Im in.
Screw the rest of the world, that stuff needs to be said.
Im in.
IMPORTANT IDEA! Petition the Society and embaress them for their hubris
by Terry 31 Replies latest jw friends
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Farkel
: Yes, you are are quite right. The easiest way for Watchtowerland to deflect the criticism is to marginalize the smallness of our numbers.
Not so. There are many more ex-JWs than their are active JWs. We are a bigger group than they are, although only a very small percentage of us are activity opposing the WTS.
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johnny cip
this is something that has to be on a regular basic ie once a week or month. on the order of maybe breaking down this months wt study , in a one page article. many ideas to work with, the big question is how to get into the media, without much cost? silent lambs has been trying this for a few years , with limited results. i mean how much of the public remember the dateline show. except x jw's. it's workable , but we would need to have something new every few weeks, to keep the media's attention. john
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hubert
Great idea, Terry !! You're a genius !! (But, don't let it go to your head) LOL !!
I feel also that this should be either an ongoing thing, or a two or three date range.
Remember the "Silent lambs" march and protest at Brookline HQ a while back? It unfortunately happened on the same day as a huge war protest march in Washington. Guess who got on the big news channels and papers? You guessed it. You could have had the biggest rally ever, and if it happened on 9/11, no one would have known about it.
I've stayed up late at night just to watch a special news item, when the media said, "story at eleven", only to find that something bigger had happened since the announcement, and the story that I wanted to see never even got shown.
So, you need to find ways of delivering the message on multiple dates, so not to have this disaster happen.
(Just a little advice, hope it makes sense). ... Hubert
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kls
Don't let your head get to big but ,,,,,lol ,,,,,,this is a good idea and worth a try. Count me in.
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jgnat
What do we want when it is all said and done? Reduced conversion rate? Public apology by the Watchtower Society?
I am nervous about general protests, "demonizing" Jehovah's Witnesses, because then we could end up with legislated restrictions like in Russia, and in the end, I think government interference makes them stronger. I kind of like the idea for a call for a public apology, similar to what protesters are asking from the Catholic Church for the pedophile coverups.
Who is our intended audience? The general public, Jehovah's Witnesses, or the Watchtower Society?
If this is for the general public, how about one or two points instead of the whole shebang? People read sound bytes these days. They dismiss lengthy rants as crackpot. At least I do. Also, we must be careful to avoid WT lingo when speaking to the public. They do not realize the huge emotional impact of certain practices and words. We have to be careful to connect the dots for them.
How about requesting a public apology for the damage done by "shunning"? We could elicit support from the general public, some of whom have missed loved ones at countless family events because of the practice of shunning and keeping separate from the "world"
I really enjoyed receiving a reply letter from the United Nations. From the tone of the letter, it was obvious they badly wanted to turn off the tap at the source, if they could only find it. The thought of an irritated bureaucrat burning the midnight oil responding to all these unwanted letters warmed my sense of irony. Since then, I thought, wouldn't it be that much more fun to have a team of Bethelites assigned to respond to all our letters? If we do go for a public campaign, I figure it would be great to have ten letters sent to Bethel for every one sent to a media outlet. Don't let them off the hook, just because we know we will get a lame answer.
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Terry
Either Jehovah's Witnesses are just another touchy-feely, kind-hearted religious group with the milk of human kindness by the quart in every vein or, they are something ELSE.
The damaged people who have told their stories by the thousands on groups just like this one indicate that it is something else.
My goal is a merciful one. If, and that is a large IF---the men of the governing body are merely sincere and misled about their pronouncements which result in a toll on human life, family shredding and legacy of depression on those whom they expel high-handedly--THEN, serving notice on them might elicit the necessary wake-up call. After all, who with the disposition of Jesus Christ would actively harm even an enemy?
If the governing body is venal, intentionally severe and indifferent to their victim's cries for mercy--then, serving notice on them might publicly embaress them to the extent they would take action to save face and relent in the outrageous cultic repressions of their orthodoxy.
Freedom of religion is a dangerous freedom because there is no accountability. You cannot force a religion to do much of anything no matter how far gone they are. Children's lives and futures are often damaged or snuffed out by the impotence of authority to intervene on their behalf. The bully pulpit can direct public outrage in an effective manner.
The Watchtower Society NEEDs public approval. The public is their source of revenue. As long as JW's are allowed to present their lovely propaganda side to the public and hide their dark and destructive side the person at the door who buys the literature is not acting with full disclosure as a part of their decision to fund the work.
Look at these facts.
1.Public sympathy for JW's is bought and paid for by the persecutions they bring upon themselves by their policies. The rank and file and not the governing body suffer the cost. The governing body reap the rewards.
2.Publicity about how lovely Jehovah's people are at conventions is generated by the PR arm of the society moving into action.
3.Publications of the WT Society constantly reinforce the idea that JW's are "protected" from the diabolical worldliness by remaining in the protective bubble. Obediance is demanded as the admission price for remaining under their "grace".
The average JW family has the door to door work and preparing for Armageddon as the number one priority and little time and energy are left for feeding and educating their family properly.
Most Witness households require a one income source of revenue. Children are forced into a boring and monotonous life of repetitious drudge work and avoidance of natural contact with even the nicest peer groups who are not JW's. They are forced to look odd and backward to society at large by their avoidance of almost every normal activity that humans enjoy.
