Witness Kids - Scared silly by the WTBTS

by misspeaches 44 Replies latest jw experiences

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  Rapunzel

  Miss Peaches - I was saddened to read about the psychological woesthat you suffered due to being told tales of torture by the Witnesses. Unfortunately, this sort of intimidation is by no means limited to the Witnesses; and by no means is it new.

  Wasn't it at Benetar who sang "Hell is for children"? Isn't there a story in the Bible about some children mocking the prophet Elija [or was it Elisha?]. Anyway, the account goes on to relate how the prophet in question summoned some she-bears from the forest that devoured the naughty kids. In ancient Rome, when parents wanted to scare their kids into submission, they would say "Hannibal ad portas" - "Hannibal's at the gates." Hannibal served as a sort of bogeyman of that day and age. Speaking of bogeymen, I'm sure your aware that tradional nursery rhymes and fables are just as gruesome - if not more so - than anything that the Witnesses ever concocted. I'm thinking specifically of the tales by the Grimm brothers. Grimm is an apt name indeed; these stories are indeed "grim" and morbid and macabre. They are violent and gruesome beyond imagination.

  Did you ever carefully read the "Alice In Wonderland" ["Alice's Journey Through the Looking-Glass"] story. Another title could be "Alice in Horrorland" or "Alice in Hell." There is a proliific American author, Joyce Carol Oates. Her genre is the grotesque; and she's a favorite of mine. Oates explains how reading this "generally very disturbing book" affected her as a child.

  As I said, scaring children with gruesome stories is an ancient and almost universal tactic. To "theorize" a little, I think that such stories are possibly a way for adults to "socialize" their children. I think that parents/adults desire - at a deely sub-conscious level - to prepare children for the horrors of the world. Adults use fictitious horrors to strengthen children against the very real horrors of the world. As I mentioned, much of this process goes on at a sub-conscious level. It involves a process of socialization through fear. To a certain extent, "Halloween" serves a similar purpose. It allows children to confront the fears of existence, such as evil and death, in a "safe" and "fun" manner.

  I really think that - as horrific as they are - the torture tales of the Witnesses are no worse than Grimm's fairy tales or Alice in Wonder-land. As for whether they are "true" or not, I would say that most of the stories are "embellishments" [some would say "lies'] and urban legends. But, then again, it's a moot point. The world is in fact a horrible place. In it, there do exist horrors and atrocities such as torture; rape; famine; sadism; evil of every nature. Kids have to be "steeled" [as in the hard metal] against the evils of the world.
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  carla

  The difference between Grimm's fairy tales, Greek myths or others is that in the non jw world people (and that includes children) understand these are fiction. Jw children actually believe these things (jw horror, torture stories) will happen, there is the abuse by jw's to their own children. They allow, encourage and consciously promote these ideas to scare and mentally beat the children into submission to the borg, after all how else could they survive the big A?

  I am still amazed that jw's and some ex or fader jw's have a difficulty distinguishing between fictional stories and true stories. My jw went through a phase like that but seems to be coming around to realizing that some movies are just that 'movies', 'entertainment', fiction. Nothing more, they need not affect your psyche for all eternity. He seems to be loosening up ever so slightly at choices for movies. We shall see how long that lasts until the borg decides to print yet another article about the dangers of fiction and we shall start the cycle all over again. That's how it goes, whatever is the latest in the wt's affect the entire families of a jw.
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  misguided

  Rapunzel...although I see your point of view, I think the difference between halloween and the scary fairy tails we were subject to growing up, is that as JW we were told to be PREPARED for these things to actually happen to us. It was happening to our brothers and sisters in Malawi, and we were to expect that persecution would happen to us and that we would HAVE to make a stand for Jehovah. It was not simply about hearing or reading these things. It was that we were to EXPECT that these things would happen to us. That is a very big difference!
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  Tuesday

  Check me off on that list, I used to have nightmares that Hitler and his army were marching down my street to collect Jehovah's Witnesses.
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  R.Crusoe

  Rapunzel, although I agree about there being other fears children are imprinted with which 'ripen' children for organised religion, your point is extremely off key!

