by booker-t 21 Replies latest jw friends
Most JWs will just keep believing it is "right around the corner" until they finally arrive on their deathbed and realize they are not personally going to make it into the New World. I've heard several now use the expression that they will arrive into the New World via "the Underground" -- death and resurrection.
Yep, it's right around the corner for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years, 60 years, etc etc. They still believe that! You gotta admire their faith credulity.
Doc
Well, obviously babies had no say in the matter at Jonestown. From what I have researched about Jonestown, no one was deceived, they knew the Kool Aid was poisoned. Sure, there is coercion in any social situation, but it came down to drinking or not drinking, and a few who refused to drink fled. Heavens Gate I admit I am less informed of.
My point is that religious groups do not commit suicide when all the members realize their belief system is false. Suicide happens as the ultimate act of faith.'
Take something else into consideration here.
There is a certain amount of self-perpetuated influence in all this (acts of faith) along with external amplifiers, or in some cases catalysts, that determine the ignition of fire in one's conversion - and thus their ability to do greater acts "of faith" becomes more likely.
Example: John Cedars at jwsurvey posed that if the governing body asked you to take a pill without question, would you? Of course the answer is that the majority would say “yes” because it's hypothetical and in the future... and we are all excellent human beings who follow instructions in the future.
So we have the mindset of acceptance of such, but how MEANINGFUL it is depends of the spectacle that is made upon entering their new religion. In this area, the Jehovah's Witnesses are at a disadvantage. You see, with born again christians, they are BORN AGAIN, it's a big process, a gigantic THING with singing and EMOTIONS and weeping... always with the weeping because at THAT MOMENT Jesus enters the heart. It's a BAM! moment. With smaller cults like Jonestown, the entering is strong and impressed with the need for separation that is SEVERE and DRASTIC with conversion being very enthusiastic... all very dramatic.
Jehovah's Witnesses don't have this. The studying process is gradual, the “light” being given is gradient... bad habits, friends, family, direction of financial flow, separation from the world and it's information, pastimes, association choices all happen very slowly over time. By the time they reach baptism (which... is rather dull in it's fanfare... just saying...) they have already converted... not with laying of the hands or public displays of tears., but with quiet prayer of dedication to god. And then once in the church, this concept continues as now the masses have a slow, continuous learning processes that never ceases and never really goes anywhere.
Their density of faith is built up over time... it's not something that is easily encapsulated into ONE event that can be used as a reference point in which to measure their distance from the world they left and their inclusion into the world they are in now. Also, in Jonestown they had something called 'submersion.' We get this when we go to concerts or sporting events – where we lose who we are individually to the dynamic of the group as a whole. Day to day, JWs still have one foot in “the world” with an oasis syndrome when they go to the meetings, only getting the submersion effect at their conventions and assemblies. Jonestown had their followers in a constant state of submersion ALL THE TIME.
So yes, suicide is an act of faith, but it's more the act of the MOMENTUM of faith than it is about actual faith itself. I call it faux-faith - all the other things that are linked to, decorate, and are explained under “faith” but are not actually faith... just humans psychologically responding to their environment.
