Where does the individual Jehovah's Witness end and the Organization begin?

by rassillon 7 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • rassillon
    rassillon

    I am in search of comments on how best to explain the concept. When talking to witnesses it is difficult to get them to accept the Organization is responsible for anything. The automatic response is to defer any error to an individual leaving the Organization free from any blame.

    It is like the Organization is a powdered doughnut. No matter what is on your hand, it never gets on the doughnut, instead it protects itself and powdered sugar comes off on your hand. <-----I just thought this was funny.....

    Seriously though, can anyone suggest a concise concept that would be easy to explain?

    Thoughts.....

  • OnTheWayOut
    OnTheWayOut

    The individuals act like battered wives who think they gave their husbands a reason to
    batter them. The individuals only feel bad because of the organization rules. The
    organization has a valid reason for "battering" them with discipline. The individuals
    need to recognize that their organization won't stop beating them just because they
    try to obey. One day, hopefully, the individuals escape.

  • WTWizard
    WTWizard

    Here is an organization that is trying to keep a blameless appearance no matter what. They will exploit the members to this end, just like they exploit the members to get the message spread and their Kingdumb Hells built.

    Notable is that you can never do enough. If you are studying, they ramp up the participation. First, it's one hour a week for the study. Then go to one meeting a week plus the study. Then three meetings (here I defind a meeting as one trip. Actually two of them are double meetings; hence the five meetings in three trips) plus the study. Then doing those dreaded talks, which will be fairly easy at first but will get much harder as time goes on. Then service, where 10 hours a month will be enough early in the game. Then after baptism, they hound to get 50, then 70, then 100, hours a month. (And more.) Once they get the 100, they shoot for 150, 200, 250,... Plus doing volunteer work building more Kingdumb Hells, going to Bangladesh and China (Nigeria is spoken for already) to build the numbers up to and above 7 million, then 8, 9, 10,... And you are still not doing enough!

    If you are having problems, even if it's the organization's fault, they blame you. If you are putting in the pioneer time and getting sick as a direct result, then it's your fault. If you give up that college education at the directive of the Craptower Society and get stuck in a dead end, low-paying job and are not able to pay your bills, that's your fault. If your child is molested by one of the hounders while in a houndingcounseling session, that's your fault and that of the child. If the rules are too strict and you are not able to follow them, that's your fault. If you are too hot in summer because you have to wear your suit coat out in service and you faint at the door, that's your fault. If you wet your pants because the group insisted on keeping you out in service way too long without a break (at the directive of the hounder-hounder, who got a letter from the Society that people were taking way too many breaks), it's your fault. If you are unable to function because your personal development was stifled by all the non-stop service at the directive of the Society, that's your fault.

    And they blame the apostates for leaving. Getting disillusioned with the lack of love, seeking the real Christ (which is Jesus, not the Governing Body), having the hounders deliberately sabotage your family life by keeping you single and celibate or constant interfering with your running the family, or being constantly exhausted from all the service is not excuse to leave the Craptower. Then they feel that the apostates are slandering the organization, when usually all they are doing is putting the pieces back in context and exposing the dirty secrets of the Tower.

    As for where the individual end and the Tower begin? The Tower gets to run your life totally, and they get credit for when things do go right. But you get the work and the blame for the Tower's problems. The individual is property of the Watchtower Society, and nothing more.

  • Bonnie_Clyde
    Bonnie_Clyde

    The beatings will continue until the morale increases.

  • writetoknow
    writetoknow

    We trend to get bogged down into the little things instead of seeing the big picture!

    Does God have two sets of scales for justices one for the JW's and one for false reglion (what they call Babylon the Great)?

    Where does God's judgments start first God's house or false reglion? And why?

    If people do not come out of their false religion will they be held accountable individually or as a group? Read about the seven congregations in Rev.

    If a religion has any false teachings and we do not renouces those teaching our we held accountable by God on judgment day? (you will get some strange answers here)

    Is God parital, that is, favoring one person or group over another - applying differents standards of fairness to one and not the other?

    So if at some point Jehovah's Witnesses taught things that are not correct would you be open minded/ fair enough to apply the same standard of judgement that your group applies to all other relgions that are not Jehovah's Witnesses?

    What would Jehovah's Witnesses tell me if I said: I will not be held accountable for the teachings of my religion because the leaders of my group make those teachings and they are closer to God then me?

    I know God will direct those men to make the correct changes over time so I am safe because I associtate with this group.

    In most cases they still won't be that open minded; most witnesses don't understand that God's judgment starts first with his house then to others. That our judgment will be individual as well as community.

    But if your directed to one that has issue over the recent changes in the org doctrine and they know of ones that were mistreated because of those changes then fairness will be more important then arguing doctrine. People will argue the side of something to blindness as long as they are agruing they are not listening or thinking they are trying to find the best answer to refute you agrument.

  • rassillon
    rassillon

    writetoknow: I really like some of your thoughts.....very good reasoning, thanks for your input.

  • LongHairGal
    LongHairGal

    Question:

    If the JWs are being cut "slack" by god for wrong teachings, then why won't god cut slack to other religions? After all, aren't they all wrong in varying degrees? Any lurkers care to answer this one?

    LHG

  • greendawn
    greendawn

    The organisation can't think it's the people that make it up that think and act and so the blame has to be apportioned among them and especially among those that decide their policies, the ones that are in senior official positions in the org. Who formulates doctrine and administration policies?

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