How we are dealt with when doubts arise

jacethespace

When ive had doubts about the tower before i left, the elder i spoke to always kept saying that he would have to let the presiding overseer in the cong know about this, even when i said i didnt want anyone else to know.I was wondering what goes on when the po gets to know this and why do they do this does anyone know? Also in the past when i have expressed doubts they always suggest a visit to " encourage me" and then two people turn up usually an elder and presiding overseer.To me this feels like intimidation.And i have told them as such.

Also when after the meetings the elders meet together will they discuss things about me amongst themselves?

oompa

Jace, you obviously need to ask tougher questions. The response is supposed to be, "let me do some research on that, and I'll get back to you" and then of course it never happens. The PO thing is generally for wrongdoing, not doubts so your elder is a weenie.......oompa

VoidEater

From my experience, doubts raised to an elder can get you into grave trouble - it mostly depends on the relationship you have with the elder and your popularity in the congregation, but expressing doubts can be viewed as rebelling against the faithful and discreet slave, which can lead to charges of apostasy. If you're popular and well liked, you might just be eventually warned to wait upon Jehovah to set things right, and mostly to keep quiet about it until that time.

Expressing your doubts to others will put you on a quick boat to counselling and either outright disfellowshipping, or to an interesting status where you are told you have disassociated yourself (for not wholeheartedly believing everything you're told). My father was in that limbo for 15 years before crawling back and pretending to have no doubts any more. When his sanity reasserted itself a couple years later (by catching an elder in a mistake, and quoting the Watchtower to support his views), he was told he shouldn't be in the congregation because he was expressing doubts. He later got a second-hand apology over the phone on behalf of that elder.

From what I've seen (and I was raised in the religion since 1960), you can either choose to be a part of this church and BLINDLY ACCEPT everything you're told (including the contradictions), or you can get out. There's no room for conscientious or thoughtful people there - and literally Heaven forbid that you do any kind of research on your own, that violates half a dozen commands. And if you don't accept 100% of what you're told, why would you want to be a part of it?

Oh, yeah...because if you've been blessed with the truth and reject it, you are more damned than if you had never heard the truth in the first place - and you will be shunned by everyone you know. That's the real reason people of good conscience stay - they'll lose they're friends and fmaily if they speak out.

And please...don't tell me this doesn't happen, that family don't cut-off family, that expressing doubts on how things have been reasoned doesn't lead to these consequences - been there, done that, moved on.

WTWizard

They view doubting as the first stage of apostasy, because the foundation they are built on is so wimpy that anyone that dissents is going to threaten the whole tower.

spiritboi

JWs are told:

"Satan is the one sowing doubts in your mind. Drown off these doubts. Do not dwell on it. Letting these doubts to grow will eventually leads you away from Jehovah's ONLY organisation and leads you to destruction."

This has rob them of their faculty to think and to reason. They are hiding behind the WT, dare not even to peep outside.

Already 2 years out but only now I begin to regain my abilty to reason and think! Thank you, guys....