Watchtower "Newspeak" Self Defeating

by metatron 15 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Room 215

  And furthermore......

  Okay, granted that my perspective on JWs and their message has done a turn of nearly 180 degree sin recent years. Still, it seems to me that, whether from the KH platform or informally one-on-one with JWs, the general level of discourse has seriously deteriorated since, say, the 1970s on.

  I can't believe that there once was a time when I actually appaluded certain talks or certain speakers and thier line of argumentation. But that time has lon passed; Battman's comment about ``canned answers'' is right on the money.
  
  Do you recall how often the WTS would remind us of our duty to ``always be ready to to make a defense before everyone that demands of you a reason for the hope within you" (1 Peter 3:15)? Whether it's because so many of their teachings, especially those related to chronolgy, have lost their plausiblity to the point of being indefensible or whatever, I would bet that not one in a hunderd of the current JWs could even begin to make a pretense of mounting such a defense.

  That, I suspect, is why one so seldom hears 1 Peter 3:15 quoted anymore, and it also explains why the Society clings tenaciously to its specious ``no-debate'' policy -- because it preceivs that it has nothing to gain and much to lose by debate in an open forum.

  Could you, for excample, imagine them trying to defend their anti-``read or study no book but the Bible alone" policy in an open public forum?
• 

  uriah

  This is an interesting post. One thing that crops up again and again, I have found, is that the watchtower is spoken of or about as if it is a thinking and separate entity. You may remember reading such things as e.g., 'the WT of 1 dec 1943 declared....' or 'there was a brilliant flash of light in the wt of 31 dec 1975' and such things. In the mind of the listener there is this non-personal guru type of entitiy that 'pronounces' and it is held in great esteem, almost divorced from the WTBS and becomes the touchstone for all belivers. Some elders in our cong don't believe anything until they see it in the WT first - even common knowledge such as the splitting up of the Org into separate entities.
• 

  proplog2

  Jehovah's Witnesses don't talk to each other about their religion. They talk sports, stocks, even politics. The Watchtower writers know the arguments being presented on the internet. These arguments are conspicuously ignored.
• 

  waiting

  Hello proplog,

  I disagree - at least in our area. We did talk about our religion, we're taught to discuss it. I'm a woman, I don't discuss sports, cars, etc. If we talked kids, - holidays, schooling, drugs, clothes, jobs, college came up - and then discussions did start.

  As for 1914, 1975, the Beast of Revelation, Armageddon - No, not often. But we did have a chance to speak to some people about such things -- and then canned responses did come forth.

  Even as a jw, I asked a pioneer and an elder, at the same time, what the "Generation" teaching was NOW? Neither could answer me, and I couldn't explain it either. I finally told them that it was really no different than other religions' teaching (particularily fundamentalists).... and they nervously laughed - and agreed.

  "But whatever the Society says - that's what I believe." Elder speaking then. "I don't know - I just follow what they tell me" - Pioneer. I remember, because I thought to myself "Damned! Even I'm smarter than that!" And I was just a sister.

  waiting
• 

  RunningMan

  Voltaire, you have echoed the situation in my house exactly. At one time, my wife
  would ask me "So, what did you find wrong with this one?" on the way home from
  the meeting. I would usually try to find something good to compliment before
  beginning my critique. But now, we don't even discuss it. I'm sure she assumes
  that I have found the usual number of errors, and doesn't want to get into it.

  On the other hand, it was always good for the kids to hear the meeting rebuttal. Now,
  I have to de-indoctrinate them in private (which is working quite well, actually).
• 

  slipnslidemaster

  crimethinkstop.

  Slipnslidemaster:"The average person thinks he isn't."
  - Father Larry Lorenzoni