by minimus 33 Replies latest jw friends
It would be interesting to know from a recent convert what it was that drew them to the JW.
I used to pray that I was thankful I was born in because I never would have believed it if I wasn't. sigh
My mom said they answered everything from the Bible and that was the attraction to her. Of course we here all know differently, it's a patchwork hop and skip to come up with their dogma. But, there was a time it sort of made sense, all the hopping and skipping.
‘Besides everlasting life....’ Thats already quite an offer already but.....
Resurrection of you
Resurrection of loved ones
Return to Youth
Good Health
Good Looks
Land and a big beautiful House
Food
Clothing
Security
A Purpose
It’s not complicated, they simply offer the satisfaction of every human need, fear and want.
They hold it behind a curtain of ‘we promise it’s just through there’ .... just give us your unwavering money, time, loyalty and efforts NOW and you can have everything without a catch in the ‘future’...... real ‘soon’.
What’s that? You have questions? ...”OUT!”
It is a textbook con.
Not far off Nigerian email scam...
We are royalty, give money to us now to help us get our kingdoms assets and you will be repaid one thousand fold....... ‘soon’
They only offer the promise of everlasting life, that is a long way short of actually getting it.
I would rephrase this as:
They only offer the hope of everlasting life, that is a long way short of actually getting it.
They offer sex at a ridiculously young age.
Noy just everlasting life, they offer also not dying at all. and they are not the first one[s] either.
LOL! Besides everlasting life? Is there anything better that can be offered?
They offer simple answers to the BIG life questions.
And the prospect of (certain forms of) love and friendship to awkward folks, as long as you follow the rules. This can be really powerful for people who have difficulty making friends on their own.
Sometimes, people know that their understanding of reality is suspect. So when some unapologetic-ally prominent assertions are confidently made, all of a sudden the sense of responsibility shifts: from the person to the group. The freedom to be wrong can be terrifying.
The primary product they offer is "The Truth". This appeals to certain people who have long suspected that the happiness and success others display is really just a front to hide their wickedness and selfishness. (Nevermind that they actually worked hard for good families, education, careers, nice homes etc. )
Having confirmation of this "Truth" is comforting, reassuring and seems to have the "ring of truth" since it confirms what they have previously suspected but were unwilling to vocalize.... until they met the Watchtower.
This resonates with the marginalized, the under-educated, the socially inept, the raging polite.
So, leaving out the born-ins, because they are brainwashed from birth through no fault of their own and are mostly innocent in all this, the jovies get new converts through a Nigerian-type scam. However, that said, the converts are either gullible or, in some strange way, wanting to be conned. They actually want to believe in all the jovie horseshit because, for them, the thought of being dead for the rest of eternity is just too frightening to contemplate.
It also strikes me that what we have here is some kind of perverse symbiotic relationship between the jovie converts and the jovie faith. The jovie faith needs the converts just as much as the converts need the faith,
This also explains the great sense of loss that a jovie feels when they leave the jovie sewer.
