CAN YOU HANDLE THE TRUTH??

Terry

THE TRUTH!

Is there a greater value anywhere? Knowing what's what and what's not may be the most important thing humans can know. If you don't know the TRUTH; how can you survive?

Now you might stop and ask the question: "Isn't TRUTH free to anybody smart enough to find it?" I mean, you can't own it, can you? CAN YOU?

Well dang if somebody didn't go out and get a patent on it anyway! Yeah, you heard me right. Jehovah's Witnesses OWN THE TRUTH. If you don't believe me, just listen to the talk.

It's "The Truth" this and "The Truth" that----"How long have you been IN THE TRUTH?" and "Since Bob left THE TRUTH we haven't spoken a word". And on and on and on....

The seed is planted and it grows into a giant Sequoia with enormous roots and shades every aspect of everyday life for Jehovah's Witnesses.

Pavlov would stand and salute at the JW's masterful co-opting of so powerful a necessity as THE TRUTH. The knee-jerk stimulus response when the word "Truth" is spoken, for the average JW, bypasses the brain altogether. They are IN it--they own it and it owns them.

Look at that smile on those sappy faces in that Kingdom Hall! That is a smile of people who've stuffed Truth into their biscuits and sweetened their tea with it!

Truth has smoothed out the contours in the cranial cavity of every brother and sister with their fists full of magazines and their bookbag crammed with variations on a theme: WE HAVE THE TRUTH and you DON'T!

The amazing and thrilling discovery all possessors of this Truth will observe eventually is how malleable, adaptable, changeable and slippery this wonderful Truth happens to be in the hands of the sausage crankers at the Brooklyn factory a.k.a. as the Ministry of Propaganda.

Sigfreid and Roy couldn't make Truth disappear and appear any faster than a Governing Body writer who has just been caught in the headlights on the lonely road of NEW LIGHT.

Chain yankers all! The collar is around the neck of every baptised member and the leash goes all the way to Bethel headquarters. Truth!

They print it, they ship it, they stock it, they tout it and they march it in long rows like mindless ants straight to the doorways across the girth of this spinning planet. Truth by the mouthful, Truth by the bagful, Truth by the Elders and the servants and their minions---a sea of Truth; a flood of Truth a deluge drowning children and teens and old wankers with Armageddon in their eyes whose last breath will rasp out fear of Jehovah!

Isn't it beautiful? The quicksilvery handful of nothing peddled in the streets and neighborhoods like crack in a Ghetto--THE TRUTH, is always on the go, on the march, on the minds and on the tongues of the Kingdom Hall Zombies waving their hands to be called on so they can squawk out parrot-like "comments" consisting of empty sounds gobbled off the pages of the Watchtower.

But--not you! No--not you! No way!

The TRUTH isn't good enough for you, is it? You can't taste it with a yummy smile anymore can you? You've gone colorblind and senseless when the thrumming monotone of Truth! Truth! Truth! comes pounding in your ears by your mother and your father and your sister and your brother and the drumbeat has made you deaf to the pointing of screaming : I QUIT! I CAN'T STAND IT ANYMORE! SHUT THE HELL UP AND LEAVE ME ALONE!!!

And they stand there stunned like puppies in a petshop window looking vacantly out at freedom or like children wakened from a beautiful dream. They cock their heads to one side and their mouths slacken and stand agape. Why? Why?

Why have YOU left our wonderful marionette show? The strings are so comforting coming down out of the sky! They make us dance and do tricks! You want to leave? Why?

OKAY--so tell them out their in Jehovahville; tell them straight out. Here is your chance to put it clear and pithy for every Jehovah's darling that lurks in curiousity at the freaks in our sideshow.

TELL THOSE THAT REMAIN BEHIND:

WHY CAN'T YOU HANDLE THE TRUTH ANYMORE?

kls

I do believe many JWS know the Truth is not the Truth but many don't know any other way to live because of fear that in some slight way they could be wrong. The fear of dyeing in Armageddon is one thing but the fear of how they will die is another. The pictures in the WT showing how Worldly people are suffering and crying and running for their lives is enough for anyone to stick with what the GB has taught and don't ask questions and to try and not look into the doubts they have.

