by confusedandalone 13 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
ADCMS & confused and alone:
Yes, the religion cannot defend its doctrines because they are so flimsy, so they seek to silence anybody who opens their mouth even to ask an innocent question.
I'm sure they'd like to censor the whole world. Well, they can't censor people outside of the boundaries of the kingdom hall or some car group. They would be overstepping their boundaries if they tried.
AndDontCallMeShirley - "WT is so paranoid and intolerant of any scrutiny/questioning it now labels someone who's never been a JW an 'apostate'."
I've seen some epic facepalm moments in my day...
...but this one is truly Sparlockian.
Honestly, the way the hits keep coming the past couple of years, it's been like watching the longest slo-mo train wreck in history.
AndDontCallMeShirley - "It really reveals the shaky foundation the WT rests on. Their beliefs and policies are so untenable the only way they can exert any control to limit exposure is to use heavy-handed bullying- even against people who aren't even in the religion."
I've said it before and I'll say it again...
...if you have to use "dirty lawyer tactics" - i.e. cheat - to defend your ideology, it doesn't deserve to be defended.
Cedars - "...her elders went straight into panic mode."
That's an easy one to explain.
She wasn't baptized, so they couldn't disfellowship her to insulate her from any other congregation members who might otherwise listen to what she had to say. The fact that she hadn't said anything to anyone else is irrelevent; from their POV, they couldn't take the chance, and had to nip it in the bud ASAP.
A rhetoric-laced platform freakout to stoke the fires of anti-"apostate" sentiment was therefore their only option, with the hope that the rest of the congo would put two and two together and conclude (correctly) that they were talking about her after she stopped coming...
...and thusly be too scared to speak to her on their own if they ever ran into her again (regardless of any "official" status she may or may not have had in the KH).
It was, in its own way, a knee-jerk reaction, but their only real recourse (not defending them, simply explaining).
It does set an interesting precedent, though...
...once you start labeling even non-members as "apostates", where does it end?
