Comments on WT Study for Nov 5-11, 2001—Barf Alert!!
First may I say that this was one of the hardest two Watchtower studies I have ever sat through in over a decade. It is absolutely sickening that any group in America can advocate such parenting techniques and child-rearing practices. To say that some of us here on JW.COM are trying to drag the Jehovah’s Witnesses kicking and screaming into the 18th century is an understatement.
This is a quote from William Schnell’s book, ‘30 Years a Watchtower Slave’ (Baker, 1957):
No one can read the history and literature of the Watch Tower Society without thinking of Peter's words: "Through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you" (2 Peter 2:3). Time and again they cited words of Scripture, tore them out of their setting, and misapplied thein to suit their own purpose. And they did this with the eventual goal of selling books, to obtain contributions of money to build up a world-wide Watch Tower Organization. This strategy proved so successful that it has been constantly used to this day. See it in these early moves, and then as it appears and reappears throughout the history of the Watch Tower movement.
From the beginning this trick was used to get the people to buy and read Watch Tower published books and booklets. These writings always contained a kernel of truth, particularly at the beginning, as bait. But the whole was so weighted down and entertwined with organizational jargon as to set the befuddled reader's head in a whirl. Before the unwary victim realized it, he had surrendered all individualism, abandoned all personal thinking, and given up all private initiative.
And you will find the same to be true in this case.
IMITATE JEHOVAH WHEN TRAINING YOUR CHILDREN
‘Don’t all parents correct their children?’ --Hebrews 12:7 (CEV)
1,2: A survey…revealed..parents indulged their children too much….they did not know how to interact with children…unsure how to be good parents… Youths are especially vulnerable to the attacks of Satan.
Comments: Now that the Watchtower writing staff has everyone’s –adult and child alike--self esteem and sense of self worth at a respectable –and manageable—low level (with Satan the Devil thrown in for good measure), they proceed to ‘help’ parents…And why anyway would parents be so deficient in raising their children? Could it be because in 1941 the Watchtower ‘strongly advocated’ not having children at all because the ‘end was so near’? Could it be that the Watchtower still looks with a disaproving eye towards higher education, higher criticism, and mental health care? Could this explain why the Watchtower does such a poor job of preparing couples to be parents—still today?
3: To rid their hearts of… foolishness young ones require loving correction…they often resent counsel regardless of who gives it.
Comments: Liars…JW children resent counsel IN SPITE of who gives it---the Watchtower, with its great fabulous impressive 130-year long histroy of failure---except at selling literature and amassing property, skills which is hardly practical to young growing and developing children. Smart kids!!! Now that we have properly psychologically battered both parents and children, we now move to our first sub-heading:
Discipline—What it means
4: …does not imply any kind of abuse or cruelty…primarily instruction, education, correction,and..firm but loving chastisement.
Comments: Beat them, but beat them lovingly. Some famous animal trainers I’ve seen state that they are against force when ‘conditioning’ their animals..”force creates force”, and they say they use affection and reward training. Now I ask you, if force doesn’t have to be used with animals, why would it be needed with human children, who are so much smarter. Oh wait—JW’s aren’t smarter, see references to paragraph 1-3 above. At the very least, the Watchtower is reasserting what it has always said—force is okay, and not even a limit to the number of strokes. They buried this sentence in the middle of four paragraphs, but it is there. As William Schnell warned: it’s always ‘there.’
5: … “Our human fathers correct us for a short time…but God corrects us for our own good.” We can certainly learn much about discipling children by considering how Jehovah has trained his people.
Comments: Lying sacks of useless shit. Scripture quoted out of context number ONE!! Let’s put this baby back in context” v1:…let us also put off every weight and the sin that easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. V9…Shall we not much more subject ourselves to the Father of our spiritual life and live? V12:and keep making straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather that it may be healed. V28:…let us continue to have undeserved kindness, through which we may acceptably render God sacred service with godly fear and awe. Heeelloooo.the point of this entire chapter is putting God BEFORE men…that if we respect men so much, we should respect God even more, and respect for God means respect for one another since we are all of God. This scripture has no application toward children or child-rearing; these words are directed toward ADULTS—many of whom, I may add, it can safely be assumed were eventually hunted down and killed by Roman soldiers. Which now leads us to sub-heading two.
