Jehovah's Witnesses are CASTING A GIANT SHADOW (page 2)

WTWizard

Quite noticeably, with all the talk of new light and a God of light, I thought the light was getting brighter each time a new book or Washtowel came out. Then, when I landed on my first apostate site, I felt as if someone turned on the lights. So much for Jehovah being a God of light.

The witlesses also ruined my chances of meeting the opposite sex. I was trained to not approach them, making them uneasy (plus the hounders and hounder-hounders made sure I would not be accepted at a$$emblies). The kicker was that they told me that Jehovah had something "much better" in store for me. It didn't even take a visit to an apostate site (in fact, it was the reason why I went to one) to realize that that "something else" was nothing other than a trip through the Value Destroyer Training School. And then an assignment to help the Washtowel Slaveholdery get its Second Dark Ages off the ground. And Jehovah would not take "no" for an answer to this "something else", prompting me to go apostate.

If that "value destroyer training school" and starting the Second Dark Ages is the "happiness" that the witlesses are pursuing, then I would rather just be apostate and in the true light.

Alpaca

Terry,

All excellent points. The Dub mentality of constantly dwelling on what is wrong with the world ends up engulfing their thinking to the point that they cannot see anything positive.

It's no wonder that so many of them are clinically depressed.

They deprive themselves of everything that contributes to psychological health -- no future hopes for a good life unless Armageddon happens, no food for the mind with higher education, no decent jobs that allow Dubs to provide properly for their families, no freedom to think for themselves about anything, no prudent planning for retirement because it would show a lack of faith in the nearness of the end.

OMG they are really pathetic human beings.

Cheers,

Alex

Open mind

Great post Terry.

Just thought I'd address a related sub-issue.

The Environment.

I don't know if you've read any Awake! articles in the last few years, but the Writing Dept. seems to be walking a bizarre tightrope when it comes to the Environment.

On the one hand, it helps their gloom & doom message to show that the Earth is falling apart due to human activities. So they seem to be a fairly decent pro-environment mouthpiece.......up to a point. They shine the light on the problems, but then when it comes to actually encouraging anyone to get seriously involved in making a difference, they back way off. (Although there was a cheesy photo of JW riding a bicycle in his service duds not too long ago.) The net result is what I had a "prominent elder" (don't you love that term) tell me not too long ago re: the environment.

'God's gonna fix it. As long as you're not personally dumping barrells of toxic waste into the water, don't worry about it. Focus on the preaching work.'

OM

outofthebox

Exactly!

NikL

Wow, I have been thinking these similar thoughts lately.

I have been a poster here for several years but I don't post very often. Mostly because anything I have to say can be said by somebody else and said a whole lot better. Case in point this post Terry.

I have been reading a lot about positive thinking lately and through books like "the secret" and "feeling good for no reason" I have come to see how important good thoughts are and how destructive bad thoughts can be. Now that I'm trying to live on the sunny side of life I have noticed all the negativity from my JW wife. Whenever a news story comes on about something bad her response is always "Jehovah will take care of it". Whenever there is a news story about damage to the environment or someone or some organization going green her response is always "it's too late Jehovah will have to take care of it now". It does get trying at times.

This is the same woman who doesn't understand how I can be happy living in his crappy old world with no hope for the future. It's funny though, she's the one on antidepressants not me. As a matter of fact, I spent a good part of my past JW life in depression. After I left the depression has not been the problem than it used to be. "Giant shadow" indeed.

M.J.

a thought occurred to me on another thread. We're born with a natural desire to see "perfection".
But perfection is simply an invented human concept outside of reality. It's an imagined ideal. In practice it is simply an instinct to optimize the parameters we're dealt with. We abhor flaws and injustice. We rave at sports figures whose performances strive ever closer to that elusive perfect ideal. It's all about natural motivation for survival and prosperity as individuals and as a race. When we see disarray, we have the natural desire to set things straight.

But the WTS steps in and short circuit this instinct toward advantageous behavior and redirects it toward its own means. "help us preach our message and THIS will bring about the end of all injustice". "This world is incurable! Leave it to die and rot until Jehovah steps in to set things straight!" All will be perfect!

allreadygone

Great post Terry,

Before I reply to your post let me say THANK YOU for all you have done for me personally! You do not know me, yet so many things you have written have given me a new life based on truth.

I recently was talking to an Elder who works for our company. He was complaining as usual about how bad "this old system" is and how much worse things are now than at any time in world history.

I replied, Wow have you ever read anything about world history? Cause I dont know about you, but the Dark Ages seemed a whole lot worse than than now. I mean,really half of Europe died of the Plague! A disease that was eradicated in the 20th century thanks to modern medicine.

He looked at me like I had 3 heads. Total disconnect. Sick really.

Gone