How many reasons can you think of for a worldly not to join the Watchtower?

dgp

Not that I'm joining . I just think this site needs such a list for the benefit of worldlies like me who come to this site looking for answers.

Well I came in as a worldly for a simple Bible study, which was not a Bible study at all but studying the WT literature and as time went by I was told to basically stop living in the since that they advised me not to:

celebrate holidays

stop associating with wordly family and freinds unless preaching to them

do not donate blood

time is best spent doing the preaching work rather than volunteering and donating time to soup kitchens or the like

do not allow your children to get involve in extra curricular activities cause that take time from the preaching work or preparing for the meeting

I was told stories that were suppose to encourage me, like stories of people giving up scholarships, and lucrative careers to be fulltime pioneer

My life before getting involve with the JW's was paradise, I just didn't know it at the time

jgnat

Lessee....I'm a never-JW married to one. I consider myself a Christian skeptic but the WTBTS labels me "worldly".

My chief insurance for never joining is that I am solid on what I believe and the society's teachings just don't come up to snuff.

Now, a "worldly" person from my definition, would be someone with no interest in religion or God, and interested chiefly in a hedonist lifestyle. Whyy woulw a "worldly" person ever be interested in the Witness message? The only examples I have witnessed from this site is where an agnostic/athiest falls in love with a Witness, who hopes to go through the indoctrination process in order to "get the girl". Athiests and Agnostics typically underestimate the power of religious indoctrination, or the emotional and physical demands such a commitment requires. Lay that out for them and they usually must walk away.

The WTBTS doesn't target true "worldly" people. They want people who have a smidgen of religious background, a vague belief in the bible, and a pinch of vulnerability. For these people, all religions about look alike, and the systematic "education" that the society provides can prove it's own attraction. Clean up their act. Gain an instant community. Once they wake up to the lifetime commitment, they are too heavily invested to easily leave.

Why would anyone join a group without first educating themselves first? Find out what they are all about, compare their values with your own, and then make an informed choice.

Ding

One problem in the past was that there wasn't a lot of information available about WT history.

Also, early on in studies JWs warn you about opposition from well meaning friends and family.

So whenever someone does try to present contrary information to WT propaganda you think it's Satan trying to keep you out of the truth.

Now with the Internet, there's so much info available that it's much harder for the WT to hide its history from "worldlies" who really want to investigate.

Still, although JWs tell studies to investigate their own religion, they don't encourage them to investigate the WT as well, and a lot of studies who are unhappy with their own lives or their own religion don't think to check out the WT.

Once you see the WTS' history of false prophecies and their doctrinal flip-flops, you have hundreds of good reasons to say, "No thanks!"

There are many threads here that discuss these issues.

One of the best summaries is contained in Ray Franz's book, Crisis of Conscience.

Soldier77

Every single reason you can think of for joining a religion, and those are the reasons why you SHOULD NOT join the JW cult.

King Korn

I think another big problem is that when someone starts a study, they are told (Through literature lol) that there is this eternally binding "spirit of love" in the christian congregation of JW's, and then they're told that the world will try to draw them away. I don't know about everyone else, but I am a naturally curious person. So if I'm told that there's something really cool that only a few people around the world can have, and I'm special and can have it but others will try to keep it from me, I will make EVERY EFFORT to try and keep that special something. That is the primary draw of the WTS.

Let's say after a while they feel nagging doubts so they look online to research it. BAM "WTS is a cult! It's evil! Stay away!" but no that can't be correct, the elders and members are so nice... maybe the internet is controlled by Satan and... yes that must be it! Satan wants me to lose my faith! Well heck, those disfellowshipped people don't know what they're talking about, the apostates! I'll just ignore them and go back to being happy. This is what most people will think upon recieving nagging doubts.

Once conditioned, it's hard to get out of it. Let's say a person wants to know if the WTS has ever made false prophecies. How do they go about finding out? Well, they ask an elder. But let's face it, true or not true, the elder won't admit to it. So after asking him, they go online to research it. But eh, well, all the people going against the society online are "apostates" and therefore controlled by Satan. Therefore they must be biased on the opposite side of the fence.

Well, now we face a serious dilemma. Who is telling the truth? Obviously we must find a middle party who is NOT biased. Sounds easy right? WRONG. People on the right wing have spent a lot of time defending their religion, and know how to do it very well. People on the left however, have done a lot of their own research and also present very convincing arguments! WHO IS RIGHT? Well guess what? For religion there really is no middle ground! Either you hate them and research them as much as possible to destroy them, or you protect them with all your breath, OR you just don't care enough one way or another to research anything, and so you don't care about the issue. And if you don't care, why should you be asked?

So one way or another, it forces the person to come to a decision ALL BY THEMSELVES about who is right or wrong! (A novel idea if I don't say so myself.) This is what I have been forced to do. Both sides propose convincing arguments, but in the end, the JW's had far too many holes to be right, in my opinion. There are still 10 million who haven't discovered the truth yet though. THOSE are the ones I feel for. (Unless they are good little witnesses, take the "reproof" right in the ass, never complain, never go out of line, and never suspect a thing, in which case it's not so bad then.)

leavingwt

Don Cameron pretty much wrote the book on this.

"The One Mistake that All Jehovah's Witnesses Have Made"

http://www.captivesofaconcept.com/TheOneMistake.html

diamondiiz

As many reasons as not to join any religion plus few extras.

garyneal

They promote their religion as the only 'true' religion but aside from some of their wacky doctrines, they are not much different than other religions.

They claim to have unity and while it may appear to be so, a trained eye sees it for what it really is, conformity.

The 'unity' that they claim to have can be found similarly in other religions (Mormons, anabaptists, etc.).

Their claims of 'love among themselves' can be found in other religions or even secular circles.

Their belief in the Bible is shared amongst all other Bible believing religions.

Their teachings have an expiration date while proclaiming it all to be Truth (totally illogical).

They've sent their members to their deaths over their blood doctrines and previously over their bans on organ transplants and vaccinations. But they are by no means as cooky as those Christians Scientists who you see in the news a lot. So they claim.

Their inconsistency over their abstanence of 'pagan' things.

The ridiculousness of their blood doctrine. Whole blood bad, 'major' blood components bad, 'minor' blood fractions OK. Autologous blood transfusions bad, donating blood bad, receiving 'minor' blood fractions from the donated blood of others OK.

designs

Don Cameron's point about the Concept is good but then he interviews people like Peter Gregerson who have shown they can't break the Religion habit. Leaving one delusional group to join a more delusional group is not a good recommendation.

They need to find a Half Way House to wean themselves, like this site.