Is The Society Truly "Destructive"?

by logansrun 24 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  AuldSoul

  logansrun,

  (Indeed, in some ways a case can be made that they are happier because of their faith: they suffer less negative effects of destructive behavior such as drug addiction, promiscuity; they experience less anomie in the face of an ever-changing world; they experience less alienation due to their strong group bonding; etc.)

  I thought the parentheses indicated a minor tack-on, but this is (if my guess is correct) what you considered the main point of the paragraph. If that is right, I still failed to address it.

  I would ask two questions: (1) Were you ever an elder for any length of time? (2) Were you the child of a PO, SO, or CS?

  If not, I have to disqualify your assessment on the grounds of complete ignorance. Judicial Committees are secret and, although you may believe otherwise, the gossip mill doesn't contain a tenth of the whole. I feel pretty confident that you were neither, but that you might have been the child of an elder. Now, I agree that such behaviors are kept more secret, however I disagree with your reinforcement of one of their most closely held self-delusions: The Moral Rectitude of God's Organization. It is a fabrication that has never existed among Jehovah's Witnesses. In fact, it has never existed in the form the JWs cleave to among any "Christian" religion.

  Respectfully,
  AuldSoul
• 

  parakeet

  "I don’t believe it is fair to categorically state that they are destructive without defining what one actually means by such a label."
  LR, you seem to forget that most of the posters here speak from personal experience. They have personally experienced destruction of their freedom of thought, of their childhoods (in many cases), of their families. And they have seen similar destruction of other JWs' lives. If one is an eyewitness to a crime, one has the right to fairly and categorically state that they have seen a crime committed. Your attempt to pin down a definitive label of "destructive effects" is nothing more than hairsplitting.
• 

  Check_Your_Premises

  one must admit that present day technologies make death from lack of a blood transfusion a rarity.

  If it affects you, it isn't rare. Statistics musn't hide us from the fact that they represent REAL people. However you want to spin it, the blood policy is an abomination.

  CYP
• 

  LittleToe

  Bradley:
  You're right in stating that it's a complex issue. Like so many things in life, there are positive things that you can taqke out of the JW experience. On balance, however, I wouldn't refrain from calling them destructive, if for no other reason than their DFing policy.

  Concerning blood, there are other angles to look at that question from, e.g. improvements in medical science has meant that it's also less likely that you'll die FROM a blood transfusion. Medics don't administer them for their own health. It's a case of genuine need, expecially with blood being so expensive to screen and store, etc.

  Did the JWs act as a catalyst for this progress? I'm sure they will claim it. However it is just one area where medical science was progressing anyway. Can the WTS take the credit for every medical advance?????
• 

  Satanus

  In general, the wt has the affect of making it's people less than they could be. Imagine snagging all winged animals and clipping their wings, so they walk on the ground like the rest of us. What do you think of that picture, logansrun? Is it destructive?

  S

  Ps, i grant that there are many kinds of people on this planet, and, for some, the wt institution is the perfect fit, that they need institutions such as the wt. But, even for those people, it can be harmful in the long run, because if they progress to the point of not needing the wt structure anymore, the wt institution does not willingly or happily discharge it's inmates.