Are there not enough anti-Witness books out there?

by free2beme 37 Replies latest jw friends

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  free2beme

  Every once in awhile I will read comments about someone thinking a new anti-Witness book needs to be written, to expose something. Well, recently I took the time to look over the search engines of the Internet and found something interesting. When you type in "Jehovah's Witness" or "Watchtower", you found almost 3 to 1, negative sites and information on the Witnesses. Although, to be politically correct, it seems the search engines lean towards displaying the official Watchtower website as their first result. I also found on Amazon and Barnes and Nobles, several anti-Witness books and actually no pro Witness books. They ranged in topics to COC to other less known ones. So I wonder, is enough enough?

  What I mean is this. For the most part, it is not Witnesses reading all of these sites, books, etc. It is us, the former Witnesses and the people exiting. We act like these books expose something to the rest of the world, and yet the rest of the world does not really care about a religion they thought was a little whacked out anyway. I guess, what I see these proclamations of great information, that are proclaimed to be something that will bring down the Witnesses. As something that reminds me of something Witnesses did. When they would give these lame ass talks at the conventions, where they stated "This is putting the world on notice!" and now we realize, the world neither heard or cared.

  Perhaps a reality check is upsetting, but face it, we belonged to a religion that most people already think is a cult or just plain odd, ALREADY! What really would some new book do, that is not already DONE?
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  cognizant dissident

  I would have to agree with you there Free2bme. I think the only 2 groups of people that find the subject of Jehovah's Witnesses fascinating are ex-Jehovah's Witnesses and Jehovah's Witnesses themselves.

  So, I don't know if we really need anymore books from ex-Jehovah's Witnesses anymore than the world needs any more awakes or watchtowers. Yet they still keep printing them! How many different ways are there to say the same thing?

  However, I do think that the process of writing these books can be cathartic to those who do and can be a useful part of the healing process. They are also written from the writers experience and will perhaps supply a fresh perspective that may touch the heart and motivate one reader while another writer may do the same for someone else. So, there's no harm in it and it may be of help to someone. If we personally have read enough of them to satisfy ourselves, then we don't need to read another.

  Cog
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  Highlander

  I agree as stated above about only two groups caring about J-dubs,, however I do feel that as more books are written by new ex-jws, it validates and offers further proof to the

  dark side of this religion. One anit-j-dub book could merely be an exception to the rule,, but when book after book after book is published by different authors, it shows a pattern,

  and it's a pattern that is hard to ignore by more and more j-dubs each passing day.
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  free2beme

  I thought about it, as therapy too. I think that it never hurts to record your prospective and history, with the religion. At the same time, I think it is all just things we already know or in the case of people who were never Witnesses, something they already expected. They do not have the sting, we sometimes "hope" they have. Don't yet me wrong though, I think the information on the Internet and current books, have done their damage. It is just that now, most of what can be said and exposed, has been done tenfold. It just reminds me of how the Witnesses put so much effort in the early years to exposing the Catholic religion, and like you said, how many more times or ways do you need to say the same thing over and over.

  An interesting point, to highlight in your comment, I could pick up a Watchtower, Awake or any publication of the society today and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I will read nothing new, that I have not read or heard a million times before.
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  Arthur

  You do make a good point free2beme.

  I understand that there have been several exposes and books written about the Church of Scientology; but do I care? No. That's because I never had any interest in Scientology, and I never will. But, I'm sure that most of the ex-Scientology members are reading them. If people already believe that a religion is strange or cultic, they probably aren't going to go out and pay 29.95 for a book that is going to tell them what they already believed. I think that this is why so many books about the Witnesses aren't even a blip on the radar screen.

  As far as any books that are pro-Witness; I think that there are so few because there are so few Witnesses who are professional writers or journalists (if any). Another factor is that even if a Witness does have the professional credentials to publish a book; they will surely not write a book about the organization, because they would be strongly admonished not to. And even if they did have the tenacity to do so; I think many publishers realize that there just wouldn't be a very big market for it anyway.
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  slimboyfat

  There are some pro-Witness books by the likes of: Firpo Carr, Hal Flamings, Edgar Foster, Greg Stafford, Rolf Furuli, Gerard Gertoux, Brian Holt, Nelson Herle, Jason BeDuhn and Anthony Byatt on general biblical/philosophical/social studies.

  And on the Witnesses during the Third Reich: Christine King, Gabriele Yonan, Johannes Wroebel, Detlef Garbe, Hans Hesse, Simone Liebster, Max Liebster, Hermine Schmidt, Horst Schmidt and Leopold Engleitner.

  There are also the pro-Witness books on the flag controversy and persecution in Canada by Blackwell, Kaplan, Peters and Penton.

  I would say that is a fair number of generally pro-Witness books.

  There is also a good number of neutral academic studies: James Beckford, Andrew Holden, Bryan Wilson, Royston Pike, Daniel Cronn-Mills and Norman Long.

  Rodney Stark even complained, in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, that not enough has been written about Jehovah's Witnesses from an academic perspective.

  Where the market is over-crowded is in the "I left the Jehovah's Witnesses and here is my story" category - though there are some classics in that genre, from the somewhat bizarre William Schnell and over-the-top Jerry Bergman and Anne Sanderson, to the compelling stories of Bryan McGlothin and Joy Castro, as well as the insider divulsions of Barbara Grizzuti-Harrison and, of course, Ray Franz.

  I don't think there are enough books on Jehovah's Witnesses! I say bring them on! There really could be a better attempt made at a general history of Jehovah's Witnesses than Penton's Apocalypse Delayed and more up-to-date than "Timothy White's" book A People for his Name.

  Also, put "Joseph Smith biography" into an Amazon search and there are dozens of books on offer. We need good biographies of Russell and Rutherford as well as other important figues in Witness history. Such books have been promised by various researchers for some time, but they never seem to arrive.

  And I think there are some non-Witnesses who would be interested in reading general historical/sociological treatements of Jehovah's Witnesses, but are generally turned off by the kind of hysterical anti-Witness literature produced by certain apostates and evangelical ministries.
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  rebel8

  I can only speak for myself, but I am the author of a book for ex-JWs. It is on a topic not covered in any other book (not doctrine or scandal), and I never once expected anyone but ex-JWs to have any interest in reading it. It was written expressly for ex-JWs.

  Besides that, I guess I wonder why it would bother anyone that there are many books on the same topic. At the bookstore I see thousands of books on the same topics. It really doesn't hurt anything, and if ppl are thinking they are going to make a difference by writing a book about JW doctrine, more power to them. I don't see any harm in having more voices speak the same message.
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  slimboyfat

  Rebel - please tell us, what book? Wonder if I have it.

  Slim
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  rebel8

  http://www.lulu.com/ex-jw
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  drew sagan

  Much has been written, and will continue to be written. Much of the 'classics' on the subject have to do with the time peroid of the 80's through early 90's making them somtimes seem 'dated' by current JW's.
  I really don't think that the book writing should stop. The WT continues to change and morph and people need to continue to be critical of it. Books as well as the internet help a great deal and they should continue to be made.