YOU 'THINK' YOU ARE FREE when you leave the Org. . . but it can be an ILLUSION

by Terry 28 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Finkelstein

  I would have to agree with the assertion that the WTS indoctrination concerning doctrines doesn't leave a person right away

  and I would have to admit that some the doctrines such as concerning the trinity, not to worship graven images, Christmas even might

  very well be accurate from a theological perspective.

  The point is that there is a lot of the expressed doctrines that the WTS./JWS made that are not correct.

  .

  For ones that spent years being a JWS with the WTS. it does take a level of time for those

  indoctrinations to leave and to compose a semblance of their perceptions of theology from within themselves.

  .

  After 30 years of being free from the JWS or any religious practice, I can look at things with a clear analytical mindset

  toward critical thinking about matters and honestly say it is truly liberating and directing toward the truth of all to be known

  and to be answered.
• 

  Terry

  The deliberate contrarian stance of the organization is evident in the meticulous dismantling and deconstruction

  of all things traditional in Christendom.

  Jesus Christ is Christ Jesus, for example.

  Worship of Jesus becomes worship of Jehovah.

  The cross is the torture-stake.

  And so on.

  Fixation on being different is a fetish for JW's.

  It creates a bias and blindness about any pragmatic consideration of free choice.

  Worship is EMOTIONAL and not perfunctory ritual.

  The GB removes all emotional attachment from EVERY facet of worship--except devotion to the Organization itself. (Mother)
• 

  Finkelstein

  The JWS is an interesting religion when it is considered that much of the framework of this faith was created by

  demeaning the practices and doctrines of others (Catholic) taking on a position of broad based anti-Christendom.

  At the the same time creating their own inherent doctrines which which were devised mostly for commercial reasons to promote

  the proliferation of publications.

  The WTS lamented that they were the true representatives of god and true interpretors of bible scripture, the factual reality of that though has been proven to be false.

  For all of that information indoctrinated into JWS, is it any wonder that people who leave the JWS end up being atheists ?
• 

  Terry

  The incredible role of personal charisma (re: Pastor Russell) is lost on us today.

  The loyalty of 'Russellites' was based on an exaggerated and fictitious appraisal of the man's accomplishments.

  "He was an expert in theoretical and practical psychology and phrenology. . ."

  Phrenology was what?--the detailed study of the shape and size of the cranium bumps as a supposed indication of character and mental abilities.

  
• 

  Finkelstein

  How an opportunistic charlatan like Russell cultivated so much adoring praise as a recognized Pastor is in itself a study of human sociological behavior.

  The power of the press was obviously exploited by this one time clothing store owner.

  Upon creating the WTS. he had something else to sell which cultivated an enormous amount of public notoriety, something that simply owning a clothing store could never have achieved.

  .

  No wonder Rutherford worked so hard to gain that same adoration, with that and all the financial assets left by Russell within the Watchtower Corporation Publishing house.

  Russell more or less sowed the seeds and Rutherford followed up with the harvesting. $$$
• 

  Nickolas

  For all of that information indoctrinated into JWS, is it any wonder that people who leave the JWS end up being atheists ?

  Aye. When at last you recognise Watchtower Truth as fiction you are really only at a crossroads, though you might not fully appreciate it. You've only cut through a small portion of the religious bullshit that clutters your brain. The residual debilitating debris of faith remains. Terry's faux pas a wonderful example of it insidiously working its way into your reality. I broke free in 1976 while still a bible student but continued to pray to Jehovah for almost three decades. I know about cognitive dissonance. I experienced it for a long time. The realisation that Yahweh is a fiction set me free to create a different, more satisfying fiction in which to live.

  We're all living our own personal fictions, what we tell ourselves to believe.
• 

  erandir

  When at last you recognise Watchtower Truth as fiction you are really only at a crossroads, though you might not fully appreciate it. You've only cut through a small portion of the religious bullshit that clutters your brain. The residual debilitating debris of faith remains. Terry's faux pas a wonderful example of it insidiously working its way into your reality. I broke free in 1976 while still a bible student but continued to pray to Jehovah for almost three decades. I know about cognitive dissonance. I experienced it for a long time. The realisation that Yahweh is a fiction set me free to create a different, more satisfying fiction in which to live.

  We're all living our own personal fictions, what we tell ourselves to believe.

  So true...if I may share a personal history: I was at a crossroads when I started studying the Bible with a young Witness couple back in 1998. I remember feeling at the time that I was on the verge of becoming an athiest or at least full-fledged agnostic. There was so much hypocrisy happening at each of the churches I had attended in the past. But I thought I'd give religion one more shot, and the bible study was beginning to make so much sense.... I became a baptized witness eventuallly, but that only lasted about 5 years when I saw the same pattern of hypocrisy and double-standards, and I left.

  In the past, I've found myself in situations where the subject of the bible came up, and I was spouting off highly detailed "knowledge" of bible trivia, and not realizing what impression I was leaving my listeners. Now I preface any bible "knowledge" I'm about to impart with a forewarning that I used to be a Witness, etc. I mostly keep that kind of stuff to myself now.

  As a way of coping, I guess, I classify all that knowledge as being no different than my knowledge of other fantasy worlds such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Tolkien's Middle-Earth. I happen to be a huge fan those three fantasy worlds, so why not add the Bible world to that?
• 

  looter

  "I've done that to people plenty of times. Now whereever I go, I just leave out that information as if those years never happened and I don't know anything about the bible. It also saved me from stressful conversations." Just avoiding the bible at all cost does it for me. No need to talk about information that you use to blindly believe.
• 

  Mr.Finkelstein

  After decades from not being involved with a religion such as the JWS,  I've come to realize that men will lie and be devious when they know what they are doing is gong to cultivate a semblance of power and control around themselves.  Looking back at people such as J Rutherford, one can see a self indulgent power seeking individual, with the same public notoriety that the WTS. offered C T Russell previously.