and Sisters invested in this, and it paid off for awhile, but then things finally got to be too much, and then all the "Owners" started getting hard feelings, etc.

  Yes, the JW's do very weird things, don't they?
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  Junction-Guy

  Yes they sure do! I am so sorry you lost your grandmother to this quack doctor, he should have had his license revoked, thats if he even had a legitimate one to begin with.

  Dave
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  HeyNow!

  I remember a few of the "losers" would get involved in "get rich quick" schemes. Amway comes to mind; but it would always fizzle out..
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  avishai

  It seemed like from what I remember the JW's were always looking into so many alternative medicines and fad diets

  Well, since we were taught that scientists were mostly full of crap and so were doctors as far as blood etc., besides the fact tha education was dicouraged, is it a surprise?

  I remember a few of the "losers" would get involved in "get rich quick" schemes. Amway comes to mind; but it would always fizzle out..

  I remember how it was often elders, often the ones who came in later and had college educations etc. that were at the top of the pyramid, and selling those products to the "losers" using their positions to rip off your so called " losers". I've seen it happen in damn near every cong.
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  avishai

  bttt
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  cyber-sista

  There were 2 brothers in the area who were of the "annointed." They were both practicers of controversial holistic medicine (snake oil salesmen I now believe). I am not opposed to alternative medical practices, but they guys were really wacky and did "energy" work along with prescribing a lot of worthless products they sold. I had a couple of treatments through these guys. The last time I went to them they were working together--one was training the other and they did some "energy" work on me." The one brother dug his thumbs and elbows into me with what felt like all his strength claiming he was breaking up cystals trapped in my organs. It was so painful I was in tears and the other brother was holding me down to keep me from flying off the table. I felt sick after the treatment and went home bruised. To further note this older annointed bro who inflicted the pain upon me was later DFd. There were many other vitamin trends and scams that came and went over the years.

  I also remember tupperware parties, Mary Kaye Parties, crystal parties, Home interior parties. The brothers were at one time involved in selling telephone service and some quit their jobs to devote full time to it and I recall even being accosted at an assembly by an overly zealous telephone service saleaman bro. There were a couple of other multilevel companies like Amway. I went to a talk given by one bro and his wife and they were bragging about how they could full time pioneer now that they were selling such and such products and they were doing so well had just bought a motor home! The brother told us a story about the time he got badly burned from the barbeque and put this salve on his blistering hand and it was a miracle within minutes it was totally healed! Well, that sounded a bit fishy to me at the time, but did we dare not believe this full time pioneer bro's story?

  The thing that verged a bit on the mystic was Kinesiology. I was also treated by a well known pioneer sister whose husband was an elder and she was also a kinesiologist. I remember she held a cup in her hand and when the cup felt heavy or light to her when she asked me questions and from that she could determine everything about me. At the end of the diagnosis she gave me a complete run down on my personality and problems and everything in my life that I could do to improve. (There was a heafty fee for her service too) She later broke up with her elder husband who was having an affair on her with another sister. There was another sister who practiced this "science" too and she was really wacky--she didn't even need to ask questions, she just touched your foot and sat there and could tell everything about you from that. She claimed that she could even tell if she sat in the place where you had just sat or slept in the bed you had just slept what your problems were, because your "energy imprint" would still be there. She rather creeped me out.

  So those were some of the strange trends I recall. Weird habits--too many to recall.
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  DaCheech

  How about the new trend to call bothers "friends" ( I hear this in the convention alot!!!! )

  I thought the bible teaches us to be a spiritual brotherhood?
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  ezekiel3

  Ah, food at the proper time. Look what's in the new Awake regarding get rich quick schemes. I have a wild theory about this subject: JWs are easy targets for pyramid schemes and the like. Why? Look at the whole religion! A pyramid scheme is different for normal sales because you are recruiting recruiters, not just buyers of your product. Take this quote from the 22 July Awake and insert "religion" for "business":

  Is someone offering you easy money or huge profits in return for an investment? A cautionary warning is this: If an offer is too good to be true, it usually is. Don't be quick to believe advertising claims and testimonials, thinking, "This is different." Keep in mind that people are not in business to give away money or to share secrets to make you rich. If someone claims to have special knowledge that will make you a fortune, ask yourself: 'Why doesn't he use it to make himself wealthy? Why is he wasting time trying to sell it to me?

  Oh, by the way, Jehovah's Witnesses are also a literal pyramid scheme: reference C. T. Russel.
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  HappyDad

  Check out this site on the web.

  http://members.aol.com/razyreq2/page1.html Page: 1

  This is a JW that I used to talk to on the phone after I met her and her husband online. They were nice people but she was into a lot of strange stuff.

  HappyDad