Religious Stupor

Caveat

A relative of mine, a devout Witness, is a very righteous person who drives carefully, lives a decent life in all respects. Telling a lie is completely off limits. In a conversation I was told that in the service a lady told them that she won’t accept WT literature because Witnesses themselves do not read other religions’ literature and are forbidden to do so and are punished for it. To my complete amazement they told her that is not the case.

I said ‘What? How’s that?’ (meaning: Did you lie to her?)

Well it turns out JWs do not accept or read other religions literature by their own choice… that there is no explicit rule they shouldn’t. (the BS meter’s alarm was driving me crazy by that time)

Knowing that there is plenty of advice against it I switched to the punishing part.

They can read what ever they want, I was informed.

‘Well I got a nice book at home that I you can borrow and open it wide and read it in the next meeting, how is that?’

In that case the elder will only admonish the person who does that…

And if I keep doing it and do not follow suit?

Well in that case… I brought it up upon MYSELF… Because I did not heed the counsel from Jehovah

I was dumbfounded. The conversation was very long but in synthesis: First they do not forbid things. It is a matter of personal choice due to biblical training and if you are trained right you won’t do it.

Then they do not get punished for things, you punish yourself for not obeying…

When you see a righteous people LIE and feel they did not, simply justifying away every conflicting detail, and still relate the story like an amazing triumph in religious debating… you really get to know the power of religious stupor.

Do you see examples like this often?

alreadygone

Yes, unfortunately this past weekend I had a similar experience with my sister. After we agreed to stop the conversation (it was getting heated), she stated, "I think I did a good job defending my faith." I said, "I was the one with the questions and you were unable to answer even one, shouldn't I be the judge of you doing a "good job" defending it."

BluesBrother

This is a classic J W reply to awkward questions. "We are not forbidden to do it, it is just that individually we would not wish to so " The trouble is that it is just not true. I definitely remember a KM article , must have been late 80's early 90's , which said that we must never accept literature from the householder in exchange for our own. There have been numerous warnings about reading other religion's writings.

As for using other literature in conversation or at meetings, Forget It !

This is just an example of their Orwellian doublespeak. They say the same about voting .They are not forbidden they say, but of course every Christians trained conscience would not let him do it. If a witness did vote, they would be announced as d/a'd

Lady Lee

The mental process for this duality is called "cognitive dissonance". This process makes it completely possible for a person to believe two opposite things at the same time. And JWs are full of it.

They also have a belief called "theocratic warfare" where the whole truth can be withheld from people they deem not worthy of the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Putting theocratic warfare and cognitive dissonance together makes for some extremely faciinating logic and circular reasoning.

The sad thing is they don't even see it when you point it out to them. And its one of the major reasons why debating doctine is so difficult

Golden Girl

OOP'S..sorry..I thought your post title said "Religious STRIPPER"..sorry..

Snoozy...lol

A Paduan

Sounds like they got off track in answering her (normal behaviour - see politicians) - it doesn't matter why they don't read other people's literature; fact is they don't, and that is the poignant issue.

kwintestal

This reminds me of "1984", where there are no rules, but you will be executed for breaking them.

Kwin

damselfly

I definitely remember a KM article , must have been late 80's early 90's , which said that we must never accept literature from the householder in exchange for our own. There have been numerous warnings about reading other religion's writings.

I remember this as well. Wasn't there a publication that had a brief rundown on "religions of the world"? I remember comments about how nice it was for this information being given to us so we wouldn't have to research this on our own. I can't think of the title but I think it was red in color.

I'm in conflict! Trying to remember the title while blocking it from my memory. LOL

Dams

zen nudist

I was always amazed at how we could not read from the literature that the society was quoting from..... that always bothered me

if they could do it so could we... whats good for the goose is good for the gander my mom told me.... and I stuck too it and many JW elders would counsel me for my odd answers at the WT meeting and then praise me for those odd answers at other meetings.... I could not understand what they saw as the difference.

tetrapod.sapien

Religion:

- Karl Marx

(junkies lie. it's part of the addiction)

Religious Stupor

Share this