UBER-WITNESSES
At what point in the average person's life does he/she reach a crossroads between purposeful pursuit of a life's goal and mad fanaticism?
How can they recover?
How can they help others to recover?
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We have all known these automatons; these uber-witnesses.
We might even have BEEN ONE ourselves!
The Uber-Witness can make an excuse for any Watchtower mistake at the crack of a whip!
The Uber-Witness manufactures automatic trust for the GB wherever they go. They invented "Wait on Jehovah."
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You know how the NAVY SEALS attract the best of the best?
They get rid of every applicant except the ones who can endure the most misery.
They eliminate every man except the guy who will take orders, eat shit, ignore pain, and march into hell without question.
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Where do these people come from? Are they born or made? Were you one? Do you know any?
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First off, we need to do something called DISAMBIGUATION.
Disambiguation refers to the removal of ambiguity by making something clear. Disambiguation narrows down the meaning of words and it's a good thing. This word makes sense if you break it down. Dis means "not," ambiguous means"unclear," and the ending -tion makes it a noun.
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Let's begin with the difference and distinction between a person who is STUBBORN rather than TENACIOUS.
STUBBORN: having or showing dogged determination not to change one's attitude or position on something, especially in spite of good arguments or reasons to do so.
TENACIOUS: not readily abandoning a principled course of action
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Historical Example:
When William Miller, a Baptist lay preacher and war hero, used his amateur research to produce Bible-supported predictions for the
2nd Advent of Jesus Christ, thousands of church-going, god-fearing Christians listened and prepared themselves for the event.
The Great Disappointment caused MOST of those people to shrug and go back to their church and cross Miller off as an eccentric.
Oh--but wait!
Those who were STUBBORN and those who were TENACIOUS were about to be DISAMBIGUATED from each other!
Another secondary prediction was made and it too utterly FAILED.
At this point, those who were TENACIOUS were guided by principle (false prophecy=false prophet) returned to their church and said, "Good riddance."
The STUBBORN folks would not back down and admit they were wrong.
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STEP ONE: STUBBORN folks formed the foundation of a new religion and subsequent splinter groups.
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Out of the 2nd Adventist movement there were branches. Each group made predictions, made excuses.
Can you see what was happening?
Instead of a survival of the fittest--this was a survival of the most stubborn.
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Good, decent, honorable, kind and loving people are not immune to stubbornness!
Why?
Basic confusion about the Bible and the role of Interpretation.
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Let me inject a bit of humor.
There is a famous joke about a child who wakes up on Christmas morning and is surprised to find a heap of horse manure under the tree instead of a collection of presents. Yet, the child is not discouraged because he has an extraordinarily optimistic outlook on life. His parents discover him enthusiastically shoveling the manure as he exclaims, “With all this manure, there must be a pony somewhere!”
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The above illustrates a foolish optimism.
2nd Adventists were clinging to a false idea with foolish optimism. They would not stop shoveling shit to get to the 'pony' which
was the FIRM DATE of Jesus 2nd coming.
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By the time Charles Taze Russell arrives on the scene the piles and piles of manure were stacked everywhere!
All he had to do was pick and choose which horse turds he wanted in his special pile!
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All the hard manual labor had been done already!
The Gentile Times, the invisible 2nd coming, and the dispensation patterns of history were a done deal by Adventists and other offshoot groups.
Russell had enough money to make his own pile of shit last a long, long time.
Russell was the first UBER-WITNESS (although the term 'Jehovah's witness' appeared in his writings only as referring to the Great Pyramid.)
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Why can I call Pastor Russell the first UBER-WITNESS and not William Miller?
Miller admitted his mistake publicly, apologized, and retired as a public purveyor of horse shit.
Russell refused to back down. He was tenacious at first and later disambiguated himself as a STUBBORN man to the core.
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Russell knew merchandising techniques and the need for NOVELTY.
He also knew how to use his family fortune to create a high-profile publishing empire. He hired a sales force.
He had newspaper columns, performed large venue sermons, created the Photo Drama of Creation and toured the world.
Russell was the first UBER-WITNESS because he used every trick in the book for PUBLICITY around his novel ideas.
Novel ideas? Yes, he combined the public fascination with PYRAMIDOLOGY with Religous flim-flam to produce FALSE DATES
and assure his readers of their certainty.
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Do you see what is going to happen?
The next generation of UBER-WITNESS is primed and ready to be disambiguated by testing failures.
The tenacious will split off from the stubborn again and again.
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STEP TWO: PUBLICITY and SPECTACLE
Judge Rutherford was the 2nd UBER-WITNESS.
He parlayed what remained of Watchtower finances, assets, staff and goodwill into a SPECTACLE of horseshit.
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Each new crazy idea of Rutherford eliminated more and more Adventists, Bible students, home missionary people, etc.
Who was left? Why, the STUBBORN, bull-headed, illogical, pony-believers who shoveled the Judges shit year by year.
Judge Rutherford demanded more and more for the stubborn members. He was creating the Navy Seals and he wanted
people willing to die for the cause. His reinterpretation of Romans 13:1,2 sent thousands to jail, Nazi camps, courtrooms and
cost many lives. Rutherford wanted UBER-WITNESSES for a special PUBLICITY SPECTACLE= MARTYRS.
Rutherfords 'Jehovah's Witnesses' would make those merely tenacious Bible Students, Russellites, Christadelphians, 7th Day Adventists
look like sissies, or so he imagined.
