by punkofnice 43 Replies latest jw friends
Loading the language is a propogandist tactic to trigger a reaction in the mind. A prime example is the word 'APOSTATE'!
I have been called 'SPIRITUALLY WEAK' for quitting field service, meetings etc.
How would you respond (without swearing or giving a punch up the hooter), if you were called this?
"Did you know that Jesus was considered an "apostate" to God's organization (the Jewish leaders)?"
"Did you know that Paul considered rule makers and people with easily offended consciences to be "spiritually weak"?
I'm spiritually dead - and feeding from Satan's table - Mmmmmm Satan's Table
For me, there's no point in responding. People will think what they will of me whether we're in side the KH or out. It's a battle I don't have the energy for.
They started rumors about being demon possessed because I related some personal experiences to my personal study of spirit sightings and such not to mention the spiritually weak bs . I finally got so fed up with their insane nonsense I told the shepherding callers to go f@#$ themselves whenever they visited . There's a start for ya . I figure wtf even if I decided to go back it's only 6 months of probation . LMAO
I finally got so fed up with their insane nonsense I told the shepherding callers to go f@#$ themselves whenever they visited
Well, HEATHEN, there ya go. Proof enough of demon possession. Did your head spin when you told them that??
There really is a demon paranoia among many JW's. I remember some of them were afraid to say their temptations aloud, because Satan was listening. So, I used to ask them if they could pray about their weaknesses out loud. Blank stares.
The term "worldly" is hugely insulting and prejudicial to anyone who is not a JW.
Reopened Mind
"Spiritually Weak" is the term for a mental condition a Witness suffers when they are infrequently indoctrinated. One of the worse things for an active Witness to do is to stay a Witness while not practicing the rituals (meetings and field service mostly). The Witness routine involves heavy indoctrination so when one starts getting less they start to feel weighed down.
Witnesses scury about trying to do the best they can. "Doing the best they can" is actually defined by the Watchtower and involves, in part, encouraging infrequently indoctrinated members to start doing more. They perport that the cause of their down mood is because of lack of participation within the Watchtower community. This is a misleading reason to give since it is technically true. The Rank and File member has a co-dependent relationship with their faith and subsequent rituals required to retain "active membership" status. So naturally if the member stops going to meetings they are going to feel a hole in their life. Not necessarily because they have a real connection from God, but mostly because they have broken a habit that they enjoy for supposedly no reason.
Say you loved to run and you run a few miles every morning. Some circumstance changes in your life and it effects the time you usually spend in the morning running. You are naturally going feel empty or like someting is missing once your routine has been drastically effected. It would be foolish to think that your relationship with God has something to do with how much you run, but that's exactly what the Witnesses do.
Staying in the analogy, what if one of your runner friends takes offense to your change in your running routine. They run with you often and are very disappointed that the running time has been reduced or rescheduled. They could actually take a dysfunctional position and think that running with you was the only reason you and that person are friends. That's also a position Witness peers take when a fellow member stops going to meetings as often.
It's a sad state of affairs that the interpersonal relationships within the Watchtower are tied to Watchtower rituals. If the Watchtower wanted to make running every morning a requirement from God they could and they could enforce it with the brutal arrangement of disfellowshipping and there wouldn't be anything anyone could do about it.
The Watchtower is a frightening Organization.
-Sab
With the healing distance of time and advancing age (and hopefully wisdom), I've learned that people, and JWs in particular, will think pretty much what it suits them to think about me.
Simply put, people who agree with my views will think more charitable things about me than people who do not agree with my views.
My days of thinking and hoping that JWs would think in logical or compassionate ways are well and truly over. When I left the organization in the 1980s, it suited the local JWs to label me with the most unkind and judgemental labels because it meant they ceased to see me as a fellow human being. If they had thought the matter through more logically or even compassionately, they'd have been less judgemental towards me. But then they'd have to face up to some terrible truths about their belief system. Their "insulting terms" - to use your observant phrase - protect them from having to see me as a human being and worse, feeling the need to question their unsupportable beliefs.
"Bad associations" - I remember that it applied to everyone outside the borg, even straight A nerdy kids who never get into trouble. Even some witnesses in the hall were called that because they rarely go to meetings, report a few hours of field service, etc. (spiritually weak) Of course other witnesses can accuse you of being a "bad association" and you're suddenly ostracized. My Bible teacher / "spirtual mom" once told me to be careful around a certain brother just because he hasn't been to the meetings often. It turns out that brother had a skin condition that prevented him from going. I can certainly feel the love of this borganiztion [not].