Love-the Motivating Force
6: Does this mean that parents who have natural affection for their offspring would find it easy to imitate Jehovah in this regard? Not necessarily. God’s love…is principled…One Greek scholar points out that such love “does not always run with the natural inclinations.”
Comment: WHICH Greek scholar!!! What was the whole quote!! WHERE!!!
7,8: Consider the love Jehovah showed in dealing with the Israelites. Moses used a beautiful analogy to describe Jehovah’s love for the young nation of Israel. The mother eagle..stirs up its nest…to urge her young ones to take off…the mother swoops dpwn under it, carrying it on her pinions. God gave the people the Mosaic Law…then watched over the nation with a keen eye, ready to come to the rescue when his people were in trouble. As the children get older and are gradually given more freedom, the caring parents are ready to ‘swoop down’ and ‘carry their young on their pinions’ whenever there is danger. What type of danger?
Comments; Yeah, but about that eagle; often times two baby eagles are hatched, but the parents can only care for one. Eventually, the weaker eaglet gets picked on, starved, and finally pushed out of the nest to die. God gave the people a Law they could never live up to and died miserably trying to. This analogy is ridiculous. The scripture quoted is from Deuteronomy 32. That whole chapter is a song sung by Moses to the people. It was his farewell song; he was 120 years old and was soon to die. His point in that whole chapter was that soon he was going to be gone and someone else would lead them; but that their real leader was Jehovah God, their only leader, just as the only caregiver that baby eagle had was his mother and father. The credit for their well-being and safekeeping was to go to no one else except God—not Moses, nor Joshua. It wasn’t so much about God’s love for Israel, but Israel’s dependence on God in the middle of a desert. As for JW parents swooping and carrying; just let a JW parent allow their child a blood transfusion to save its life, or a parent buy a 25-cent card in Malawi to save his family’s life like any parent would do, and watch them all get kicked out of the Watchtower nest just like that second, weaker baby eaglet
9: Jehovah God warned the Israelites of the consequences of bad associations. Associating with the wrong crowd is also a common peril today. A 15-year-old girl named Lisa became interested in a boy who did not share her family’s moral and spiritual values. ..the underlying problem—the desire to be accepted by her peers.
Comments: <who did not share her family’s moral and spiritual values> is the new ‘correct’ term to be used instead of ‘wordly’. You will see it a lot in the Watchtower literature now, as the term ‘wordly’ didn’t go over too well in divorce/child custody courts. Let’s hope the principle behind this new term remains in the forefront of observers of JW, since the social alienation/isolation of children is the whole goal to be achieved by the Watchtower, whatever term they’re using THIS WEEK! Mental health professionals will love the fact that desiring to be accepted by ones peers is considered a ‘problem’. Maybe if Jehovah’s Witnesses didn’t place a neon flashing light on their children’s forehead that says ‘please kick me!’ it wouldn’t be such a big problem…
Keep the Lines of Communication Open
10,11:…parents must strive to keep open the lines of communication with their young ones. Jehovah, though fully aware of what is in our heart, encourages us to communicate with him. Jehovah assigned the Levites to instruct them [the Israelites]He also showed a willingness to hear their prayers. Parents also do well to avoid thoughtless comments that ridicule…Parents who ignore their children when they are little may find themselves ignored when the children are older.
Comments: <Jehovah, though fully aware of what is in our heart> is somewhat of a damning admission on the part of the Watchtower; why do we force our children to not salute the flag, not sing the national anthem, not engage in after school activities, we deny them blood transfusions etc etc---if God can read hearts anyway? Jesus said “I want mercy, not sacrifice.” <Parents who ignore their children when they are little may find themselves ignored when the children are older.> A good point for the Watchtower, but as we will see the parents are right even when they’re wrong.
To be continued...
BITE ME, WATCHTOWER!!!