Long term effects of Armageddon images

by Lady Lee 53 Replies latest watchtower medical

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  Lady Lee

  steve

  Come on people. Get a grip for goodness sake! For more than two or more millenia, the Bible's vicious stories of vengeance, including the Old Testament stories of wiping out entire peoples (babies too), have been disseminated widely.

  to a small child words on a page mean nothing. Pictures mean a lot. That is why they look for th epictures in a book. Go back and read what Morbidzbaby said.

  If we blame JW literature for (potentially) damaging sensitive readers, why stop there? What about the detailed accounts provided by some fundamentalist churches about hellfire and damnation?

  Again children in most other churches are taken to the Sunday School room where they are not taught that God is going to drop a building on them if they aren't good.

  Do we suggest the Bible is to blame for (some) people's anxieties and even depression? No, we fudge the issue by picking on more convenient targets - forgetting that the cruel "inspiration" for the fear-inducing pictures is the wonderful Bible itself.

  Well to be honest religion has a pretty bad record when it comes to contributing to the violence in the world.

  Why single out the JW literature? Even the so-called "damaging" pictures () in the Paradise book are countered with some "happy" pictures of smiling people and congenial animals.

  Kids don't "get" that. Kids are kids. They make mistakes. They get into trouble. And if they get constant reminders that God will kill the bad people and they get into trouble for being bad it isn't a huge leap for them to believe God will swallow them up in a earthquake. Pictures of smiling kids patting a lion won't erase the bad images.

  The main problem I had with the Paradise book as a child was the absence of motor vehicles in the paradise pictures. How boring it would be, I thought - although my lovely mother reassured me Jehovah would give us enough "interesting" things to do so that I wouldn't miss cars

  I would think that many children were not traumatized by the images. But clearly others were. This isn't the first time this topic has been discussed.

  I just think maybe you don't have kids.
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  steve2

  Lady Lee, your comment about whether I have children is interesting but irrelevant (BTW, I have 2 adult daughters).

  You have down-played the potential of spoken words to traumatize children, and thus side-stepped the vexed topic of the inspiration for the Paradise book; namely the brutal prophetic stories in the Hebrew Scriptures. You would be familiar with other fundamentalist religions - and some more mainstream ones too - that read out loud entire sections of the Bible - especially as warnings for all to hear. Funny that you don't comment about these sources of potential trauma on young listeners.

  In terms of the effects of pictures and images on young children, you will be aware of the viciousness of many children's "fairy" stories handed down over the generations - and the story books that show (for example) Red Riding Hood being eaten alive. I must disclose that, while the paradise book never traumatized me, I became very anxious after listening to Jack and the Beanstalk on the radio. I'm lucky I suppose, because my JW mother was a very emotionally-attuned woman who would often spend lots of time talking to her children about their fears and anxieties and offer lots of reassurance.

  My point is straightforward: if you suggest the JW pictures traumatize children, then to be fair, if you really care about children, you will acknowledge that there is a lot of stuff "out there" in life that can potentailly traumatize them - some of it uncomfortably closer to home such as the Bible itself. Ouch!

  Good luck in making it seem that JW literature is unique in traumatizing children. I would have more tolerance for your allegations, if you acknowledged other more widespread sources of "literary" trauma.
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  Robdar

  Steve:

  You have down-played the potential of spoken words to traumatize children, and thus side-stepped the vexed topic of the inspiration for the Paradise book; namely the brutal prophetic stories in the Hebrew Scriptures. You would be familiar with other fundamentalist religions - and some more mainstream ones too - that read out loud entire sections of the Bible - especially as warnings for all to hear. Funny that you don't comment about these sources of potential trauma on young listeners.

  If you will notice, this thread is about images. In particular, images of Armageddon. If this thread were about spoken words, I am sure that the Bible and fairy stories would be mentioned.

  In terms of the effects of pictures and images on young children, you will be aware of the viciousness of many children's "fairy" stories handed down over the generations - and the story books that show (for example) Red Riding Hood being eaten alive. I must disclose that, while the paradise book never traumatized me, I became very anxious after listening to Jack and the Beanstalk on the radio. I'm lucky I suppose, because my JW mother was a very emotionally-attuned woman who would often spend lots of time talking to her children about their fears and anxieties and offer lots of reassurance.

  My point is straightforward: if you suggest the JW pictures traumatize children, then to be fair, if you really care about children, you will acknowledge that there is a lot of stuff "out there" in life that can potentailly traumatize them - some of it uncomfortably closer to home such as the Bible itself. Ouch!

  Good luck in making it seem that JW literature is unique in traumatizing children. I would have more tolerance for your allegations, if you acknowledged other more widespread sources of "literary" trauma.

  Who gives a rat's ass about your tolerance? Once again and slowly: this thread is about the long term effects of Armageddon images. If you want to talk about the other, get off Lady Lee's rear end and start your own thread.
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  boyzone

  My son is now 9 years old, he was 8 when I left. I admit he's quite a sensitive child but also a typical little boy, focussing on any violent images but also being scared by them and wanting explanations. And no, he doesn't watch violent films but he does see the occassional DVD cover in Blockbuster or HMV.

