by kneehighmiah 60 Replies latest jw friends
" But if they slowly started to identify a person as an enemy "______Paralipomenon
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" Alert faithful members of the congregation to stop associating with that person "_____Organized to do Jehovah's Will page 154
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Listen , Obey, and be Blessed
Hate what Jehovah hates
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To bad it's against the law to stone the enemy outside the city gates
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" They couldn't just walk up and say " Kill this person "_____Para
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Mighty darn close
My parents lived through the 1930s and 1940s. I have no doubt that the Witnesses would commit murder if ordered by the GB. It need not be an express order, either. Concentration camp accounts were a specialty of mine growing up. The war was only over a short time. Postwar institutions were still being introduced. I think I had survivors' guilt. My classmates' fathers had fought nobly in WWII, preserving important American values. In my heart, I hated the Witnesses. I was proud to be an American. My father worked at Bethel during the war years. I always wonder if I would be a good German.
The GB ovverreaches. It shatters notions of individual responsibility. Witnesses need never examine their conduct. My college profs would not teach their subjects b/c they found certain principles to be more important. Hard questions need to be asked. Sometimes I believe my conduct or views to be Good German. I paid such a high price being a Witness kid that I love the support of groups. Other times I act as though I am in the resistance. There is a definite interior discussion in my mind. Witnesses don't feel the need to question themselves.
I don't know all the legal issues resolved by the Nuremberg tribunal. It is long past time to research it. People romanticize the 60s. Morality is something to be examined in our routine lives. September 11th infuriated me. It was a TV production to me. My life was there. I was too afraid to hail a taxi. My fear was that a Middle Eastern driver would be in the taxi. I was afraid that my hands would grab his neck.
People who don't ask hard questions of themselves are capable of atrocities.
undertheradar. uou have a good, but not new point about killing your eneies earlier rather than later.
It was part of the rationale for torture in the middle ages.
By torturing dissenters, you shortened their suffering in Purgatory, credit for time served.
I believe the GB is becoming more authoritarian. That's what woke me up. I've heard a friend say that if the GB told him to wear purple underwear he would wear purple underwear. That's step #1 of the small steps that allow one to commit atrocities. It doesn't happen at once. In the Milgram study the electric shock dosage was gradually increased. Psychology shows that people more loyal and more capable of doing wrong things the more they invest emotionally into something. Entrapment
They are instructed to commit murder and do. Every child that is not given life saving blood is murdered. No different then not feeding your child and it dies. There actions caused the death. If I gave my child a snake to play with and it is bitten and dies can I just say I am following the bible Mark 16:18
I am no fan of the Society. They hung me out to dry during the Vietnam War and the Draft. My father died from lack of blood. Shunning tears families apart. But still, when you make the leap to a Jones Town ending or a LDS scenario written about by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in "A Study In Scarlett" you have taken a group to another level.
Use a little caution. When you attack a JW with this hypothesis you will get a lot of negative response.
I think it's you, Designs, that is missing the point.
The psychology of cultish behavior is well understood. The Watchtower Society exhibits all the traits associated with extremist cults. They are able to tear families apart, and make their members feel justified at doing so. They are able to convince loving parents to allow their children to die rather than to allow them life saving treatment. All to uphold the Watchtower's authority.
The JW mindset is that the society comes before all others. Including your closest family. That is unnatural and very dangerous, as the OP points out.
So stop defending them.
Tik- I am not defending the Wt.. Projecting scenarios as kneehigh has done is not productive to helping the friends still in who may want to leave.
I remember the protestors at Assemblies going back to the 1960s. They were presenting scenarios, a mix of truth about issues and projections, and simple came off as nut cases. As much as we knew things were amiss within the Organization viewing these people as an alternative was a joke. That is the problem when you project things like- Someday the Society will tell its members to kill ______X.
"I doubt the Society would ever be so blatant as to directly suggest murdering anyone"
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"Being limited by the laws of the worldly nation in which we live and also by the laws of God through Jesus Christ, we can take action against apostates only to a certain extent, that is, consistent with both sets of laws. The law of the land and God’s law through Christ forbid us to kill apostates"
--W 11/15/52
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However, IF the law of the land allowed WT to kill apostates or the GB says god changed his mind, well.....
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"The obligation to hate lawlessness also applies to all activity by apostates. Our attitude toward apostates should be that of David, who declared: 'Do I not hate those who are intensely hating you, O Jehovah, and do I not feel a loathing for those revolting against you? With a complete hatred I do hate them. They have become to me real enemies.' --W 7/15/92, pp 12-13
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W 11/15/2011, p. 5 Jehu Champions Pure Worship
Jehu announced that he intended to hold "a great sacrifice" for Baal. (2 Ki. 10:18, 19) "This is a clever play on words on the part of Jehu," says one scholar. While the term employed here "generally means ‘sacrifice,’ it is also used of the ‘slaughter’ of apostates." Because Jehu did not want any Baal worshippers to miss this event, he assembled all of them in the house of Baal and had them dress in distinctive attire. "As soon as he finished rendering up the burnt offering," Jehu had 80 armed men slaughter Baal’s devotees.
....It is true that Jehu spilled much blood. Yet, the Scriptures present him as a courageous man
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Apostates are "mentally diseased" -- W 11/15/11
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WT didn't print these statements just to fill page space. The underlying message is subtle but powerful. With WT, there's always a hidden agenda.
