by cedars 68 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
1- shunning (this is number one solely because it affects a greater number of people than #2)
2- protecting pedophiles
3- brainwashing techniqes/manipulation
4- unchristian values (help dubs but not "worldy people" ie no chairty etc
5 - superstitions .... ie: no smurfs
1.Sola Scriptura (the doctrine that all any person of faith needs is to read their bible and the holy spirit will open its truth directly to them.)
2.Ransom sacrifice (wicked people get off free; an innocent person dies horribly, God reverses Justice (getting what you deserve).
3.Inerrancy of the bible (evangelicals insist the original documents were uncorrupt knowing full well those documents vanished into obscurity.)
4.Religious ritual (repetitious practices done the same way over and over for thousands of years until worshippers become meat puppets.)
5.Orthodoxy (the laughably wrong-headed notion that somebody ELSE knows what the ONLY right thing is and insists you do it that way too.)
Probably not what you had in mind. But, the above are really good reflection of my opinion.
1. Blood
2. Disfellowshipping
3. Failed Prophecy
4. Intellectual dishonesty and deliberate refusal of logic
5. Lack of freedom of speech
1) calling yourself "the Truth" when you're just making shit up as you go along like everyone else.
Thanks for those guys, please keep these coming everyone - it will be interesting to see what the final "overall" results show!
Interesting that quite a number of people put other issues like DFing and the paedophile secrecy above the blood transfusion issue.
I would have thought that a teaching that has caused actual deaths would be number one for everybody...while, of course, those other things are quite serious indeed.
James - you raise an interesting point related to blood issue versus shunning/paedophilia in terms of 'which is worst'. I suppose that could be a thread in its own right! You're correct in saying that something that can actually deprive people of life is more serious, although (speaking for myself) I think those that have put shunning at number one have done so because they are perhaps prioritizing an issue that effects them personally, and few who visit JWN will die due to the blood issue, largely because they now realise that the Society uses flawed reasoning to justify it. That was simply my reasoning, I can't speak for everyone who has put shunning ahead of the blood issue.
Paedophile secrecy didn't make it into my top 5, but perhaps those who put it ahead of blood were more angered by it because of its potential to ruin people's lives, and the gross injustice of it all. I personally would put down the blood issue as being of more concern, but I suppose everyone has their reasons for how they are voting.
I guess if we are going to mention things that could actually cause deaths - we should mention that idiotic Malawi party ID card rule which had nothing to do with the bible or religion, but which the watchtower leaders used to get many people beaten, raped, driven into exile, and not a few of them actually killed.
EDIT to add this - it is pretty obvious, of course, (at least to me) that many more persons and families have been affected by the DFing rules than the number actually having died due to blood rules.
At least probably nobody was actually killed in those wrecked families, unless they were of the ones who were driven to suicide.
You touch on a trenchant point, and that is that (to many) being shunned by one's family could be a fate worse than death. Not that I would advocate suicide to anyone in this position (as many on this site are) because there is life after disfellowshipping, as has been proven time and again. However, the scars of this policy can never be totally erased, and it results in a whole lot of screwed up people.
A noteworthy thing is that DFing doesn't need to actually be carried out in order to wreck people's lives. Many go through the motions of pretending to be a witness and are forced to live a lie through the sheer fear of potentially being disfellowshipped and cut off from their loved ones. Some even feign 'repentance' and re-enter the organization just so they can be spoken to by their family members. It is a wicked, wicked policy entirely conceived for the purposes of self-preservation - whereas the blood issue is more tragically misguided theological stupidity.
It is a wicked, wicked policy entirely conceived for the purposes of self-preservation - whereas the blood issue is more tragically misguided theological stupidity.
There have been several here who have suggested (& I think correctly) that the blood policy was ALSO an attempt at self-preservation of the JW leadership via a control mechanism. These people think that Freddy Franz thought it up (along with DFing over tobacco) to increase the hold the leadership had over the rank & file - and that Knorr approved it on that ground, although he never personally liked the blood doctrine on its direct merits.
Both Ed and Marion Dunlap told me on many occasions that Knorr cared little to nothing about ANY doctrine - just so long as the masses were under total and absolute control and they kept buying and selling more and more watchtowers. Nothing could prove that control more assuredly than letting a kid die from lack of a transfusion, or going to prison when the country already would have let you serve as a conscientous objector.
