Brainwash Your Children From Infancy

by DakotaRed 12 Replies latest jw friends

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  DakotaRed

  From the new Theocratic Ministry School Book, Page 16, we read:

  Training Children to Listen

  Christian parents can help their children--even infants--to become
  “wise for salvation” by bringing them to congregation meetings, assemblies, and conventions. (2 Tim. 3:15) Since children vary in disposition and attention span, discernment is needed to help them learn to listen attentively. You may find the following suggestions to be helpful.

  At home, arrange times for your young Children to sit quietly and read or look at the pictures in our Christian publications. At the meetings, avoid using toys to keep young ones occupied. As was true in ancient Israel, so today young ones are present “in order that they may listen and in order that they may learn” (Deut. 31:12) Where practical, some parents provide even very young children with personal copies of the publications being considered. As children get a little older, help them prepare to have a share in programs that call for audience participation.

  The Scriptures reveal a close link between listening to Jehovah and: obeying him. This can be seen in Moses words to the nation of Israel: “I have put life and death before you, the blessing and the malediction; and you must choose life . . by loving Jehovah your God, by listening to his voice and by sticking to him.” (Deut. 30: Today, listening to the Instruction Jehovah provides and obediently applying it in our lives are essential to gaining God's approval and the blessing of everlasting life. How vital, then, that we heed Jesus' admonition: "Pay attention to how you listen"! Luke 8:18.

  The more I search publications put out by these jerks, the sorrier I feel for all of you that were raised in this cult.
• 

  refiners fire

  The Mormons do a better job, at their meetings they have childrens groups where the kiddies are indoctinated at a level they can understand.
  In the dubs, even toothless babes must gum on the meat of salvation being dispensed from the platform.
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  Perry

  So in other words, if you don't read the WT publications the scriptures show that you are choosing death.

  Absolutely unbelievable!

  I remember clearly studying in the Paradise book at the tender age of 5. I remember being scared of God because of all the killing he was about to do. I grew up absolutely convinced that I wouldn't live past age 12. (1975) I never knew a God of love from the publications.

  When are they going to learn that fear never works in the long run? Those scared children grow up really twisted either completely subserviant to the WT regardless of their bloodguilt and lies or must fight an uphill mental battle for years to achieve some semblence of normality in their lives.
• 

  Lady Lee

  ________
  In the dubs, even toothless babes must gum on the meat of salvation being dispensed from the platform
  ________

  There was meat in those talks?

  Thought it was the same pablum all stirred up, spoon fed, spit out and fed back year after year after year after....

  A not-so-silent lamb
  
  Aspire to inspire before you expire
• 

  dobby

  Dakota -

  not only being raised as a dub is bad, but so is being a parent of a baby and toddler.

  Before my child was born I did so much research on child development, etc - so that I allowed my baby and later toddler to have books and quiet toys during meetings AND i took him out of the meetings, let him play in the back rooms and outside. Let him eat animal crackers once in the library (hee hee the beginnnings of rebellion).

  Well...as you can imagine we had a few talks that may have been 'specially prepared for me. Contrast that to a "model couple" around my age who had an extremely well behaved child- why you may ask? Because they mercilessly pinched, slapped and covered her mouth from the time she was 4 months old to teach her to be quiet and sit still.

  That poor baby - I hope she gives 'em hell later.
• 

  xyzzy

  Please believe me when I tell you that I have a LOT of very hurtful memories of those Witnesses and their meetings. I remember not knowing what the meeting was about, but I had to sit still for it anyway. They might as well have spoken a foreign language. I remember those elders pinching and slapping me just for squirming about a bit in my seat.

  At least my Mom was good enough to get out of that cult with me, and apologize. Too many kids don't get even that much.

  I forgive my mom, as she was suckered into it too. But I will never forgive the WatchTower for as long as I live.

  "Comrades! We must abolish the cult of the individual decisively, once and for all!"
  ~Nikita Khrushchev, premier of the Soviet Union, echoed in the teachings of the WatchTower
• 

  Jewel

  Animal crackers in the library??? GASP! You wild thing, you!

  I left before I had my babies, but when my Mom would invite me to the Hall, I could picture the nightmare of trying to get my active and inquisitive toddlers/babies to sit still for TWO hours. No thanks-I always passed.

  When I was "in", people could give their little ones quiet stuff to play with. Now you're supposed to give a one year old a WT magazine??!!? Another reason to be thankful I'm out...

  Jewel
• 

  SYN

  Hehe, once when I was at a Watchtower study, I still remember this damn clearly, the speaker asked "Why should we listen to the guidance (or something like that) of the Faithful and Discreet Slave?" and some toddler stuck his hand up, so everyone was like, aaawww, cute, but when the microphone reached him, guess what the kid said!

  "NO!"

  ROFL! Back then everyone just sort of laughed nervously, and I still giggle when I think about it. Maybe that kid had visited some Apostate sites!

  "Vaccination has never saved a human life. It does not prevent smallpox." The Golden Age, Feb 4 1931 p. 293-4 - The Sacredness of Human Blood (Reasons why vaccination is unscriptural)
• 

  Reborn2002

  DakotaRed-

  I admire your conducting research yourself to better understand the damage the WTBTS does to children born into the cult.

  I was a 3rd generation JW. My mother was born into the JW 55 years ago to give an idea of the kind of history my family has with this religion. My grandfather was at the fabled convention at Yankee Stadium / Polo Grounds in NY, etc. and an elder for over 45 years.

  The totalitarian control on a child's life within that religion is not easily understood unless you have experienced it.

  My entire life was mapped out for me from birth, and I was basically indoctrinated from infancy that nothing else mattered but devotion to the JW. I was baptized at age 12.. ironic that they proclaim there is no pressure for children to get baptized, but the inexperienced youth are browbeaten endlessly with insinuations in either magazine articles to be covered in the TMS or from adults:

  "What Prevents YOU From Being Baptized?"

  and even at a young age you see the politics and manuevering.

  Choice A for a child: Get baptized, be praised by your parents and accepted into the fold of the entire congregation and the other youth who are your only allowed associates.

  OR

  Choice B for a child: Refrain from getting baptized, and be "marked" as bad associations and blackballed from all gatherings.

  You do the math.

  Then as you get older, you are not allowed at school parties, or proms, or from playing sports, or any after-school activities.

  Then even when you excel academically and have scholarships for college available entirely paid for, you are "counseled" by the elders who have $300,000 homes themselves that you:

  "Should put the Kingdom first, and pioneer, college is for the materialistic and prideful in the last days of this system."

  How can one NOT see the hypocrisy there? But as a youth you are not supposed to question the "elder arrangement".

  It has been many years since the above events happened to me, and I have since gotten a college degree and am doing pretty well for myself.

  Alas, the scars and memories remain.

  JW Viewpoint on Discipline of Children
  --------------------------------------
  "Blows that wound cleanse away evil; strokes make clean the innermost parts." WT 1/15/1954 pgs. 54-62
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  Eutapro

  Isn't everyone brainwashed in a sense? We are all conditioned by our parents and society. As a kid, I was brought up to think that it is okay to say swear words and treat girls like pieces of meat. I later learned that objectifying any human subject is just plain wrong. As an academic I put my values in check everyday. That does not mean they are nonexistent. You might also like to know that some in the field question whether there really is such a concept as brainwashing. I do not know.