Lol! Those are good ones and I look forward to reading more stories. They really make you think and I would have enjoyed seeing their faces when you said that.
exJW Psychology 102--How to Ask a Question When Questions Aren't Allowed
by Billy the Ex-Bethelite 41 Replies latest jw friends
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Julia Orwell
It's a shame you have to pretend to be a non-Jw in order to even ask those questions! What does it tell you about the group if its own members aren't allowed to ask it, but randoms on the street are? Oh yeah, it's a cult.
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Room 215
Good going, Billy; I tried a variation of your tactic when the Manchester Guardian published that item on the UN NGO question; brought it up before a post-bookstudy coffee-and-cookies session at my house. Two elders were present; lots of stammering before they trotted out the conjecture that the reporter "might well be an apostate."
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Fernando
Great technique Billy!
Having left for good I cannot ask some of my favourite questions:
"When I was in service last week I was asked why Jehovah's Witnesses call themselves 'publishers of the Good News' whilst unfamiliar with the 'Good News' according to Paul, Moses, Isaiah and Psalms. How should I have answered?"
(More than half the NWT Bible's roughly 152 references to "good news" are by Paul!)
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Billy the Ex-Bethelite
sd-7: I don't know if I'd call myself "clever" or "sly". At the risk of outting myself, I'll disclose that I refer to myself as a "sneaky sneaker."
trujw: Sorry to hear that you and your wife suffered at the hands of a bunch of idiots. There are lots as$hole elders appointed by WT that need to have their names on restraining orders. It's a good way to notify those jerks that YOU have disfellowshipped THEM!
Sapphy: That's when I use the line, "I know that 'God magic' is what we're supposed to believe, but that reply won't work with an atheist."
Resistance is Futile: Excellent response. I hope that "lady" was wearing her depends when you asked her that question.
Now for the "What is it we believe again?" Technique. This can get interesting when it's in a group and someone tries to make the conversation "spiritual". And it's hard to describe exactly how this will play out, since the conversation can make a lot of twists and turns. And it works best when there are two of us in the group that are "sneaky sneakers". I was always too "in the know" to talk like I didn't know what we were supposed to believe. But I sure knew how to make things interesting if someone else asked the questions.
For an example, I'll go back several years to when the brochures were released at the DC about proof of creation. When a group of us went out afterward, Br. Self-Righteous (*names have been changed) decided that the group should be discussing the program and new releases. Evidently cued by my severe eye-rolling to the point of injury, my sister brought in the question, "So, what is it we believe about mosquitoes? Did Jehovah make them to eat blood?" Then I came in with, "Well, that wasn't addressed in the talks or the brochures, but I had a CO say that the devil was responsible for mosquitoes. I don't know where he got that." After some speculation went around, I came back with, "I would guess that mosquitoes started biting for blood about the same time that the flesh-eating animals started eating meat." The Technique then reenters with, "When do we believe that animals started eating meat?" Of course the general agreement in the group is that it was right after the flood when God told Noah that they could eat meat, but then I come in with, "Well, it isn't quite that simple since they came out of the ark with so few animals. If the tigers and lions ate a gazelle a day as soon as they came out of the ark, there wouldn't have been any gazelle after two days. So it must have been sometime later, when there were enough animals around, that they could begin eating other animals." As the conversation became awash in more questions and lots of speculation, Br. Self-Righteous expressed that maybe we shouldn't be talking about these things. So, then we all looked at him and said, "What are you talking about, YOU were the one that started this conversation in the first place."
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ÁrbolesdeArabia
Billy, how would you describe the perfect JW Kangaroo Court (Judical Committe)?
In Business one of the first things your taught to survive is to be a "duck". Someone ask you "Who did this or What is wrong with our company" you duck! By ducking you allow another person to get stuck trying to answer a question that might cost you your job or get you in trouble.
The Boss eventually bought a Dilbert Sign "NO DUCKS!" because nobody would answer his questions, he got frustrated with ambigeous answers or evasive speech. Elders are this way (not all of them, they can pull doctrine out of their butt) when they have no idea how to explain a crazy doctrine or old teaching Judge Ruthernut taught his followers!
Please post more stories now that you are out of School for the Summer or did you Graduate? If so, Congradulaations to you!
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Sammy Jenkis
Awesome post Biily! Thanks..
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AnnOMaly
Billy, how do you think up this stuff on the spur of the moment? You're brilliant!
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Billy the Ex-Bethelite
Oops, sorry I didn't respond earlier AA.
"Billy, how would you describe the perfect JW Kangaroo Court (Judical Committe)?"
I show up to the JC confessing that I fornicated. Since they would need to know what happened, I'd start from the very beginning. When things started to get interesting, I'd pull Barbi and Ken out of my pocket to show exactly where we touched each other and what happened as we took off each other clothes. Then I'd pull out some more Barbis and Kens to show what happened when her roommates got home. I would leave out no details.
Then I'd confess to another sin: lying. None of that exciting stuff happened because I'm too busy with school for the types of orgies that they fantasize about.
"In Business one of the first things your taught to survive is to be a "duck"."
Typically, the elders are more accustomed to dealing with "chickens", people that are afraid of them and the backroom interrogation. Looking back to the backroom meeting that I endured (it wasn't a JC, but very similar), I wish that I would have been mentally prepared to keep the meeting dragging for 12 hours or longer. Although I would have "ducked" many of their questions, I would have continued with more and more questions about the allegations, meanings of words, and scriptural procedures.
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Billy the Ex-Bethelite
Ann: I wouldn't say it's exactly "spur of the moment." I got so much interesting information from this forum, jwfacts, etc., and then mentally practiced how the conversations might go. Since I was still attending the meetings for a couple years after "waking up," that gave me plenty of time to prepare.
And when bringing these things up to JWs, I was actually surprised at how blindsided they were by the questions and conversations. JWs are so trained to only address the questions at the bottom of the page or looking into the Reasoning book, that I thought some would have a brain-explosion when they actually had to THINK about what to say. The conversations did take unexpected turns, which just gave me more insight into how to steer future conversations.