something which i always found surprising when i attended the kingdom halls i studied was how angry, even vicious, many jehovah's witnesses could become when a watchtower study featured some persons and/or institutions the organization disapproved of, say, higher education and educators, christendom and its clergy, apostates, etc.
many seemed to sadistically enjoy denigrating these persons or institutions when the watchtower study conductor called on them and they were handed a microphone.
i wondered for a long time where this anger came from, and i've developed a hypothesis for explaining this.. according to a book i'm reading by alice miller called "for your own good: hidden cruelty in child-rearing and the roots of violence," children who are strictly controlled and abused (whether emotionally or physically) typically go on to unleash the anger they inevitably felt at their parents, but were never allowed to express, at their children or those around them.
john.prestor, I actually have that book.... it was given to me by a sister! She thought it applied to her relatives in Nazi Germany. She never saw the bigger picture of how that could apply within the "organization".
Your observations are spot on. So many JWs are brimming with repressed hatred for anything "worldly" they can barely function.
since i woke up and left i've been contacted by others i knew from my youth who've also left the cult.
also people around the world on facebook adding me out of the blue because we have mutual friends and they occasionally ask me stuff or share their story.. what i've noticed in the vast majority of cases, is that people are waking up not because of the arc or doctrine but apathy.
active jws are becoming less and less interested, less and less bothered.
Pale, you are so correct. I was asked recently (by a non-JW) why I left the religion. It all comes down to feeling suffocated and bored to tears. Anything you want to do is wrong, you just have to keep on the hamster wheel until they give you permission to stop or die. I too came to the conclusion that if I had to live like that forever, I would rather opt out. I can't even contemplate stepping in a KH now.
there was a talk i heard recently given by a top bethel bro, he was complaining that the type of young jws that have been joining bethel in recent years has been totally unfit for work or even life.
he called them "cotton wool jws" as he says that the parents of these young ones have kept them so sheltered from life that by the time they are of age to strike out on their own they are completely unable to cope socially, emotionally, mentally and that they have no practical life's skills or instincts of common sense or responsibility.
he said that the brothers at bethel have to work at peeling off the layers of cotton wool these ones have come wrapped in and that often when exposed to the reality of life away from mummy they quite literally go running back home.. for once i actually agree with a brother on the platform, i've met many a young teen or young adult whose life has been one long warm bath as it were.
I know many people are complaining about how the younger generation can't/won't work. This is true for the JWs as well, but with the added layer of ignorance and fear of the real world. If you keep your child living at home after school so they can pioneer, and keep them away from anyone who isn't a JW, and keep them away from any sort of higher education, how can you expect anything different? Why should the GB expect anything else from the drone population?
This applies to a lot of JWs I see, and NOT just the young ones.
'satan's coming after us'.
screenshot from video.
shawn bartlett, the records management overseer for the jehovah’s witnesses, explains the organization’s new record-keeping policies during a 2017 seminar in britain.
It is disgusting to me that they can claim "persecution" over child sexual abuse lawsuits. If they were God's Organization, they could be accused of many things by "Satan's World" while trying to follow God's laws (if you believe in that sort of thing). But to have to struggle over the disposition of claims of sexual abuse that really happened, and weren't handled to the benefit of the victim, is just gross.
They've lost any show of being from God, in my mind, if they can't protect their members from this abuse, and have to be prosecuted. THAT is not "persecution" if governments have to remind you that protecting your members from repeated sexual abuse is a problem that must be dealt with!
the subject was how long humans have been on the earth.
although i'm posting this under "jokes & humor" this is (sadly) only a slight exaggeration:.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b_0cfmq1nu.
OMG THAT is IT, exactly!!
@chaching, I have yet to find a JW who can explain the timing of the pyramids vs. the flood.
with much amusement i read the thread on women parking lot attendants and it got me to thinking about life at home for the average jw.. i believe i am correct in thinking that anything to do with jw-ism requires a penis, except all the leg work (fs & pioneers).
meaning the mic's, talks, etc... but yet the same guy who thinks his wife (or any other woman) is not bright enough to run the sound system for example doesn't mind his wife hauling hay, digging in the yard, managing the checkbook and other various physical jobs as well as jobs that do in fact require a brain larger than that of a gnat?.
let's say a guy is a bit technologically challenged but he can manage the sound system at the kh ok. i imagine he feels proud that he is getting to do this great privilege?
@LV101 - OK! I see, and have seen it. Years ago a sister I really liked married a "worldly" man (he was super nice) and he came to the KH for a while..... then they both (and her son) lost interest and quit coming. Smart! They were all very happy going forward.
@WildThing, pretty sad you have to get natty old scarves from garage sales to use in the KH. But, no one can afford new! What a joke.
with much amusement i read the thread on women parking lot attendants and it got me to thinking about life at home for the average jw.. i believe i am correct in thinking that anything to do with jw-ism requires a penis, except all the leg work (fs & pioneers).
meaning the mic's, talks, etc... but yet the same guy who thinks his wife (or any other woman) is not bright enough to run the sound system for example doesn't mind his wife hauling hay, digging in the yard, managing the checkbook and other various physical jobs as well as jobs that do in fact require a brain larger than that of a gnat?.
let's say a guy is a bit technologically challenged but he can manage the sound system at the kh ok. i imagine he feels proud that he is getting to do this great privilege?
JWs (sisters) used to tell me when a sister's unbelieving mate became a JW (seldom) the sister was DTR (down the road) -- done! ~LV101
I've seen this happen twice.
OK, I hate to be dense but what exactly do you mean by DTR and done.....
i was shocked recently to see on social media a couple pictures of jw sisters at a convention working as parking "attendants".
i put that title in quotation marks because they still don't get the official attendant badge like the male parking attendants do, only the reflective vest.
has anybody else heard of this .
Sorry but i do wonder what is wrong with the women and even the intelligence of the women in the organization that allow themselves to be demeaned in this way and they quietly just shut up and put up with it ?
Smiddy, I agree with you. Some are just so happy to be (finally!) able to "help". They can't seem to see how demeaning this is to them.
Looking forward though, I think younger people are having a hard time buying into the archaic structure of the religion. Hopefully, this trend also shows that younger guys (the smarter ones) are tired of begging for position, and are caring less and less about being a MS or Elder.
i was shocked recently to see on social media a couple pictures of jw sisters at a convention working as parking "attendants".
i put that title in quotation marks because they still don't get the official attendant badge like the male parking attendants do, only the reflective vest.
has anybody else heard of this .
That must be the new thing having sisters help the elderly out of cars.
Kidding aside, what a sad state of affairs in the 21st century.
i was shocked recently to see on social media a couple pictures of jw sisters at a convention working as parking "attendants".
i put that title in quotation marks because they still don't get the official attendant badge like the male parking attendants do, only the reflective vest.
has anybody else heard of this .
My reaction, for years, is that its a totally unnecessary job. People park every day without someone pointing... its amazing
Yes, or even with four brothers pointing every ten feet...... that always irritated me......
Anyway, I have heard recently of sisters being "allowed" to do menial work (not enough attendants) BUT ONLY IF THERE'S A BROTHER CLOSE BY TO SUPERVISE.
Seriously? Yes, because, we're just dumb women after all.
When I heard that I thought, even if I was still in, I wouldn't volunteer for that.
