Rational vs. Emotional
For those of us who’ve discovered the truth about the Watchtower Society, it is never surprising when a person who devotes him or herself to an examination of all the pertinent information soon sees they’ve been misled. Of course this can only be true for those who, as was the case with me, believe that the Watchtower Society represents the sole channel of communication from God for rational reasons. If you are among those who hold this belief for primarily emotional reasons, it is possible that nothing—no matter how convincing—will allow you to use your mind. You have been institutionalized by the organization, and I wish you well.
But certainly for anyone it can be a difficult—even terrifying—thing, this willingness to consider the possibility that “The Truth” isn’t. I remember the way I used to think. Although I knew I wasn’t supposed to, occasionally I’d find my way onto an anti-JW website. Sure, most of the time I had just been looking for a site that might have next week’s Watchtower study scriptures available for printout, but admittedly sometimes I’d just google “Jehovah” or “Jehovah’s Witnesses.”
I wouldn’t stay long at these so-called “apostate” sites, just glimpsing some of the information, and I never really saw anything that I considered to be of substance. Now I understand. It’s just incredibly hard to grasp reality when you’re solidly within the hold of indoctrination. Oh, you may be a perfectly intelligent human being. You likely have a lucid line of reasoning that both binds you to the organization and keeps you from looking at all the information that may challenge it. But after simply giving yourself permission to use your own mind and see all the facts, you eventually start to get it: your thinking has been controlled and manipulated by the Society. Fascinating stuff really.
So, my active-but-curious JW friend, which are you? The rational or the emotional? You’re probably at least a bit of both, but which eclipses the other? If you answer “rational,” then I invite you to consider whether it really makes any sort of sense for a person confident in his beliefs to keep himself from information that may challenge it. I’ll just leave it to you. Consider…
We love you. We are here to shepherd you. You will listen to us and we will take good care of you. Others disagree with us, so they are evil. You are not even to listen to them. We tell you this because we care about you. If you do listen to them and begin to disagree with us, we will brand you as evil too and will cut you off from your family and entire community of friends.
The Watchtower Society has occasionally used the expression, “ring of truth.” Does the above have it? Does it seem like the reasoning of a rational person, confident in his or her beliefs? No? Good then. It would appear you are beginning to use your mind. Congratulations.