Do you think Witnesses would drink the "Cool-Aid" if told to do so...like Jonestown?

by Witness 007 79 Replies latest watchtower bible

• 

  jwfacts

  There have been a number of good comments already that I agree with.

  Only a few would. Here are a few reasons.

  1. There is a difference between an isolated cult and one that integrates with society as the Watchtower does, and hence it looses some of its power.
  2. The main teaching of the Watchtower is living forever, not dying to get a reward. They would need to change the message before insisting on suicide.
  3. Blood transfusions are not quite the same, as they convince followers that blood transfusions are more dangerous than refusing blood.
  4. Many JWs do not believe it, they just go along as it is part of their family culture. The Watchtower has been around too long and is now too big.

  Maybe in Russell's time there would have been more chance to get a group to suicide on October 2nd 1914, as at that stage they were far closer to the parameters required for a suicide cult.
• 

  diamondiiz

  I can't believe that most here think that there would be such a high percentage of JWs who would drink koolaid if told by GB. Just because a lot of dubs are followers of this cult doesn't make them willing to commit suicide. To think even 40% would kill themselves at present time if GB told them to is ridiculous!! At present, the only teaching that they can use is blood to allow someone to die for the cult, there is nothing else. If they came out with something that would require witness population to drink koolaid majority would not.

  While JW are programmed to wish death upon the world and death upon apostates doesn't mean they wish death upon themselves. The mentality is "us vs them" and they hope we perish while they stay alive without dying which means the suicide doesn't fit in that equation. Getting anointed to drink koolaid MAYBE easier as they believe they will go to heaven and are uber dubs but the rest would have hard time following the suicide line of reason. There are those unstable, sure, but the vast majority I just don't see it.

  Like I said, how many here would have drunk koolaid when they were believers? I know, I wouldn't have, my wife wouldn't, I don't think any of the close "friends" I knew would have. So how many here would have done it if GB told them to????????

  Just because a dub is stupid enough to shun their relatives doesn't mean they would drink koolaid for wts.
• 

  jam

  If the Gov. Body start dropping like fllies from drinking

  the Kool-- Aid tomorrow, you would have A lot of members

  doing the same. Remerber how you felt before 1975, if

  I,am doing enough, will I make it, will I be left behind.
• 

  blondie

  But most jws have no idea who the GB are, what they look like or have access to information about what they are doing. Any info would have to come from the elders, and I can tell you that if 1 out of 10 would obey a suicide command for the rank and file, it would be the most. Elders are not an obedient lot and the rank and file are worse.
• 

  jam

  blondie;Good point.
• 

  sizemik

  Direct obedience to a suicide order as in Jonestown? . . . . no.

  But there are many and varied ways for large numbers to throw themselves upon the altar of ultimate sacrifice.

  Generate hostile persecution against the backdrop of missing out on "the paradise" . . . and you've got a formula that's different from Jonestown . . . but capable of a similar result.

  Just look at the situation that prevailed in Malawi . . . replicate the same conditions on a world-wide scale . . . and you realise the JW's are closer to that sort of behaviour than many might first think.

  It's still a cult . . . and cults do shit like that.

  As you see these things starting to occur, lift your heads up and raise yourselves erect . . . for your deliverance is getting near
• 

  man oh man

  *** w87 1/15 p. 16 par. 5 The World Was Not Worthy of Them ***
  5 Another example of faith from the days of Israel's judges was Samson, mighty enemy of the Philistines. True, he eventually became their blinded captive. But Samson brought death to many of them when he pulled down the pillars of the house in which they were presenting a great sacrifice to their false god Dagon. Yes, Samson died with those Philistines but not as a despairing suicide.

  *** w70 6/1 p. 330 par. 19 Do You Have "Faith to the Preserving Alive of the Soul"? ***
  But Samson was no cowering, morbid-minded suicide. He did not cause the collapse of the house in despair, wishing thereby to end a miserable life and thinking he was a complete failure. No. It took faith for him to petition God for sufficient strength to wreak vengeance upon the assembled Philistines, enemies of Jehovah and His people.

  I guess theres more than one kind of suicide! lol
• 

  White Dove

  I think the "Come into God's rest" scripture would suffice for a couple of good twists.
• 

  N.drew

  May I say something stupid? Again. Dear man oh man thank you for the scriptures, they apply to my plan (not my plan, but the semi-plan of the Society). I hope they don't know about it. I mean I hope they do to fix it.

  The soul that is sinning will die.

  Jesus, the way, truth and life.

  Obey Jesus, means on the way to life.

  Disobey Jesus, means on the way to "suicide".

  So are they not commiting very, very slow suicide now?

  I'm reasoning from the scriptures, give me a break!

  I looked up Ecclesiastes 7:12 this morning for something else

  The Philistines worshipped the god Baal, if I'm remembering correctly.

  The word for "possess" in Ecclesiastes 7:12 is baal.

  So who is for possessing the Earth?

  Is possessing the Earth someone's main goal in life?

  I seem to remember there was group for possessing the Earth,

  anybody know?

  There was no harming of any "mentally diseased" in the posting of this post.

  God bless You!
• 

  Nickolas

  This thread falls short of hysteria but is nevertheless an exercise in paranoia. The question goes to what the Watchtower is and is not and how it differs from sequestered cults like the Peoples Temple and the Branch Davidians. The Watchtower is without question big business. With around $1 billion in annual revenues and billions more in tangible assets it is one of the largest corporations in New York. That isn't coincidental. At the top is a hierarchy of men who admit to modest personal assets but who live like millionaires while they travel around the world, live in NYC apartments that most people in the city could not even hope to afford while exercising great power over the lives of millions of people. They are superstars within their own milieu, and they have power and the trappings of wealth without the burdens of wealth.

  Where's the percentage in even trying to end it all in a blaze of self destruction? And is it even possible? Pulling it off would demand complete secrecy and the enlistment of virtually the entire hierarchy from the bodies of elders up. But elders are regularly resigning and exiting the Watchtower and because of the culture of the Society are doing so without telegraphing their prior intent. There is no way the Watchtower can tell them apart from those who are unquestionably loyal. The subversive elements within the Society, for example but not confined to the AJWRB, are made up of thinking men and women who do not wish to leave but to reform the Society's doctrines. These people, and those who are already harbouring doubts, would blow the whistle without hesitation. Kool-aid? Not going to happen.