encouraging JW "nighmare" stories

by lancelink 6 Replies latest jw experiences

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  lancelink

  Recently I was thinking back over the years, and thought about the horrible stories the watchtower published hoping that

  the rank and file would be encouraged, or think of ways to improve their own life.

  Instead of a heartwarming, or upbuilding story, it was something found in the ultimate gloom story.

  The worst I can remember was back in the early 1980's, my oldest son was just born, and in some magazine / book there was a story about a

  sister who was being persecuted.

  She also had just given birth, and the persons who were doing the persecuting had the mother locked, or tied up and had the baby lay right outside of her reach.

  All she had to do was renounce her faith, and the baby would be returned to her.

  I don't remember how the story ended, but that just scared the s**t out of my wife and I. No way could I put a religion above the life of my child in that situation.

  But I do remember the moral of the story was for us to "build up our spirituality" because things like this will happen SOON.

  Good grief, this was 25 years ago, and it really made a mark on me for years. Yet I always knew that religion would be #2 in a situation like that.

  And for years I felt unworthy because I did not have the correct mindset crafted by the wt society regarding this type of situation.

  Anyone else have a personal experience like this ??
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  heybaby

  I know what you mean. I always remember the stories of a JW being held in a room while their father or mother was in the next room being beaten and tortured. They were made to listen to the beating in order to weaken their faith. That always terrified me!! If my mother or father were being beaten, there is NOTHING I wouldn't do to make it stop!!
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  jamiebowers

  I don't know if it was in print, but I remember a story about a mother smothering her baby to keep the other jws with whom she was hiding from being caught by persecuters.
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  Hopscotch

  I remember one experience being read (can't remember if it was in magazine or yearbook or letter) about JW parents being forced to watch their child have his fingers squashed in a door to try and get them to compromise their faith. That was only one of many of these type of horror stories we had drilled into us growing up.

  The thing is those stories came back to haunt me after I had a child - always hoping he would grow up before the persecution began. I was fearful that I would give in if I had to watch him being tortured.

  Crazy stuff this when we look back on it but it is all part of the mind manipulation of the WTS members - fear and guilt.

  Hopscotch
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  fokyc

  Sounds more like Edgar Allan Poe,"Tales of Mystery and Imagination", a book I will never forget.

  Well worth reading, better than Watchtowers and Awakes.

  fokyc
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  WTWizard

  All that, and once you find out that it is all a scam, it is much easier to let go. The benefits (imagined) need to be kept above the cost, without actually giving real benefits. You tell people that, no matter how high the cost goes, the benefit is supposed to be even higher. This is why the witlesses will let their children go through such abuse for the religion.

  However, once you expose that it is a scam, it is not even worth killing a spider to stay faithful. I actually value the spider more than I value a faith that is built on such false hope, especially when they are willing to initiate force to keep people in after they no longer want to stay. And, if they are bent on plunging the whole world into the Second Dark Ages (which is blatantly obvious that they would if given a chance, from all their talks and littera-trash), those cockroaches might as well be my spider's next victim.
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  Farkel

  I'm going to go a bit off topic here.

  For most JWs who finally wise up, the most traumatic experience is to have to face up to what amounts to a new "nightmare":

  You realize that you WILL grow old and you WILL die. That is hard to do, especially for those of us who had lived our entire lives firmly believing just the opposite.

  Farkel