It's not a secret I could have hidden, not an operation that big, but I didn't need to. Beings believe what you tell them. They never check, they never ask, they never think. Tell them the state is menaced by quadrillions of battle droids, and they will not count. Tell them you can save them, and they will never ask--from what, from whom? Just say tyranny, oppression, vague bogeymen that require no analysis. Never specify. Then they look the other way when reality is right in front of them. It's a conjuring trick. The key is distraction, getting them to watch your other hand. Only single-minded beings don't join in the shared illusion, and keep watching you too closely. Single-minded beings are dangerous. And they either work for me, or they don't work at all.
--Chancellor Palpatine, quote from 'Star Wars: Order 66' by Karen Traviss, p. 207.
I only asked zoiks not to read it because it's yet another sci-fi quote... But I thought it was relevant. I realized just how many references there are to the kind of ideas involved in cults, propaganda, and post-cult recovery there are in this one book, though it's the fourth book in a series.
I couldn't help thinking, this quote is so true, even though it's a fictional tale in another place and time. I think perhaps I started to realize at a certain point that the Society was trying to scare me with 'vague bogeymen' and that it was time to check their references for once. Reading troubling statements in Watchtower literature was one thing; going to the library and seeing with my own eyes that they quoted from a book that denies Jesus altogether--as a means of supporting their attacks on the Trinity--and concealed this fact was another. (It's one thing to legitimately disagree with a doctrine, but at least use a source that is legitimate for a Christian to use, or at least be up front with the full quote, you know?)
But this is the thing. Even the quoted scriptures--do people seriously analyze these scriptures? An example of this was in yesterday's Watchtower lesson. Hebrews 2:12: "As he says: 'I will declare your name to my brothers; in the middle of the congregation I will praise you with song'." In this scripture, we were taught to read it thus:
'I will declare your name to my brothers; in the middle of the congregation I will praise you with song'."
In the meeting, emphasis was placed on the name of Jehovah, that Jesus declared it. This scripture was used to support that point.
The context reveals that the writer of Hebrews was not applying this scripture in that way at all. Notice verse 11:
"For both he who is sanctifying and those who are being sanctified all [stem] from one, and for this cause he is not ashamed to call them 'brothers'." Now verse 12, as Paul applied it: 'I will declare your name to my brothers; in the middle of the congregation I will praise you with song'." See the difference? There is no indication from the context that Paul (who I am assuming wrote Hebrews, though I guess there are differing opinions on that out there) was saying Jesus was saying 'Jehovah' as every other word during his ministry. He is clearly emphasizing that Jesus viewed humans as his "brothers". That's it. But since the Watchtower tells you it's about God's name, that's the word you see highlighted when you read this verse. That's a neat conjuring trick, isn't it?
Jesus could not have glorified the name Jehovah amongst people who already knew the name Jehovah intimately and had used it for the better part of a millennium. Clearly, he made known God's qualities, his personality, his reputation. (If there was a serious superstition about its usage amongst the Jews that started before Christ, it's probably not an exaggeration to say that he would have immediately martyred himself by using it the way JWs do in his public ministry. Hence why it made sense for him to say 'Father' as he so often did.)
Just a thought. But a bit of advice that I probably learned from reading non-JW books without being aware of it: if people claiming to be 'true Christians' make a statement, check their sources. If they discourage you from doing so, you probably know why.