How would YOU explain a Jehovah's Witness FEAR of Disfellowshipping to a reporter ?

by Balaamsass 19 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Balaamsass

  Today I got contacted by a reporter. He was incredulous that a parent would contact Elders and not report a Child rape to the police immediately. I tried to put on my JW hat and explain the JW mindset to him..but it was like explaining color to a blind man. I tried to use the Mrs' phrase "JWs are Amish with make-up"..but that just doesn't get across the "us vs them" mindset of JWs.

  How would you explain the mindset (and fear) or the average JW in a short paragraph for a national publication?

  Also has the concept of "age of accountability" (the reasoning for child baptism & disfellowshippings) ever been put in print ? Or is it a Rutherford holdover?

  Also...what thread had the Telememo copy with question # 9 ? (That any attorney had seen that memo is mind boggling).

  I invited him to read JWN to get a better idea of current and Ex-JWs viewpoints for background.
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  Heaven

  The mindset of JWs is that they are God's Chosen so everyone is beneath them. But as a JW, you are made to feel like you never do enough and are never good enough. JWs live in constant fear and guilt.

  Disfellowshipping is an act used to keep JWs in fear and to bring about submission. It is designed to beat people down and make them feel despair, guilt, fear, worthlessness, ashamedness, and a host of other self-destructive and negative emotions. It's goal is to keep people under the Watchtower's control.

  No wonder so many people in this organization are depressed.
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  flipper

  BALAAMSASS- Good idea to invite the reporter to read JWN to get an idea of what is really going on regarding ex-JWs viewpoints and it would be especially good to refer him to threads dealing with the Candace Conti case regarding child abuse. One suggestion would be having him watch all the youtubes that Cedars and Don Viejo posted threads on where Candace & her attorney Rick Simons were explaining all about her case against the WT society - it gives a good overview of just how authoritarian and controlling in an illegal way the WT society is. Also shows how sneaky and smarmy they are.

  In explaining to a reporter on WHY the average JW would report child abuse to the elders instead of the police- I would tell them that JW's are indoctrinated from ground zero at the very start that the elders authority and the WT society's authority is ALWAYS above the authority of man made laws, man made laws are invalid to a typical JW if they've been told those laws conflict with Jehovah's or WT society interests ! Translation ( and explain this to said reporter ) : WT society leaders or authority representatives including elders = Jehovah God in a JW's eyes . There is no difference to a JW . WT leaders are the same as God to a JW.

  As regards the mindset and fear in a typical JW it's an extension of that misconception that WT leaders ae the same as Jehovah or God to them. A JW is taught that if they disobey instructions from the WT society they endanger their own life and may be destroyed at Armageddon in God's war on mankind. At their assemblies, meetings, and gatherings they are constantly warned , and actually threatened that obedience to WT leaders MEANS their very life ! That if they DO NOT obey they will be killed by God or destroyed. It's a mind control technique of fear and guilt which keeps JW's under the WT society's thumb and ultimate control.

  So- I think your reporter may understand it if you explain it this way. Tell him it's the same fear tactics that more extreme cults in the media have used over the years like Jim Jones People's Temple, David Koresh Branch Davidians, and even Charles Manson. Although not as outwardly violent the fear tactics used to control Jehovahs Witnesses are EXACTLY the same. Thats why the WT leaders are so dangerous. If the time comes in the future and they saw they were losing all their members and their whole financial ballgame- there is no telling WHAT WT leaders might do ! Peace out, Mr. Flipper
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  DesirousOfChange

  JWs have the practice of baptizing their youths (10-13) into the religion. At this point they become "official" members that can be punished by the Elders/Deacons for any indiscretions, ie, smoking, drinking, experimenting with drugs or sex, watching R-rated movies (don't even think of porn). Such punishment can be as little as private reprimands or public reprimands from the church "stage", to as strict as total shunning or excommunication (referred to as disfellowshipping). This results in the complete loss of any kind of association or communication with all friends and family in the religion (the exception being close family members living in the same house, as in the case of a minor and his/her parents), but even those are to limit interaction and religious conversation. This emotional "blackmailing" is horrendous even for a mature adult, but it is even more devastating for younger members, leading to severe depression and on occasion even suicide. The threat of this punishment is a control method, such as is common in extreme cults, that is used by the Church Leadership to demand strict adherence to Church Policy. Disfellowshipping is even used against anyone who simply decides they no longer want to be associated with the Church, despite the fact that they may have made the committment under peer pressure as an uniformed child.
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  sd-7

  I would say, for one of Jehovah's Witnesses, a true believer, I mean--and I speak as a born-in, so I know what I'm talking about--that fear of disfellowshipping is equivalent to the fear of death. It would be like dying to the world, like being a walking corpse. You'd feel like you were just waiting for something horrible to happen to you (car accident, struck by lightning, STDs/HIV, drug and alcohol addiction, losing your job, and so on), there's this fear that the world is literally going to eat you alive if you get expelled from the religion. You have no idea whatsoever what life will be like on the outside, it is an utterly foreign concept. It's the spiritual equivalent for a JW of...covering you in blood and tossing you into a shark tank.

