Studying the WT (page 2)

Rooster

Our old KH had a watchtower built on it in the front. They sold the building to the Baptist about 10 years ago. I thought these buildings were dedicated to God. How can a religion of Christendom become owners of the temple of the Dub's?

VM44

From: http://www.freeminds.org/psych/boast.htm

United in Christ?

What To Say When Cults Boast of Their Unity

"Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment." - 1 Cor.1:10 (NASV)

Daniel Taylor comments:

"Legalistic authoritarianism shows itself in the confusion of the Christian principle of unity with the human insistence on unanimity. Unity is a profound, even mystical quality. It takes great effort to achieve, yet mere effort will never produce it; it is a source of great security, yet demands great risk.

"Unanimity, on the other hand is very tidy. It can be measured, monitored, and enforced. It is largely external, whereas unity is essentially internal. Its primarily goal is correct behavior, while unity's is a right spirit. Unanimity insists on many orthodoxies in addition to those of belief and behavior, including orthodoxy of experience and vocabulary. That is, believers are expected to come to God in similar ways, to have similar experiences with God and to use accepted phrases in describing those experiences....

"Ultimately, unanimity is impossible. It is brittle where unity is flexible and therefore strong. A single dissenter destroys it (so the dissenter may have to be dealt with harshly for the good of the group). For this reason, real questions are generally discouraged. Phony questions, however, where the answer is known by all, are part of pleasurable ritual. They are asked and answered in a wonderful nonthreatening confirmation of 'group think.'"

-Daniel Taylor's The Myth of Certainty

IMustBreakAway

"Ultimately, unanimity is impossible. It is brittle where unity is flexible and therefore strong. A single dissenter destroys it (so the dissenter may have to be dealt with harshly for the good of the group).

This makes me think that the society would want to curtial growth to a certian point. Because once large enough they would be unable to control the unanimity. (perhaps that is what we represent, the path of the uncontrollable) Or as the the architect in the matrix put it..

the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of "the watchtower". You are the eventuality of an anomaly, which despite "the GB's" sincerest efforts we have been unable to eliminate from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision.

kid-A

what is so amazing is that they actually think it requires some forethought or preparation for an "answer" at the watchtower study! You just read, word for word, the part of the paragraph that is answered by the question! There is NO thought process required, just regurgitation of words that are right in front of you! Incredible!

greendawn

They certainly do not allow margins for any differing opinions on the pretext that they receive their inspiration on what to teach the R&F directly from God, and any opposition to their teachings amounts to opposition against God.

That's how arrogant and pig headed they are and how they manipulate their followers with this theocracy non sense.

ferret

Their studying is just like doing a word search crossword puzzle. They have to find the answer that some-one else has prepared for them. There is no room for independant thinking.

startingover

For this reason, real questions are generally discouraged. Phony questions, however, where the answer is known by all, are part of pleasurable ritual. They are asked and answered in a wonderful nonthreatening confirmation of 'group think.'"

That really describes it to a "t"

willyloman

My first reaction to this thread was, "No, wait, I studied my a** off when I conducted that thing. Besides, I know lots of publishers who did extra research and brought this out in their answers."

Then I thought about it and realized all this extra "research" was conducted in the society's own publications, often including previous issues of the WT magazine itself. In other words, all that "deep study" was merely cross-referencing what the WTS had written before to see what else they had to say on a certain topic. This process created the illusion that much study was taking place, but all that was really happening was reinforcement.

startingover

Then I thought about it and realized all this extra "research" was conducted in the society's own publications, often including previous issues of the WT magazine itself. In other words, all that "deep study" was merely cross-referencing what the WTS had written before to see what else they had to say on a certain topic. This process created the illusion that much study was taking place, but all that was really happening was reinforcement.

I once asked my Gilead graduate lifelong JW father if he had researched anything outside WT material. He admitted he hadn't, because as he said, "there was just too much out there." I remember him having shelves of books and spending alot of time preparing parts for the meetings, but I now realize he was just reinforcing his "truth" with his study.

Forscher

I know what you mean. To keep from being so bored, I started looking up scriptures in the Greek & Hebrew and writing certain key verses down in the same languages. It helped my build my vocabulary in those languages as I started studiying them. I would comment on what I found, as long as it was reasonably close to the party line. It really freaked people out to see those and other notes I made from extraneous amterial. I was asked more than once why I bothered studying the languages. The elders knew better than to tell me to stop.
Forscher

Studying the WT

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