It took me many, many years to understand something pretty important about all of this.
Jehovah's Witnesses are not one thing. The religion is composed of many different things. The least of these things is a JW who is informed.
What? How can that be? All those book studies, publications, articles, study groups---they should be very informed, right?
You see, each Witness brings a different human personality into the Kingdom Hall. Thinking people who dig deep for understandable knowledge are the few and not the many. KNOWING is the least aspect of becoming.
How can I say this?
Five conditions apply which motivate people to join the JW throng.
1. Personal crisis in their own life which casts doubt on the religion, church or personal beliefs they already have.
2.Deep-seated need to be accepted by a group who will embrace them.
3.Personal psychology which feeds on approval and authority-directed behavior.
4.Profound hunger for meaning and purpose.
5.Intellectual curiousity coupled with the mental capacity to absorb details.
Any combination of the above strengthens the liklihood a person will make it through the vetting process and place their butt in the folding chair at the local Kingdom Hall.
Did you notice I didn't include a category of SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS?
Why?
There is no room in this religion for EMOTIONAL belief. It is doctrine driven and not emotion driven.
One of the stark contrasts between an average JW and a member of a local church is the total absence of EMOTIONAL BELIEF.
JW's are, for the most part, pretty cold in their "warmth" toward their fellow man and toward God's plan for them.
They are more akin to business people hired to do a job for a stern boss who could fire their ass any moment should they screw up. Wages and benefits will come at the end, of course. They don't want to blow their 401K so to speak.
What does all of this have to do with the Topic Thread of the "GENERATION STUDY"?
Not one JW in 50 can really claim to grasp the deeper doctrines of this religion. They just can't! The ones who can and do are those with the brain capactity and personality type who embrace details. I won't say O.C.D. typology. But, I won't rule it out either.
In your average Kingdom Hall it would be stretching it to claim more than 2 people in the entire Hall have an honest grasp of details, scriptural support and theology which constitute current understanding from the Organization.
Intellectual firepower is a double-edged sword in this religion. Unless you also possess the stunted ego to accept being totally wrong when doctrines and prophecies change---you are out the door pretty quickly.
What you end up with is a throng of people with average intelligence who have been convinced by OTHERS with a larger intellect.
When doctrines change, the average JW didn't understand it the "old way" and appreciates that any "improvement" has been made.
Think of it this way.
When your laundry detergent advertises 'NEW AND IMPROVED"...how many customers raise an angry hew and cry, "What was wrong with it which made you have to "improve" it???"
No. Never happens.
People smile and accept their windfall with pig-ignorant grace.
That's your average JW. Pig Ignorant.
