by aniron 21 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I have been asked to give a talk on the JW's, about 30-45 mins long.
But there is so much I would like to say that it could end up being either very long or boring or both.
If you had to give a talk about JW's to a group of people who really had no idea about JW beliefs and culture.
What would you included ?
If i had such a great opportunity.
The way they preach and what is going on there...think about it...Reasoning book, Theocratic min school.
144,000, Blood issue, Memorial??
Women convering head?
LOADS OF POINTS
607, UN scandal if its about that.
They are an adventist offshoot that got their crucial 1914 date straight from the adventists that they now call a false religion.
That their religious leaders never had any proper religious training or training in other relative fields such as philosophy and all their writings have not withstood the test of time and were in their greater part rejected by the JWs themselves.
This is a very casual organisation run very unprofessionally and they try to cover themselves by saying that everything they do is God directed and even gross deficiencies are there for a good reason and God will corect them in due time.
They messed up the lives of many people with their false prophecies or predictions and not only do they not apologise but they also seek to mess up more lives eg by discouraging capable youngsters from going to university.
I would go through each of the 8 or so points that identify a high-control cult and then show how each point applies to the JW religion...
~merfi
Is it a seminar? If so, what is the theme of the seminar?
You need to shape your talk to fit your audience. If you are talking to a religious/Christian group, then the differences in theology as other posters mentioned would be of interest.
If you are talking to a more mixed group, then dicussing the social/ cultural differences(high control religious groups/cult like behavior) will be of more interest. Use the actual Watchtower quotes or book quotes to show what you mean. Let their own words condemn them. As a non-JW, these are some of the things I found most disturbing. .
-once someone is converted to JW, they are discouraged from spending much time with their family if they are not JWs or sympathetic to them, effectively breaking the family bond.
- no birthdays, Christmas, Valentines, Mothers day etc. and why
- the numbers of hours knocking on doors and that it must be reported, also the number of meetings every week
-the dress code for meetings
-treatment of women, very sexist, man head of house, cover head to pray, dealing with abusive marriage and coverups
-coverups of child abuse and continued support of convicted abusers within congregations and that they still go door to door
-elders have enormous power and who they are (plumbers, windowwashers?) and may not have much formal education/training to influence the life alternating nature of their decisions. The incredible control they exert over every aspect (including very personal ones) of the ordinary JW's life.
-even questioning can cause disfellowshipping, or smoking, accepting blood to save their own life, that you don't have to be a bad person or to have done bad things to be DF
-the blood policy and the HLC (what is is and how much medical training they have?) and their intrusiveness into someone's medical care, and that many people have died due to the blood policy
-that JWs are discouraged from socializing with anyone who isn't JW such as work friends or school friends, also not play on school teams
-JWs may not respect confidentiality in their jobs
-discouragement of university education
-that JWs think the world is a terrible place and are looking forward to the end????
-I wouldn't go into much about all the sexual DF stuff because, really, most people don't talk in public about that kind of thing. It is considered inappropriate. I have never seen people so obsessed about sex and talk as much about it as Jehovah's Witnesses.
I'm sure there are tons more, but this is what I recall hitting me when I first learned about the Watchtower.
If I had such an opportunity, I'd probably concentrate on the major doctrines, and how they have continually changed them over the years, when it became obvious that their predictions weren't about to be fulfilled. My objective would be to discourage anyone listening from ever becoming a jw.
I'd talk about their history and founder and how they changed during the last 100 years or so, and how they control people through guilt.
I've done quite a bit of teaching speaking about Jehovah's Witnesses. I like to stay away from religion and beliefs and concentrate on the tactics used, such as dishonest recruiting practices, messrepresentation of facts, and non disclosure of past promotion of error.
I show pictures of Watch Tower Corporation assets and assets and more assets. I tell my personal experience story, my Witness childhood, my experience with Watch Tower Corporation medical advise, and my experience with Watch Tower Corporation directed shunning by my relatives.
I hate talking to religious groups. They never invite me back. :-)
Remember you said you only have 30 to 45 minutes. Suggestions given here would take 4 to 5 hours to develop properly.
So consider your audience, their background, what would they be interested in. Get some feedback from the person who invited you to speak as to the audience interests.
Pick 3 points
6 minutes Introduction
11 minutes Point 1
11 minutes Point 2
11 minutes Point 3
6 minutes Conclusion
(Are you going to have question-answer session and handouts afterwards?)
Blondie
