No One Should Be Made to Choose…..LIES from July 09 Awake

by Hopscotch 216 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Scully

  Awake! articles are meant to appeal to a wide non-JW audience. The context of the article itself describes a Sikh woman "studying the Bible" with JWs, and the threat she faced of being cut off by her Sikh family and friends for changing her belief system. It makes sense that this topic would be raised in this context, simply because it seems that the majority of new recruits are from developing countries and immigrants from these areas.

  If I'm not mistaken there was another article a few years back about the Mennonites using shunning as a control tool, and decrying shunning as being inhumane and unloving. Again it was in the context of JW recruit being shunned by family and friends of their former belief system, not someone leaving the JW belief system.

  As Nic pointed out, the WTS has longgggg been using the tactic that family opposition to association/studying with JWs is a form of Persecution From Satan™ to solidify the recruits' loyalty to the WTS. I can remember it in the Truth book and the Live Forever book, as well as one of the brochures intended for a Latino audience.

  The average JW reading this article will apply it only to people who are leaving one belief system on the way to becoming a JW. To leave the JWs is unthinkable, it is equated with "leaving Jehovah" and "a dog returning to its own vomit".

  You can point out the hypocrisy all you like, but the average JW has compartmentalized these diametrically opposed statements in such a way that they can simultaneously agree that it is horrendous and wrong for shunning to occur when someone changes their belief system (to become a JW), and perfectly acceptable (and actually required) to shun when the belief system that is being left is the JWs.

  I, for one, am not going to waste my time or get my hopes up trying to get my JW relatives to wake up and smell the coffee using this article. Their choice to shun (rather than "encourage" the return of) an Inactive Person™ (me) is a complete power trip for them. They want me to engage them in cat-and-mouse games trying to convince them that I am "safe" to associate with, just so they can have the power and self-righteous satisfaction of rejecting me over and over again. I refuse to let them use me like that.
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  drew sagan

  While I agree with what everybody is saying about there being one intention for "the public" and another for "JWs" I think there is a little bit more going on.

  There are many situations in which the Watchtower could care less about what the "moral" outcome would be. Take for example a Mormon that decides to shunn his brother because he became a buddhist (just play along). Is there anything wrong about this situation? I suppose most JWs would either be indifferant or give various responses. One thing is for sure, you'll never be able to go into the Watchtower magazine and find an answer.

  That's the problem about the WTS. It narrowly focuses on the group alone when discussing morality. The principles they use could never be applied universally throughout society (ahhemm, the idea of "Christian Neutrality"....). They never take on the complexities of life. Instead they make vague and confusing statements that have no application outside of their narrow belief that they have the "truth".

  I think the end result is an organization run by moral cowards.
• 

  restrangled

  Best quote going....by Drew Sagan:

  They never take on the complexities of life. Instead they make vague and confusing statements that have no application outside of their narrow belief that they have the "truth".

  I think the end result is an organization run by moral cowards.

  The above is the best .....Thank you Drew!
• 

  Scully

  Drew Sagan writes:

  the end result is an organization run by moral cowards

  And they get to be moral cowards precisely because they have absolutely NO accountability to anyone. They can say whatever they want from the podium, write whatever they want in the literature, promoting the screwing up of countless lives beyond repair, and sending off sick children to die for lack of blood transfusions, and facilitating the activity of molesters and perverts within the organization, and they do so with impunity. The rush they get from that kind of power over other peoples' lives is like an addiction - they will never give it up willingly.
• 

  passwordprotected

  @ scully - "And they get to be moral cowards precisely because they have absolutely NO accountability to anyone. "

  Which is why I'm pressing in on my father to write to the Org for 'clarification'. If they - the Governing Body and the R&F JWs - aren't challenged on these sort of things, if we just let articles like this drift down the river without waving them under the noses of the R&F JWs, how will the Org ever be held to account for their disastrous double-speak?
• 

  boyzone

  Exactly Scully!

