Not to long ago, I mentioned I was working on a video with a ex-jw college student on persuasion techniques of new religious movements, specifically Jehovah witnesses. This was the reason why I drove to Pennsylvania to photograph and film Russell's gravesite and also to interview a former elder who stepped down earlier this year and now participates on this forum. The documentary deals with interviews of a small cross section of former adherents to this religion to better understand the dynamics of persuasion, belief, and disenchantment from a social psychological and philosophical perspective. There is a growing interest amongst social psychologists how new religious movements recruit and retain members. The next few paragraphs were extracted from a handout given to Stoneybrook University Psychology Dept...
As a social animal, the human being spends a considerable amount of time interacting with others, influencing and being influenced. The human being’s ability to use influence is as much a part of being human as the ability to love and imagine. Influence is a powerful tool that can be used to delight, amuse, sadden or anger (Aronson 2004). One powerful form of influence is the deliberate attempt to persuade another. It is a widely held conviction that we are living in an age of mass persuasion (Aronson 2004). Jehovah’s Witnesses exhibit an extraordinary interest in the ability to persuade others. Jehovah Witness leaders in fact overtly encourage their followers to develop their persuasive abilities through their evangelism [1]. For one to demonstrate their affiliation with and submission to the organization Jehovah’s Witnesses, they must express their desire to participate in this evangelism, and submit a monthly report of their participation to the world headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Once deemed qualified to participate by Jehovah’s Witness elders, an announcement is made to the individual’s local congregation that s/he has become a ”publisher”, a term that denotes such participation [2]. The individual is expected thereafter to engage regularly in the persuasive evangelism of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
This critical need to convince and convert reflects the religion’s fundamental goal of spreading its message internationally. It is emphasized by Jehovah’s Witness leaders that the very term Jehovah’s Witnesses is not to be thought of by members as merely the name or label of the group, but rather more importantly a term expressing the obligation of each member to be a “witness of [their God] Jehovah”, or an active evangelist.[3] The effort of Jehovah’s Witnesses to accelerate persuasion globally can be seen in their 2006 Worldwide Report[4] where a reported 1,333,966,199 hours were spent in their preaching work in 236 countries, using publications translated into 310 languages. As a result Jehovah’s Witnesses report a growth in membership of 248,327 from 2005 to 2006. With such a concerted effort, questions arise as to what methods of persuasion are used and what makes individuals join this group.
There is evidence however that not all recruited members remain. A comparison of statistics from the 2005 Worldwide Report with that of 2006 shows a decrease in the number of “publishers” by 120,712. If historical trends remain consistent, an estimated 40,000 of the 120,712 will have had their membership severed with Jehovah’s Witnesses either by “disfellowshipping”, a form of ex-communication by a tribunal of elders[5], or “disassociation”, formally withdrawing oneself by way of public letter[6]. This suggests that for some members, persuasion is not successful, and consequently doubt may lead to dissuasion. This leads to a question of what makes individuals leave this group. The project hopes to examine the implied process of persuasion, doubt, and dissuasion through the personal stories of those who have experienced disfellowshipping or disassociation.
On a personal level this project will openly ponder how to individually reconcile the delicate balance between Self as an individual agent, and Self in relation to the society we are all a part of. How the human being decides to either accept the persuasion of others, or to protect itself from it by rejecting persuasion attempts is of great interest to the social sciences and humanities. By allowing former members to disclose their personal experiences, this documentary can provide a beginning for further examination of the persuasion techniques of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the trauma often resulting from the rejection of such persuasion from a social psychological perspective. Ideally the findings presented in the film Belief will contribute to an interdisciplinary approach to the rehabilitation of those who have experienced such trauma.
[1] The Watchtower May 15th 1998, pgs. 21-23 (a bi-weekly journal published by the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society)
[2] The Watchtower Nov 15th 1988, page 1
[3] Jehovah’s Witnesses - Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom 1993, page 155
[5] 1988 - InsightontheScriptures, Volume 1 page 787
[6] The Watchtower July 1st 1984, page 33
Although the paper mentioned that we were going to interview those who have been disfellowshipped or disassociated, we are also looking for those who may have faded away and no longer care about their status with the Jehovah's witnesses and are willing to be interviewed (this fits my situation). Presently, we have already done 4 interviews, and have 3 more lined up. Unfortunately, we have 5 male interviews and only 2 female interviews.
We are presently looking to interview more women, those who live within a 300 mile radius of NYC. If you are interested in participating, please PM me and I will get back to you. Thanks very much.