Undaunted Danny

Your singing my song Terry.

Here's their default grabber line:INTEGRITY--integrity keepers--walking in God's integrity...

How many J-ho conventions had the theme of INTEGRITY?

I was never a parent,none the less if i had learned that everything that i taught my children about life and God was a LIE.

That my children now all hated me for my LIES to them.What would i do to the perpetrators? [_____________________]

Is blood thicker than dogma?

Danny's own melody:"the greatest courage is facing the truth and the truth takes no prisoners".

Balsam

Isn't it amazing how neatly the JW's packaged up that word TRUTH and took it for their own. Even the Mormons don't use it as much as JW's do. I know everyone here struggled with using that word when we finally left the witnesses. It was like trying to stop myself from cursing when I became a JW years ago. Well after lots of correcting myself I finally stopped using that to easily used word truth finally in reguard to the JW's. Boy was it a struggle though.

Now I cringe when I even hear anyone use it in reference to something they believe. LOL

Ruth

Annanias

If you are asking me that question, I would have to say I CAN handle the truth. It's the boogerheads that come with it that have been the pisser for me.

kls

Annanis,,,,,boogerheads. Thanks for the morning chuckle i needed it.

Annanias

I was reading Calvin & Hobbes.

A Paduan

And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

Some people prefer not really knowing the truth about themselves - they cannot handle not being the hero of the story that they are telling - if you can't trust, hiding your talent under a rock (rules) may seem like the only choice for securing a win.

Poztate

"THE TRUTH"

I have always hated that expression.It is a label...it is a mind set...it is a brand. I have "The Truth"

I believe this ONE WORD (two) does more to control a good dub than any other cult tactic.

Poz.

ezekiel3

Terry, love your descriptive writing:

And they stand there stunned like puppies in a petshop window looking vacantly out at freedom or like children wakened from a beautiful dream.

Because "where else would we go to?"

The Truth as trademarked by JWs is nothing more than "loaded language" as defined by Steve Hassan:

In totalistic cults, the ideology is internalized as "the truth," the only "map" of reality. ... A destructive cult typically has its own "loaded language" of words and expressions. Since language provides the symbols we use for thinking, controlling certain words helps to control thoughts. Many groups condense complex situations, label them, and thereby reduce them to cult cliches. This label ... governs how one thinks in any situation. - Combatting Cult Mind Control

And by Robert Lifton:

Because every issue in life - and these are often very complicated young lives - can be reduced to a single set of principles that have inner coherence, one can claim the experience of truth and feel it. Answers are available. Lionel Trilling has called this the "language of non-thought" because there is a cliche and a simple slogan to which the most complex and otherwise difficult questions can be reduced. - The Future of Immortality and Other Essays for a Nuclear Age

Other loaded language by JWs:

Wait on Jehovah - any problem can be fixed by...
Worldy - anything not JW
Spiritistic - anything magical or unknown
Spiritual - producing JW results including recruiting, bible study, meeting attendance
Sheeplike - willing to submit to any direction
Organization - the spirit directed group of JWs as lead by the "Governing Body"
Study - refers to a person, "my Bible Study"
New Light - a change in doctrine
Progressing - increasing involvement in JW activities
Apostate - JW or ex-JW who deviates from doctrine, also applyed to information that opposes JWs
Opposed - a non-JW who resists JW friends or family (different from Apostate)
Brother/Sister - members individually or collectively (The Brothers) "He is a Brother"
Drift/Fell Away - become less active or disappear from JW group
Persecution - any attack or circumstance that disrupts life as a JW, often directly blamed on Satan.

JWs have proven they can handle doctrinal switchbacks, persecution, organization scandals, cancelled promises, voluntary loss of disfellowshipped family - but not the TRUTH.

CAN YOU HANDLE THE TRUTH??

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