by RULES & REGULATIONS 14 Replies latest jw friends
Birds or any other animal can be caught with a net. They don't have the wisdom to see what's coming.
What does the WTS use that is so powerful that most members can't seem to escape? What makes them so powerful that they can have so much effect on everyone of us?
1) addictive promise of everlasting life in paradise, which becomes the fear of loosing same!
2) all the trappings and circular reasoning concerning the FDS class and threir being the mediator between you and God. (bait and switch)
carmel
It's the CONSTANT reminders of all the doctrines... this being "The Truth", the world is bad, last days, paradise earth, etc. Most importantly the reminders of "Jehovah's organization" and "Faithful and Discreet Slave" that convinces people this is the truth. Without the Truth you are dead and will not get resurrected (fear). It really is brainwashing.
It's a lot of things.
But I think doctrine wise, people think:
I think those are perhaps the strongest doctrinal reasons people stay. It goes around in circles too, so if one "fact" falters, they'll cycle through the others and come to the conclusion it still has to be true. Quite clever, actually. "There's nowhere else to go", simply because no one else teaches exactly what they teach.
are good reasons why most go INTO that Organization. They STAY, however, and put up with the lies, false teachings, changing "light," oppression, hypocrisy, etc. (regardless of what they say, they see these things; they just excuse them. Like we all did, to some degree...), because either (1) they don't believe there's anywhere else to "go away to" (which I have learned is the case for most here - if the WTBTS is not "it"... then, there is no "it")... or, (2) if they think there is somewhere else, they don't know where else.
And that's the problem: there is no "where" to go away to, really. There's only a "whom."
Hopefully, they will get this... and get OUT of "her"... before they find themselves "sharing in her sins."
I bid you all peace.
A slave of Christ,
SA
YOu know, I have wondered the same thing, too - how do people get caught up in this? I understadn why they stay - Fear!
But, having been born in to it, I don;t understand why someone would voluntarily join.
It's the enticing promises as others have already said the promise of a soon to be immortality and a trouble free joyful life, then it's the fear of the rest of human society which is so demonised by the FDS and also of their vindictive god jehovah. In addition there is the fear of losing family and friends by getting marked as a DFed person.
It's quite an enslaving psychological web of fear and promise but mainly fear: having the devil, the rest of mankind and god against you.
Cognitive dissonance keeps members in the spiritual netting.
When the JW's manage to get somewhere with someone, they have all these
answers to questions you didn't even think to ask. They seem to have a logical
answer for everything- from Bible skeptics to Scientists to those of other beliefs.
They hold out such a wonderful promise of paradise.
So a person who never thought much about the Bible or God or the future, suddenly
realizes that somebody has done all the thinking about them for him.
As the student progresses, he doesn't agree with all of it, but that creates dissonance
in his mind. The things he does that don't harmonize with the teachings of these
obviously intelligent deep thinkers on the Bible, the things he thinks that don't harmonize,
the things they tell him that he can't understand- all that creates cognitive dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance is defined as the uncomfortable tension that may result from having
two conflicting thoughts at the same time, or from engaging in behavior that conflicts with one's beliefs.
The cognition is the belief or knowledge. Contradicting cognitions serve as a driving force that compels
the mind to acquire or invent new thoughts or beliefs, or to modify existing beliefs, so as to reduce the
amount of dissonance (conflict) between cognitions. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance)
The two people who come to his home obviously know more about the subject than he does,
so they are probably right. He even starts thinking that the questions they brought to him are
ones that he has been pondering. And when they get him to the Kingdom Hall, well, there are
about 50 to 100 people who all agree with the doctrine. It makes sense to accept what these
people believe.
Many people who stay as JW's are those that seek information that will reduce dissonance and avoid information
that will increase dissonance. But the WT literature study has them doing it backwards. They are told
where to look for answers, and that's only in the NWT and the WT literature, so eventually the doctrines are
the things they need to harmonize with, while ignoring the doubts against it.
By the time we are that far gone, the outside information that disagrees with WT is totally ignored and
minimized.
Family
Associations
No other place to go for religious fellowship, since Trinitarians tend to abhor non-trinitarians
You know the usual
"Promises Promises
You Knew You Wouldn't Keep;
Promises Promises
Why Do I Believe?"
