Other societies eg the catholics, work in a fundamentally different mode to the JWs in the spiritual sector.
They have priests who must in theory keep a high moral standard so that they can serve in a religious capacity, to approach the sacred, the divine, and if they fail morally they get severely criticised by the rest of society. The rest of the catholics don't need to be stressed out over being spiritual the priesthood, the mother church does a lot of the hard work for their salvation. If they fail morally no one really cares.
In the JWs however in essence everyone has to be a "priest" be morally clean so as to talk freely about religion and work hard for personal salvation.
That's a crashing responsibility placed on his shoulders by the WTS which does precious little to really help. This together with the savage destructive god image projected by the FDS must be behind the high rate of depression and need for tranquilisers among the JWs.
Any comments?
A crashing load on JW shoulders
by greendawn 5 Replies latest jw friends
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greendawn
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hamsterbait
A whole group of ambitious, ignorant men with low self-esteem see being an elder as a means of salvaging some modicum of self-respect.
After working in menial low paid jobs to get the things they need and want, or just running faster and faster to stand still like the white queen, they have no time energy or willpower to then look after the flock.
Add to this the increasing nagging doubt at the back of any witless mind, that something doesn't add up, and you have a weary demoralized group trying to beat those lower in the food chain to DO MORE DO MORE DO MORE.
In any other church, the priests are given a home and do not have to worry about daily necessities, which means they are always there for their flock, to visit the sick during the day, in hospital at home to give time to doing fun activities with the young so they can see that christianity need not be misery (unlike the witlesses)
I forget the Watchtower study that said the Scribes and Pharisees had surrounded daily life with so many petty rules and regulations, no "WORKING MAN COULD POSSIBLY KEEP THEM" (sound familiar??)
HB ( of the "hating Bethel" class)
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DanTheMan
It would be interesting to take a survey of active JW's asking them on a scale of 1 to 5 what they think their chances of surviving the Big A are, with 1 being "none at all" and 5 being "absolutely certain". I say this because so often I heard depressed JW's say things like 'I just wish the end would come, I don't care if I survive or not'.
It's a terrible way to live, trying to maintain such impossible standards.
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Narkissos
Actually this description reminded me of the basic Pharisaic stance, which was to extend, henceforth to adapt, the temple and priesthood rules to all Jews in a so-called "secular" setting -- which of course became vital after the destruction of the temple. This led to considerable casuistic flexibility -- as evidenced by the developed halakhah in the Talmud. Contrary to a common Christian cliché, the Pharisees were not "stricter," but their "reasonable" rules to be applied everywhere did become a heavier burden for the average Jew than the full, literal enforcement of the ritual Laws by the priests, who were not really concerned about what happened out of the temple.
Perhaps this is a basic problem in religion: the distinction "sacred vs. profane" begs for an idealistic, self-destructive Aufhebung (surpassing?), i.e. the motto "everything is sacred" which strikes back as "nothing is sacred (or profane either)". In a sense, this is both the force and major pitfall of religious reform, which dislocates the previous "sacred zone" and has to create new "sacred/profane" separations everywhere, for the sacred not to be dissolved in the open space.
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greendawn
Hamster, good points about the elders who unlike paid priests are too busy to take proper care of the flock. The WTS is too tight to pay for quality spiritual care and they also denounce the separation of clergy and laity as apostate, as if the Jews didn't have a priesthood.
Dan, yes the dubs have to struggle daily for their salvation...by works. Not a nice relaxed mindset. One failure some day and you are done. -
Honesty
It is a sad situation all Jehovah's Witnesses find themselves cornered in. On the one hand, if they doubt anything from the Governing Body it must be repressed at the risk of being considered 'weak' or questioned by a group of their so-called peers. On the other hand, as they strive to work their way to salvation (which BTW, is not the same salvation offered by Jesus to mankind) they become more depressed which leads to extreme cases of cognitive dissonance in order for them to stay convinced tht they indeed have the only Truth to be found in the universe as they anticipate the destruction of every single one of their non-JW relatives, neighbors and acquaintances while they try to figure out how they themselves will survive the dauntless task of restoring the Garden of Eden throughout the earth after they bury the corpses of their neighbors and maybe even their parents and/or children. No wonder they have serious mental problems.