A Call To Deal With Apostates

by AlanF 57 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  blondie

  JW83, I guess we define fear differently or I'm not being clear. Fear of losing acceptance in a group is a very real and strong fear. It keeps quite a few inside the organization that are experiencing a great deal of dissonance with the teachings and actions. Being different is not easy as anyone who ever was a JW knows...the question is different from whom or what other group. Humans are by nature group animals. That is why DF'ing works fairly well in the JW organization. First you are told that everyone outside the group is dangerous and will oppose you when you study. Then that is reinforced each and every time a JW sees someone or hears of someone being DF'd as well as seeing how they are treated; as well as at every meeting either directly or indirectly. JWs are told if they are outside the group they will die or be killed. So most fear being put outside the group. It's us against the world mentality. I'm sure everyone here who DA'd or were DF'd can attest to a little pain in adjusting to old friends and JW family members avoiding them...at least until they made new friends or in some cases found a new group.

  Fear of being put out of one's safe little group into a demonized unknown can motivate people to do atrocious things. I have only gone through Sociology 101 and Social Psychology 101 but what I learned confirmed what life had taught me. It's that chicken pecking order...that is the chickens see one chicken with a blemish and they all peck on it until that chicken is dead or smart enough to get out of the chicken coop. It is amazing how fear can motivate groups of people to do unspeakable things.

  Well, I can get into this forever...I never underestimate what seemingly ordinary and nice people can be motivated to do by fear of being kicked out of their group. This fear of people outside your group (which DF ones definitely become to good JWs) has been the motivating force behind many of the atrocities. Jews were feared and hated for years and had all sorts of wild stories told about them. This hatred was used to motivate others to destroy the Jews...not just Jews, blacks, asians, Native Americans, gays, etc.

  It's amazing what people will do as a group that they would never do alone.
• 

  teejay

  Wasn't that a rather shallow note from you, Teejay, surely you recognise that the WTBTS has broken "Caesar's laws" before, and considers God's laws (as defined by their own authority) to be above Caesar's. They only have to say "we mus obey God as ruler rather than men".

  
  You think that was shallow, eh? <hee hee> Just goes to show that I can be shallow with the rest of 'em. But think of this:

  In every way that JWs are unconventional (out of the mainstream) they refrain from doing something. Voting? They don't picket or do anything proactive... they just don't vote. Blood transfusions? Same. Military. Same. Christmas and other 'pagan' holidays... same. In none of these (or other) cases do they actually break laws. If you want to think that the average John Q. or Mary Sue JW would risk either life in prison or execution because a magazine article led them to commit murder, go right ahead, buddy. I'm not mad atcha.
  

  You want examples?

  
  If you don't mind.

  tj
• 

  JW83

  Hi Blondie,

  We are in perfect agreement!
• 

  proplog2

  I just want to make one final remark. I have no problem with Alans effort to illustrate how JW's have a "way" with trying to establish strange policy. That part of his post was on the mark. I just think that it is an error to think that they actually would make the kind of change suggested in his illustration.

  There are plenty of examples of Watchtower nonsense in their archives.

  The Watchtower policies on Smoking are an excellent example.

  They had a good policy - If you smoke you don't get special privileges.

  They changed over to disfellowshipping smokers because it was so close to armageddon (1972) and it "seems appropriate" that Jehovah would want them to clean up real good before entering the promised land.

  The result has been the loss of a lot of young people who like to experiment with smoking.

  Or remember the rotation of elders. JW's had their greatest increases during the period when they had 1 presiding overseer.

  Armageddon was close (1971-1973) so it "seemed approrpiate" that they restore the theocratic "principle?" of rotation. Articles were studied that showed that rotating elders was wonderfully "theocratic" and based on what was "certainly" done in the early congregations.

  Rotation stopped sometime in the mid-1980's. No study articles explaining why such a theocratic arrangement would now be halted. Just a little note in the Kingdom Ministry.

  However the JW history book says that the elder arrangement showed God knew better than JW's that there were going to be huge increases in the coming years that could only be handled by a bunch of elders instead of just one presiding overseer. Unfortunately the statistics show that the increases since the institution of the elder arrangement have not measured up to the increase in the 1950's

  I am not a JW apologist. But I also am not a rabid dissident.
• 

  blondie

  Hi proplog, I remember the smoking change and I think you hit on the head about their thinking the end was so close so now it must be mandatory to stop smoking.

  I always thought the rotation was instituted to prevent the old "congregation servants" from continuing to dominate the elder body as some did previously to give other brothers a chance to see how well they could mess things up.

  Blondie
• 

  proplog2

  Blondie:

  If you read the articles about the rotation you get an "apocalyptic" feeling. Rotation was a kind of coup. Most of the old presiding overseers were very responsible and gifted. At least they were held accountable if things were going wrong in the congregation and could be quickly removed. There was always an assistant congregation servant waiting in the wings for his big opportunity.

  The "elder" body is a classic committee mentality. All "body" and no "head". By watering down the authority in the congregation the Watchtower actually increased their authority. The governing body still rotates for obvious reasons. #1 They don't trust each other.
• 

  proplog2

  Blondie:

  If you read the articles about the rotation you get an "apocalyptic" feeling. Rotation was a kind of coup. Most of the old presiding overseers were very responsible and gifted. At least they were held accountable if things were going wrong in the congregation and could be quickly removed. There was always an assistant congregation servant waiting in the wings for his big opportunity.

  The "elder" body is a classic committee mentality. All "body" and no "head". By watering down the authority in the congregation the Watchtower actually increased their authority. The governing body still rotates for obvious reasons. #1 They don't trust each other.
• 

  Kent

  Just bringing this to the top :)

  Yakki Da

  Kent

  The most significant difference between Prime Minister John Howard and Hitler, is the fact that Hitler is dead.

  Daily News On The Watchtower and the Jehovah's Witnesses:
  http://watchtower.observer.org