PRIVACY doesn't exist (inside Jehovah's organization)

by Terry 23 Replies latest jw experiences

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  Terry

  What belongs to an individual Jehovah's Witness that is their's alone?

  Do they have their own personal opinions? Do they have their own taste in clothing, recreation, friends?

  Do they have TIME that belongs to them alone which they don't have to account for to others?

  Can they have marital relations without having to consult others on how appropriately sex is conducted?

  Or, is the individual as a person owned and operated as a public possession of the Watchtower Corporation?

  If there is PRIVACY, where is it?

  If there is no PRIVACY, why isn't there?

  Your thoughts, please.
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  leavingwt

  Here is my outsider perspective: 'Jehovah' and the Elders are obsessed with the genitals of humans.
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  Terry

  Like the old song..."Dear hearts and genital people..."?
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  LongHairGal

  Terry:

  So very true!! I figure that trying to break down people's boundaries of privacy is the first step in their desire to manipulate people. This is no accident but is by design, I think.

  The intrusiveness and overstepping of boundaries was one of my earlier rude awakenings with these morons. They imagined that not only should MY life be an open book, since I am a single woman, but that they could just walk through it and tear a page out whenever they wanted. I had to put a few people in their place over the years and for this I was not well-liked. Too bad. However, I must mention that this noseyness was a one-way street. What would happen if I were as nosey as some of these people? Towards a married couple, perhaps. They would get all bent out of shape is what would happen.

  While I do feel that the basic noseyness and intrusiveness is all-pervasive throughout the religion, it is mostly directed at singles and I had to put a wall up to protect myself from these users.
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  Desilusionnee

  No privacy at all. I've been reproved for inappropriate clothing (skirt too short = about1cm above my knee) in each congregation I've belonged to....
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  No Room For George

  You guys are looking at it all wrong, the WT isn't being nebby or overstepping their boundaries, rather, they're concerned about our welfare in harmony with Philippians 2:4.

  4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
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  Terry

  I know that the military deliberately breaks down recruits' sense of privacy as a tool for dominating their consciousness and gaining

  the ability to control them with immediate positive response to command without "thinking" about it as a personal decision.

  Are you saying this is a conscious tactic on the part of the Watchtower Corporation?

  Or, is it just a kind of eventual status that a JW is worn into through constant counsel?

  How deliberate is it? That's what I'm asking.
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  mrsjones5

  My mother has said this often and recently to me when I wouldn't divulge personal information: "What do you have to be private about?"

  My mother believes that she should have access to extremely personal matters that concern my family and I because she's my mother. But because of who and what she is that simply isn't so. I believe partly the reason why she has that attitude is she's a jw and the other part is she hasn't separated from her children (even though we are all adults in our 40's and 30's) in her mind we aren't separate adults but extensions of her.

  My not complying to demands of information from her has led to many a fight and periods of non-communication on my part. It's the only way I (and my siblings) know to deal with her.
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  Broken Promises

  However, I must mention that this noseyness was a one-way street. What would happen if I were as nosey as some of these people? Towards a married couple, perhaps. They would get all bent out of shape is what would happen.

  I was also a single working woman as a JW and I had the same intrusion of privacy. And I used to think exactly as LHG said above. Would they have the gall to inquire into the private business of a married couple? No. So what made them think they could stick their nose in to my life?

  I used to be an open person but I learnt that they would only use whatever information they knew about you. And it wasn't any of their business what I did with my non-working time. Or even my working time. And it was all about what you could do for the organisation, not how to improve yourself or your life around you.
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  LongHairGal

  Terry:

  While I do not know if their trying to break down people's sense of privacy is something that "happens" as a result of all their ridiculous teachings OR the result of some "plan" the result is still the same. And I still stand by my observation that singles in the congregation (especially single women) were the biggest target of this invasion of privacy.

  The fact that you mention the military deliberately does this to new recruits in order to dominate their consciousness makes me wonder if some evil son-of-a-bitch somewhere got this idea. We will never know the answer but it is a moot point because the result is the same.

  I have noticed in abusive marriages in everyday life you see that the abuser does not respect the privacy of their victim, so it may be instinctive on the part of an abuser to not respect the privacy of his intended victim. He didn't need a rule book, he just does it.

  Broken Promises:

  Amen. I just could not get over the audacity of these bastards. They had no regard for a single woman but thought they would exploit her. These people can all go to hell. Every god-damned one of them should be punished.

  I learned lifelong lessons being in this religion and to this day, I will not tolerate people who OVERSTEP. I would have to say this is my biggest personal issue with the religion.