The JW Response to Brainwashing Accusations

by OrbitingTheSun 16 Replies latest jw friends

  • ozziepost
    ozziepost

    The NIV renders that expression as "training". Sounds better, doesn't it?

  • Dia
    Dia

    Ahh....trite 'clever' backtalk....an essential pillar of serious religious discussion (cough, cough)

    I think the correct response is, "Oh. You don't really understand what that term means? Let me see if I can explain it. No, it doesn't have anything to do with soap and water or making something 'better'. Not even in a symbolic way. Not even a little bit...."

    Edited by - Dia on 28 October 2002 21:14:55

    Edited by - Dia on 28 October 2002 21:16:26

  • Cicatrix
    Cicatrix

    I had a similar conversation with my mother a few years back. She tried to tell me that I was being brainwashed. I responded by saying "Well, I'm learning to be a better wife, mother, neighbor, and friend by what I'm learning.If the witnesses are washing my brain with positive things, so be it."(totally denying even to myself the divisive nature of the witnesses, who constantly admonished to "keep oneself separate from the world" and "limit association with nonbelieving family members and neighbors, lest they separate you from Jehovah"). And now that I think of it, I had already been doing all those "upbuilding" things before I joined the WTS. I just wasn't taught by my parents and grandparents that doing such made me part of an elite group that deserved salvation over all others(a WTS teaching that I never did agree with).They taught me that it was the duty of all humans to treat their fellow humans thus, not for some reward, but because it was the right thing to do. I'm glad they gave me that foundation, and I'm doubly glad that they never gave up on me!

  • OrbitingTheSun
    OrbitingTheSun

    Cicatrix, your experience sounds a lot like mine :) Yay that we are both out now!

  • sf
    sf

    Do NOT bleach!!

    Fluff n' fold ASAP!

    sKally

  • jack2
    jack2

    Once again, a thank you to blondie for some good research.

    sf, do you recommend tumble-dry medium?

  • Stephanus
    Stephanus

    I actually have heard that particular take on brainwashing by a JW old lady. She said something like "They say that we are brainwashed, but we like to say that our brains have been washed clean". Her elderly companion nodded and agreed fiercely.

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