  That's how I would describe it. Genuine, serious fear.

  --sd-7
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  Gayle

  I've told non-JWs, to be DF'd from JWs, would be like them being kicked out of your country, for disagreeing with the politics/rulership, and can never have contact with family or friends thereafter ever.
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  DATA-DOG

  I would argee with everyone so far. Yes, how do you explain color to a blind man? No matter what is written in any publication or stated in any PR video about loyalty to Christ or being pround to called a Christian, the rank-and-file follow the GB, period. The GB's thoughts are their commands. Disobeying the GB is the equivalent of disobeying God. Disobeying an Elder by thinking for yourself or questioning anything is tantamount to disobeying the GB. From birth you are told the the " slave " knows what is best and is the sole channel for your very life. To be cast outside is to lose everything now, to live as an unreasoning animal existing from day to day with no hope except eventual, everlasting destruction. The guilt of never doing enough while inside the organization never ends for many. The fear of constant scrutiny from men and wondering if you will survive armageddon enters your dreams. There is never a time when your thought are not centered on the organization. You are either thinking of how to please them to make your life easier, or why you don't measure up, are they all talking about me, am I spiritually weak, or how to escape. The fear of being Df'd is so real that many will live their entire lives with no true friends, no one to be truly honest with, knowing that if they did confide in anyone, even their mate, they risk being cut-off from everyone they know. There is no honorable way to leave, and no recourse against the religious authority. You are a prisoner. You find whatever happiness you can within your cell, or you risk death on the outside in a world of enemies who have no scriptural hope of survival. You suppress who you really are, and give up all that you could have been in exchange for a time-slip that they approve of. Anything less and you are labeled as weak, spiritually diseased, emotionally imbalanced and a carrier of spiritual sickness that could spread to the flock. Elder's phone calls and Elder's wanting to " just talk " set your heart racing and tie your stomach in knots and keep you awake at night. When things are at their worst you wonder how your family would handle the news of your suicide. You hate yourself for allowing others to cause you so much fear and pain in your life. You work late to avoid meetings, pretend to be sick for others, you do what you can to lessen the burden, just not too much to arouse suspicion since this would mean more calls and meetings. In the end, if you love your family you pull yourself up by your bootstraps, paint on a smile and hope no one can see through it, and you keep going. You think, " someday I will get my chance, someday..".
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  clarity

  Wow, some powerful feelings and thoughts on here.

  >

  I don't think I could explain this fear to someone who thinks concretely,

  & who deals with facts ...........

  >

  To even explain the 'silence in the room' if I ask a question or express

  any doubt ... leaves me at a loss for words !

  >

  No wonder the members are so often mentally ill ... instead of dealing with

  the ordinary things in life like most "normal" people, they are running around

  in circles with their minds filled with made-up watchtower fear and guilt!!

  clarity
• 

  flipper

  BTTT
• 

  lisaBObeesa

  I tried to use the Mrs' phrase "JWs are Amish with make-up"..but that just doesn't get across the "us vs them" mindset of JWs.

  I use the Almish to explain things to people. Thanks to all the programs on TV about the Almish, more Americans are familiar with what it is like for a person to leave the Almish or be kicked out of the Almish.

  People understand that it is like being kicked out of your entire world. And that is what it is like to be DF from the JWs. The JWs are a closed society, just like the Almish, and being kicked out of the JWs is like being kicked out of your entire world, all your friends and all your family as if they all died at once....just like being kicked out of the Almish.

  The only difference is JWs use modern technology, have jobs out in the 'world' and so on. So it looks like the JWs are not closed off. But make no mistake about it: Though you see them out in the world living, the JWs don't really LIVE in out in the world. They LIVE in their closed community, just like the Almish.

  And, just like the Almish, being kicked out of the closed community = being cut off from GOD Himself. It equals going to Hell (though JWs don't believe in Hell).

  What could be more frightening then losing ALL of your family and friends at once(as if they all died) and being damned?

  ETA: I guess I didn't really address the question in the OP...I was more focusing on the question in the title of the post. So I will add this:

  Just like the Almish, the JWs are told to report things to the elders and to follow the rules and that is what they do. They trust their elders to handle things. The elders are their 'higher authority.'

  The Police are just 'the world' and the JWs don't live in the world. Just like the Almish. (the Almish don't report their child abuse to 'the English', either.)