The Appeasement-politics of Jehovah's Witnesses.

[DetlefK]

On a Saturday afternoon I was approached by a recruiter of Jehovah's Witnesses in a parking-lot. He was a nice old man, so my strategy was to be polite and to leave as soon as possible. (He even tried to make a point about Intelligent Design, claiming that no scientist has ever found proof that life could come from non-life. At this point I realized that any further conversation with such a misinformed person were a waste of time.) He gave me two Watchtower-brochures. I thought, I was gonna throw them into the trash anyway, but I read them out of curiosity. One of those brochures really shocked me.

What shocked me wasn't their belief that God will one day found a literal kingdom on Earth (with administration and territories and everything).
What shocked me wasn't that they belief that all of man's ventures are doomed to fail compared to this divine kingdom.

What shocked me was the thesis laid out, that demonstrations and protests are useless. The brochure tried to make the case, that, because some revolts end up in violence and because some attempts to change the world for the better won't work, we should accept all the world's evils as given.
"Don't try to make the world a better place. You might fail or even make things worse. Spare yourself the disappointment."
"Why bother making the world a better place? Just wait for God's perfect kingdom!"




Now tell me again that those allowing evil to happen, while being content with waiting for God to clean everything up, have superior morals to atheists.
It's my steadfast belief that all love and all hate in this world are human. We humans decide whether we fill the world with love or with hate. Waiting for the Creator of Everything to show up and solve your problems is beyond foolish.
And what if I'm wrong and there IS a God?
In that case I still fought for the least among us.
Win-win.

Jehovah's Witnesses tried to sell their appeasement of injustice and evil as "political neutrality". It's not. It's sloth coupled with cowardice.

[Mr.Bill]

1. It's a manual for sheep

like all religious writings.

[Curmudgeoness]

2. Because you took the time to read one of those books

and recap it for us, I give you a big DU Rec. I have never bothered reading these, and I am rather surprised that they are not instructed to live as Jesus would live if he were here today. Political neutrality is something different from inaction on all counts. Many religious organizations do not get into the political theater, but they at least make efforts to do good deeds. I have to say that I am lost as to what their goal is then? I know one goal is to get to heaven, or the kingdom, or whatever.....but how do they see themselves getting there if all they do is prophesize?

[Heather MC]

6. they believe that by preaching the "good news" of the Kingdom

they have greater chance of surviving Armageddon.

[Curmudgeoness]

13. And here I am,

hoping that I am at ground zero at Armageddon so I go quickly. I don't intend to survive it.

[Heather MC]

14. Agreed who wants to live in a world with no internet???????

[JNelson6563]

3. That is actually targeted at their sheep.

While yes of course the hope is that the uninitiated will read it and relate to it and join the sales team of the Watchtower printing company but, mostly, that schtick is targeted at the existing flock.

The JWs are constantly told not to be a part of this "system" and to wait for the next because that's the one that's going to really rock! The sheep are suppose to be encouraged by this to dedicated their lives to being a high-ranking soul in the next system. Hours "out in service" (door to door sales) and materials "placed" (propaganda sold) are what counts in JW-dom.

Their world HQ in Brooklyn, called "Bethel" is really just huge printing facility with offices and dormitories. All the worker bees are volunteers who have been granted the great honor of working as slaves in Bethel. They also own land that the worker bees farm in order to feed them all.

Additionally is the end of the chain in regard to their printing business. The flock is suppose to pick up more lit at the hall pretty regularly. They are expected to pay for it when they take it. They are also expected to hit the streets and sell it to as many as possible and then turn in that money too.

There was a time when the WT had a fancy for predicting just when this wretched current system would come crashing down around us. The last time they did this they really went all out and preached it to the flock a few years in advance. The date it was all suppose to go down? 1975. Yep, the motto was "Stay alive in '75!". And by "stay alive" they meant for the flock to dedicate everything they had (time & resources) to the WT so that they would make the cut in the next system. People sold their homes, quit their jobs and lots of other bad decisions because they bought into the end times thing. Imagine how the fleeced sheep felt when they woke up on January 1, 1976.

Just my .0125 worth on the topic.

