The Pope a JW...!!!

by JWD 36 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  JWD

  Most of the relatives on my father`s side were Catholic. I still remember the first time I went to a high mass. It was a shock to my
  system. I felt wierd and wanted to leave as soon as possible. Then
  one day I began to put some ideas together and came up with a number
  of parallels between the Roman Catholic Chruch and the WTBTS. Here
  they are, let me know what you think.
  The Catholic Church claims to be the only true church. They use the
  term `the Mother Church` .Likewise the WTS claims sole possesion of
  the TRUTH and calls the org.`mother`.The RCC has a hierarchal arrangement with priests being the local conduit of TRUTH from on
  high.Much like the elder arrangement. The RCC uses fear tactics to
  encourage people to stay in the org. In both religions non-believers
  get a second chance in the after-life, while apostates are damned.
  Both religions have an additional avenue for truth other than the
  Bible alone.And both discourage (if not forbid) learning the Bible
  on your own,lest you come to a different conclusion than `Mother`.
  Both religions rely heavily on visual aids. With the RCC it`s statuary
  in the church and robes whereas with the WTS it`s drawings and pictures in their publications. Both include visual representations
  of God (Jehovah).Check out the Revelation book and see how many drawings there are of Jehovah all gold and sitting on a throne.I
  thought the 10 commandments forbade ANY image of God...! Both religions boast of a unified world-wide organization. Both feature
  several extra-biblical prohibitions based on the orgs. interpretation.
  With the RCC it includes contraception and marriage of priests as well
  as some dietary restrictions. With the WTS the list would include
  blood issues (in Japan JWs can`t eat whale meat because it contains
  too much blood) as well as dress codes,reporting time,etc.
  There are many more similarities which could be mentioned.Maybe,
  someone would like to add a few.
  I own Russells `Studies in the Scriptures` and while reading how he
  (Rutherford perhaps even more so) lashed out at the Catholic church
  it struck me that over time the WTS had become very much like the
  group it criticized the most. Then I was reminded of the verse in
  Romans 2 which says something to the effect that when you judge someone else you often commit the same sins as the `person`you judge.
  Perhaps the WTS would best be descibed as the modern American version
  of the Catholic church...? JWD
• 

  Jang

  You aren't the first one to see the parallels and won't be the last .....

  It is interesting that people often are like the people the put down the most ....

  Same for organizations .......

  JanG
• 

  ozziepost

  Don't overlook the parallel between the Roman Curia and the Governing Body.

  Also the fear of hell-fire = fear of Armageddon.

  Etc Etc

  Cheers,

  Ozzie
• 

  Had Enough

  The amazing thing about these similarities is that many JWs were Catholic and left that to be JWs. My JW ex-husband for one left the Catholic faith because of the "hypocrisy" and constantly made fun of their blindness.

  And how many JWs have we heard (or joined in with) ridiculing their beliefs. That was one thing my non-JW husband has remarked about hearing the few times he was at a JW function (funeral, wedding, social gathering) with me and as an outsider, he wasn't too impressed with JWs double-standards. hmmmmmm

  Had Enough
• 

  anglise

  Hasnt there also been a recent WT article about confessing to the elders.
  Also the infallibility of the GB (until 'new light' of course)
• 

  JAVA

  I worked in the PR Department at most assemblies. One of the guys had a photo of the Pope and replaced the head with a picture of the Assembly Overseer. A group of us give it to him during a meeting saying, "The Society had new robes for Assembly Overseers." The guy loved it and nearly fell out of his chair with laughter. I noticed he kept the photo in his car throughout the assembly; I'll bet he kept it for years thereafter.

  Religions like the Tower go out of their way to discredit the Catholic Church while doing everything thing possible to emulate the accused.

  --JAVA

  ...counting time at the Coffee Shop
• 

  ozziepost

  Had Enough,

  I recall in times past that the majority of JWs were ex-Catholic. With the benefit of hindsight we can see how there could be the attraction to disgruntled Catholics of a rule-laden, apparently sincere, non-hypocritical version of the same.

  Even now, in western lands the influx is still predominantly ex-Catholic. (Of course, with the revolving door operating in western lands, many of the long-serving members are leaving.)

  Cheers,

  Ozzie

  P.S. Tks for yr e-mail. Will try to reply soon.
• 

  Julie

  Greetings to all:

  I just read Heff's "Hi" thread and thought "thank god I was raised Catholic" and then I found this. Needless to say I cannot resist correcting a few things. Keep in mind I am not Catholic or Christian now and consider the bible to be very un-god-like so I am not rushing to the defense of the RCC, just adding my two cents.

  Here we go:

  :Then
  one day I began to put some ideas together and came up with a number
  of parallels between the Roman Catholic Chruch and the WTBTS. Here
  they are, let me know what you think.

  I think you are right but a little mis-informed, but considering you were a JW, this is understandable. There are many parallels but you missed the mark a bit.

  :The Catholic Church claims to be the only true church. They use the
  term `the Mother Church` .

  This claim has faded over the past few decades, they are going with more of a We-were-the-first spin these days (quick to cite the "Upon this rock..." nonsense).

  :The RCC has a hierarchal arrangement with priests being the local conduit of TRUTH from on
  high.Much like the elder arrangement.

  Except priests tend to be educated.

  :The RCC uses fear tactics to
  encourage people to stay in the org. In both religions non-believers
  get a second chance in the after-life, while apostates are damned.

  The RCC uses the fear that the bible does to keep people believing. All bible based religions use fear. I will say this though, in my 30 some years of being Catholic, I never heard a word against other religions or anyone who had once been Catholic. Ever. And I went to Catholic school even. I never feared being excommunicated or shunned and never heard of any such thing happening for centuries. The seemingly kinder, gentler RCC is even saying outrageous things like "you can be saved and not be Catholic".