  However when he was younger, the Society's publications were his main picture source, the Revelation book is the one he remembers the most with all the angry people surrounding the good, with the dragon in the background. Also the rider on the black horse used to scare him. He still asks about that book and talks about those pictures today. He hasn't forgotten.

  The other thing that REALLY scared him was a video shown at the Kingdom Hall. It was the story of Korah and Moses and the rebellion. It wasn't in cartoon form but filmed with live actors. When the scene came where the earth swallowed up Korah and all the others, my son was almost hysterical and cried out "NO!" loudly in fear at what he was seeing. I hurried him out the door and he burst into tears. How I regret taking him that day!

  Since then he still asks me questions about those images as if he's looking for reassurance. I give him what I can but I can tell its not always enough.

  The point is, words can often be forgotten by a child, but pictures stay in their minds for a long long time. And for a sensiive child like him, it takes alot of reassurance before they can overwrite what they've been shown with happier thoughts.
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  truthsetsonefree

  This is one of those threads that helps me understand myself and why anxieties I felt have disappeared in inverse proportion to my distance from the Witness religion. To comment on some items early on in this thread that I found interesting:

  Many emergency planners do recommend keeping at least one month worth of food around and rotating the stock so that it is fresh. Such a stash is not likely to be needed as we live in a pretty secure world, at least in First World countries. But it's better safe than sorry I suppose.

  While images are the clear offender when it comes damaging young minds, let's face it, some of the raw info in the Bible is just as nasty. When we as a species allow for the possibility that religious texts like the Bible may have simply been written by sadistic, narrow minded, cultish, psychotic, substance abusive, uneducated by our standards, and mysoginistic men, we will have gone a long way towards advancing the state of humankind as a whole.
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  Black Sheep

  ....you will be aware of the viciousness of many children's "fairy" stories handed down over the generations - and the story books that show (for example) Red Riding Hood being eaten alive.

  There is a big difference. These stories, plus cartoons etc., are not portrayed as being real.

  Paradise Book pictures were a scenario that was supposed to be real and were to occur soon.

  Dad's killer goD was used as a threat to keep me in line.

  Paradise didn't mean much to me. I was never going to make it as I wasn't good enough.

  My fate was to join the girl, the dog and the bicycle, in the hole.

  Cheers

  Chris
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  Still Breaking Free

  As a child who was quite sensitive, I do remember feeling completely panic-stricken at the thought of Armageddon and the possible persecution we would have to go through. I would look around during Congregation meetings and would be in complete awe of everyone else who appeared to be excited by the prospect of Armageddon coming. I was also scared by Dr Who, The Phantom Raspberry Blower on The Two Ronnies - just to give you an idea of how sensitive!! The difference between those images that brought Armageddon to life in the publications and fairy stories was that this was something that my parents assured me was going to happen to US!! We were actually going to live through and witness this and as I never felt I was good enough to be favoured by Jehovah (although, in hindsight I was actually an incredibly good child, but that's another subject) I believed that I would be one of those suffering a very painful death while my friends and family would be looked after and protected.

  If that isn't going to screw your mind up, then I don't know what is!!
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  Still Breaking Free

  Black Sheep: I was obviously writing my comment at the same time as you! Ditto!!
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  carla

  I think images remain in our memory easier because we can easily bring them up at will more so than the printed word. Often an image evokes such emotion that we never forget it be it one of beauty or violence. Not growing up jw and having all the Big A pics in my mind I can't quite relate but I can tell you that one picture from when I was very young still haunts me to this day. As young kids we obviously did not read the newspaper or even care to look at it but my mom had the paper out at breakfast and there was a pic of a guy in protest on fire!! Anybody remember that? must be a famous picture, he was sitting indian style. All these years later I can recall that picture and do not remember any other details of the moment or printed word.

  I beleive that along with all the verbage in the wt's and the images combined can certainly damage one's psyche. Years later one may not believe anything jw and know it is all bs yet one may not realize that the images of gloom and doom remain in the unconsious mind to nag and harrass you when you least expect it.
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  truthlover

  I too have a son who believes he has PTSD from the images he saw and heard at the hall. He envisions terrible things and still in his 40's, has nightmares.

  Needless to say his life experiences didnt help him to have more faith, in all, it turned him from his faith and now suffers from a myriad of problems I feel, were caused by those images -- IBS, chronic fatigue, racing heart, -- stressors -- he is and was a very sympathetic person, and cant stand to see anyone mistreated, child, woman, dog, etc... he has a good heart and wants to help folks but cant seem to shake this traumatic part of his life...

  Now looking at most religions, they too have their shock values - burning in hell for eternity, another life an an insect, etc.I dont think they put as much emphasis on death and total destruction as the WTBT$... Unfortunately, we brought him up in the truth, thinking we were doing the right thing, and all he can see is what was learned at an early age. A lot of kids can take it, a lot of others cannot and its wise on a parents part to understand and know that this is a terrible gift for someone to have to visit in the night on a regular basis. I guess by that statement, I wasnt doing a good job of protecting him..I can see that now but then thought we were one of the priviledged few million that would make it...how times have changed