Repetition is a potent method used to drive home the interpretations of the Governing Body. Few people notice that the same questions and concepts are repeated over and over. Yet this constant emphasis on certain ideas serves as a kind of 'Witness Catechism'. Let us see how this works during the free Bible study.A day or two before the study, each article or chapter being studied is first read through privately by the student. Questions appear at the bottom of each page, corresponding to each paragraph in the text. The student then underlines the answers. Almost invariably, each question has a one-sentence answer in the paragraph. Finding the answer means scanning the paragraph a second time. Underlining the sentence means reading it a third time.
During the study, your study conductor will read the paragraph out loud (or ask you to do it). This makes the fourth time you've heard each of the underlined sentences. She will then ask you for the answer, which you will read from the book.
Thus, you will have read the answer five times before you are done with it.
If you're an average reader, you will have memorized the sentence by the second or third read. Your attention will wander slightly during the fourth or fifth read. Herein lies the danger: you will not be paying attention to what is being said.
This is rote learning, such as you use to memorize the multiplication tables. By repeating the same answers over and over, you place them deeply into your memory. You actually become bored with the answer and wish to move on to something else. As a result, you do not question the answer.
Most ex-JW's (ex-Jehovah's Witnesses) identify "boredom" as one of the worst features of that religion. The constant repetition is uninspiring, and it never lets up. A topic you have studied one month may pop up in slightly different form the next, and once again you are repeating the same canned answers (perhaps with slightly different wording).
The effect is almost hypnotic. When you are in a trance-like state, (brought on by boredom or repetition), your mind goes into 'automatic mode', and reactions are instinctive rather than critical.
For example, if you drive a car along a long, undifferentiated highway, your mind will wander. Eventually you will arrive at your destination and not remember how you got there. One way of looking at it is that you had no decisions to make along the way. You were, as the saying goes, "a million miles away" -- in the car in body but not in spirit.
Actually, the Watchtower literature is quite well written, given its purpose of informing a wide range of people at various levels of education. It uses simple language -- you will seldom need to consult a dictionary. But even this lack of challenge can put one to sleep. For most people, the sheer simplicity of the writing removes the thrill and challenge of reading.
Jehovah's Witnesses have been accused of preying upon ignorant, uneducated people. It is probably more accurate (and less cynical) to say that their literature can be easily understood by anybody.
One could analyse Watchtower literature in many ways to show how it bends one's mind to accepting what is written without question, but that is outside the scope of this article. I will limit myself to describing one more technique.Watchtower literature has a peculiar tendency to ask a question and then answer it immediately afterwards. It does this relentlessly, and the question/answer combination does not give you time to think about the answer you've been offered, since by the time you've read the answer, you're well into the next sentence.
Here is an example, taken at random by flipping open a copy of the September 1 1996 issue of The Watchtower. On page 14 it says:
What is the purpose of this covenant? It is to produce a nation of kings and priests to bless all mankind. (Exodus 19:6; 1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 5:10) The Mosaic Law covenant never produced this nation in the fullest sense...
Ignore the actual text for a moment and notice how the question is asked, then answered, then followed by a string of verses to look up in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. If you decide to look these up, you will be looking for proof that the statement just made was correct. More likely, you will do what most people do: "blip" over the verses, thinking, "I guess they apply or they wouldn't have listed them", and move on to the next sentence.
In neither case will you stop and say, "Wait a minute, was that assertion correct?" This is especially true if you encounter the statement during a bible study or meeting; nobody is going to wait for you to weigh the pros and cons.
Of course, all commentaries must make assertions and then back them up. But why does Watchtower literature use this particular question/answer style so frequently?
One possibility is that the Governing Body deliberately invented the question/answer techniques (i.e. "underlining" and "immediate answers") to hypnotize people and bend them to their will. I do not believe the Governing Body is that cynical.
A more credible reason is that these techniques reflect an element of Witness culture. Witnesses acquire the belief that for every question there is one "true" answer. If the Governing Body (speaking through the literature) poses a question, they are expected to provide an answer. Witnesses do not like "gray areas". One of the chief benefits of being a Witness is that you have answers for everything.
Many of the answers may not be true, but they are answers. In a life full of doubt and uncertainty, a Witness gains enormous peace of mind simply by believing that there are men who "know". They may occasionally have to live contrary to their nature, or ignore a nagging doubt, but the reward is a feeling of certainty.
In other words, the Governing Body is giving the Witnesses precisely what they want to have.
