Does ANYTHING About JWs Make Sense To You?

by minimus 30 Replies latest jw friends

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  Scarred for life

  I was a born-in. But I have thought a lot in the last 2 years about how my parents and my mother's family were sucked into this cult. My mother's family was at a point in 1953 that they were devastated emotionally and financially. I think they one by one fell for the tactics that peaches mentions above.

  I still don't understand my father. I've even recently had a discussion with his brother about his thoughts on how my father got sucked in. We had never, ever talked about it before. It was a very enlightening discussion for both of us. But neither one of us understand how my father became a JW.
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  OnTheWayOut

  Coming out of the JW's was like discovering that they convinced me that black was white, wet was dry, burning was freezing.
  It is simpler to believe the opposite of anything their literature says until proven otherwise, that way you are bound to be way more accurate than the weatherman.
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  Lieu

  I didn't see it as much different than the Catholic Church they used to rail about. There was the actual Bible and then there was dogma. There was a heirarchy in place.No one was equal as simply "brothers" in the cause.

  There were good folk who really cared about others and there were crappy folk who could care less.
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  Mad Sweeney

  Does the doctrine make sense? No.

  Does it make sense that a number of people get recruited and remain in? Absolutely. It's simple psychology and sociology. Phobias, conformity, authority, etc. all keep people in.
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  mindmelda

  I remember one of the first moments of cognitive dissonance I had was in my twenties (Not exactly born in, but my mom converted when I was 12) and I was out in FS and I asked someone if they'd like to live forever, you know, the old magazine placement schpiel, and they said, "NO, not really!"

  So, I tried, "Well if you could live here, would you want to?" Pointing to one of the typical paradise pictures with the obligatory scene of racial harmony, kids petting tigers or lions, everything green and a nice house, and I thought I was handling this objection really well.

  The person said, "Nah, not really, those people all look like Moonies and that looks like some sort of bullshit utopian nightmare" and they politely said goodbye and shut the door.

  I was like "Whhaaa"? but I started thinking, hey...that picture is kind of LSD induced, isn't it?
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  garyneal

  As someone who believes in Christianity, I did think along a lot of the same lines as the witnesses so some of it made sense. But some things like Jesus being Michael the Archangel did not nor did their teaching regarding 1914.
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  garyneal

  Of course, one thing to keep in mind is that by the time I started 'studying the Bible' with them, I had already heard a number of different interpretations on what men thought the Bible said and concluded that no one really has the full truth about the Bible.

  Therefore their belief that they have the TRUTH did not make sense to me.

  Makes less sense to me considering how their truth changes.

  Sounds like opinion and interpretation to me.
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  transhuman68

  Of course it makes sense! If you are an elder you can gossip to your buddies about the wacky sex-lives of the r&f who come to you for help.
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  cult classic

  I agree with the comments above and want to add:

  If you leave, Jehovah and Jesus and the angels will abandon you

  If you leave, we (the congregation) will not speak to you

  If you leave, we (your parents and family) will not love you

  If you leave, you will be alone for the rest of your life and die................

  Nothing has to make sense because you are so afraid.

  Cult Classic
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  thetrueone

  The corporate corruption of the WTS. makes all the sense in how this organization got to power and how it has maintain that power.