by sleepy 21 Replies latest jw friends
Would witnesses do anything they are told?
What do you think?If the GB came out with a new policy, such as you must now spit at people who dont take the mags off you on the ministry, and give some obscure scripture to prove it.
Would the witnesses do it? Or would they twig something is not right?
How far could they be pushed if asked by the society?
Far enought to kill?
If You Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next-Manic Street Preachers
They have already been pushed far enough to kill. They deny their own children blood because of what the Watchtower has told them. I suspect if you make too many changes too quickly then followers begin to question, but if you develop some new sinister stratagy over a number of years I am sure dubs would be pursuaded to do whatever the WTS tells them to do. You only have to look at what is happening in the Middle East. People will do anything if they believe they are right.
ps I loved your question from yesterday.
I asked a similar yet more provocative example to my mother (30 year RnF) and older sister (20 year RnF). I asked: "If the society found it accetable to break the law, by not reporting a pedophile would you think that is right"? Same response to same question from both:
"It doesn't matter because we have the {truth}".
(Thank You for your definitive non-side stepping the issue response---I thought)
And
"We as Jehovah's people wouldn't do anything like that anyway." (Both of them saying: They as Jehovah's People would never break the law, therefore report the incident---oooh really? Are they in for a suprise for hamstringing the "let the elders handle the situation, because the bible says-so" mentality).
With my experience...I find a great deal of ignorance within the R&F. Don't most of us?
Take for example...here my mom is a JW...for 30 YEARS. She KNOWS how the R&F in the congregation act and react to people who break taboos. They DAMN well know. Now I asked this question:
"If I were to go back to meetings; kept my tongue piercing, shaved head, and handle bar mustache. And by the way, I dont wear suits so I'm showing up in jeans and a T-shirt. I would live a moral and upright life according to the "truth". Would I be accepted? Tolerated? Would people avoid me? Shun me"?
Mom's Reply: "Oh of course NOT! It's totally up to your conscious! The elders, brother and sisters would always welcome you back NO MATTER what you look like".
Me: "Wouldn't they ask me to "change" my looks"???
Mom: "No. No. Never. They would love you for who you are."
What a CROCK OF CRAP! I mean COME ON!!!! We X's all KNOW what REALLY happens! We PRACTICED this collective behavior of ostracization! Yet her we are...Ms. 30 Yrs. R&F giving a very ignorant statement opposed to what REALLY happens. And this is a very COMMON response with R&F's.
It's ignorance. Self and Organizational denial. True R&Fers will always "justify" the obsurd.
But to answer your question:
I don't think the probability of the GB/WTBTS would go as far as indoctrinating your above mentioned behavior.
But then again, if you think about it....if your child is dying and needs a blood transfusion to save it's life? What happens with most of the R&Fers?? Hmm? Child dies. Your decision to end your child life at the whim of doctrine opinion by the GB. So in that light, they already asked for "murder" based on "obscure scripture".
D8TA
Actually, the R&F are not that obedient. Many are just passive-aggressive in their approach. Based on the theme in the magazines lately, I think that Brooklyn is getting worried. The meeting attendance mantra is almost in every article several times nowadays. At this rate it should be a DF'ing offense in a few years not to attend ALL the meetings. Should we expect each one to be marked absent or present on a list or have a written excuse to turn in?
D8TA your mom is lying to you. But then you already know that. If you turned up to the meetings looking as you described yourself, you would frighten the poor buggers half to death. Hell man, you'd even frighten me!!! :-)))))))))))) I suppose your mom has convinced herself that you'd be welcomed back with open arms.
I read a post on here recently where someone was reinstated after being disfed for adultery with someone in the Org, and even though he was reinstated (served his time so to speak) he was still getting the cold shoulder. So I think Hell would freeze over before you'd be welcomed back into the Kingdumb All dressed as you describe. (They'd probably let you go half a dozen times and then they'd apply the thumb screws!!!!)
Marilyn
To be honest, D8TA, I think JWs like your mum genuinely believe what they say, that such things are a matter of conscience. However, what is in the back of their minds is that once they get you hooked and ‘accepting the truth’ your conscience will conform because it’s the Christian thing to do, and you will eventually change to fit in. At first you will be welcomed but your period of grace will be measured in weeks rather than months and if you don’t make changes you will be shunned.
I’ve seen this way of thinking a hundred times when trying to indoctrinate potential new converts, it’s the old ‘of course you won’t have to go out from door to door or give up anything, unless you want to.’
It’s the ‘unless you want to’ bit that gives the game away. Of course they can’t force you to conform to their ways but unless you do you haven’t really ‘made the truth your own’. And while they admit that you won’t have to, they won’t tell you that they expect you to.
If you saw the Yeshua come from the sky, and you knew that it was him in all his glory, and he asked you to sacrifice your first born, would you?
No, I'd simply switch medication
If you knew Satan had killed God and was coming to get you, Xenu, would you shit your pants? Would you?
I think Blondie is right. Witnesses are not as obedient as you would like to think. There is a big difference between them believing "they have the truth" and how they actually live.
These people are lost, but you have to give them at least a small measure of credit. To even ask if they would kill under orders from the GB or spit on householders is just plain ridiculous and hypothetical beyond reason.
Then again, soldiers are ordered to kill and do it in some places all the time. The danger of this cult is much more subtle and directly comparing it to other violent cults betrays a lack of understanding of their real nature.
Path
