Disfellowshipping Is Love and Other Examples of Orwellian Doublethink

by under_believer 4 Replies latest jw friends

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  under_believer

  I posted this in response to another thread. I was sufficiently pleased with the comparison, and I am narcissistic to a sufficient degree that I felt it would be good to post it as an original topic.
  

  Disfellowshipping is classic Orwellian doublethink. No single publication--not Crisis of Conscience, not Hassan's brainwashing works, nothing has been so instructive for me in recognizing what is wrong with the Society as 1984. In this case, we are dealing with doublethink, which is when two contradictory concepts are both held to be equally true. The person who supports the disfellowshipping arrangement, in its classic Witness sense, believes the contradictory concepts that

  • One should completely reject a person who is guilty of sin, treating them as though they are dead and as though they no longer exist.
  • Treating a person in this manner is an expression of deep love, one of the most profoundly loving things that can be done.

  This is one of many examples of Witness doublethink, many of which revolve around love. These are arrived at because of a combination of bizarre Witness-specific Biblical interpretations, and honest problems that anyone will have who tries to reconcile the New Testament's message of love with the Old Testament's message of judgement. The thought process usually goes like this:

  • The New Testament says that God is love.
  • The Old Testament says that God destroyed an entire city, including babies, women, children, and the elderly, because there were some homosexuals there. Nor will these be resurrected.
  • Therefore, destroying an entire city, including babies, women, children, and the elderly, must be an act of love.

  Even though this completely explodes any human definition of "love," it must be accepted if one believes the Bible is literally true. The thought process at which disfellowshipping = love was arrived at is similar, though based on a more specious interpretation.
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  LDH

  • One should completely reject a person who is guilty of a crime, treating them as though they are dead and as though they no longer exist.
  • Treating a person in this manner is an expression of deep love, one of the most profoundly loving things that can be done.

  UB I totally see your point. I guess where I'm divergent in my views, is that most of the things that get people disfellowshipped are not crimes.

  Lisa
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  minimus

  LDH, touching a breast more than "momentarily" is.
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  under_believer

  LDH, I apologize for my phrasing. I was using "crime" interchangeably with "sin." I'll try to fix the original post.
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  sir82

  1) We must avoid close relationships with all persons in the world who are not JWs. We may be cordial, but nothing more. A friendship with anyone not a JW would 'spoil our useful habits'. In fact, most 'worldly' people exhibit the spirit of Satan.

  2) It is our great love for persons who are not JWs that is one of the 2 primary motivators for our door-to-door work.