"What does the Bible Really Teach" Page 150 Watchtower recruitment manual
SHANGHAIED to SHANGRI-LA
LOVE BOMBING
The 'No Brainer Container'
HOW DO CULTS SEDUCE THEIR PREY ?
"" ......A tactic used most often is the "LOVE BOMBING"...They swarm over you in a sort of ,"COCOONMENT".
All of a sudden,,you have,,INSTANT FAMILY,,INSTANT PURPOSE,,INSTANT COMMUNITY,,INSTANT FRIENDS.....And you don't have to look inside yourself for answers anymore,,.. because cult leaders, or their designated high disciples,,dispense all your spiritual needs..
....A mass delusion,,mass hysteria,,operating under the illusion of a master plan...In military jargon this is known as ,"Cluster F**k"...
Beware of Love Bombing.... Leonard Brenner Love-bombing is characteristic of most cults. Prospects, recruits and members are drowned in a sea of love and caring. Recently in an evangelical church I heard the pastor describe his visit to two cultic groups in which he praised their love-bombing and urged that his church adopt the same loving attitude towards visitors and members.
Should the evangelical church practice love-bombing? Is this what Christ meant when he said, "By this will all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another," (John 13:35)? I've heard cult members say, "Of course we practice love-bombing: Who'd want to be in a group or church that practiced hate-bombing?"
This attitude highlights a common misconception. Hate-bombing is not the opposite of love-bombing. The opposite of love-bombing is unconditional love.
Love-bombing is highly conditional. The cults will love you to death while you represent a prospective convert to their group.
As a member a tight family love will surround you as you faithfully promote their cause. However, when it is clear that a prospect will not join the group or a member voices doubts, create waves, or leaves the group, all love ceases.
Indeed scorn is immediately heaped on these individuals and remaining members are told not to have any contact with them. All time, effort and love-bombing is then directed towards new prospects and the faithful members. Is this the love evangelical churches should practice? Unconditional love is what God practiced when he sent his Son to die for us.....
All hands abandon ship!
The Watchtower's plagiarizing pirate ship was 'scuttled', before it ever left the docks. It was all the 'blind following the blind'.--Their fallacious faith of credulity has been shipwrecked.
Shanghaied to Shangri-La.
When you first meet the Freemans and their followers, they offer so much acceptance and attention that the experience can be exhilarating, former members say. A few ex-members said that Patsy Freeman purposefully arranges things so that a newcomer will suddenly be invited out to lunch or dinner by a different member of the group every day.
“They present very well,” said one former member. “They’re very outgoing people – in some ways, just what a young person is looking for.”
Another former member, who joined the Freeman group shortly after graduating from college, said first encounters with the group were “overpowering to most of us that became involved with their group as college students.”
Barber had such an experience.
Barber, whose father was an elder in the Local Church, joined the Freeman group in Seattle at the age of 19. He said he was “struck by the friendliness and genuine humanity of the seeming atmosphere of love and respect in their church.”
In a 1998 e-mail to a friend, Barber tells of his experience living in the Freeman’s Seattle home for a year:
“At first I was enthralled with the typical ‘love-buzz’ used by all cults to snare the convert and was treated to a great deal of pampered attention ,” Barber said. “… I must admit there is a strong spirit which one meets at first encounter with the Freeman group, and it feels quite euphoric and spiritually sensual. It is a high of sorts, and I, along with others, felt a blissful transport as long as one fully transferred one’s mind and will, in complete surrender and submission, to the group construct headed by Patsy and Bill.”
Barber said he was being groomed by the Freemans for a leadership position in the Local Church and was “ranked high in the group hierarchy.”
It wasn’t long, however, until Barber said he realized that there were costs that came with his elevated position. The Freemans expected adherents’ undivided loyalty, even if it wasn’t openly asked for in public.
One former member said the process of drawing people into the group was like “boot camp in the Marines. … An attempt is made by Patsy to break down the individual’s will and strongholds that may frustrate her efforts to convince members to drop their individual identity and to take on and operate only according to the group identity.”
