"He was really smart. Smart people leave all the time" <- Unwitting Witness Tells The Truth

gubberningbody

How many of you have heard this one, or words to that effect?

FlyingHighNow

Never heard this one. But it's true enough.

I've heard "He was too smart for his own good." Even at that time, when I was "theocratic", I thought what he said was stupid and cultic. Should have been a warning sign to me, but it did come from a "spiritual" pioneer brother who seemed to suffer some type of mental slowness from his teen years before the troof when he was always high and not getting an education in high school...

jabberwock

I've heard Witnesses say things like this before. Usually it was a complaint about "book smarts" or "fancy philosophizing".

Still, I know plenty of very smart people who are still Witnesses. I think they just switch it off before they go to the meetings.

JWdaughter

My mom says it to me a lot.

sass_my_frass

"Too smart for your own good" was used a lot in my vicinity. I fell for it too. Clearly I wasn't that smart.

WTWizard

They pass this on as a "little knowledge is a dangerous thing". Which insults people's intelligence--as if the Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger is supposedly infinitely intelligent. Losch is supposed to have all the correct knowledge (Losch, as in oral sex causes oral cancer. As in college is equivalent to shooting oneself in the head. As in all the stupid stories about how close we are to the end.)

All the genuinely intelligent people who are not in it for the power and control of other members eventually leave.

Jankyn

I heard, all the time, that "No one was too dumb to get the Truth, but some people are too smart." Usually followed by a dirty look sent my way.

inkling

In a previous congregation, an elder told me (in reference to a friend of mine
who was slowly becoming inactive and expressing doubts)

"It is sometimes difficult for very intellegent people to be Witnesses"

This was in a major college town, So I am sure they were used to seeing
smart young people move into the area and then "fall away", and used to
encountering smart people at the door and getting nowhere.

You see, intellegent, educated people are not "humble" enough to recognize
The Truth.

[inkling]

leavingwt

Right before I left, the PO told me that I "think too much".

I had already deconstructed the cult, so his words were particularly reassuring that I was making the right decision, by leaving.

Here's a nickel's worth of free advice: Don't join a group that values anti-intellectualism.