  :Both religions have an additional avenue for truth other than the
  Bible alone.And both discourage (if not forbid) learning the Bible
  on your own,lest you come to a different conclusion than `Mother`.

  In Catholicism the "additional avenue for truth" is called "tradition" and most of them are based on writings that are considered to have some merit but didn't make the cut in the final draft of the bible. As to reading the bible, two views. For centuries the RCC wasn't too hot for the "unwashed" to get their hands on the bible, true. Now that I know what's in it I think it was very wise of them to try to prevent that. Now however the RCC strongly encourages its members to read and learn the bible. Unlike in the KH the words, "read your bible" aren't followed up with additional instruction like "along with your WT".

  :Both religions rely heavily on visual aids. With the RCC it`s statuary
  in the church and robes whereas with the WTS it`s drawings and pictures in their publications. Both include visual representations
  of God (Jehovah).Check out the Revelation book and see how many drawings there are of Jehovah all gold and sitting on a throne.I
  thought the 10 commandments forbade ANY image of God...!

  One thing to keep in mind is the age of the RCC. While even the newer churches include statues and various artwork this sort of thing began when the faithful were generally illiterate. This fabulous artwork served a two-fold purpose. One was to attest to the piety of the sponsor/builder of a magnificent house of god (and hopefully help god to overlook a few of their imperfections/transgressions). The other was to provide bible stories to the illiterate.

  The pictures in the WT's Revelation book are meant to scare the hell out of you so you will schlepp their wretched mags from door to door the rest of your days. Period.

  :Both religions boast of a unified world-wide organization. Both feature
  several extra-biblical prohibitions based on the orgs. interpretation.
  With the RCC it includes contraception and marriage of priests as well
  as some dietary restrictions.

  See what I don't understand is how come people can read Paul's rantings about abstinence and not comprehend the RCC's spin on celebacy for the priests. Go forth and multiply sounds like an order to reproduce to me so there's the birth control issue and the only dietary restrictions I know of is the no-meat on fridays during lent rule, but that's voluntary and has been considered such for ages.

  The funny thing here is that I actually agree with you that there are some nasty similarities between the WT and the RCC. I am of the view however that the WT more closely resembles the RCC of centuries ago than the one of today.

  One more point I would very much like to make is that most here have been JWs therefore many of you know what you do of the RCC from the WT. Sure there is plenty of info out there on the RCC and much of it's activities are in the news and common knowledge. But one must put aside learned prejudices in order to make objective evaluations.

  Julie, who has made the objective evaluation that it is all superstitious nonsense
• 

  patio34

  Julie,

  I am on the way to agreeing with you that it's all superstitious nonsense. The criticism of religion has to be extended to their source material: the Bible.

  JWD, good points. Especially with the new 'light' on confession to the elders that Anglise added.

  However, i will say that, having been Catholic till age 27 that the RCC was MUCH less intrusive into my life! It really was NOT intrusive whereas the WTBS was in literally every detail of it. Yuck! So the control is complete in the JWs and non-existent in RCC.

  Julie put it right when she said the WTBS resembles the RCC of centuries ago rather than today.

  Patio
• 

  Yerusalyim

  I too would like to clear up a few misconceptions stated in the above post, this being from a Catholic's perspective.

  First: "The Catholic Church claims to be the only true church. They use the term `the Mother Church` .Likewise the WTS claims sole possesion of the TRUTH and calls the org.`mother" True, the church claims to have the FULLEST EXPRESSION of the faith, but we recognize the truth of other faiths, even NON CHRISTIAN ones. And for sure recognize that in some sense, all Christians belong to the one church, the one body of Christ. As Paul writes, "Is Christ divided". So unlike the JW's we recongize the truth found in other religions, and that non-catholics, go to heaven, and even that NON-Christians can be saved. That and the fact that we truly can trace our history back to the APostles also helps our arguement about having the fullest expression of the faith.

  SECOND: "Much like the elder arrangement. The RCC uses fear tactics to encourage people to stay in the org." Fear? Where, when? Those who leave to join another Christian faith are not shunned, nor do we say they are going to hell.

  Third: "And both discourage (if not forbid) learning the Bible
  on your own,lest you come to a different conclusion than `Mother:" What was discouraged was reading unapproved translations of the bible, and individual interpretation. it is because of individual interpretation that we have over 20,000 protestant denominations. But learning the bible, at least today I can say that this is HIGHLY encouraged. ANy priest worth his salt would welcome questions and concerns from those who read the bible and have questions concerning doctrine. The other very unique thing as compared to JW's is that questions will not get you thrown out of the congregation (yes at one time it would, but not today).

  Forth: Check out the Revelation book and see how many drawings there are of Jehovah all gold and sitting on a throne.I
  thought the 10 commandments forbade ANY image of God...! Both religions boast of a unified world-wide organization. That prohibition is against WORSHIPPING images. and isn't the church supposed to be one body?

  Fifth: "Both feature several extra-biblical prohibitions based on the orgs. interpretation. With the RCC it includes contraception and marriage of priests as well as some dietary restrictions. With the WTS the list would include blood issues (in Japan JWs can`t eat whale meat because it contains too much blood) as well as dress, reporting time,etc."

  Very little actual doctrine is drawn from our extra-biblical sources. Celebacy of priests is a discipline, not a doctrine BIG DIFFERENCE. The dietary restrictions are also discipline, not doctrine. And we do feel that contraception as an issue can be infered from scripture just as the Trinity and a few other doctrines can. Again, you're not excommunicated for using contraception as you would be for taking blood as a JW.

  But having said all this, yes I think the Society is a pot calling the kettle black on many of these issues.

  Just my humble opinion.

  Yeru

  YERUSALYIM
  There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
  Shakespere: Hamlet