by undercover 38 Replies latest jw friends
Bringing someone into the org. is seen as a status symbol. Much pressure is on elders, servants, pioneers & pubs to be able to boast about "bringing someone ito the troof". Any off-center dysfunctional person will do. I've seem several nut jobs fawned over because of this. Combine this with WTS teachings and it is a recipe for disaster.
Think About It
I see that the JW's are creating more and more off-center people out of born-ins and normal converts.
Just who can take the verbal, psycological, and mental abuse and the pressure to sell more, more more without going totally nuts!
In my personal experience from the mid 70`s to the late 80`s, in my congregation of perhaps 100, there was one person with genuine learning difficulties, one paedophile - convicted and prisoned,and one Elder who left, and took 6-7 followers and joined the Baptists.
That`s what I knew, and that was only because I was involved with someone who`s Father was an elder. The rest varied from "normal", ie: enjoyed life in their way, to those who lived and breathed eveything the WTS uttered, but still were near enough "normal".
"Were they just better hidden or controlled", almost certainly, the pedo was informed that he must not say in court that he was a JW, and the local newspaper didn`t mention it as far as I can remember.
From what I have learned over the past few months, the WTS has changed in many ways over the last 20 years, so like Scientology etc. I think that being a JW may now attract those who are to a normal "Joe Bloggs", apparent Spacemen. Though, as I personally have no interaction with JW`s at all, it`s pure speculation on my part.
Saying that though, they`re still mad, bad and dangerous, IMHO.
Regards
Paul UK
The religion tends to attract people who are unbalanced.
The religion also tends to cause people to become unbalanced due to the opressive nature of the religion.
In short, if you are not crazy when you join the religion, they will make you go crazy.
Thanks for the replies...interesting thoughts and observations
A sampling of comments that raises a question for me:
It seems that over the last 25 to 30 years the majority of JW converts are those who do not fit in with "normal society".
there are maybe two or three people, if that, that I would choose on my own to be friends with. The rest are loons, leeches, or lobotomized.
as a general answer, JW's rarely convert what most people would consider as normal or stable people.
The religion tends to attract people who are unbalanced.
The religion also tends to cause people to become unbalanced due to the opressive nature of the religion.
If this is the case, then what group did we personally fall in? We were JWs. Were we off-center, loons or unbalanced? Or were we above it all and that's why we were able to escape? Did awakening from the cult 'cure' us of our fringe tendancies? Or are we just now a fringe element of the real world instead of a cult?
On one hand, I see the weird tendancies of a lot of JWs and realize they 'ain't quite right' but I also see normal, everyday folks trapped by a cult religion. They're just trying to serve God the best way they know how.
When I focus on the fringe element of it and realize how many there really are, then I have to wonder just where did I fit in while I was a JW. Was I as normal as I thought I was...or was I considered by some to be 'not quite right'?
Another consideration is that mayber we're looking at this (as instigated by me, I admit) from too much of a black and white point of view. It's not like we can draw a line and say, "you're normal...but you're nuts" kinda thing. We all have quirks and tendancies that might be considered eccentric by others. Is it maybe the case that the fringe element stands out so much in the JW ranks because the Society wants conformity to their perceived notion of a Christian so bad, it makes anyone not fitting look out of place? But it has to be admitted that it seems more and more JWs, or at least people who claim to be JW, are finding their way into the mainstream media through their bad and eccentric behavior.
It's an interesting subject for sure and as you can see, I haven't really come up with a firm opinion or stand on the issue, but I have enjoyed hearing your observations and opinions.
I don't know much about who are becoming new JW's, because I'm not one myself. I do know that someone was attracting me into the WTS, and I consider myself a normal guy. I also met some people who either became or were close to become JW's, and they also seemed normal. And I met some people who left the organization and they seemed normal, too.
I do believe that the point here is that the organization is so concerned about bringing new converts in that the publishers will not spend their time converting, say, someone who is hard-working, honest and normal but is not that willing to accept a magazine, for example, but they will indeed spend time trying to convert someone who is responsive to their ideas but is a little crazy. And, since the organization gives that much importance to WORKS, then it would gladly accept someone who, say, has a very questionable past, under the assumption that once he does what a good witness is expected to do his inner person has changed too. I understand that becoming a witness does force people to change their personality and behavior, but I wonder if this would go as far as, say, changing an abusive person into a less abusive one. From the posts on this site, that does not seem to be the case.
Steven Hassan says that cults tend to recruit the people who are smart and would become an asset to the organization. I'm not sure if this is the case with most converts. They might be an asset if you look at them as "another member", but I wonder if they really bring something new and innovative to the organization, other than their hands and willingness to knock on doors.
A similar point was made by an evangelical I saw on TV. He claimed that many evangelicals had been rescued from drugs, bad lives and the like, and so many of them had a less than pure background, which was something they had to recognize. The evangelical's purpose, of course, was to say that they all had been changed, and that no one should feel above others because one day they had been below others, too.
I wonder if JW's are really concerned about who they bring in, in terms of their original morality or their real change. Yesterday three ladies came to knock on my door, all middle aged women who had converted from another religion. They felt they had become more spiritual. That's OK, they are not nuts, but, suppose someone brings in a former criminal in. Would you want your daughter to marry him, because he's now a brother?
I guess JW's would be more selective about who they bring in if they were not that obsessed with numbers. A mistake leads to yet another, and another...
Where did I fit in to the religion?. Well initially I was genuinely interested in learning about the Bible, and outwardly, the Witnesses as a group seemed to be happy, enthusiastic Christians.
Over the years as I grew older and more experienced in life, through college, work etc. I became dissallusioned, and for quite a while, simply went through the motions, and spent most of the meetings either daydreaming, or or simply just not listening. In the end I found that living a lie was not the way to be and I DA`d myself, packed up and moved to the next county.
I know that work colleages, and family, definately viewed both myself and the WTS as a whole, as all kinds of things, abit "whako", and when I left, after the initial upheaval wore off, I could see their point.
The fact is, JW`s like to be thought of as being "different or strange or deep (as they see it)" it makes them feel special, and backs up all the WTS says.
Regards
Paul UK
I don't think its the way the message is presented. There's a lot thats tucked into this religion then whats on the surface, so that factors greatly into who joins the religion. Everyone is presented with a nicely decorated box, but its full of garbage, but you're made some many commitments by that point that you're almost slapping yourself on the forehead for doing what you did when you finally realize that you DID join something insane.
Its just that among the ranks of Jehovah's Witnesses you have the other groups, the fringe people that didnt have anywhere else to belong, lonely elderly people that were looking for someone to care about them, the teenager who found the glittering box appealing and those who may have just been interested in wanting to learn more about the bible. That is by no means an exhaustive list of the types that come to the hall, but it represents the fair share of people I've come in contact with over the years. So its not that people are crazy, loony, or not quite right. In our own way, we were all regular people who was given a nice package and was disappointed by what was inside.
JW Leadership missed the window of opportunity and didn't have the sense like the Mormons to become more mainstream in order to appeal to more normal society.
Think About It
In my youth and young manhood every congo around the South of England, to my knowledge had its share of eccentrics . If I change their names for my own protection , there was
Schizophrenic Steve
Nutcase Nora (one step off of a bag lady)
The Russian whom they took into mental hospital
Weirdo Paul who claimed to have been married to a witch and saw demons everywhere
But these were all harmless, even lovable characters who we all thought a lot of and absorbed into the congregation community.
Then there were a couple or three who sufferred real "learning difficulties" and were retarded .And then one or two sinister ones who threatened harm to others if they were upset...
So No, I do not think that there are any more of them now...