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Rutherford put swagger and defiance into his theology. He was accompanied by the "cane-boys" as a bodyguard armed with hickory walking
sticks to be used to beat back the unruly!
The Judge was a heavy drinker who sent the Bethel boys to Canada on a moonshine run in defiance of Federal Law.
Rutherford gave vicious public sermons condemning almost everybody: preachers, priests, businessmen, politicians, Catholics--venomously.
He and Olin Moyle and Hayden C. Covington battled the Supreme Court arguing for freedom to practice the most outlandish belief.
Simultaneously, the 40,000 members were governed by an iron fist which denied the emergent JW's access to their own conscience!
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STEP THREE: MISSIONARY ZEAL and HOMESPUN AMATEUR THEOLOGIANS
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Turning ragtag books salesmen into ministers was the idea of the 3rd Watchtower president, Nathan Knorr accompanied by his henchman, Fred Franz.
FREDDY FRANZ is the 3rd UBER-WITNESS.
Why?
Franz had a photographic memory, a wild imagination, 100% confidence in his authority to divine the mind of Jehovah.
Franz single-handedly invented the tons and tons of enigmatic rules, regulations and invidious teachings of Pharisee-like laws to burden
the sifted fanatics left over after all the shake-ups, flops, fizzles and failures.
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Once the Disfellowship rules piled high enough to regulate every breath, every thought, every movement of Jehovah's Witnesses world wide,
the Navy Seal program was finished and ready to commence manufacturing UBER-WITNESSES by the truckload.
From Rutherford's 40,000 to today's 7,000,000+ members, the tenacious are separated from the STUBBORN with machine-like precision.
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STEP FOUR: PUBLIC FAILURE=PERFECT BLIND BELIEF
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The history of failed Watchtower predictions means little or nothing to modern day Jehovah's Witnesses. Ex-members can recite
the dates with ease, but JW's shrug it off easily. Why?
First of all, cognitive dissonance works best when contradictions come before the consciousness to frighten the true-believer into
a full retreat inside his belief system. Remember: STUBBORN not tenacious!
No righteous principles are involved when you have black and white disproof before you.
The choice is emotional.
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Today's JW can be squished into shape easily by their ORGANIZATION.
This latter day mafia of GB whim and whimsy is changing everything daily while members salivate and cheer them on.
HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?
In addition to cognitive dissonance, total FEAR of losing one's family and only 'friends' is too much to risk losing.
The average JW fears being disgraced, shunned and excluded by disfellowship MORE than the fear of Armageddon.
How so? Armageddon is an illusion, but shunning is real.
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FEAR controls everything inside the Kingdom Hall.
Fear is joined by an exhausting demand for more and more 'service.'
Statistics, money, total loyalty and unquestioning obedience is the order of the day every day.
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Today's UBER-WITNESS is the evolutionary survivor of generations of crucible-tested stubborn fanatics who refused to admit
they were wrong.
Today's UBER-WITNESS can excuse any failure by the Governing Body.
Today's UBER-WITNESS may know inside their heart of hearts there is 'something not quite right' but they are too fearful
to discuss it with anybody. They will lose everything.
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Were you ever the UBER-WITNESS?
I was.
I went to Federal Prison for a so-called fake neutrality issue which didn't exist anywhere but in the mind of Freddy Franz.
I was a Pioneer wasting 100 hours each month as an evangelist shit-shoveler piling manure on people's doorsteps.
I would argue, debate, pontificate, and never listen to anything an opponent had to say because I was only preparing my
next conditioned rebuttal.
When I 'woke up' it was because of PTSD after a period of depression following my assault in prison.
Something was tearing me apart and I had to deal with it.
I moved away from my local Kingdom Hall and my family and threw myself into a career.
My new friends were simply 'Christian' and they demanded nothing from me but friendship.
I experienced what a real friend meant.
By trying to fade (I was later DF'd) I got enough fresh air and sunshine in my life I could clearly deal with
my cognitive dissonance.
It took me at least 10 years after leaving the Kingdom Hall to be able to begin removing the UBER-WITNESS
mindset.
Now here it is, 36 years post shunning and I look back on that fantastic loss of youth, time and
lost opportunities, and I see as though standing on a mountain top. I was too damned prideful and stubborn.
I was fearful. I was a cog in a machine; unloved and used.
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At what point in the average person's life does he/she reach a crossroads between purposeful pursuit of a life's goal and mad fanaticism?
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The answer is clear to me now.
I became a Jehovah's Witness because I didn't fit in.
I was an only child without a father.
Being a JW offered me"brothers and sisters" and a heavenly"father."
I needed purpose and direction in life.
Jehovah's Witnesses told me I could do a life-saving work for Almighty God.
JW's offered to train me as a minister. I learned to be a public speaker although I was very shy.
I learned to meet strangers and convince them of extraordinary things.
I was able to go from being a momma's boy to a federal prisoner among hardened criminals.
Why? I believed I was being protected by Jehovah God.
Well, the day I was grabbed from behind and I asked for Jehovah's help--there was a deafening silence.
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Do you know when your MOMENT came where you made the wrong turn?
Do you know why you were susceptible?
If you do, please share it.
Let's help others to throw down their shovel so they can give up on the missing pony.
Let's offer them the opportunity to create a new life of FREEDOM.