Longform article on the JW: 'In the Belly of Jehovah'

by nomoreklondikes 10 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  nomoreklondikes

  Some of you might know me from this thread. I wrote a longform article, 'In the Belly of Jehovah', on the Jehovah's Witnesses for an Australian magazine, which today has been published online:

  http://theliftedbrow.com/post/88214463157/in-the-belly-of-jehovah-by-pete-nicholson

  The piece began eighteen months ago. I was intrigued by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and not knowing much about them beyond what gets commonly repeated, I wanted to investigate the lives and practices of their members.

  In recent times, a fair few cult-busting pieces have been written on the Jehovah’s Witnesses; I wanted to take a different tack, and look at how they saw themselves, and what attracted people to join a church that, from the outside at least, seemed to require its adherents to live quite an austere, set apart life, and face so much rejection.

  I had some trouble getting active Witnesses to talk to me. Then I had a stroke of luck when two Witnesses appeared at my door one morning, not knowing I was writing about the church. They invited me to their Kingdom Hall, and I spent the next few months attending meetings and conventions and listening to Witnesses’ stories. I also spoke with a few people who’d decided to leave the church. There were a lot of compelling stories, not least of which is the church’s own history. The piece eventually took on a life of its own, and became much broader than I'd first imagined.

  Anyhow, interested to get people's thoughts.
• 

  LostGeneration

  Really good article, I enjoyed it!
• 

  A.proclaimer

  Thanks for posting this. It was a good read. I liked how both Witnesses and ex-witnesses were included in this To get both points of view
• 

  steve2

  An excellent and well-balanced article. One of the best I've ever read on the Witnesses.

  I'm sure that anyone who reads it will see how painstaking your research is. You convey a great deal of respect and empathy for the Witnesses. At times it's like you've strikingly captured the Witness mentality...and their dilemma regarding doubts. At the same time, your perceptive observations lead you beyond "official" replies to the less than flattering stuff in the organization's well-stuffed closet. Date-setting and disfellowshipping are among the worst of the many smelly skeletons. But, to your credit, you don't allow these important findings to overshadow the sincere heartbeat of rank and file Witnesses.

  It would be hard for any Witness in good standing to read 'In the Belly of Jehovah" and not be disturbed.
• 

  Pacopoolio

  Good article, well researched. I only saw a couple of minor errors.

  One was, and which is easy to make from the outside, the relationship to preaching is that a) you can accompany someone in the preaching work, then b) you request to be a publisher and do a minor test, then c) you are or are not accepted to become an unbaptized publisher, in which case you are, your hours are counted and such. Baptism is something you do after that, and then you become a baptized publisher from that point on.
• 

  Londo111

  It was a pretty good article.
• 

  Apognophos

  Wow, that was quite thorough, it must have taken a long time. While no active Witness will be pleased with the article because it quotes from apostates (and a very prominent one, at that), an objective person would have to acknowledge that it was a fair article. A few minor doctrinal corrections:

  - JWs don't believe that the Devil began ruling the earth in 1914. He's been in charge since Adam and Eve's fall. 1914 was when he was cast down to the earth, 'having great anger' because he knows he has only 'a short time' (apparently 100 years is a short time when you're a spirit creature). So the Devil's influence has supposedly been much more visible since 1914, but he was already considered the ruler of the world at the time of writing of the New Testamant as well, if you do some reading on that.

  - JWs can practice yoga. There may have been some words against it in old publications, but as long as the JW is just doing the poses and not meditating, it's not objectionable (however, not all Witnesses may have gotten this memo...).

  - The ban on oral and anal sex is sort of "old light" in the sense that the Society avoids talking about it anymore, realizing that it's unnecessarily whacking the hornet's nest since a lot of couples were falling afoul of this doctrine, and anyway, who wants to police the bedroom? The poor elders who have to hear about this stuff sure don't. And masturbation hasn't been claimed to lead to homosexuality in about as long of a time, though it is still very much under ban.

  I'm curious, since you interviewed the venerable Paul Grundy, why no mention of the URL jwfacts.com? Was it a desire to make the article more palatable for active Witnesses by not including direct links to apostate material?

  Anyway, these issues aside, I'm impressed that you took so much time to learn about the religion. I don't think I've seen a more balanced and accurate article on the subject.
• 

  EdenOne

  marked...good article.
• 

  InquiryMan

  I agree, it was a very good article. It is always best to allow things to be seen from the angles of JWs as well as former witnesses.
• 

  Frazzled UBM

  I read it - I didn't get anything out of it except the fact that the ex-heroin addict had exchanged one addiction for another. A bit too subtle in its critique for my liking. The reference to phobias due to the emphasis on Armageddon was good but not mentioning the fact that they were deliberately implanted by the WBTS meant the point was lost a little bit. The impact on kids who are brought up (indoctrinated) in the religion and have no choice (and the fact that those kids are the growth strategy in the West for the organisation - alluded to but not expanded on), the fact that elders have so much control over the lives of the congregation but lack the skills to perform the role, the way Witness are taught to always feel they are not good enough and the psychologically damaging impact of shunning should have all have gotten a run. The tension between freedom of religion and engaging in abusive practices is the biggest one that was missed.