Fear of being shunned. Do you have any stories?
Useing unhealthy fear to force people to obey.
by Yomama 8 Replies latest jw friends
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Anna Marina
They thought I might be afraid of being shunned. Instead at least 17 elders hid from me in the lounge of an old aged pensioner.
The shunning keeps on failing - gradually more and more talk to me. It's so sweet when it happens. You know they are being brave as best they can. So many of them don't agree with this ridiculous state of affairs. But they are too afraid to speak openly.
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Sigfrid Mallozzi
Good Question! Yomama. Anna M, I will agree with you on shunning backfiring. Individuals that continue to feed on the crap of the organization dishes out become afraid of even approaching someone who has left, no, they can't even wave at a distance. I recently had a conversation with another "inactive" for 25 years friend and we were talking about the Crickets we hear from family members, even family members that are not going to meetings. It is like in their imagination we are more powerful than ever. I don't have a problem with this, because, quite humbly, "I AM"!
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Ding
The whole WT system is driven by fear, especially JWs' fears of not proving worthy even after years of dedicated service.
Faithful for so long and now maybe blowing it right before Armageddon...
Obey, obey, obey!
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RubaDub
Reminds me of the old National Lampoon ads to subscribe to the magazine.
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LongHairGal
YOMAMA:
I agree the religion is ‘fear based’ in many ways. Not just fear of people shunning a person but people fearful they aren’t ‘doing enough’ in so-called theocratic activity.
I never had any family in the religion (thank God) that anybody could use against me. But, I had non-JW friends for a long time after I became a JW.
One elder who was a book study conductor for a time made a nosey remark that “the reason I probably didn’t have friends in the religion was probably because I still had ‘worldly’ friends”. I took his advice to heart because I was ready to move on from these friends anyway.
But, even after I gave up these ‘worldly’ friends, I didn’t make many JW friends because I was shunned somewhat because I had a full time job.. Giving up cigarette smoking and certain friends was one thing..but I held onto a full time job until I Retired. I didn’t care what any of the Witnesses thought about that!
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Biahi
This brought back a memory...I wanted so badly to say the Pledge of Allegiance at school...I told my parents that I could say it because they were not there and couldn’t control it, they told me if I did, Jehovah would destroy me at Armageddon. Fear of dying (as a 6 year old) kept me from saying it. I felt like such an ass!
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waton
There is a part in this week's program that induces fear:
wt is supposed to preach edenic paradise, animal peace, instead they trotted out
Lions killing cubs to introduce a new cleansed set of offspring, a Mongoose vs Cobra mortal combat, and the killer.
Horses trained for battle by exposing them to noises, wearing blinkers. yes, wt scares it's R&F all the time, and they certainly make them wear spiritual blinkers, eye patches, earmuffs.
This stuff was previously confined to the Kingdom Halls, where it belongs, now it is beamed right into the homes, safe havens, where it does not.
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LV101
All the ones I associated with had fear of being accepted and fitting in. Unbelievable! So fake - would make comments to convince others - always schmoozing. It was crazy - what a cult!