They believe in the selling of their delusions to the public that they propagate have created a vast Kingdom of wealth and power of which they themselves live off to their own sustaining enjoyment and use.
Jehovah the almighty one indeed .
Governing Body; Villians or just Deluded?
by pistolpete 41 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Rocketman123
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St George of England
I think most of them would really struggle in the "real world". Few of them are well qualified to find well paid employment, so it would be low paid jobs. Trying to find affordable accommodation, paying the utility bills, running a car and then getting ready and travelling to the KH for the meeting.
They have none of these problems, they never have to wonder if they can afford to have the heating on, save up for travel and accommodation for assemblies......
The list goes on.
They would have to be desperate to give up what they currently have whatever they believe deep down.
George
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asp59
I can understand you want continue the scam if you are a pastor in a church and live in mansions with own private jets. But if you live in a room in bethel. You workt manual jobs in bethel. Most of days are about meetings and reading litteratur. Being around other JWs all day. (I wouldn't have put up a whole day with people from congregation). Yes I believe most GB members at least believe 100% of the basic things taught by org. Like earth not being destroyed. Some going to heaven. Doubt they believe everything they teach. But they do believe in the basic things.
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pistolpete
Another perspective;
StarTempleThis is because denial can be very strong. Now if one believes "we alone are God's chosen holy molies" then any information to the contrary will be denied, but like denial on steroids.
JWs are delusional to this degree because they have a God chosen complex which inflates their egos. This self-righteousness is a power trip so strong JWs will hide criminal malfeasance in their congregations and organization to MAINTAIN AN ILLUSION OF HOLINESS.
That is correct. A JW will aid and abet a child rapist [for decades] rather than call the cops and admit the place is dirty.
JWs are on the heroin of self-righteousness, they believe they alone are "God's chosen" and everyone else will be destroyed in columns of fire and ash so they alone can "inherit the earth".
Now, this insane mindset is easy to not consider when examining the JW delusional thinking complex. BUT, this totally "delusions of grandeur" condition is what WT has developed in them for decades. IF one believes this non-sense, they think they are the best and most righteous people walking the planet.
A high such as this can be very very addictive. This is the dope JWs shoot up from WT every day of their lives, so this warped high is very very strong in them. JW self-righteousness of the "we alone are to be saved" insanity is the main driving force JWs use to justify all their other crimes, because "God's chosen" can do whatever they please.
This is how JWs got warped, the ones who believe this have a severely distorted view of themselves, their group and REALITY itself. JWs live in a fantasy world. That can be dangerous.
Like with a heroin withdrawal, leaving this fantasy life bubble can be very painful, so many JWs choose to stay high and in the main fantasy at all costs.
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joey jojo
Being deluded about beliefs is one thing but if you watch the way Stephen Lett handled the JW org video explaining the 'forgiveness of kh loans' a few years ago, I don't see delusion.
He was calculated and completely dishonest, which is a quality you need to have if you are trying to be loyal to a fake belief system.
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Diogenesister
PeteJWs are on the heroin of self-righteousness, they believe they alone are "God's chosen" and everyone else will be destroyed in columns of fire and ash so they alone can "inherit the earth".
Exactly this. Power is also the ultimate thrill for hierarchical apes. Alpha males at the top of the tree😂and all the little monkeys below!
I do find it incredible that people don't see the overlapping generation rubbish as a desperate attempt to patch up a sinking ship.
Although when I hear about people like Cook, who only suddenly became 'anointed' when he was called to bethel as a helper, soooo cynical. So I've no doubt for some of them it's just a career.
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Diogenesister
Also, the two things can be true at once.
Humans are great at compartmentalizing.
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Brock Talon
In Crisis of Conscience, Ray Franz expressed the opinion that they really believe it
For starters, the "Governing Body" is not one person. It is a group of people that has changed hands over time as individuals of the group die off and are replaced. Would you speak of the U.S. Supreme Court as if it were one entity? I think any time one generalizes about any group of people, they are either over simplifying or conflating.
That said, if the question was "do you think individual members of the governing body are villains or are they simply deluded?" then I could give my opinion on that.
