Governing body deceiving members on purpose?

by wwjdnwt 58 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  wwjdnwt

  Hi, I am new here. I was born into this religion. I was a JW for well over 30 years. I did much research before I had internet, I compared Bibles and prayed deeply to help me to know if this was the truth. My prayer was answered in such a way that I knew God's hand was in it. Long story, like most. I have been free from this organization for about 10 years now.

  I have often wondered about this question. > Do the members of the Governing body and WTBTS know that they are deceiving their members or do the really believe what they teach? Do you think they have gotten in so deep that even if they realize this is not the truth, they have to keep it up because of the millions of members that have followed them?

  Thoughts from anyone?
  
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  sir82

  Do the members of the Governing body and WTBTS know that they are deceiving their members or do the really believe what they teach?

  They are either evilly deceptive or mind-bogglingly stupid. Either way it's not good.
  
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  oppostate

  Does a CEO of a fortune 500 company believe in their corporation? I think it's pretty much the same with the Gobbering Body of the JW religion. They force themselves to throw aside doubts and nagging thoughts from their minds that what they're preaching, what they're selling, is no better and sometimes worse than other competing organizations.

  I think Rutherford was a megalomaniac, and a psychopathic narcissist, but I doubt the current GB would consider braking away from Rutherford's wacky doctrines. It would be nice if they could see the error and cultishness that is rampant in their religion, sort of what took place with the Worldwide Church of God (Armstrong). It takes integrity and conscience to make changes like that.
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  maksutov

  I think they both believe it (consciously) and also know it is not true (suppressed) - just like I did when I was a member. I suspect they can bear a lot more cognitive dissonance than average because they have more to lose from admitting to being wrong.
  
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  Mad Sweeney

  If you read Crisis of Conscience it seemed like at that time the GB was a mixed bag of personalities with varying degrees of intelligence and conscience. I would guess it is similar today. Most are true believers who think what they do and say is right - not because it is morally right by any logical standard - but because it is Jehovah's organization and that can't be wrong.
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  Ding

  We know that once most rank and file JWs become convinced that the WT leaders are God's chosen "faithful and discreet slave," they will accept anything they say, even to the point of ignoring something contradictory that they proclaimed as truth only months before.

  The question is whether the GB members themselves believe they are this great and powerful figure or whether they realize they are nothing more than men trying to explain away their errors.
  

  Based on what Ray Franz wrote in Crisis of Conscience (that the GB are "captives of a concept") I tend to think they believe their own hype; that is, I think that the GB members really believe that the WTS is God's organization and that they and their predecessors are God's sole channel of communication.

  When events make clear that something is wrong in their system (as with the 1914 generation teaching), they scramble to make an acceptable adjustment, and when they come up with one they convince themselves that their change is "new light" from Jehovah.

  The alternative would require admitting to themselves and to their followers that in the grand scheme of things they are really nothing special.
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  Island Man

  I believe they know they are deceiving the members but delusionally think that they're deceiving the members for their own benefit. It's a case of having the mindset that the end justifies the means.

  Did you see the JW broadcast where Samuel Herd was addressing the issue of JWs being brainwashed? He did not deny it. Instead his argument consisted of saying that what others call brainwashing is seen by them as wholesome teaching and mental readjusting to clean the mind of the corruptions of this world. That's not a quote, mind you, just my paraphrasing of what he was saying. So he essentially justified brainwashing by putting a positive spin on it!

  I think they similarly justify and rationalize their deceptive responses about issues like the UN fiasco and child sex abuse. They probably tell themselves that it is in the best interest of the brotherhood that they not know the whole truth about such matters so as not to discourage and stumble them. They probably rationalize that the negative publicity that would come to the organization if all allegations of child abuse are promptly reported to the police, is of greater importance than the welfare of the individual child abuse victims, so they feel justified in sacrificing child abuse victims and covering up the issue in the name of protecting the image of the organization so that outsiders wouldn't see the organization in a bad light and be stumbled away from accepting the truth.

  I would say it boils down to doing evil in the name of God. But its actually doing evil because of organizational pride. Organizational pride is at the root of the child abuse mess they're now mired in.
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  John Aquila

  maksutov

  I think they both believe it (consciously) and also know it is not true (suppressed) - just like I did when I was a member.

  I totally agree with this because it is exactly what I experienced. I believed it was true, but at the same time I knew it wasn't true. It's only when the contradictions are to much to bear that I finally decided to put them to the test and they failed. And even at that, it was difficult accepting. Now the question was, should I DA or should I fade and stay? The GB has more to lose, they are old, have no marketable skills to survived in the world, so if they admit the truth that it is a scam, then they get disfellowshipped, shunned, and are thrown in the streets. Why would they do that and cut their own throat?
  
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  Oubliette

  JA: Why would they do that and cut their own throat?

  Because it's the right thing to do.

  But they won't because they are cowards.
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  galaxie

  When David splane (gb member ) exclaimed in his stanley theatre adress regarding : ' who are the fds ' he admits it was an 'idea' which he refers to as " we love this idea ". Where do they get this idea or notion?imo it's pulled out of their collective asses to steer their hypocritical organisation in the direction which suits their knowingly deceptive purpose of control over their directed unquestioning adherents.

  Yes I think deception stares out of their eyes while inwardly knowing to question their unqualified authority must not dare to be challenged.

  They are charlatans of the highest degree.