LOL...nice to see the Legal Team is having the video removed so quickly. It makes one wonder why...........what happens if they come to my door and I request a copy??
Critique of new JW DVD: These Words Must be on Your Heart.
by WingCommander 41 Replies latest jw friends
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stuckinarut2
It's an " in house " DVD only...not for the public..
wonder why?
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breakfast of champions
Watched the whole thing with my wife evidently just before it got pulled. . .
I guess the thing we both noticed was the absence of any "kingdom message." I mean, here the guy kills his kid brother and. . .. . . where's the mention of the New System and resurrection? Completely absent. Instead he tells his son that he was named after him to remind him of his mistake.
So the message of this video is simply: reject careers, reject money, reject worldly people, reject science, reject gay marriage(?); embrace family worship, pioneer, sell yer house, quit your job and if you do all this. . . . You'll be a Jehovahs Witness.
I really got the impression that they don't even believe their own bullshit about a paradise earth etc. They just want to keep people "in."
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b00mslang
Basically, this reminds me of the joking definition of "Jewish Alzheimers" except we could substitute "JW Alzheimers":
"You forget everything except the guilt"!
When I was a kid, JW Moms were masters of guilting (my own mother was a Grand-Master). I think this is one aspect of the original seed of my own doubts. Where are: "Jehovah's Happy People"? At the conclusion of this video, the plastered smiles of even fake/acted "happiness" leaves a weight to the air that is absolutely palpable. For a moment, put yourself in this make-believe fantasy and consider which antidepressants you would prefer to munch to mask your abject and joyous immersion in full "Christian" poverty, drudgery, and hopelessness.
Seriously, why does this masochistic lifestyle seem to have such a placebo/expiating effect on the "faithful"? Perhaps the WT should just re-introduce flagellation as a quick-fix?
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nancy drew
I watched part of it yesterday and it was really creepy. They make it sound like all jobs never let you go home and that people can just quit working and pioneer and everything will be fine. I wonder where the couple livng in the basement would live if jw's didn't let them freeload.What about those fancy clean clothes and medical care someone's bound to get sick and what about a car, gas and insurance. the big J doesn't live bags of money under trees for good little jw's. i knew someone who had "real spiritual pioneer parents" who would drag them over to visit other congregation families at dinnertime forcing them to feed them out of guilt. There was always complaints about the wealtheir congregation families but also an expectation that they would pay for things and everyone wanted to go to their parties. Somebody has to work to pay the bills.
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Pistoff
Ugh, ten minutes in and I can't do any more
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Billy the Ex-Bethelite
On another thread I mentioned several things wrong with the video. One thing that still really stands out to me is the extremely undersized cast. Except for the couple in their basement, this JW family seems to live completely in a vacuum. No JW friends shown or even mentioned. The only reference I seem to recall was the daughter saying her worldly friend (from what I saw, I'm not even sure he qualifies as a boyfriend) was nicer than JW dudes. That would be one reference to them knowing any JWs, and puts them in a less than glowing light. Toward the last that I was attending, there were no picnics or 'get-togethers'. There was no social life. So I guess the video was accurate to show that unless you have a JW couple living in your basement, you'll avoid contact with other JWs outside of the Kingdumb Haul. And I suppose if they would have had any scenes at a KH, they would have to show the reality of a mostly empty building, sheeples with vacant stares, and lots of other parents whose kids have already left the cult.
It wasn't just the lack of JW friends, it was the lack of anybody. When I was a kid growing up on a rural farm, I could relate to just being around the family most of the time. But for a family like this, in a big house in suburban utopia and kids with wheels, the video setting may as well be rural North Dakota for the lack of any people interacting with the members of the family in any meaningful way. The 'boyfriend' seems to be the only significant nonJW character, and frankly, his character wasn't developed. It was like a random collection of lines spoken by an "actor" (who looked too old for the part, in my opinion). Except for the dead brother and some reference to the wife's dad (did he actually say he went to 'the old country' to meet him? Did he travel to Europe AND 100 years back in time?), it was as if they had no extended family on either side. If the kids knew nothing about this dead uncle until this age, the dad must have no living family. The wife also has no reference to family. If it is a case where all her family is "in the old country", why is it that she has no accent of any kind? If these parents are so determined that their kids need to cling to them as they're reaching adulthood, how is it that these parents seem to have absolutely no relationship with their own parents? Personally, if I were working on my relationship with my children, my primary frame of reference would be my relationship with my parents, not some 'we need to have family worship night'... and I would talk about my childhood and family at nearly every turn. That's something that is completely ignored in this video. So for me, it all seemed fake and scripted.
After observing that during the video, it just made the conclusion all the creepier. The family continues to be shown with no friends in many different times and circumstances. They sell the house to simplify, so does that mean the older kids downsize to twin beds and the youngest sleeps in a crib? In my estimation, it wasn't that they 'came together as a family'. It was like they went back in time so that the kids were more childish, reliant on their parents with no plans for growing up, planning careers, and being independent. Their plans for the future were to play bible games until they all grow old and die.
Creepy.
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sir82
the kids were more childish, reliant on their parents with no plans for growing up, planning careers, and being independent. Their plans for the future were to play bible games until they all grow old and die.
This is exactly what I observe about the "kids" around here. It is stunning how many in their 20's, or even older, still live with mom & dad.
No ambition, no goals, no plan, no education, nothing.
That's what happens when you are constantly told that Armageddon will come "soon", but it never does.
The reasonably intelligent figure that out and leave.
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sd-7
Their plans for the future were to play bible games until they all grow old and die.
--sd-7
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DesirousOfChange
Just finished watching about 1/2 of this video and had to revive this thread.
All I can say is WOW! Is this supposed to be the typical JW family?
That house (has to be 5,000sf), gated property manicured to the "9s", the cars (even the new car of the theocratic bro who lived in the basement), the furnishings (huge flatscreens, etc).
Just WOW! I can think of maybe 5 or 6 JWs that have this kind of lifestyle. Mostly very successful businessmen who had their start before being JWs.
I haven't watched it through to the end so I can't comment on the outcome, but I will admit that the acting and production were quite exceptional in my opinion. This is not a corney convention drama cast that has been taped. This is good quality stuff. Very "Hollywood". It certainly stands out way above any of the past DVDs.
Doc