  There is no way an article like this will bring down their power base, its not big enough of a scandal to do that. But on an individual basis the double standard is clear to even the average person, the reaction of my work colleagues showed me that. One of my colleagues was getting to know a JW mum at school and was thinking of making a friend of her, going for coffee etc.... saying she was really friendly etc. When I showed her the articles, she was really shocked at the contrast between the public JW face, and the private one. Once I explained that there is always an agenda for a Witness to make friends with her, she said "that's it - I'm backing off".

  If we can use this opportunity to show how blatantly dishonest the WT really is, then it not only protects people from being suckered in by their public "niceness" but may help family being shunned too.

  Anyway, thats my take on it. I love it when the WT gives us opportunities like this, their own stupidity and arrogance will be their eventual downfall. But meanwhile I'm gonna just keep using what they give us. Sweet.
• 

  Amha·’aret

  If they - the Governing Body and the R&F JWs - aren't challenged on these sort of things, if we just let articles like this drift down the river without waving them under the noses of the R&F JWs, how will the Org ever be held to account for their disastrous double-speak?

  Here, here Password!
  You know, maybe little or nothing will come of this article but it shouldn't be for lack of trying! Maybe just by making the r&f witness feel a little discomfort in distributing this blatant double-speak will be the tiny crack in the dam.
• 

  Amha·’aret

  Boyzone, well done you for what you said to your work mates. Good job with anti-witnessing.

  I've done something similar with my extended family and some old calls. Just let them in on a couple of bits of insider information (like shunning, blood fractions, etc) and that seems to "inoculate" them against falling for the JWs. And then they tell 2 friends, and their 2 friends tell to friends and on it goes...
• 

  Hopscotch

  drew sagan - well said. Moral cowards indeed.

  Scully - exactly right - the WTS has no accountability to anyone. They make policies and rulings for the R&F that impact on JWs lives to a huge extent, sometimes causing enormous damage to their lives and in some cases even their deaths, and then the society turns around and changes those policies or rulings at the drop of a hat without a thought of apology to those who's lives have been irrepairably damaged by following them. They also seem to be totally unaccountable for the lies and hypocrisy that they spew forth such as this Awake article.

  passwordprotected - hopefully your dad will write to Brooklyn and ask for clarification. Be interesting to see what more doublespeak they come up with to justify this article.

  boyzone - that's what I am doing at every opportunity - tell as many people as possible about, as you say, 'the blatant dishonesty' of the WTS and the difference between what they tell the public and what actually happens. I have actually had the opportunity to talk about this in the last couple of months to quite a few people and they have all been shocked to hear what really goes on inside JW land. I tell them that I was one for 40 years so they know what I am saying is genuine. One person I met actually had a couple of witness girls calling on her and had just started a study with them when I had a couple of really good chats with her about it. She said that the girls were really friendly and had told her they were calling on her as friends. She was horrified to learn what really goes on and the implications in your life of becoming a witness, as well as the fact that these girls weren't really being her friend, they had an agenda of getting her to study. She was also horrified to hear about my family shunning me. Needless to say she stopped the study and thanked me for informing her of this.

  Amha'aret - I like the 'inoculate' thing. But that's really what we're trying to accomplish. And as you say you tell someone, they tell one or two and on it goes. Slowly slowly the word is spreading.

  Hopscotch
• 

  ziddina

  Wow - O - Weeeee!!! My jaw hit the floor and hasn't come up yet....

  Guys, people, you'd better get your copy of this Awake mag soon, 'cause I'm gonna lay my hands on as many copies as I can get! Yes, some won't be affected by this, but.... "Boys and girls, can you spell 'H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-S-Y'??!!"

  I like boyzone's approach - Hopscotch's approach. Now, can anyone tell me how to get a copy of the WTBTS article that stated (as mentioned by Scully), "If I'm not mistaken there was another article a few years back about the Mennonites using shunning as a control tool, and decrying shunning as being inhumane and unloving."???

  I would LOVE to show this to my Catholic neighbors who, every time I try to mention why I don't like JWs and have left the religion, respond with, "Oh, but they're such NICE people!" gag, gag!!

  I don't really have anyone still in that I would be concerned about being shunned by, but - just too good an opportunity to pass up!!! Zid