Apostate Brainstorming Session

by AllTimeJeff 83 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • JeffT
    JeffT

    I'm not out to bring down the watchtower for a couple of reasons. I think that if/when that happens a significant number of JW's will just go find somebody else to run their lives, a good many more will end up depressed/addicted/suicidal. These people are used to being told what to do about everything. Absent that guide, they will be lost.

    Talking to people one on one and bringing them out slowly may work. I've found some interest in speaking to groups (mostly at churches) to explain what happened to me, and what I found to be wrong with the JW religion. The more this is done the less effective field service gets, if enough non-witnesses are really equipped to open JW brains, their ministry could be actually counter-productive.

  • GLTirebiter
    GLTirebiter

    Just my opinion, take it for what it's worth...

    A frontal assault on the organization is just what they want and need: "Look! They are persecuting us, just like the Watchtower said they would! This is a sure sign that the end of This Wicked System is near. The FDS has given us The Truth!"

    Opposition fills a need for both the organization generally and the individual members: it's a way to separate True Believers from the weak ones for the organization, and feeds an emotional need for the individual Witnesses (the sort of void that leads to craving the attention of an abuser: whether the abuse comes from a cult or a spouse, it works the same way).

    There is a fine line to be walked: on one hand assisting those who can be and are willing to be helped, while on the other not overtly antagonizing those who can't let go of the organization, driving them further into its grips, and thus strengthening a cult whose core purpose is rejection of all outsiders.

    So, as tempting as it is to "get even", I think that's an unproductive approach. Be the opposite of the "evil apostate" the Watchtower portrays, be the "kind unbeliever" they deny could possibly exist. It's not just following the teaching to turn the other cheek, it's also refusing to play the game by the Watchtower's rules. Nothing is worse for a bully than to deny them power over your life!

    GLT

  • Aussie Oz
    Aussie Oz

    @blacksheep, hey Chris, can't agree more. When i was 'in', some had a saying that newbie witnesses needed to be locked up for six months till they calmed down and wouldn't go shootin' off at the mouth and turn loads of people off.

    I dare say the same applies to most newbie EX JWs?

    i am indeed thankful to many on here, and i count you among them, for timely cautions in trying to remove my children. I am pretty fired up but am able to hold it in and contemplate actions with calmness and purpose.

    Oz

  • Aussie Oz
    Aussie Oz

    I have often lay awake at night thinking on this subject. I dont want to get even, i just want my kids out so i can forget that they exist really.

    That said, i have indeed thought of all sorts of nefarious deeds i could do. Not to bring them down, but on a more human level to open other Jws eyes. I have concluded that the best tactic would be to have their own literature expose them. That and undesputable facts, not heresay or stories. It must be stuff that is proven and should only lead to them questioning it themselves.

    Public exposing of the darker factual secrets need to be aired somehow, not for the benefit of the public but for the few who may be waking up.

    The R&F need to be woken up. With that, the ORG will fall.

    my 10 cents worth

    Oz

  • Black Sheep
    Black Sheep
    Lillith26: Chris are you sugesting JW undercover agents- bringing it down/changing the 'arangements' from the inside before they leave???

    I am merely suggesting that more of us could try to take their loved ones out with them, rather than just become the family's Black Sheep to be shunned.

    Cheers

    Chris

  • bohm
    bohm

    I got an easy idea: Everytime we mention jehovahs witnesses on the internet, especially on private websites, add PLENTY of clickable links to 'apostate' websites, especiall something like: Here is a link to jehovahs witnesses (jwfacts.com) and here you can read more about the pseychology behind being in [the cult of jehovahs witnesses] (freeminds.org) etc. . It will drive up the google rating of those sites. Allready now wikipedia article on jehovahs witnesses is the first hit, it would be really cool if jwfacts was in top-5. The best place is 'official' websites with high trafic. links in blogs get a lower google rating. Heck, i will put a link to jehovahs witnesses on my own site right away :-).

