I never figured out why some JWs ALWAYS seemed to have a troubled conscience. Everything bothered them and of course you were supposed to kiss their asses because you could "stumble" them.
What Things Used To Bother Your Conscience?
by minimus 34 Replies latest jw friends
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Robert7
I never cared about stumbling others. I can only control how I act and feel, and I'm going to act and feel as I honestly am. I always believed in 'what you see is what you get'. So I was never fake. If people didn't like it, too bad. But I wasn't faking anything. I was true to myself.
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Seeker4
Min, I've been thinking about this lately, and I have a different take on it.
I agree with many of the comments above, and had that view on a lot of things. But in the last years of my being a JW elder, I saw that there was an important application of the idea of conscience that was much more important and far reaching.
I don't have a Bible with me, but there is a verse that says that if you do something and it violates YOUR conscience, then it's a sin for you. Well, by this time there were a number of things that we were asked to do as elders that were really starting to bother my conscience.
I realized then that if I did something that the GB wanted me to do, and it bothered my conscience to do it, that scripturally that was a sin for me, and it's wrong to ask someone to commit a sin against their own conscience.
So, that became my way of getting around things or of getting other elders to think. If some elders wanted to take judicial action based on something that there was no scriptural basis for, I'd tell them that I couldn't go along with it. "But the Society says right here that we can do this," they'd say. "Brother, are you asking me to violate my conscience by doing something that my conscience tells me is wrong?" I'd respond.
That's a very hard argument to counter, as the Bible gives the individual conscience great power in determining what is right or wrong for that individual.
What might be some of the area's that an elder would have to obey his own conscience as opposed to just blindly doing what the WTS says?
An elder might find that his conscience troubles him in areas where the GB says you should do something where there is no scriptural backing:
• Removing a brother as an elder because he lets his kids go to college or speaks in favor of higher ed;
• Disciplining someone for taking a blood transfusion in the face of wavering WTS blood policies;
• Counseling a couple regarding oral sex in marriage;
• Taking judicial action against someone who has a birthday party.
The list, as we're aware, could go on and on, as the number of things the WTS has rules about is enormous. Imagine if elders were really encouraged to listen and follow their conscience on matters, and understood how scripturally vital that is.
What a crisis of conscience the WTS would face then!
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minimus
S4, your conscience bothered you for noble reasons. You didn't want to IMPOSE YOURSELF on someone else. Clearly, I'm not suggesting that this would be a bad thing.
As a rule, JWs are warped in their judgment and if they listened to everything "the Slave" said, they would not know the scriptural difference between right and wrong.
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Casper
It bothered me when I realized that I was going to the meetings
and Conventions for all the wrong reasons.
I realized I wasn't going to please Jehovah or for spiritual enlightenment.
I was going to socialize, such as it was.
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snowbird
I don't have a Bible with me, but there is a verse that says that if you do something and it violates YOUR conscience, then it's a sin for you. Well, by this time there were a number of things that we were asked to do as elders that were really starting to bother my conscience.
Seeker, I believe this is it. I know when I read CofC and Ray Franz quoted this Scripture, it really set in.
That's why I quit the meetings and FS. I no longer had faith in what I was doing.
Romans 14:23 ... whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
Sylvia
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Carlos_Helms
What bothered me was that "little something" inside me that told me that I wasn't being true to myself. I was neither spiritually nor intellectually honest with myself - and as such, my conscience became shredded. But the peculiar social atmosphere of Jehovah's Witnesses which screamed at me 24/7: "you must perform admirably in order to be measured favorably," distracted me from those "inner voices" of truth and reason that were forced into a whimper in the distance.
Upon my release from the watchtower, I relied upon certain mantras that I repeated over and over in the hopes that one day I might believe them; absolutist statements used to artificially-bolster my pre-weakened self-confidence. Whether it be an "I'm never this" or an "I'm always that," I went on about my merry way thinking that, if I said it enough times; OTHERS just might believe that I'm the person I claimed to be - a "man of great character" without the needs typically associated with the weak - even if I didn't believe it myself. I almost always rang hollow.
The greatest teachers of human nature were, at one time, the worst students of human behavior. So I'm not inclined to believe anyone who uses "always" or "never" to describe himself. In fact, my experience tells me that those who rely on absolutes to describe themselves are desperately attempting to convince themselves of something that's very likely untrue; but because they've "said so" for such a long time, they've convinced themselves that it is. For instance, I recently heard someone say something to the effect, "I never feel guilty." Taken at face value, that can mean one of two things in my book: either that one is perfect - or that one is a sociopath.
So, if one authoritatively claims that "he has no conscience" or that he "never cared about stumbling others," I'm left with the same conclusions based upon the statements alone: either one is perfect...or a sociopath. Likely, neither of those is true. Unfortunately, due to a rampant lack of self-honesty in the world, I rarely take people at face value. Rather, absolutist statements (particularly on internet discussion boards), tell another tale altogether (let the reader use discernment).
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Seeker4
Min,
I know the point you're making, and I'd think you'd probably agree that the whole Witness idea of what "bothers your conscience" is a very warped concept.
It sort of became the basis FOR making tons of rules as opposed to the basis for personal freedom based on an active respect for the individual conscience, the person's 'witness within."
Snowbird, I think Ray is making a similar point. And living it as well, it seems.
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Quirky1
What bothers my conscience is that I belonged to a mind controlled family destroying cult and all the people that either I or it has hurt as a result of it.
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stillajwexelder
oral sex used to - not anymore