by midnight 29 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Maybe this will help: My room mate was in service with the co, Society had just changed the special pioneer allowance, the allowance had always been in fairly even amounts like $60/mo, it was now $104, so my friend remarked that it was an "odd number" to which the co said: "are there many things the society does you find odd?" (true) We next found out that our apartment was bugged (joking)
:0)
One of the reasons we don't is that we're conditioned to want priveliges, everything from mike handling (sounds ludicrous doesn't it) pioneering, sitting/guarding contribution boxes, commenting, ms/elder, need greater recommendations, the list is endless, "the greatest among you should be your brother" HAHA
So the provided motivation is to SHUT UP!
:0)
the greatest among you should be your brother tepid p:
should be your slave. esclave,
Thank-you waton for assisting my memory,
:0)
Questions & debates betray independent thinking . That is why they are frowned on if not banned . George Orwell saw it coming.
As he wrote in "Animal Farm" ( chap 5) . The chief pig was Napoleon and he decreed that debates must stop... The trusty carthorse 'Boxer' " voiced the General feeling by saying 'if Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right'"
So today in the WTS, if the Society say it.....then it must be right...end of story.
No wonder they call them sheep!
The indoctrination process in the study books and in the Watchtower studies at the KH involves the organization controlling the questions that can be asked as well the answers that are considered acceptable.
Spot on.
Just had a minor epiphany - this is another (unstated) reason why the WTS is so fanatically anti-university.
In university classes (in general, of course) no questions are off limits. Classroom discussions are not limited to certain "approved" questions and answers are expected to be more than just slight re-wordings of printed text.
A JW, exposed to such an environment, and intelligent enough to go to university, would likely recognize the difference almost immediately, and probably begin to wonder why things go so differently at the Kingdom Hall.
The first time I had doubts was when I was about 10 or 11. We were studying the Revelation book and were told that several prophecies had found their accomplishment in events that occurred with the Watchtower. Even at that age, I felt it was ridiculous.
I asked my dad and he told me that made sense to him and then, proceeded to basically read the same study all over.
I asked my mom and she told me to ignore these. That weak JWs around us had placed to much importance in the prophecies and left the truth entirely; missing the essential part of it: Preaching work and to stay separate from the wicked world.
Then, during meetings, I remember being told: If you have questions, you need to do more research. We have plenty of documentation where you can find ALL the answers you need.
So, until the age of 25, I blamed myself for not setting enough time aside to research my personal questions. When I finally did those EXTENSIVE researches (I once calculated about 800 hrs in a year), I fell back on my mom's reasoning: The main important thing is the preaching work and staying separate from the wicked world.
It was only around the age of 35 that I finally realised: What good is the preaching work if what is thought is wrong? You can translate an error in hundreds of languages, print it in millions of magazines and books, distributing them all over the planet, and it will still be untrue.
An organisation that gives out fallacious and deceptive information and answers to very valid questions cannot be called "the truth".
As for staying separate from the wicked world, I realised that the JWs had just as much serious issues than anyone else on the planet! Divorce, drugs, suicides, depression, bad business practices, etc. Sure, they disfellowship the wrong doers! Still, the evil deed was done by an active JW at the time! For instance, if a man is disfellowshiped for cheating on his wife, the fact remain that it was a JW who cheated on his JW wife. It happened while both were in the "spiritual paradise". If such a thing was a rare occurrence, than, perhaps it could be dismissed. Unfortunately, when you're a JW long enough, you get to see that it is much more prevalent then the watchtower would ever tell you.
MIDNIGHT:
There are no questions or debates in the Witness religion. Like Blues Brother says: It betrays intelligence and independent thinking; two things the religion hates. Thinking people are hated there.
You are expected to accept everything they say, without question. It's like a dictatorship.
You also won't see them answering opposers in a public venue. That would be embarrassing for them and they'd look like fools in a short time. They must have hated appearing before that Royal Commission a while ago but they were compelled legally. They ended up looking very bad.
I was never punished for asking questioning, but the answers I recieved were never satisfying.
Q: Why did Jah create predators? A: He didn't. All animals were vegetarians until the flood.
Q: How could a few hours of suffering on a stake pay for the sins of every human being that has and will ever live? A: Because Jesus was perfect and didn't deserve to suffer.
Q: Why is masturbation wrong? A: It increases your libido and thus makes fornication more likely (have any of these people EVER masturbated?)
Q: How could a good God order people to do evil things like child murder? A: God is the origin of both good and evil. He forms the light and creates darkness(Isaiah 45:7) But evil is not the same as sin. God does evil, but he cannot sin against himself.
