The most recent Watchtower contains study articles that address the growing alarm
of the Governing Body that the organization may be losing the next generation of Jehovah's
Witnesses. You may have noticed a number of articles and books, intensifying in recent
years that are motivated by the same fear: Witness families and kids are drifting away.
The question then arises, why do the leaders of the Watchtower Society care? What
makes them so motivated to address this downward trend?
If you think they are motivated by a sincere spirituality, a concern for their flock's faith,
wouldn't you expect to see some evidence of these 'higher motivations' in their magazines?
The June 15 Watchtower contains a study article that directly addresses youth
("You young people...") Does it emphasize spiritual dangers common to youth such as
internet porn, chat room dating, drug use, alcohol abuse, smoking , or fornication?
No.
Does it emphasize the development of personal spiritual values needed for Christian
identity like faith in Jesus Christ or acts of charity ?
No.
Does it praise the development of a whole, balanced personality, perhaps together
with useful talents to be mastered in music, sports or education?
No.
Instead the article - "Young People, Praise Jehovah" - places unremitting stress on
the "preaching work" - with only the most superficial regard for anything else wholesome
or balanced in the development of a young person's life. Don't worry about Witness kids
however, they'll see thru this breezy "Johnny One Note" obsession with peddling
Watchtowerism door to door in an instant. The worst they will suffer is a bit of head
nodding when their deluded parents demand "Now, you want to please Jehovah and praise
him, don't you ?!!!"
The real evil, the real sickness is not what this article will do to Witness families
( nothing, except bore them) but rather what its monomania about "preaching" tells us
about the Society. Their stripped down reductionism of their own religion speaks
loud and clear!
They want your children. They want more unpaid magazine peddlers. If push comes
to shove on the other stuff ( you know .... love, joy, peace, kindness, faith, good morals,
whatever), "preaching" gets the emphasis.
This is utter selfishness - the work of old men who cling to their dying dreams and
demand that youth will comply. While it lacks the deadly outcome, I am reminded
of newsreels of a smiling Hitler reviewing lines of boys charged with defending Berlin.
Yet, it is the same monomania, the same reduced image of what people ought to be,
that drives fanatics to want your children.
metatron