Did You Know what You Were Getting Into?

by Honesty 21 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Bumble Bee

  As someone "raised in the truth" I can honestly say I didn't know as much as I should have. There was so much intense pressure to get baptized, and if you didn't, well you weren't thought too much of.

  As for someone contacted "in the field", everything they are taught comes from JW's, you are not encouraged to turn to outside sources to confirm what you are reading. If they followed this advice, I don't think a person could truly make a proper comparison and an informed decision regarding baptism.

  BB
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  PrimateDave

  What was I getting into? I knew nothing but what my parents had gotten themselves into before I was even born. We were right. Everyone else was wrong. That was all I had to know. I got baptized at 14 like I was expected to. As others have said, children of JWs generally have no choice in the matter especially when both parents are JWs. Dave
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  garybuss

  I was raised by Witness parents. My father was raised by Witness parents. Witnessism was my core belief. The things taught me by my parents and the Witness people were the things I was using as filters and standards in my life, and those things were badly flawed, but I couldn't see it.
  
  Maybe I wouldn't see it.
  
  I really didn't do things to be a good Witness or to please the Society when I was a kid and when I got baptized, I did it to please my parents. I equated being a good person with being a good Witness. If I wanted happy parents I learned I went to meetings, sat still, went in service, and gave the appearance that I was well on the road to perfection.
  
  As I grew and became educated, I saw a LOT of warning signs and I rationalized away one disconfirmation after another. Before and after I married my first wife, I was only a perihelial Witness and I was very busy helping her miss-manage her illness after we were married a year or so.
  
  In 1973 I became curious about all the 1975 hype and I quit my night job in 1974 and became quite active for a few months. I had a light bulb moment in 1974 and I had several run ins with Jehovah's Witness rule and code enforcement personnel that year. My wife was still active and I attended some events sponsored by the Witness group after 1974 but I was very unappreciative of the Witness people after that date.
  
  The absolute deal breaker was when the Witness convention security personnel used force on me and my 3 year old son over a roll of Rainbow Lifesavers at the district assembly in Bismarck North Dakota in 1975. That was pretty dangerous, because I went to that assembly with the blinders off. I'd seen "OUT OF ORDER" signs on vending machines at assemblies before and respected them. I'd seen spiritual men beating little girls before and I ignored them. Not this time.
  
  
  
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  exwitless

  I think that there is NO way to really know what you're getting into (or out of) until you've been there. We were perfect examples of The Indoctrination Procees as described on the Beyond Jehovah's Witnesses web site. I felt swept up in a whirlwind of studying, attending meetings, and being praised by everyone for our excellent progress when we were studying. I didn't really have time to ponder "Is all of this really true?", and to be honest, they were so convincing that I thought if I didn't really understand everything, it would make sense eventually. This is all part of their big plan to assimilate us, and we fit right in. People on the outside who've never been a JW or have close contact with one (i.e. family) might have a hard time understanding that, but that's how it was for us.
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  lovelylil

  What AlanF said is so true,

  This is how it is when you are not raised in the org. And is also why in 12 years and as a pioneer, although I studied with more than 20 people - NONE of my bible students came into the organization. I absolutely refused to lie to them like I was lied to and let them know about all the requirements written and unwritten that they would have to follow.

  I always believed in following my conscience. I had many Bible studies ask me if I believed they had to become a JW to be saved and I always said no. Of course, I hardly ever took anyone along to my studies. And when the "elders" would ask me to take the CO or his wife - what do you know ?, I was always out of town that week. But don't worry I'll catch the CO's talk at the nearby congregation the following week. (wink,wink)

  I also hardly ever handed out the societies books or magazines - but thats another story. Believe me it took LOTS more effort to be a Christian JW in the WT org. than to be just a regular JW. Lilly
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  peacefulpete

  Its openly taught in pioneer school that when conducting studies to not disclose everything using John 16:12:

  `I have yet many things to say to you, but ye are not able to bear [them] now;

  What appears simply to be practical advice for educating becomes a game of trying to get them to sign on the line before hearing all the bad stuff.

  A n intersting book entitled "Heavenly Hostage" traces the deprogramming of a young Moonie woman. In it is reveals how when she was engaged in selling flowers or seeking converts she led people to believe the Moonies were Christian. Now technically she was not lying as they teach Jesus as the Messiah and such things but as anyone who knows the churches history and doctrine, they in practice idolize Moon as Jesus' modern replacement. This practice of withholding information so as to win favor or influence an outcome is called ,"Heavenly deception". In practice it mirrors the WTS's "Theocratic Warfare" and general policy of giving information on a need to know basis.
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  blondie

  Definitely not, because I did not suspect how much the WTS lied about its history by commission and omission.

