Not unless the person's entire family agrees to leave with them. Fear of shunning is the best tool the WT has to keep people in. Its keeping me in.....
The UN Debacle, Disfellowshipping Policies, Child Abuse Cases---Will ANYTHING Ever Sway A JW From "The Truth"?
by minimus 46 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
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Quendi
This is a wonderful thread and I want to thank minimus for starting it. I have to agree with those who say that many leave because of something that has impacted them personally rather than from a close examination of this religion. That was certainly true in my case. Although I did have some doubts going back to 1995 when The Watchtower offered a new definition of "generation", it took being disfellowshipped and the judicial committee's refusal to reinstate me to finally open my eyes to the fact that this religion was not worth my time and effort anymore.
During the time I vainly sought reinstatement, I began looking at the Bible and WTS theology anew. I was then ready to accept that the two were at variance and the differences could not be reconciled. That made my decision two years ago to never return easier to make. Yet I have to wonder what would have happened if I had not been disfellowshipped in the first place. Would I still be one of Jehovah's Witnesses? I have to sadly say the answer is most likely even though I would have been very unhappy and miserable. I would have given myself false consolation that at least I was still "in the truth" and surrounded by people who were real friends.
It takes both courage and humility--two qualities noticeably lacking in the WTS leadership--to change a life's course. For those of us who left, we needed both to escape. We also know of many who believe in their hearts that the WTS is a false religion but who stay on because for various reasons they can't face the difficulties and challenges leaving this religion would entail. Not all of them are cowardly or arrogant because they have chosen to stay. In many cases the collateral damage their departure would cause would be too great. They are faced with a choice of evils and have to select the least among them. But for those of us who have managed to escape, we can be thankful that we didn't suffer more than we did.
Sulla has given me a lot to think about on the question of whether the WTS is a cult. There might be some validity in the reasons put forward for saying no. Fifteen or twenty years ago, I would not have said so. That is because I couldn't point to a single leader or group as being the religion's focus. Matters are otherwise now. There can be no doubt that the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses, by donning the mantle of the "faithful and discreet slave" to the exclusion of all others, has made itself the unchallenged leader of this religion whose every utterance and edict is to be unquestioningly obeyed. They have cowed most into submission and expelled others who refused to follow. To my mind that says this religion has adopted all the trappings of a cult and is becoming worse by the day.
Quendi
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LongHairGal
Minimus:
I doubt it. I just made a post on another thread about a "faithful" JW who heard the recent lawsuit news and did not feel swayed at all. In fact, I do not feel that negative world news on any topic against the religion will make these people budge.
As some others may feel, it will take something personally that hits at their heart to get many if not all the remaining JWs there to even consider leaving the religion. They are there for the duration and perhaps if Jesus came riding a wrecking ball and smashing through the walls they might wake up.
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00DAD
The UN thing was huge for me. Even though it took 5-6 years for me to leave, THAT was the thing that really started the whole house of cards falling down.
00DAD
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bobld
Maybe not to the ones that are brain dead in the cult.However,with all the bad news about
the wbts will instill in peoples mind NOT to join this religion.Thus in the western world their #'s will be down.
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Ding
A lot of people have come out and a lot more will.
Not as many as we would like, but a lot...
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Disillusioned Lost-Lamb
You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink, so if it's a stupid prideful stubborn horse it's going to die of thirst.
The same is true with devout pious witlesses, you can show/lead them to truth but you can't make them listen or believe; so if they are stupid, prideful and stubborn, well.....
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daringhart13
As I read this thread.....I'm just sick at some of these stories. You can multiply them by 1,000.....
What has to be said here is that a lot of people who are JWs are really not very good people. Some of them are terrible.
To go knock on doors while your 'brother' is in the hospital, then slander him by saying he had a transfusion? Lets just cut to the chase: awful people. (Galatians 6:10)
Some of them are exactly where they should be.
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metatron
If you could hit them hard with more solid lawsuits such as this one, there might be a permanent effect. I do know that there are some sisters that are quietly upset by this stuff because they know about molestation incidents personally or grit their teeth at every offense against common sense by Watchtower male chauvinism.
metatron
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Sulla
Quendi, my view on whether the JWs are a cult is something of a minority viewpoint. Lots of friends who are XJWs disagree with me on this point, and I can see both sides. For me, a cult involves a charismatic leader and a certain degree of impairment among the followers.
The leaders of the JWs have a lot of control, but their control is not based on their personal charisma. When it comes to impairment, it's a closer call. But for me, it seems more likely that the JWs offer the sorts of benefits to people that those people feel are worth the price of admission. Shunning is very characteristic of cults, I grant you, but it is practiced across millions of people. Can you brainwash millions? I don't know.
I think my real reason is that I don't want to underestimate the degree of volition that is involved. For example, my real break began when my daughter was born: I knew immediately that I would never obey the blood policy. But if that was a choice, so was the opposite choice: my parents sincerely would prefer to see me dead rather than alive with a transfusion. That's a fully-informed choice, it seems to me. It's hard to understand, but that doen't necessarily mean it isn't free. The ancient Spartan women would prefer to see their sons dead and alive and having failed in battle: return with your shield or on it, they said. There are plenty of cultural, religious, social reasons why they thought this way, but I don't think that makes it an un-free choice.
I agree that it often takes courage and humility to leave the JWs. Sometimes, depending on the case, it takes rage and self-will. I have long thought that the central driving factor of the JW outlook is absurd pride -- in all the world, only their interpretive key unlocks the secret code of scripture, which makes them better people. I suggest that some leave the JWs because their pride is so large, even the JWs can't contain it. Having more than one path out -- humility vs. pride -- is suggestive to my thinking.