Julie

[Heather MC]

7. 1975 never happened

by 1980 the society chastized it's members for being over zealous and mis- interpreting. the message about 1975. Even though they clearly stated the fall of 75 would see a major change in this system of things.

in the last 10 years they have begun a slow shift in their prophecy teachings. now they no longer teach they are God's. chosen organization as determined by 1919, now they teach that God Will Choose them upon his return as long as they work diligently and sell more mags.

They also no longer teach that The 144k were Chosen by 1935. Now they teach that new ones are being added daily,and they have no way of knowing who has heavenly hope.

[JNelson6563]

8. lol That reminds me!

I used to know a bunch of people who were ex-JW's and they were hilarious with some of the terms they used. The whole "1975 never happened thing", yes you're right! The former JWs I knew used the term "Brother Some" in regard to who was so often blamed for WT screw-ups. It was always that "some" were over-zealous or "some" misinterpreted things. So they jokingly referred to Brother Some quite often.

Smart move upping the capacity of "heaven". That might help fire up the troops to log more time in service and get 'em to brush up on those selling skills so that maybe they'll be one of the lucky ones!

I truly marvel at what an obvious scam the WT org is. Can't imagine being desperate enough to get sucked into that crap and I feel sorry for those that do.

Thanks for the added updates!

Julie

[Heather MC]

9. The indoctrination is so strong and so overwhelming

that when you present the hypocrisy of the organization to a JDub. They will calmly say, "Well the Jehovah's Witnesses are the only ones seeking the truth"

They have been trained to have an answer for everything, and when they don't. they have an apologist statement. "As human's we are imperfect and we sometimes misinterpret God's message, but the light of Jehovah's active force gets brighter every day and we are able to gain new understanding from the scriptures"

That dayum light should have super nova-ed by now.

I am forced to keep up to date on the JDub policy changes. My mother no longer excepts the "It's just not in my heart to be Witness" explanation.

[JNelson6563]

10. I'm sorry you went through that.

I've heard many tales of what it's like to be raised a JW. Glad you made it out!

Julie

[Heather MC]

11. Thanks JNelson

I got lucky, in 1992 the society printed a small paragraph in one of the mags stating, if you are not baptized you are not a witness.

It was suppose to encourage unbapitized servants to take the plunge. It had the opposite effect on me. It pissed me off. I was told my entire life there were things I couldn't do because" It was against our religion."

Imagine all the children who needed blood transfusions but their JW parents wouldn't sign the permission forms. Only to now be told. unless you take the water dip, you are not a real witness. I used that as me safe way to escape and not lose my family. And I do view it as an escape.

Mother admitted several times if I had gotten baptized then left. She would have had no choice but to end communication with me.

There are lots of people trapped in that religion because of fear of losing their entire family. It is so sad, but not any different from any other cultish religion.

Live Free Be Well Die Happy

[dimbear]

4. It's that militant noninvolvement that gets them outlawed in parts of Europe.

Strange lil religion.

"Stop persecuting me!!!!! I'm over here, damn it!!! Stop persecuting me!!!!"

[Heather MC]

5. I was raised in the JW faith. I have come to believe

that religions like this are designed to keep people out of the political process on purpose. There are millions of witnesses they are not allowed to vote, ever not even locally. meanwhile the JW organization was once a member of the UN. They are greatly discouraged from college, and reading or researching anything other than JW material.

They have a rule about sex positions for married couples missionary only.

And yes all they do is wait on Jehovah

[SwissTony]

12. My sister and her family have been JWs for years.

They were always trying to convert me since I was the "militant" atheist of the family i.e. I disagreed with them and wasn't afraid to say so. I've read lots of JW books and WTs. I once read a JW book on Evolution. It was so bad, I was laughing and crying at the same time.

I've had the "The bible is true because god says so" and "God is true because the bible says so" argument. I said to them that if your 8-year old kid came in with an argument like that, you'd smile and send him off to play with the other kids.

I also talked about the number of end of the world predictions (going back to the Millerites) that hadn't come true. Awkward silence, followed by lots of "Um"s and "Ah"s.

My sister once said I shouldn't criticise the bible because I hadn't studied it (but knew enough to point out contradictions and silliness - missing the point sis?). I asked her how many books on evolution she had read and she replied "Lots". So, I asked her, in front of other JWs, about Hox genes. The look on their faces was priceless. Funnily enough, they stopped trying to convert me after that.

(Hox genes basically determine whether you grow up looking like a fly or a human being. Oversimplified, of course).