I am currently reading Timothy Keller's The Reason For God. The book has two sections. The first is a general apologetice work with no new insights. The second part, however, gets down to the implications of Christian doctrine in the lives of followers of Jesus. In a chapter in which he is dealing with the Trinitarian doctrine of God, he states the following on page 216:
If there is no God, then everything in and about us is the product of blind impersonal forces. The experience of love may feel significant, but evolutionary naturalists tell us that it is merely a biochemical state of the brain.
But what if there is a God? Does love fare any better? It depends on what you think God is. If God is unipersonal, then until God created other beings there was no love, since love is something that one person has for another. This means that a unipersonal God was power, sovereignty, and greatness form all eternity, but not love. Love then is not the essence of God, nor is it the heart of the universe. Power is primary.
When I read this today on my lunch break, I was stunned as Keller seemed to me to have unwittingly described exactly what is wrong with the JWs. The pursuit for any JW is not the pursuit of love, but the pursuit of power. The power of holding "priviledges", becoming a MS, becoming an Elder, and moving into the more powerful positions within the Elder Body, e.g., Watchtower Study Conductor, Presiding Overseer, Service Overseer, et al. For JW women it is marrying a man that is moving up in the Org, as having a husband with those ambitions will give the wife power.
Ultimately, I think that the JW view of Jehovah (that he is not a trinity) fits Keller's description, and because Jehovah is all about power, then it only follows that those who worship Jehovah are motivated by power. Keller also describes power in rather unflattering terms (page 59):
The tendancy of religious people, however, is to use spiritual and ethical observance as a lever to gain power over others and over God, appeasing him through ritual and good works. This leads to both an emphasis on external religious forms as well as greed, materialism, and oppression in social arrangemements. Those who believe they have pleased God by the quality of their devotion and moral goodness naturally feel that they and their group deserve deference and power over others.
How does a person gain power within the JWs? By simply doing the things that are required: Performing the right amount of hours in door-to-door work, answer with the appropriate comment, be seen with the right people, etc. Once a male meets the requirements, then that male will be moved into a position of power, and that male can then get the "deference and power" he feels he deserves from the rank-and-file.
My question is, do you think that Keller accurately describes how things are in the Org? Do you agree with my application of Keller's thoughts on God and how it applies to the JWs? Does the type of God they worship reflect the lack of love they show to others, especially to those that are not JWs?