  Maybe some witness kids feel superior with the imprinting that they are 'in' the unique religion from the outset - which is far different from children of those converting to this framework of mental torture.

  Never did you hear it said that if you do not go into the witches cottage you will suffer gods wrath for eternity and shunning by family and friends realtime!

  And so their head is trapped in this ugly despicable belief that if one ever even thinks in ways to argue against the WTBTS it will be an admission of satan into ones conscience with likely further problems and self mind tortures leading to shunning and rejection as a human failure! Almost as if to escape their hold on you, you have to mentally accept a satan figure into your life in order to rebel!!

  Wow what a load of nasties they are to put humans through that 'personal mangle'!

  In fact I can see why atheists despise the Bible!!!!!!!!
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  Mary

  Yep.....I remember hearing all about what was happening to the brothers and sisters in Malawi because of the whole 'party card' issue. Of course as a child, I figured they were suffering because they had "the Truth". Needless to say I was stunned and disgusted to no end when I read in CoC that the whole fiasco could have easily been avoided and should have been.

  As for being scared of demons, I think we can all relate to that.......Listening to the Sunday talks on how demons torture people, rape women and scare the living shit out of them on a regular basis was terrifying as a kid. Plus, all the pictures in the Paradise Lost book (never forgot the one showing the foot squashing the snakes' head), and no wonder we've all got issues.

  Thanks WT, for screwing entire generations up for life.
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  TIMBOB

  I was not so much scared by the stories. I was more scared of not being good enough to make it to paradise and being dead forever. I remember only being around 7 or 8 and worrying about that. IMO, thats not something a little kid should be worrying about.
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  SirNose586

  I guess I was lucky; I didn't have nightmares as a kid. But later on, I'd have nightmares about being thrown into concentration camps and being imprisoned/tortured for the faith. My biggest fear was not getting enough to eat.

  At least now I don't have those fears anymore!
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  WTWizard

  The stories were probably about as real as the Malawi beatings, but still I doubt all they had to do was renounce their faith. Yes, they got beat up (and so did anyone else that the Nazis did not like).

  Worse was the Great Tribulation stories. I was apprehensive about getting beat up on and imprisoned for my stand for the cancer, and I could imagine that Jehovah would just leave us hanging for several decades before finishing the job. I noted that they highlighted individual stories, which may or may not have been fake (the Nazis were capable of doing that to innocent people), pointing out that it is going to happen soon enough in the Great Tribulation. And I was an adult--I could only imagine being at that age when one develops conscious thinking and having this going on.

  Now all I am scared of is having the Watchtower Society reach the critical level where they can plunge the whole world into the Second Dark Ages. That for sure would be at least as cruel as anything endured because of the Nazis. And, it would last forever--no paradise earth, no final end, no Renaissance--no nothing. And you thought the pedophile issue was embarrassing?
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  troubled mind

  Sure there are scary fairy tales all children are "steeled" by, however they are told as made up stories not reality . Wolves don't talk ,witches don't really live in gingerbread houses ect.

  The stories I was told as a child were told as fact and as preparation for future events . Concentration camps , Malawi, events of kidknapping murder and rape were all things I grew to EXPECT to occur in my lifetime . That is abuse to children PERIOD !

  I was told at age 8 (maybe younger) that I must prepare for the possibility that my un-believing grandparents may one day kidnap me and try to turn me away from Jehovah . My mom (with all good intentions I am sure because she firmly believed all this sh*t ) filled my head with such nonsense . We were taught to think of hiding places for literature and ourselves for when things got bad .

  It was no wonder I had anxiety issues as a teenager .

  I married at 18 because I thought if I waited to long the big A might occur and i would miss out on marriage and family life . I begged God to give me enough time to have children so I could experience the only wish I ever allowed myself to have, that of being a mom .

  Once I did have children I tried very hard to shield them from the horror stories I had been raised hearing . We were witnesses though and it still filters down to your kids through the literature and meetings . My heart sank one night when my 6 yr. old awoke from a nightmare and came to us crying,saying he " didn't want to die at Armageddeon ". I felt so horrible that my sweet child would even consider such a thing .