Hey Mike,
Good to see you as always. I think you're referring to Jesus's comment about "it is better to tie a millstone around your neck and jump in the river than to deliberately change God's word, or use it to hurt others." I think that's what he said, I'm not sure about the exact phrasing.
A few posts back, someone mentioned how the Watchtower loves it classes and labels for people, and I could not agree more. You see, one of the ways the Watchtower has been able to maintain such a tight grip on its victims, or "congregation" all these years, while at the same time maintaining a low public profile, is that it takes so bloody long to explain it.
For example, my college is fairly small and non-competitive. I looked up Jehovah Witnesses in the library and found no books solely devoted to them, like Ray Franz, or Steve Hassan. However, there are many books det ailing the many cults in America dating back to the 1950's, and in every single book, there was one chapter devoted to the Jehovah Witnesses, and clinical definition, for lack of a better term, is that they are a cult.Keep in mind now that these are academics talking, purely from a psychological and sociological point of view. They say this so matter - of - fa c tly that it's hard for the reader to believe that they're anything other than a cult. In any case, the truth is out there, but only for people who are looking for it.
Take the United Nations situation. Notice how with all the stuff the Watchtower says about them, and all the hypocrisy, and with all of our efforts to expose their hypocrisy, the one people who have not said a word is the United Nations itself! This is because they either don't know or they don't care. I wouldn't be surprised if the UNICEF or the Catholic NGO's were sitting at the meetings across from the Watchtower representatives and laughing at them saying "look at how hypocritical they are! They think their smarter than us, and pretend we don't know what they're doing!"
Another reason they pretend to be normal is with child abuse. What happened to Mike is the common example of what happens to the average victim and their family in the Watchtower. Here is a strange and truly repulsive phenomena. The average Jehovah Witness finds the subject of pedophile just as disgusting as the rest of the world does, but for verydifferent reasons. We, along with the rest of society abhor pedophilia as a taboo, just like incest and cannibalism, for the very obvious reasons such as the detrimental effects on both the victim and their families, both physical and mental.
I know, I know, I'm just stating the obvious, but consider this. Jehovah's Witnesses do not condemn child abusebecause of how bad it is, but rather because of how bad it makes them look. Their primary concern has been, and always will be, the image of their organization, everything else is secondary. Unity at all costs.
"Strength through unity, unity through faith."
Starting to see the picture now, all you lurkers? This is an organization that almost rewards you for being a pedophile. Think about how many magazines you have seen condemning pre-marital sex, masturbation, gay people, drinking, smoking, even being in the same room with the opposite sex without a chaperone. All these things are not illegal in the real world, by the way. They're actually quite normal. But in Watchtower land they invented whole new words to describe these things such as "petting," and "pornea" and "loose conduct," any of which is grounds for "disfellowshipping," all except, you guessed it, pedophilia. You need a full confession or two eye witnesses to be found guilty, and even then, they don't ever tell the cops, just give him six months reduced privileges in the congregation and make him promise never to do it again. Isn't that weird? You can be disfellowshipped for premarital sex with a girl, except if she's underage, than it's quietly swept under the rug and never heard from again.
Think about that for a minute, then think about how many times the Watchtower has condemned pedophilia inside or outside their organization. No! All they say is "repressed memories," and "untrustworthy accusations." As if a ten year old girl would even know what it is, rather than lie about it. And they condemn the Episcopalians for having a gay bishop? It's absolute hypocrisy!
Does anyone remember when they were in kindergarten or elementary school, did they ever teach you about "stranger danger," or how to recognize when someone is touching you inappropriately, and what to do if they did? I remember it vividly; they used to say one of the most important things was to tell a school official or a responsible adult. They also stressed the importance that is is never the child's fault. But imagine being in an organization where they do think it's the child's fault. They look at the victim with distrust and suspicion and say "you're making false accusations against your brother and bringing reproach upon him and Jehovah's organization." Just imagine being a child in this sick organization.
When I compare the number of times they condemn the above mentioned sex lives of the rest of the world to their almost silence regarding child abuse, the only logical conclusion I can come to is that they encourage their members to become pedophiles through extreme social isolation and sexual repression.
What do you think Mike?
Anitar