Why are there so many loonies in the organization?

by Elsewhere 34 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Elsewhere

  You know the type... always going on about how their car got possessed by the devil because someone left a pack of cigarettes in it. Or maybe their pots and pans started flying around the house because they bought something from a garage sale.

  There are also the types who won't eat skittles because they contain an ingredient made from dried and crushed beetles... which means that they were not properly bled.

  And the types who won't let their kids watch cartoons because the animals talk... like Satan did with the snake.

  Then there are they types who are always into the latest get-rich-quick scam... or Amway and trying to get everyone in the congregation to buy something.

  Oh, and don't get me started about the demon possessed smurfs who run around kingdom halls swearing and accosting the women with their teeny-peenies.

  What's up with this!?!?!
• 

  smurfette

  I think "the organization" attracts, cultivates, and breeds paranoia. My mom was a paranoid person before she joined. Not to the JW degree she is now but she was into conspiracy theories, generally suspicious of the government, loved ghost stories, and generally bucked the system at every turn. I remember her fighting with a grocery store clerk over her right to shop without shoes on, pre JW. She really likes the us against them mentality and thrives on thinking demons are around every corner.

  I also remember the beetle thing only for us it was the red 5 Alive juice that was colored with beetles.

  Wierdness!!!
• 

  avengers

  If you play follow the leader then it's logical that you start acting like him isn't it?
• 

  Prisca

  This sort of carries on from what Smurfette said:

  If they are gullible enough to be taken in by the JW spiel, then they are probably gullible enough to be taken in by every urban myth they're told as well.
• 

  run dont walk

  I think "the organization" attracts, cultivates, and breeds paranoia.

  Pefectly said smurfette !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• 

  ozziepost

  I think I've mentioned this before, but the NSW Health Department have statistics which show that there is a greater incidence of mental illness amongst Dubs in NSW than in the general population.

  My sources have indicated that the government attributes this to the controlling, closed nature of the dub community and the stresses that the R&F endure.

  Cheers, Ozzie
• 

  Gadget

  If they are gullible enough to be taken in by the JW spiel, then they are probably gullible enough to be taken in by every urban myth they're told as well.

  Most of the people on here have been jw's at one time or another, so does that mean we're all loonies because we once believed it, or my parents/friends ect are all loonies because they are still in?

  I think its more that the high control level attracts some people, because it takes the stress of having to make their own decisions from them. But I know a lot of people who certainly aren't loonies.

  Gadget
• 

  El Kabong

  Yeah, every congregation seems to have one or more of these personality types.

  But, in fairness. After leaving the JW's, I've attended different types of churches, particularly fundies. I was saddened to see the same personality types there as well.
• 

  Special K

  I agree with Gadget.. there are some people who like the high level of control..

  When I was a dub some years ago, I especially noticed men who joined who were ex military. The J.W. organization is set up the same way they were trained. Run by MEN. Elders are men. Control the flock. Issue orders. Take orders from advanced ranks. Don't ask questions and fulfill your mission. Secret Missions and paper work to turn in to superiors. and Hidden secret files. and hearings (judicial Committees) .. and responsibility to something supposedly with a greater purpose than yourself..

  For those ex military men J.W.'s is just like being home in the army.

  Many of us were just born into it, like me

  And some I knew joined as Gadget said "They couldn't make decisions for themselves, You really don't have to think for yourself as a J.W."

  Some, too.. was enticed in by the Witnesse's sincereity. After all, there eyes are blinded once they enter.

  I used to be bitter, and angry at them.. But now I only feel pity and sorrow for them and their families.

  SPECIAL K
• 

  DannyBear

  I wonder if many Mulim's are asking this very question about their 'brethren"?

  To me it's simply a matter of genealogy.

  In my families case the whole thing started with my grandfather's/grandmother's from both sides of my parents.

  Grandfather from mother's side was a Methodist minister in South Dakota, who walked over 60 miles to here a 'Pilgrim/Colpourter' of Charles Taze Russell. He returned after hearing one talk, and told his congregation he could no longer preach the Methodist doctrine. He then went on to become a traveling rep for the wtbs.

  Grandfather on my dad's side had 10 children, now we are talking the turn of the century here, imagine what that meant. If it's tough to raise 1 or 2 today....well you get my point.

  Today there are probably close to 150 or more direct decendents from these two men, who are active 'faithful' jws, and another 25-50 or more who have abandonded the faith.

  Mix into this genealogical soup, the malfeasant gene of 'loonyness' here and there, you have a receipe for the reason why there are so many jw's who have not only inherited their religion, but all the rest of the legends, myths, false promises, LOONYNESS from their ancestors!

  I wager to guess that 50% or more of 6,000,000 jw's on earth owe their beliefs/loonyness to the simple fact that they were born into it.

  Danny