JW Children Lie in Custody Cases (page 28)

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NEXT: Generalization and Categorization [Legalism - Opponent of Christian Freedom; IN SEARCH OF CHRISTIAN FREEDOM].

If certain aspects of a matter are bad, is the whole thing bad?

Another hallmark of thinking legalistically is the practice of generalizing and categorizing. That is, because CERTAIN aspects of a matter are bad the tendency is to generalize by saying that the WHOLE THING is bad. [emphasis: FR.]
This is essentially the same kind of unwarranted generalizing which categorizes a whole national or racial group as contaminated because a percentage of individuals within that group or race are guilty of some wrongdoing or wrong attitude. By this generalizing, people of such nationality or race are viewed as criminally inclined, or dishonest, or lazy and unreliable, or greedy and crafty, simply because the whole is judged on the basis of the part. Prejudice is the result and it betrays shallow thinking. It takes care and judgment to estimate people as individuals, person by person. Lumping them all together in a single category is obviously easier. It is also grossly unfair and illogical.

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In Governing Body discussions I began to realize to what extent decisions were based on a similar kind of unwarranted generalizing and categorizing. In so many of the "policies" developed, focus was placed on organizational membership rather than on what an individual actually did or was. If some fault could be found with a part of a particular organization's practices or standards, often the whole organization - and everyone in it - was condemned and viewed as a "taboo" area for Witnesses.

NEXT: Membership in the YMCA

Junction-Guy

bttt

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Greetings JG!

Thanx for remembering - much appreciated!

Please see IN SEARCH OF CHRISTIAN FREEDOM, "Legalism - Opponent of Christian Freedom," pages 283-285.

Compound-Complex

Junction-Guy

Your welcome, im only doing my small part, your doing the best work with this.

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Similar examples of inconsistency [Witnesses in various countries "living a lie" due to the Watch Tower organization's sanction of double standards when it suits the Society's purpose] may also be found even in Watch Tower counsel given Witnesses, including young people, who are to testify under oath before a court. The legal department of the Society now supplies a brochure to Witnesses who are faced with child custody cases (the opposing mate in such cases generally being a non-Witness). The brochure of more than 60 pages supplies guidelines to Witness parents, their children and their attorneys, as well as local elders and others who may testify, by reviewing difficult questions that may be presented by the opposing side and then offering suggested sample responses. Recalling the WATCHTOWER article on honesty cited earlier, we may remember that it asked:

What about truthfulness? Do we really respect the truth, or are
we willing to twist the truth a little bit, to get out of an inconvenient
circumstance, or to get something we want?

[ibid., page 283.]

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YoursChelbie

Hi Coco

I heard a case where a woman who had become an inactive JW was divorcing a JW man.

There was no question as to who would have custody of the children because he had been threatening the children with "Armageddon Doom" for wanting to celebrate Christmas, Mother's Day, Etc. during the years leading up to the divorce.

So after the mom filed for divorce she simply told the die-hard JDub : "You use your religion to mentally abuse our children, so they won't be living with you. If you pull any stunts, the real truth will come out in court." The guy backed away and never mentioned the custody issue again. With a window-washer salary he couldn't afford to legally fight for custody anyway.

YC

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Dear YoursChelbie,

Here it is that I mentioned in another thread that YC doesn't post often enough, and now we have the pleasure of your post on 'Child Custody Cases'! Thank you for the addition of information from another case. I hope you'll get to read what follows on "twisting the truth".

IN SEARCH OF CHRISTIAN FREEDOM, page 283:

Compare that [twisting the truth] with some of the responses suggested in the Society's manual. Under "APPROACH BY WITNESS PARENT TO CROSS-EXAMINATION," we find this question and suggested answer (page 12):

"Will all Catholics (or others) be destroyed?"

Jehovah makes those judgments, not we.

This sounds good, implies freedom from a dogmatic, judgmental attitude. Yet the Witness so responding knows that his organization's publications clearly teach that only those who are in association with "Jehovah's organization" will survive the "great tribulation," and that all those who fail to come to that organization face destruction. [66]

footnote:

66 The February 15, 1983, WATCHTOWER, for example says
(page 12): "Jehovah is using only one organization today to
accomplish his will. To receive everlasting life in the earthly
Paradise we must identify that organization and serve God
as part of it." The September 1, 1989, WATCHTOWER on
page 19 says: "Only Jehovah's Witnesses, those of the
anointed remnant and the 'great crowd,' as a united
organization under the protection of the Supreme Organizer,
have any Scriptural hope of surviving the impending end of
this doomed system dominated by Satan the Devil."

JW Children Lie in Custody Cases

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