First off, I would avoid most doctrinal explanations. Usually, I get partway into a doctrinal explanation, and I start getting incredibly embarrassed about having followed (even as a teenager) a religion that sounds as if it was conceived by a brain-damaged three-year-old eating peyote. Second, most people will ask about the doctrinal points that they are curious about - the rest bores them to tears.
Instead, I suggest focusing on the effects of the beliefs - explaining Jehovah's Witnesses as people, rather than the religion/doctrine itelf.
They avoid looking into the future by constantly beleiving that everything is about to end.
They beleive that all other religions are wrong, that all governments are controlled by Satan, and that they are the only ones with a line on what God wants.
They have a very rigid, black-and-white worldview based on conditional love and perfomance-based acceptance.
They are taught to believe that individuals can't make a positive difference, that the world and everyone in it is evil and dysfunctional, and that the only way we can get approval and acceptance is by earning it through obediance and submission, rather than self-expression, self-discovery, or self-actualization.
They are taught to purposely limit material success and acheivement, and to view others who succeed and acheive materially as wrong and bad.
They are members of a close-knit group, and many derive enough sense of belonging to this group, and have enough fear of the stern rejection that follows deviating from prescribed behavior, that they stay in the group for years and years.
yxl1 -- i thought your posts were incredibly accurate and i related to what you said, having beein raised jw by an elder for the first half of my life, married to bethelite, pioneered for many years....
the only thing i would add is, imagine all those things, and imagine that you believe they are all correct and god-ordained. how suffocating, smothering, spirit-trampling, anti-life, anti-happiness, anti-affirming all those things are.
yet we swallowed it whole. (at least i did), and tried unsuccessfully to live it for far too many years.
Great Topic Gadget! TheSilence, what a great description; as a NWJW (never was a jw) I cannot fathom the FEAR factor my nieces and nephews must have running through their blood (oops).
yxl1, I agree totally. Share and tell all the dirty details to everyone you can. Concerned mama ditto. If the JW topic ever comes up in conversations I have with anyone, I fill them in good. I figure it is my equivalent of going door to door! Sometime I would love to have the nerve to follow them in their little groups and hand out some of the postings here to the householders who have just been handed the WTS propaganda. Anyone ever tried that?
This is one of my biggest issues... that my sister is still a JW and trying to get pregnant. It will kill me to know the fear they are being raised in and not be able to stop it. And the worst part of it is that the parents support and bolster the fear.
The best thing you can offer them is a soft place to fall if they need it once they are old enough to get out. That's my goal... be the most awesome aunt in the world so that if they ever need to come to me they can.
nowisee - the only thing i would add is, imagine all those things, and imagine that you believe they are all correct and god-ordained. how suffocating, smothering, spirit-trampling, anti-life, anti-happiness, anti-affirming all those things are.
Agreed. It still depresses me when I think about my previous life. Telling my work mates what life as a Dub was like, not only makes me feel better but gives them a clear understanding of how dangerous the Dubs are.
