It would be true to say that we all are prone to exaggeration; it's simply human. But there are occasions where exaggerations and embellishments must be scrupulously avoided. This is where the subject is of serious concern. The message, or thrust of argument, can be diluted by the jarring notes of exaggerated speech.
As one brother expressed it in his student talk: "The broader the statement, the narrower the mind."
At times we read a post that contains exaggerations and, although the post may be making some pertinent point, the thrust of the argument is minimised.
Such is the case with the newly released book Awakening of a Jehovah's Witness by Diane Wilson (published by Prometheus Books 2002).
The writer portrays herself as a humble, easily led individual. Indeed, she relates her troubled childhood and its impact on her adult life. However, the reader may discover a woman who is forthright and not at all afraid to make her presence felt. It seemed to me that she was overly sensitive and portrayed this as an indication of lack of brotherly love. Not without some exaggeration too, methinks. Take this quote as an example where she relates her experience as a deaf language interpreter at the District Conventions:
Because my interpreting skills did not include the mode of signing that the Society required, I decided not to attend the sign language auditions that year. The elder in charge found out about my decision. Ignoring my explanation, he shamed me by saying that Jehovah had taught me sign language-and now here I was refusing to use my skills to His glory. He made me feel so guilty that I went ahead and attended the auditions. The brothers on the judging panel were merciless in their critique of my signing skills, judging my performance on the basis of a signing mode I was not even using! One deaf brother came up to me afterwards and ridiculed me in front of others. I felt betrayed, and I left in tears without anyone caring enough to console me or apologize.(page 62)
Other examples of questionable balance are these:
Sisters were instructed to dress as they would for a job interview; as a result, most of the sisters wore high-heeled dress shoes for hours at a time while doing this witnessing work, and silently endured the severe pain that often resulted.(page 35)
all Bethel workers were given only a small monthly stipend to pay for toiletries and incidental expenses; however, she related that most of that modest allowance had to instead be used to buy subway tokens for transportation to the required five weekly meetings at the various congregations in New York City to which they had been assigned. There was little money left over with which to buy necessities, so they had to rely on charitable contributions from other Witnesses. (page 100)
Not only was it unacceptable for me to vocalise my disagreement with the elder, but at the next assembly, a new ruling from the Governing Body was introduced: the sisters were not to express any disagreement with the brothers, even by their facial expressions. This meant that I could not allow a doubt or disagreement to creep into my mind at all, lest it show on my face and I be chastised for it. (page 94)The author relates her experience of a visit to Bethel in these words:
I was astounded at what took place: a bell rang, and the brothers started eating very rapidly, not pausing for a moment to have conversation with anyone at their table. They didn't even look up-they just focused intently on consuming the food before them. A very short time later the bell rang again, and the brothers instantly put down their forks, stood up next to their chairs, arms straight at their sides, and filed quickly out of the dining hall to return to their jobs in the Watchtower printing factory. (page 99)I hope these few examples from my reading this far will illustrate that it ill serves us to exaggerate the situation in the borg. God knows it's bad enough! We don't have to make anything up. There is an abundance of heartrending material available to demonstrate to any seeker of freedom from the borg the same points that this author makes.
This is not to say that your correspondent from Oz finds nothing good about the book. Quite the opposite! We have needed an up-to-the-minute serious book and in this book we have many valid points made. I suggest that there's nothing 'new' in it but informative nonetheless.
It seems such a shame to dilute the 'message'.
Cheers,
Ozzie
"If our hopes for peace are placed in the hands of imperfect people, they are bound to evaporate."
- Ron Hutchcraft Surviving the Storms of Stress