  When I first learned about the 1925 fiasco, and read the 1917 Finished Mystery, it made me start reading more older WTS publications. I was stunned at the lies the WTS told in its current publications. In 1993, the WTS said in a study article that they had consistently taught that Christ's presence began in 1914 when they are taught that it was 1874 until 1943. It made me wonder what other lies they had taught. But now I know and I left.

  No apostate books are really necessary; it is all there in their own words...

  Blondie
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  FreeFromWTBS

  I studied with an Elders wife. She told me a story of her and her husband seeing a brother smoking and he was disfellowshipped. I said oh because he didn't want to stop. She said yes. I said so if he said that he was really trying to quite and it was a moment of weakness then he wouldn't be disfellowshipped. She said oh no then he would not have been. My response should have been Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire. Of course at the time I believed her. At this point, I have now met numerous women and children abused and disfellowshipped while there abusers are climing the corporate latter. I try to be understand but I am mad at the lies lies lies.
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  girasole

  I had no idea what the implications of my decision would be. I was 16. When the elders came to my house and went over the questions with me - by that time I knew that you didn't find the answers to those questions yourself - you looked them up in other wt material and it was clear what the right and wrong answers were about your intentions and motivations.
  
  I wanted to be accepted. My parents had guilted me out of my worldly friends and I didn't have any close friends. I started trying to get to know the other young people at the hall even though I didn't feel that I really could connect with them. Low and behold I eventually did find one other young person that I could connect with. We started spending more and more time together. Eventually, her mom wanted to start controlling the amount of time that we spent together telling her daughter that even though I was attending meetings I was still unbaptized and therefore bad association.
  
  So basically I got baptized to be accepted, shallow as it may sound, I was 16. I knew my parents would forbid my association and acceptance among worldly people. Of course they like to say that they let me make my own decision because they were not 100% strict on that. I did have worldly associations for a while - but ulitimately I knew what would come. As they were just then baptized and the "talks" were ever more increasing.
  
  On the day of my baptism I gave an embellished experience at a circuit assembly about how I broke away from worldly associations and how I managed to keep my faith at school among worldly associates. After that I gave the same experience at a district convention and that was followed by another experience at a circuit assembly. I felt that I had finally been "embraced." I was accepted. I was part of the group. And at 16, that was all I really wanted, to be "part" of something.
  
  When you're immersed in the lifestyle and you only take in and digest what they say you should, it is very convincing. I remember thinking that it was just so simple and I couldn't understand why other people in the world just couldn't grasp "the truth." My dissent was slow in some respects because I constantly kept reassuring myself of all those "just so simple" things - that when I observed injustice and superficiality, and loose connections I replaced them with what I wanted to believe - and never fully examined for a long time what I really did believe.
  
  girasole
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  OnTheWayOut

  I asked what I thought were all the questions. But I got a bunch of answers, so this must be the truth. Of course, I didn't know to ask about failed prophecy, how the Governing Body really works. I definitely would not have gotten answers. What JW Bible teacher knows these things? Still, if I asked something, it was generally answered. I don't think that would be true on today's Bible student.

  The average publisher is trained to be evasive. Tell the student they don't expect anything from him. They will get that answered later if they go to the meetings. We don't need to understand the Biblical proof of the prophecy, just look at the history since 1914 (Yeah, right, they're going to give an accurate history). The average publisher is not lying. They believe everything they say. I just finished reading "The Orwellian World of Jehovah's Witnesses" from the public library. It compares the WTS with Big Brother's organization in "1984." A witness must start to believe conflicting facts are all true, not just say them, but actually believe them, so he can be convincing. Further, he immediately dismisses any seeming discrepancies right after he states the conflicting statements, so that he continues to believe "the truth." That's not an exact quote, just the gist of it.

  True enough- for instance, the organization is spirit-directed, God's mouthpiece. Everything from the WTS is true. Also, the men on the governing body are not inspired by God, like the prophets and Gospel writers were, so they occasionally need to update the truth, oh, and they give the proper food to God's servants at the proper time, always, they never fail. By the way, as a group, they are a prophet, delivering God's promises, unless you are reading about something we've already changed, then they are not infallable. In 1919, this small group of Bible students were found by Christ to be the only ones preaching accurate knowledge, but don't read anything that old in the WT, because all the accurate knowledge was changed in the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, etc. You should read older bound volumes, or maybe you should not.