Another WOL "Gem" (page 2)

Prisca

Gozz,

One way I see it is that these men are often raised in the "truth" and know nothing else. When your parents are JWs, your fleshly bros & sisters are JWs, your grandparents are JWs, your spouse is a born & bred JW, you know no other way of life.

All your life you have been indoctrinated in this mindset. You believe you are doing the will of God. No other religion matches up to yours. YOU have sayings of everlasting life. Men have to listen to YOU to attain salvation. Salvation is through no other group other than Jehovah's Witnesses. So you believe you have the way, the truth, the life.

It may be hard for those who weren't born into the Witnesses to understand how and why these ones don't see things like they really are. Well, sometimes, they don't and can't understand any other way of thinking. Call it brainwashing if you want, but it is definately doctrinated in them, and they will remain this way for as long as they choose to remain "in the Truth".

TR

JAVA,

LMAO! That's classic! Reverse psychology, it sounds like.

Thinker,

Does the GB think JW's are so simple minded that they would believe that little scenario and apply it to the WTS? (Sigh) I guess so.

TR

larc

Prisca,

When you grow up in it, it is not brainwashining, it is not indoctrination, it is a way of life. If is no different than an Apache Indain here or an aborigines in Australia. It's a way of life, and try to remember that.

Simon

I think there are huge differences between those that come into 'the truth' and those brough up in it. The ones that join often do so because of some personal trauma that the JWs pick up on an 'exploit' whereas those brought up know nothing else and so it is very difficult to break free.
Just my 2p worth (pence, not cents...)

JAVA

TR,

Reverse psychology, it sounds like.

Yeah maybe, but I think it's more BS than anything else.

JAVA, working the Coffee Shop territory

JAVA

Simon,

Good points, and as larc wrote, folks growing up as JWs see it as a "way of life." Yet many (perhaps most) kids growing up as Witnesses leave in their early to mid 20s. As you said, it must be difficult for them to leave this way of life, but unlike the tribes larc mentioned, JW kids have a greater exposure to the larger society. Maybe that's why so many of them leave, too.

JAVA, working the Coffee Shop territory

thinkers wife

Simon,
I like your two pence, it made a lot of sense. Oooops, am I a poet and don't know it.
Anyway seriously, I agree, there is a big difference between the two. And I totally agree that,

The ones that join often do so because of some personal trauma that the JWs pick up on an 'exploit'

Being one who studied with people, this is very true. Although in my defense, I thought I was saving them. But their mindset on questioning is in a totally different level than mine, one who was raised a JW.
TW

Edited by - thinkers wife on 1 February 2001 6:35:24

Gozz

Simon, true words. I've had to take a closer looka t my friends. Them JWs born into it. And I wonder. Even the well educated and intelligent ones, they can't take it. They can't take anything not toeing the organizational line. It's frustrating. They have a different way of reasoning. Only those who've been exposed to the outside world see things differently. I just wonder. You're spiritually weak if you miss a meeting, if you don't chat with them brothers after meeting, if you report a few hours. A pioneer's always spirituality strong. Being an elder's confirmation of your solid spirituality; all non-Jws are the enemy, they are the world, meats or the big A. And yes, anything in print is right, no questioning (this one knocks me off, dead!) You want to discuss any scriptural issue, it's independent thinking; food must come through only one source, anything from another pot's poison...Sure the GB doen't teach all these, do they? And are all the writing dept guys anointed?
***********
Gozz, who wants to know what is the truth...

Another WOL "Gem"

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