Back in the early 1980's when I was at Bethel, I knew one member of the Governing Body very, very well. I actually did field service with him pretty much every week, often actually working with him one on one in field service. He was one of the few single GB members, so he did not have a wife to work in service with and that left us single guys able to rotate our field service with him. We often had lunch and/or dinner with him, and even attended congregation gatherings with him. I rode in a car to the meetings with him 3 times a week. I witnessed his sense of humor first hand, and could feel his earnestness in his prayers and the way he behaved in pretty much everything he did. This man was ALL ABOUT Jehovah, the Kingdom, Jesus Christ's return and every trivia point that the Bible had to offer. His mind was on these things all the time, so much so that even for a Bethelite, it seemed not human. Yet, there he was, all with a decent sense of humor (I teased him and others around me all the time and he laughed or smiled in most of the shenanigans I did) and was a kind and gentle person most of the time. I think I saw him cranky once or twice, but if there ever was a person who could be said to be "like Jesus" it was this man.
I recall one day we were approaching people in the subway to talk to them in field service and a man was at the magazine stand looking at the pornography side of the stand. As Bethelites, we always knew which side of the stands NOT to stand next to because that is were all the nakedness was on full display. Back then in those years it was not hidden much. Anyway, this GB member walked over to the man studying which girlie magazine he wanted to purchase and stood next to him while the man looked over the offerings. I stayed back, fearful of being seen next to the nude pictures. This GB member watched the man for awhile and the man finally noticed this little Yoda looking gentleman smiling at him. When the GB finally had the man's attention, he said to him "Why are you looking at all these naked girls? This is not what is going to make you happy. You need to feed your mind on spiritual things. Let me share this scripture with you..."
I met other GB members as well. I did not know them as well as the one I just described, but I saw them also quite frequently and witnessed their personalities. Some were nice, others were jerks. Some were full of themselves and others were relatively humble. Fred Franz was by then a nearly blind shell of what he probably used to be at one time, but it struck me how simply he was dressed and how little ANY of the GB actually owned for having toiled away most of the adult lives as the leaders of a large religion. Had they been executives of even a small company for that long of time, they would be quite well off. Most of the GB I knew of had little, all packed into a simple room. Granted, it was a room bigger than mine was, but still, nothing compared to what an exec of a large company would have.
My opinion: Most of the GB actually believe what they dole out. Perhaps there is one or two who know they are dealing out a bunch of crap and do their thing for power, prestige or whatever else. But I believe most have drank the Cool Aid and are serving it out to others. I think most are in a state of denial about the horrors they inflict on others, telling themselves that it is what God wants.
I say this because I have witnessed what many are like first hand and not because I want to make excuses for what they do.
That said, my experience was nearly 40 years ago, so I admit I do not know any of the new generation of GB. Perhaps they are different than those I got to know all those years ago and they are now all purposeful villains.
But I doubt it.
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pistolpete
Brock Talon
This man was ALL ABOUT Jehovah, the Kingdom, Jesus Christ's return and every trivia point that the Bible had to offer. His mind was on these things all the time, so much so that even for a Bethelite, it seemed not human
I think most are in a state of denial about the horrors they inflict on others, telling themselves that it is what God wants.
This kind of makes me sad, because it describes a lot of the people I love and that I will never be able to convince them, they are in a cult. They will rather die than take blood, they will choose to live in poverty and pioneer rather that care for themselves, they will live a meager, miserable life believing everything the GB says like overlapping generation and such, rather than believe me, that I'm trying to help them.
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OnTheWayOut
Raymond Franz has basically convinced me that getting to the Governing Body takes a high level of belief in the bullshit. I was nowhere near that level, yet I could see how I was just supposed to accept whatever doctrinal changes came out. The difference that brought many of us here is that we objected along the way for our various reasons.
I think that Governing Body 1.0 learned something special once these delusional believers got to the top of the ladder. They learned that their job was to protect the organization no matter what. Lies, withholding information, manipulating people, whatever it takes. Satan is evil and they justify themselves with a "fight fire with fire" attitude.
They recognized that they were monetarily poor on the way up the ladder and would rather do whatever it takes to stay at the top of the ladder rather than walk away owning nothing once they see what being at the top entails.
The video pistolpete posts with the explanation that members have already been denying their own violation of the rules on their own spiritual path and have been brainwashing themselves. These same Governing Body members convince themselves that they are qualified to be where they are and should stay there. Their own self-brainwashing at a higher level to include convincing themselves that they are "anointed" convinces them that they should not only contribute to the deceit, manipulation, withholding, but that they have been especially chosen by God to do that because nobody else is as qualified as them.
This full self-brainwashing and self-deception has been ensured ever since GB1.0 started handpicking new GB members who were total yes-men. And as they morphed into liars and deceivers, they also learned to keep their secret to themselves, not sharing their doubts in what they do with even each other.