REALLY, Why Do People Remain Jehovah's Witnesses???

by minimus 37 Replies latest jw friends

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  Jeffro

  Some people stay because they honestly believe it's the true religion. There are many people whose lives before becoming a Witness were not all that pretty but when they became Witnesses their lives improved, in their view anyway. That is not a small thing for many people.
  I don't think the Witness religion is the paradise they like to advertise themselves as but neither do I think its the total dump many on this board like to characterize it as either.
  Just my opinion. And no, I'm no Watchtower plant. LOL

  That is true. Many are in it because the believe that it's 'the Truth™'. But the reason that most of them continue to believe it's true is because they 'obediently' refuse to look at any proof against it. Everything they hear about it reinforces their believe that it's 'the Truth™' because their only source of input is internal.
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  dottie

  It's gotta be those awsome District Assembly dramas.

  LMAO!!!

  I think in my mom's case besides the religious aspect, it has been the one constant in her life that has really never let her down. She's had quite a few bumps in her life and the belief structure has always been there for her I guess. I know that she would never leave. Unfortunately.
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  Outaservice

  Where else can you get some recognition and respect, speaking from the platform, instructing others when in the real world you are a dumba #% 'Nobody'!

  Outaservice
• 

  orangefatcat

  I am taking a stab at saying I remained a witness because at first I really beileved in it. But as the years went by it was a fear factor.

  I was sick and tired of being under a microscope and that is how the elders make you feel like an insect that has to be observed constantly. I think too that I stayed a witness for a long time was I feared it would hurt my parents, and my grandparent. I really beileve God knew I was terribly unhappy for many many years. When my father passed away I found it easier to work at finding a solution to the problem. Get out.

  Just a side thought, remebering when I saw my mom and sister several months ago at a brief encouter at the hospital, it hit me to see how much my mother was falling apart. It bothered me and hurt me to see her that way, and for a while I felt guilty and then I thought to myself, I am her daughter from the moment of birth, I was good growing up, I really never contributed to any major family foes. I went pioneering in Quebec, and did all that was expected of me. I guess what I am saying is that just because I no longer want to be a witness, I am still the same child, only thing is I am a disfellowshipped witness and if my mom saw how content and happy I was I wondered if she thought giving up the witnesses was s good thing after all. She looked so unhappy and drained of all human energy, which I believe is the result of being a witness. Stress and fear I believe go hand in hand. No wonder there are so many who have mental breakdowns and suicides.

  It is not normal to ask of any person to do what the WTS expects you to do.

  Orangefatcat
• 

  moomanchu

  Because where else can we go?

  The Watchtower has all the answers for us.

  The world is so bad, the end is so close.
• 

  parakeet

  Artificial status, sense of superiority, sense of belonging to a privileged few, feeling of protection against the harsh world outside.
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  minimus

  a lot of good reasons here! I like "habit". People do many things just because they're used to it, Being a Stepford family member is easy to do once you're programmed.
• 

  Lady Lee

  I'm watching the Matrix today. As part of Neo's training Morpheus takes him on a walk down a busy street where people are rushing off to do what they do.

  Morpheus explains the people he sees are still plugged into the Matrix. The Matrix is a sytem and that system is the enemy. The people in the system are not ready to be unplugged. He says. "Many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependant on the system that they will fight to protect it"

  I can see the parrallel to JWs and the WT. They have been taught they are nothing without the WTS to guide them; tell them what to do so they can survive the end.

  Yes fear plays a huge part of that; fear of losing family and friends, fear of not making it through, and fear of never being good enough. But as long as those fears exist they will always override the need for personal growth and an existence as mature adults who are capable of living good, honorable and happy lives. They have traded freedom and independence for dependency of thought, feeling and action. Once a person gives thought to the control of another, whether one person or a group of people, seeing anything beyond what those "others" instruct becomes the impossible, a betrayal of what they are taught, the unthinkable.

  Mind control is indeed, a destructive weapon