What's The Psychological Harm Done To Children Raised In The Watchtower Doomsday Cult?

by frankiespeakin 9 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  frankiespeakin

  Let's see what the Governing Body of this Doomsday cult teach that strongly effects children:

  Forbids higher education

  Shun non-Jehovah Witnesses or worldly people

  The whole world under the control of God's enemy Satan

  Service to the Watchtower Corporation must be first place in ones life

  Shun family and relatives if they disagree with doomsday cult leaders

  No blood allowed even if life is threatened

  Psychological help strongly discouraged

  Must hate what Jehovah/GB hates

  Must not disagree with the offical teachings of the Watchtower corporation or be shunned

  Children are encouraged with death threats to get baptised(they must be baptised and cannot presume to make it alive into NS if at an age of reason and not baptised)

  10 year old and even younger (baptised)children can be disfellowshipped and shunned if they don't listen and obey

  Encouraged to throw away toys that the Governing Body views as Satanic or would make Jehovah sad

  Dooms day will bring destruction of little babies if their parents are not JWs

  And the list goes on and on. Without expounding on the psychological harm it can easily be seen that doomsday cults like the Watchtower have a very bad effect on children as it gets them to put their life on hold while seeking the advantages of the corporation which uses death threats(death at armegeddon) to prod its members to volunteer free service for the corporation benefit.
• 

  nonjwspouse
• 

  Gopher

  Growing up JW - you either take the WT seriously or you lead a double-life. Both courses are fraught with trouble. It's hard to live a double-life and eventually you get your JW parent(s) steamed at you. But people like me took it seriously and tried to please the leadership and go by the rules.
  
  I believed all my school mates and neighborhood kids would soon die, and thus were somewhat dangerous. It affected my attitude toward them. I finished 7th in my high-school class and yet saw no value in higher education.
  
  As I grew older and stayed in the JW's through my 20's and 30's, the WTS became more about what I could NOT do rather than anything really positive in my life. I really didn't know what I wanted or didn't want in life, I was very confused. I didn't plan for the future and I didn't have goals. Although I believed the JW's, the goals they set in front of me (Bethel, pioneering, becoming an elder) never really appealed to me.
  
  Maybe those who grow up, go through their wild stages in their teens/20's, then marry a popular person and get into the right group (or kiss up and get certain privileges) can feel like they're making something of their life. But really they are scared to try anything different than what the Watchtower leaders have told them they can try in life.
• 

  Gopher

  Nonjwspouse -

  Sorry for the plight you're in, that your husband is leaning towards the JW's because maybe he feels he can't belong elsewhere. I wish you the best.
  
  What you said indicates a problem with self-esteem, which was also a huge problem for me growing up as a JW. They make you believe you are little more than a worthless slave. I had many talents and abilities but I still felt worthless because of what those manipulating leaders taught. And they had / have a way of making you scared that there's nothing else in the world worthwhile or safe outside of their puny organization. They really overemphasize their organization's importance in relation to the rest of the world, in order to make you feel like you're a part of something important if you're in or that you're pretty worthless if not.
• 

  nonjwspouse

  Gopher,

  Oops too much personal info there. I got carried away.

  Glad you got to see it though. It is quite difficult to say the very least.
• 

  frankiespeakin

  My sister died from breast cancer while she had two young children and all she could think of telling her children was to serve Jehovah after she is gone. My niece really resented that because she would have would much rather had her dying mother tell her she loved her, than hearing about remembering to keep serving Jehovah. I guess the Watchtower can really put the fear of God into parents so much that it drowns out natural love.
• 

  TotallyADD

  The abuse the WT borg has given out to us as children to todays children in the cult has been monumental. Subjects that only adults should hear, forced to stay awake on week night meetings when one should be in bed, abuse by parents because you acted up and couldn't sit still, elders sexually abusing little girls and boys, threats by parents if you don't answer at the meeting, threats by elders because you are acting your age, threats by the outside world because you are diffrent, being forced to go door to door and sell WT maz. by yourself, neglect by your parents and the congregation, your life in jeopardy because you need blood and finally the nightmares of dying because you can't be good enough. On and On and On and On. The psycholgical harm is so great those who went through it will live with these scars until they die. Totally ADD
• 

  Band on the Run

  My cousins finished high school in the top ten. I visited them soon after graduation. School friends politely asked them which college they were attendiing. People assumed they would go to college. I wanted to cry for them. Of course, they were blissful good JWs. The truth is that my female cousin got knocked up and had to marry. She ended up not pioneering. It was a scandal that she did not pioneer. No one in the KH calculated the arrival date of baby. As long as she knocked on doors, she was fine with them.

  They all did things I could not do and yet remained in good standing. They still shun me.

  In order for her to become pregnant before marriage....... My grandmother calculated the baby's arrival for a local sister. It was funny when my mom told her to stop b/c her family was not pure.
• 

  Fernando

  One might add "supremacist" to "doomsday cult".

  What one is learning conflicts with an inner voice of reason that has to be silenced if one wants to continue enjoying the "benefits" of being part of a (dysfunctional) community and shared belief system.

  The "cult identity or self" versus the "authentic identity or self" (Steven Hassan).

  The resulting "cognitive dissonance" causes mental illness - by design.

  Every emmebr suffers from "Spiritual Stockholm Syndrome", albeit to varying degrees. This is where the spiritual captives defend their spiritual captors/abusers and also sympathise and identify with them. The more the abuse the stronger this defense mechanism.

  However their is a burden of guilt. This is often projected onto other groups and persons who are demonised, in a badly misguided effort to cleanse the filthy "mother" organisation. This seems to be "Freudian projection" of the "Jungian shadow".

  Twisted?

  Sure!

  (2 Peter 3:16) .?.?.the untaught and unsteady are twisting, as [they do] also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.
• 

  Heaven

  I think it creates people that have difficulty connecting and feeling like they belong. It creates inner conflict, churn, fear, and distrust. This in turn creates unhappy people which affects their health. I watched my parents become mean-spirited and what I call 'do-nothing' people. I lost a cousin because of the blood policy. She left behind a husband and 3 children. I personally did not have children because of the fear of Armageddon and the blood policy.

  Botchtower's formula of....

  Pray More + Wait on Jehovah = Nothing Gets Done + Problems Get Worse + People Get Hurt/Ill/Dead

  ... is destructive. If you want to resolve an issue, you must act. If you want to make a problem worse, then do nothing.

  They are not an organization interested in problem resolution, nor are they interested in cultivating joy, creativity, and growth. Their ladder is against the wrong wall.