Forgive the Governing Body

by edward gentry 23 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Mindchild

  Hi Sam,

  I found your remarks to be accurate and I don't disagree with you about the collective guilt these men share. However, I choose to stand by my remarks above in that I primarily see this as a problem of these individuals being infected with a deleterious mind virus.

  In Africa, there is a disease that causes intense human suffering and eventual blindness. It's offical name is "Onchocerciasis" but most people know it as "River blindness." It is caused by a parasitic worm that lives for up to 14 years in the human body. Each of these worms that are almost two feet long, produce millions of microscopic larvae that travel through the body and end up underneath the victim's skin and cause horrific itching. The victims often go mad and eat their own skin off their bodies to stop the pain and this disease makes them blind at the same time.

  The GB and indeed all rank and file JW's have something like this inside them in a symbolic way. A lot of their actions and responses in life are just a reaction to the effects of this memetic mind virus that seeks to preserve and replicate itself at all costs.

  I can say then that the GB don't deserve to be hated because they became victims of the same scam. Where I would draw the line and make exceptions is for any specific example where someone deliberately makes a choice to harm others (such as that example of a father who killed his JW daughter punishing her).

  Perhaps this is one of those gray areas that people have to decide for themselves. What is right and wrong anyway? It is all cultural norms that vary from time to time and society to society. You can get in a long and drawn out debate about all this and it still comes down to making a personal choice as to how you see things.

  Thanks for your comments.

  Skipper

  All great deeds and all great thoughts have ridiculous beginnings--Albert Camus
• 

  larc

  I think that the GB are much like the top of any organization. If you come up through the ranks and get to the top, whether it is the WT or IBM, you believe in your mission and your organization. So, I don't think they consciously perpetuate lies. I think they believe in what they are doing, right or wrong.

  Based on the average life span of the GB, I would say that they had a pretty good life, no matter what they sacrificed family wise. There is very little stress at the top. Crap flows down hill and the rank and file pay for it in ill health and a shorter life. That's how I see it.
• 

  Simon

  I know the 'followers of followers' argument but this would really excuse any behavior by a group wouldn't it? How about the Nazis (extreme example I know) or the Taliban? Did/do they believe their own propeganda?

  When you look into how carefully and methodically they have covered things up and the misleading statements they make I think it's clear that they are not deceived themselves but are decieving others for the purpose of keeping control.

  They are guilty in my opinion.
• 

  larc

  Simon,

  I think the Nazis believed in their cause. I think the Talebon believe in their cause, as do the Governing Body. Take a look at a book, The True Believer, by Eric Hoffer. He put it all together for me.

  General Motors believe in its cause. They think that Ralph Nader, Ross Perot, John Delorian, and the Federal Government are the bad guys. I know that because I lived in their world for a period of time.
• 

  cornish

  The Nazis who gassed millions of Jews may have rationalized that they were doing good because it could be argued that they were brainwashed and had had their victims de humanized in their minds due to the propoganda that prevailed in nazi Germany,but should they be hated for what they did?
  Personally I look back and think to be honest even though I was brainwashed,I helped support a corrupt system,unwittingly as it was,it was me that allowed that organization to fool me and control me and and overide my powers of perception,sometimes I think us humans are such suckers.
• 

  Sirona

  Hi,

  I dont hate them, but I do think that they should be locked away and we should throw away the key. People need to take responsibility for their actions!! We can just say "oh well, they believed in what they were doing". Im sure every evil murdering psycho out there really thinks hes doing a good job!

  Referring to "Forgive the Governing Body" - I seem to remember them telling us that we dont need to forgive unless there is repentance. They are not repentant, they are continuing in their badness, so I think let them be judged according to their own unbending judgement!

  Sirona
• 

  larc

  Sirona,

  You believed it too. People believe! So, how are you and I any different than the people we condemn?
• 

  Sam Beli

  Hello again,

  There are a number of good arguments on this thread. Most seem to give the GB more slack than I personally think is just. Such examples as that they are infected by or caught-up in the system, etc. are no excuse IMHO. Why? They willfully decide on or allow evil, murderous policies to stand:

  1. They ignore information that shows their position to be dead wrong. An example relates to their position years ago that eating blood was wrong and that transfusions were the same as eating blood. Their conclusion was based on extremely poor scholarship. When is was demonstrated to them that transfusion of blood was the same as an organ transplant and very different than eating blood, they stopped-up their ears and refused to change. The result: death to thousands of JWs.

  2. When their chronology was examined and found to be wrong and the data presented to them, what did they do? They found a way to DF the person who had done all of the scholarly work.

  3. When any doctrinal position is changed do they issue a directive clearly stating the change from xxx to yyy? No!

  4. They flat out lie. Many examples have been posted on this board. One lie that always screamed at me was their claim that elders were a shelter from storms that the Devil’s world sent our way. The experiences of many of us had been that elders were the source of many of those storms, not the shelter from them.

  5. Do they ever apologize for wrong decisions or inaccurate advice or information? No!

  I was raised by JW parents. From my earliest memories I had doubts, mostly because of their constant bragging. What really confirmed for me their inexcusable arrogance was their refusal to admit their errors surrounding the 1975 matter. It took them three years, I think, to bring up the issue and blame the “sheep” who they said had read too much into their words. A year or so later, because the numbers were still dropping, they admitted that they too were disappointed (about the 1975 matter).

  Time and again the GB demonstrate that they are small men. When their position crumbles they abandon it and start in a different direction and hope that everyone will forget the previous mess. Eighty years ago elders were elected by locals. That was replaced by an appointment arrangement that was hailed as far superior (it gave Brooklyn more control). In the early 1970s the appointments were replaced by a rotating elder arrangement with many of the first appointment decisions being made locally (with Brooklyn’s approval). By the mid 70s the previous arrangement was laughed at by COs and others. Soon after that more change came because the rotating elder system was a catastrophe. In all of this there never was an admission of poor management by the GB.

  Today we can witness yet another terrible crime against humanity being orchestrated by the GB. Silentlambs is heading-up the exposure of that issue.

  They are murderous scums, my friends.

  Sam Beli

  I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind. What is crooked cannot be straightened and what is lacking cannot be counted. Solomon
• 

  Bang

  I'm suprised I've never read anyone write 'new skin' in place of 'new light'.

  They're already being punished; no chastisement, no light.

  "Snobs mind us off religion nowadays, if they can. Fuck them. I wish you God." [Les Murray. Aus. poet]
• 

  Farkel

  Hate the deed, not the doer of the deed, IMO. Nonetheless, their deeds have been clearly evil and rise to the high heavens, and they deserved to be punished for them. As has been so nicely pointed out in this thread, they are even more culpable because they have lied over-and-over and they KNOW they have lied.

  How they will receive that punishment, if at all, is anyone's guess.

  Farkel

  "When in doubt, duck!"