    Best case: the gentlemen in brooklyn might deside that the internet is satans personal blog and say catagorical things about it, that will go down well with the young generation...

  • poopsiecakes
    poopsiecakes

    Hi Jeff, I'm really new to the realization that my disillusionment with the WT society has turned me into an apostate - 30+ years of indoctrination with that word being such a profanity and equated to the lowest form of human life is taking a while to rub off. I'm coming to terms with it pretty quickly though! That having been said, websites like this are certainly doing their part to lift the veil off of the JW's and at least getting people to think. I believe that by living our lives as good 'worldly' people who help others with no agenda, and do everything possible to influence others to do the same, we can help to change the perception that only those who have 'the truth' show love to our neighbors and are happy people. I know that this is an extremely idealistic and possibly very naive sounding concept but I do believe that it certainly can't hurt. I feel very strongly that negativity in any form breeds negativity and I agree with other posters who feel that contributing to JW's delusions of persecution only feeds their fire and solidifies the belief that prophesy is being fulfilled through them. Kill them with kindness, I say!

    Of course, I've had juicy fantasies of staking out KH's, following people home and creating a 'territory map' to knock on their doors with some wonderful new truths but...I don't know...they'd probably go into halloween mode and not answer.

  • Mickey mouse
    Mickey mouse

    Personally think one of the most disturbing things to a JW is being shown that other groups warn their members about "apostates". Other groups believe they have "the truth". Other groups use the same reasoning to conclude they are God's sole representatives on earth.

    I never honestly thought about any of the above before I came to an apostate website. It's a powerful revelation.

  • rebel8
    rebel8

    Anti-Cult Advocacy Center

    http://cultprevention.blogspot.com/

  • Ilovebirthdays
    Ilovebirthdays

    I don't know if one should focus on the type of media (websites, books, podcasts, etc) to put out to get through to JW's, I think the important thing is HOW the message is delivered. I read COC, (not until 11 years after I left, and by then I was totally sure the JW's didn't have anything right) and what impressed me most was the tone of the book. Ray Franz used the "just the facts ma'am" rational approach that I think is the most effective. I think there are some out there who harm any efforts to get JW's to see the truth about the "truth", because their approach is very over-emotional, irrational, and sometimes focuses on elements of the JW's that plain just aren't true, and hurts any credibility of the message they have, both with JW's and any "worldly" people that might see their message, because, well, they just come across as lunatics. Hell, sometimes when I listen to those ones, I'm almost convinced the JW's have better logic than they do.

    But I'm afraid you and I have cynacism in common. I don't see the downfall of the JW's coming anytime where I'll see it, and if it does come, I think it won't be a disbanding, but a major doctrinal shift that will show the JW's of 100 years from now to have as much in common with the JW's of today as the JW's of today have with the JW's of the CT Russel era. (Translation: little if anything in common.) The population in general will never care about what JW's do to their members, they're just not important enough to even be a blip on their radar.

    And you can also count me in as another who doesn't necessarily thing bringing them down is a good thing. There is a significant enough portion of JW's hanging by a mental thread, or just plain not being tough enough to make it without the WTBS telling them their every move. I think if something miraculous shut down the entire operation tomorrow and without a doubt proved that they weren't God's channel, you'd see a fair amount of suicides, people too depressed to go on, or people finding something equally as cultish to turn their lives over to. Sometimes I think of my Grandma. She's the person in my family I'd like most to come out, but she's also the least. She's 83 years old, and it was hard enough for me to accept the first 25 years of my life were nothing but a big waste. I don't think she'd take it well that the last 83 years of hers was.

    For now, I'm just going to go with the best anti-Witness is a life well lived. I do everything I can to take the high road, and while I know nothing will change with my family (and, TBH, I can't say I want it to change for them), I know if nothing else, I've shown them that my life didn't end and bad things aren't happening to me because I've left.

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