Trust your HEART or your CONSCIENCE?

by LDH 10 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  LDH

  Over the past few weeks I have been thinking about this and wanted to get your input.

  It seems to me the WBTS has taken one scripture, Jer. 10:23 (The heart is treacherous, who can know it) and used it to build their whole religion. They have convinced us that all of men's hearts are pure evil, and I just don't find that to be true!

  What I mean is this: it seems to be very important for the JW to disable your heart from your actions, and instead insist that you rely on your Bible Trained Conscience, The only problem with this is, your conscience isn't trained by the Bible, it's trained by the GB and their personal whims. That way, you can be programmed over and over to believe that YOU CAN'T TRUST YOUR OWN HEART WHICH JEHOVAH GAVE YOU!!!

  I wonder what would happen to all the JWs who have walled off their hearts if they decided to listen to them if only briefly. I would venture to say, the floodgates would open. All of the doubts that so many JW harbor would become overwhelming.

  Kind of like the Edgar Allen Poe story, "The Telltale Heart," huh?

  Which do you listen to?
• 

  Gopher

  Hi LDH. I'm a "newbie" here, but I have been lurking for several weeks. I have enjoyed many of your posts. They make me think hard!

  As far as "heart", the Society teaches that it is the "inner person" or the "inner motivating force of your life". They don't totally ignore the "heart", but mostly what I had learned from the WTS about the "heart" relates to the ministry they ask of their adherents. Do you do "half-hearted" service (with your attentions divided), or are you perhaps "double-hearted" (leading a double life)?

  As far as "conscience", what they say about "Bible-trained conscience" and what they expect of their members are logically 2 different things, in accord with what you point out. My example (I keep harping on this in my posts, because it is what currently is most sensitive to me) is the shunning arrangement. Nothing in the Bible supports the current extent of the JW shunning policy. If JW's followed a Bible-trained conscience, they would not shun family members who have erred or who have been accused of such. Recently, I have met up with 2 old friends who say their JW families have dropped the harsh shunning of their DF'd family member.

  As far as people flooding out of the truth if they would listen to their doubts, I don't know. Sometimes their social "strings" are so tight that many or most would feel compelled to stay, figuring that the "good" outweighs the "bad". For me, it's only after I was shoved out on my own that I was able to let the doubts I had harbored since a young age become actual, logical thoughts. I'm relieved to be out!

  Thanks for listening!
• 

  conflicted

  I dont know which one is "speaking" to me, but I live my life by the "golden rule" of do unto others as you would have them do unto you. If that means I let my conscience rule - so be it, I find that I'm a pretty happy person, and People tend to befriend me more that the witnesses ever did.

  As for what would happen if JW's started listening to their heart: I think it happens every day - and they end up leaving the organization as a result - all the more reason for the GB to frown upon it.

  Edited by - conflicted on 20 March 2001 13:50:44
• 

  ShaunaC

  Lisa, I so understand what you are talking about. In fact, I think it's what hinders me from being able to fully get my bearings "in the world." In the many decisions I make in my new life my once well-trained JW conscience tells me not to follow my heart because the heart is treacherous and can lead you down the wrong path. Yet, I struggle because I know my conscience is being transformed. Half of what I instinctively think I know is a product of JW manipulation. So I try to balance out that old conscience with current knowledge and then try to temper that with what I feel is right in my heart.

  It's all so confusing and frustrating that many times I don't know which part of me to trust. I hope at some point in my life those three characteristics...conscience, knowledge & heart...will finally gel together. Until then I feel a little schizophrenic! :)

  Hey Lisa, we still on for lunch tomorrow?

  Shauna
• 

  mommy

  LDH,
  Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
  I follow my heart, maybe that is another name for my conscience. All I know is the deep rooted feelings I have, NOONE else will govern. I will no longer follow what others view for me to be right. I will follow what I feel is right. I will listen to the "little" voice in my head and not let anyone sway me. Do I listen to others views OF COURSE! This forum has brought many new topics up for me, and continues to do so. I pick and choose, something I was unable to do as a witness.
  Ok want their(wtbts) viewpoint?... here it is....You must follow this path.
  Kinda ends there huh? How about the many people like Waiting(hope you don't mind me using you) who refuse to completly cut off a child. The love she has for her daughter goes deeper than any witness I have ever seen. She knew in her heart that she could not completly cut her off, as they wanted. But what if she did? What good would that do?
  I feel if you follow what you know to be right, how can that be wrong? Your entire being is screaming at you to go one way, there can only be discontent if you don't listen
  wendy

  Edited by - MOMMY on 20 March 2001 16:49:54
• 

  conflicted

  You all have excellent points.

  I think when I posted my first answer I was speaking more for myself than for others who are in more difficult situations.

  It is very hard to go against everything you have ever been taught - and when you try to make life-changing decisions all you have to rely on is what you "know". If your whole existance has revolved around what your parents think, what the elders think, what the governing body think - you aren't thinking for yourself. I believe this is at the heart of the situation (pun intended). When a person begins to think for themselves they come to their own conclusions - they decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong. Some even believe with their whole being that the WTS is right in all things, and as long as they decide this for themselves rather than have it beaten into them that is fine - they aren't hurting anyone. It's when people are forced to comply that damage takes place - psychological damage, and for some physical damage - that is sad and repulsive to those of us who do think for ourselves and know better.

  I guess what I'm trying to say, is that at some point everyone has to truly decide for themselves what they really want - even when you have family in the truth, even and especially when children are involved, even when everything you "know" stands in the balance - there will come a point when you have to decide WHAT IS BEST FOR YOU. And then, whether it's your heart or your conscience doing the talking, you can truly be free.

  Edited by - conflicted on 20 March 2001 17:25:6
• 

  ShaunaC

  You said it so well, conflicted, you might as well be talking about me specifically. True freedom is sometimes hard to attain. It can come with great loss, but what you gain makes it so worth it. Thanks for your thoughts!

  Shauna

  P.S.
  Thanks Eric for the pics! They were great!
• 

  Prisca

  Great question, LDH, and good points everyone else!

  Something that really irked me was the WTS's continuous illustration of murderers as a warning against using your own (non "bible-based") conscience, as opposed to their WTS style of thinking. It was such an extreme example, yet I KNEW that if Jehovah had issued us with a conscience, then why couldn't we use it? The murderer illustration gradually just didn't cut it for me anymore.

  I started to think of my own (horrors!) and realised my life was better when I DID follow my conscience, and not rely on the WTS to tell me what to do. My let my head and my heart decide on matters, based on morals that I personally live by, and guess what? Life is good!
• 

  larc

  Prisca,

  You said something there that made me think of one of their fear inducing tactics and their view of those who leave. They say that if leave you will you will become a mad dog maniac child of Satan. You will become the scum of the earth. Well, if doesn't turn out that way at all. It does help build a mental fortress around the believers and a reason to gossip and spread malicious lies about those who escape the prison.
• 

  larc

  Excuse me,

  The "it" in my last sentence was undefined. "It" was their idea of a conscience, which is a conscience that could not exist outside of their world.