WTS Legal Dept: "Try to make your kids seem normal."

by irondork 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  irondork

  Just finished reading the segment on Setting Double Standards from In Search of Christian Freedom. Franz gives as an example what is probably the most wanton display of in-your-face hypocrisy.

  Citing a brochure produced by the legal department designed to help Witness parents in child custody battles:

  This can be used to show that they are normal. Try to have kids from local congregations who have been raised as Jehovah's Witnesses and, in the eyes of the presiding overseer, are spiritual but also enjoy the normal healthy things that young people do. They don't have to be competitive to enjoy sports. Be careful that they don't get the impression that they are in a demonstration at the circuit assembly, when they would show that the first things in life are service and going to the Kingdom Hall. Show hobbies, crafts, social activity, sports and especially plans for the future. Be careful they don't all say that they are going to be pioneers. Plans can be trade, getting married and having children, journalism, and all kinds of other things. Maybe you can show an interest in art and the theater. They must be clean, moral, honest, but with the interests that you would expect from other young people.

  The footnote provided: "As to "having children," the Watchtower of March 1, 1988, pages 18-27, carried two articles on the subject and one need only read these to see the manner in which negative aspects are mephasized and married couples' abstaining from having children is promoted as evidence of their appreciation of the "limited time" remaining to finish the organization's "vital work"."

  One other thing. Doesn't becoming a journalist require at LEAST a four year degree?

  They absolutely know what they are up to. Instructions to hide what we really are so they won't see, and for the sake of personal advantage. (Did I just say "we" in that last sentence? Oy! I still have so much work to do.)
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  Scully

  Yeah, I swear the working title for the Child Custody Cases brochure must have been the Let's-Pretend-We-Aren't-A-Cult brochure.
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  ProdigalSon

  Obviously, the qualities and traits that these Pharisee slimeballs are saying these kids should exhibit are the very ones that would get them "marked" as "spiritually weak" and "bad association" in the Kingdumb Hall.
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  The Quiet One

  Matthew 23:27 >> New International Version (©1984) "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs,which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean."
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  Alfred

  yeah... This is allowed under the Theocratic Warfare Act... make sure you beat up your kid in the Kingdom Hall's "back room" if you catch him doodling in their "My Book of Bible Stories" book during the meeting, then make him say he's allowed to play sports if they get questioned in a custody case... pretty standard stuff
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  WTWizard

  I would like someone to video-record the demonstrations at a Grand Boasting Session and play those back right in the court hearing. Then show the judge the actual outline that the Washtowel Babble and Crap Slaveholdery is trying to make the children use for their "in-court" presentation. Or, "accidentally" give their Grand Boasting Session presentation in court, telling the judge that they are going to give up their lives so they can pio-sneer, waste their time at boasting sessions, and go on welfare so they can do more for the Kingdumb interests. Listing zero other interests in the court system, with the line "That would take away from field circus", would work even better.

  Let enough judges hear that, and pretty soon the Washtowel is going to start having trouble winning these custody battles.
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  yourmomma

  the first time i read that brochure, was when i was first researching JW's on the internet, so I was still nervous about it. Anyway, there were times when I would laugh out loud such as above because I was certain it was fake, and a bad fake. I kept saying to myself "there is no way this is real". Well what did you know? lol. its real. and frankly, i agree with the above poster, they know what they are doing. Ray Franz's "victims of victims" was a great concept when I was first coming out to soften the blow, but after you do more and more research you see they know exactly what they are doing. full blown cult.
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  compound complex

  Greetings, Irondork:

  You may find this interesting, particularly Uzzah's comments. He worked in the legal department of a Bethel.

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/bible/126156/1/JW-Children-Lie-in-Custody-Cases

  CoCo
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  LongHairGal

  irondork:

  Yes, they want JW children to seem "normal" to throw suspicion off about the real nature of the religion. They want people in the community to think that JWs are 'just like everybody else'.

  Well, this isn't the only thing they are dishonest about as far as public presentation goes. They want people to dress up and look "business-like" when they are in public because they want to give the impression to the public that the religion is filled with educated, prosperous looking people. Because, after all, what person in their right mind would join a religion that actively pursues poverty??

  Bottom line: the religion presents a false face to the public and conceals the real story about the religion. If people knew the real truth about the religion they wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole! Too bad I didn't have the internet back then.
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  Bella15

  As someone who was raised in that cult, this is one of the things that really makes me mad, well perhaps frustrates me more, we know that it is all lies. Like the blood thing, gosh I see how stupid I was now, I didn't know anything about the whole issue, let's not forget all the medical and scientific info behind, I taught and indoctrinated to say NO BLOOD. I was so irresponsible as a mom, when I was about to deliver my first baby I signed the consent form for no-blood without knowing anything about it. Thanks God nothing happens but I was really in the dark, like a parrot I only learned to say NO BLOOD, NO BLOOD, NO BLOOD.