Any ordinary setback or financial emergency can knock a JW family into a downward spiral they will never recover from because there is little in the way of a support system. Only petulance and counseling are offered and nothing more.
If any family problem of a truly serious nature is encountered such as child abuse, wife abuse, alcoholism, bestiality, you-name-it---the believing spouse, usually the wife, is thrown into an untenable torment; an impossible crucible that may destroy her mental health and her children's futures. Guilt substitutes for help in the New world society.
The list of harms is endless.
Surely there is merit in focusing the attention of the world, of society, of potential converts of non-believeing family members on the real cause of all these harms: POLICY.
The target is policy. Policy changes are as easy as flicking a light switch and creating that famous NEW LIGHT. A bit of new light would ease the suffering of millions. Surely it is a small price to pay for such an enormous reward.
The pressure is Public Opinion.
The Society wants tax free status and freedom so as to be regarded as a real (and not a crackpot cult) religion with privileges in countries where it can harvest the fields for lots of money.
If all their worthless policies and restrictions and indifference can be demonstrated in terms of people's lives harmed--those goals of the society are endangered and they will be motivated to act.
Think about this. The Brooklyn cosmocrats have found a real cash cow: the printing business. Volunteers make it enormously profitable. What makes people volunteer? The idea that this is the only true voice of God speaking in the books and literature being printed. What controls the incessant preaching at an intense level? The carrot and the stick. The carrot is paradise or heaven and the stick is disfellowshipping and Armageddon.
If you could start a worldwide corporation that produced a very cheap product that could be sold without paying labor charges or distribution charges would you not want it completely free to pump the dollars without restraint? Of course you would.
My petition idea is to choke off public sympathy of the work of Jehovah's Witnesses by seeing it as a destructive money-making sham. Pure and simple.
Is that not worth public discussion?
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seattleniceguy
You make a strong case, Terry. And your writing is great! I especially liked the term "cosmocrats."
jgnat had some good points to make as well:
I think government interference makes them stronger. I kind of like the idea for a call for a public apology, similar to what protesters are asking from the Catholic Church for the pedophile coverups.
Agreed. Any group with a persecution complex only sees goverment interference as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Demanding a public apology turns the tables in a shocking way: suddenly they are the bad guys, in a way they have never considered.
People read sound bytes these days. They dismiss lengthy rants as crackpot.
I think this is the biggest challenge: making people care, without requiring a major commitment from them.
If we do go for a public campaign, I figure it would be great to have ten letters sent to Bethel for every one sent to a media outlet. Don't let them off the hook, just because we know we will get a lame answer.
Interesting idea, jg, but don't you feel that the Bethel boys would simply choose not respond to confirmed ex-JWs? Now, if we could get a groundswell of non-JWs to write, that would be cool. But again, we have the problem: how can we make an unaffected party motivated enough that they actually put a pen to paper? Some people will, but it seems like that would be a relatively small proportion.
This is dicey, too, because if we're not careful it might appear that we're attacking a minority group. Anyone can attack the Catholic church because they're huge. But if you have issues with a smaller group, no matter how legitimate, you risk coming across the wrong way.
Maybe we should make this a multi-stage plan. Start with letters to the editor and opinion pieces about the human toll of shunning and other bad policies. Get into the public consciousness. Perhaps stage protests in cities where there are enough willing XJWs to put a formidable group in front of a single KH. I'm thinking 20 people with picket signs in front of the Main Street KH. Call the local news channel. Get some TV coverage.
I can see that working out really well. We could have a web site ready and give a good interview. If the newspeople go to talk to the Witnesses, they will undoubtedly get an angry-sounding, dismissive, inarticulate answer. I can totally see some PO making a buffoon out of himself on TV.
I liked the idea about advertising the date of the big campaign, too. "JWs: Armageddon is coming on 12/15/2004...are you ready?" That's effective in creating interest in the general public. Of course, with a buildup like that, we had better be damn sure to deliver! :-)
Also, I wanted to say that I think jgnat is right that we need to have a simple, clear message. We know that almost every single thing about the Witnesses is damaging, but we need to distill that to a clear message with a few major points, and be able to stay on message. It seems like shunning is an important one. Perhaps blood is another. Anything else?
SNG
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seattleniceguy
You know what we need? A web site aimed at the public, not JWs or XJWs, that explains clearly and calmly why their teachings are harmful. It should look solid and composed, with little or no advertising. It should look authoritative, and not in any way fanatical. We need to be able to refer people with no background to a site where they won't get lost or confused and where they can get solid info, concisely.
Or does one already exist?
I'm thinking maybe the thing to do is create a new site that has articles that have been sourced from the variety of good sites that already exist. WatchtowerInformationService.org is good, but I worry that uninitiated viewers might have a hard time seeing the relevance of some articles. I'd like to make it absolutely clear what articles are important, and make them readable and concise.
Thoughts?
SNG
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hubert
Seattle, I found that "Shaun's research on Jehovah's Witnesses" is a good site for a non- j.w. to look up info on the Watchtower. It covers just about everything, and starts from the basics, but is all categorized, so you can skip through it and read what interests you the most. Maybe that site and others can be referred to, when non-j.w.'s ask for info.
Hubert