Why are JW's so blind and kept in the dark about the WTS history?
by booker-t 16 Replies latest social humour
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XQsThaiPoes
We have been blinded by the light.
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booker-t
I new on these post so please forgive my computer skills. But I posted this question because I am in my late 30's and I know about all of the WTS skeletons. I learned about all of them from the "apostates" in a matters of a few days. I just can't believe that JW's who have been in the WTS for over 30 and 40 years did not know about some of the skeletons. You had to have known if you were reading or studying some of the older publications and they mentioned things like 1975, beth-sarim, Johannes Greber,etc; My mom and aunt have been JW's since the mid 1960's and I know they must have heard about some of the skeletons that I learned about in 3 days. Can a person be so blinded that even when they see 1975 and nothing happens in that year they can forget all about it? Please help me out there I am trying to figure this thing out. My mom tells me that everything that apostates say are lies and a hate campaign. But my response to her is Why has the Watchtower Society not sued apostates in court if they were telling false info on the WTS?
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bigboi
I think the constant emphasis put on new light in the organization is a deliberate mental manipulation technique used to discourage witnesses from even wanting to know anything old about the religion. You are always on a treadmeal, always trying to keep up and not be left behind. It's an effective way against the sheer foolishness that's printed even nowadays.
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Englishman
Re: Why are JW's so blind and kept in the dark about the WTS history?
Because they're regarded by the WTBTS as mushrooms.
They're kept in the dark and have shit shovelled over them!
Englishman.
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shamus
As a matter of fact, it is just new light, LOL!
I remember they had this booklet that 'explained' the governing body, how it worked, yada yada yada... and it was important for us to read and understand it.
Unfortunately it was all half-truths and bullshit.
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Joyzabel
JW's are true believers.
You might enjoy the book by sociologist Eric Hoffer True Believer
It may explain the why to you.
btw, welcome to the board.
Joy
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XQsThaiPoes
Can a person be so blinded that even when they see 1975 and nothing happens in that year they can forget all about it?
Yep.
Please help me out there I am trying to figure this thing out. My mom tells me that everything that apostates say are lies and a hate campaign. But my response to her is Why has the Watchtower Society not sued apostates in court if they were telling false info on the WTS?
I could post a watchtower but the WTS does not assume it is "false info". There is also a large hate campaign.
To ease your mind once you become a JW you no longer care about being wrong or the collateral damage of being wrong You beleave it will work its self out through trail and tribulation and in THE END God will fix everything. Most people don't want to wait until THE END so they leave. This makes people feel justified becaue alot of the time they take the noise of the problem with them. Only recently in todays legal climate have people been able to leave and make noise. Before the internet the "apostate" movement was less tangible and mostly just hate. With stupid signs that read things like "Ask the watchtower about what happend in 1975?" or "Read the bible not the watchtower!"
It is not blindness just neglegence our "inspired" leaders are dead and we have lil idea what end is up. Now the whole thing is walking on egg shells.
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TD
Because it serves the purposes of the JW parent organization.
JW doctrine idealizes their organization, holding that it was not only an integral part of, but in many cases the target of scores of Biblical prophecies and "types."
In instances where events as they actually happened at the time don't really conform to the Biblical parallel they choose to apply today, the history of JW's gives way to an idealized history.
The situation then becomes humorous as JW's sometimes use what they imagine their organization to have done as a stick to beat others with.
For example, JW's through the pages of The Watchtower have often condemned both the clergy of Christendom and the rulership of all the nations of the world in 1914 for failing to submit to Earth's newly enthroned king. However, since JW's themselves didn't adopt the idea that God's kingdom had been born in heaven in 1914 with Christ as king until the year 1925, they create by natural corollary, a situation in which they themselves were the only ones that didn't know about Christ's supposed enthronement as king in 1914.
Acknowledging their history as it actually happened therefore carries a certain doctrinal cost.
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blondie
Actually, I have found that studying history of any group or country or individual can be enlightening and difficult.
My history professor said that the recording of events is very different when done by
a) a person living during the events (sometimes it is dangerous to record the truth when the ruler or group wants a different spin on it)
b) a person living 50 years after the event (when some people are still alive who lived during the event but may have a foggy memory of the events)
c) a person living 200 years or more after the event (when no eyewitnesses are alive and you must rely on first person accounts and sort out the facts from the wishful thinking).
First person accounts are better sources.
Most history textbooks are at best 3rd person accounts.
European history from a US person's viewpoint is different than from a European's viewpoint and vice versa.
Native Americans have a different view of historical events than white settlers.
History is regularly sanitized and it takes a determined person to get to the reality.
We keep ourselves in the dark much of the time when it comes to history in general. So it is easy to keep JWs in the Land of Denial.
Blondie