How to distract people from the REAL issues... (2016 convention videos)

by stuckinarut2 6 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  stuckinarut2

  Have we noticed how the videos that are being shown at the 2016 convention manipulatively try to misdirect from the real issues?

  The video showing the daughter "leaving the truth" and leaving (kicked out) home has been designed to show that her life falls apart because she "left the truth".

  Then the video series about the "persecution" paranoia speaks about a brother who is not being saved with them in the basement "because he let fear of man etc" affect him

  Then the video all about Sergei's life speaks about his old friend who "let information about the truth make him have doubts" and he is no longer "in the truth" with them...and made out like it is worse than murdering and eating a kitten!

  BUT Never in the videos do they attempt to address the REASONS people actually leave! No mention is made about the FACTS that have made people uproot their entire life and social and family structures based on information found out about the society, its history, its current issues and lies etc...

  No, instead, by simply demonising all who fade or are inactive, and making it out as if it is THEIR FAULT, the average witness just gets manipulated.
  
  

  If the "truth" is the truth, then there is nothing to fear from doing thorough, unbiased, in depth research. If doing so unsettles someone's faith, then maybe the "faith" was not well founded to begin with!

  (By the way, if you want to watch the videos in question, jwsurvey.org has a great series on them)
  
• 

  prologos

  great points. Of what little I watched, listened to, the supposed potential causes for being "not saved" seem trivial, like not appreciating counsel, for example.-- the shallowest, no substance - convention ever, shaping the kind of jw the org likes.
• 

  Listener

  - you cannot attend specialist classes for learning if you are talented, such as violin playing

  - you cannot respond to a phone call from a disfellowshipped family member, regardless of whether it may be a call for help

  - you've got to simplify your life more, even if you are already a pioneer. You need to sell your home, get rid of your pet and move to a unit

  - even Elders must accept verbal instructions with humility from other younger Elders

  - not accepting financial aid from non believing family member

  - even when you feel ignored at the Hall (such as your being continuilly overlooked to answer up in meetings) you need to uncomplainingly accept menial jobs at the Hall
  
  and the list goes on.
• 

  under the radar

  Hi Listener! I've heard of all the other points you mentioned, but can you give me a reference about "not accepting financial aid from a non believing family member"?

  I haven't heard that gem before, and the JW's I know have no problem at all accepting financial aid from wherever they can get it. In fact, it's usually the slackers and non-believers in a JW's family that are the only ones in a position to help. The uberdubs usually live hand to mouth because they have little specialized education and prefer menial jobs so they can work for themselves and have more freedom to "seek the Kingdom first."

  I know there are exceptions, but I've seen this exact situation so many times I think it's safe to consider it the norm.
• 

  BluesBrother

  BUT Never in the videos do they attempt to address the REASONS people actually leave!

  Just like that brochure that came out last year , "Return to Jehovah" . It speaks of anxiety, depression, work pressures and the like but never the root causes for why we seek to disagree. As you say...It is always the leavers fault !
  
  
• 

  maninthemiddle

  I have to disagree that the Sonia video does not show her life falling apart. It was only because her family wouldn't talk to her that she returned.

  She also appears to have a very nice house, although no mention is made of what happened to Eric, a lot is left to the imagination, and we know what a JW would imagine about her husband missing after the hotel scene and with now two kids.

  There was a somewhat recent WT article with a picture of a young woman, a baby crib in the background, a tattooed boyfriend apparently drunkenly passed out on the couch. This video had none of that. I would say that except for her family shunning her, her life looked rather good in the short scenes offered.

  I do agree that it was shallow showing her leaving for sex and a boy and being "stubborn" about it. They put all blame on her when she is the victim.
• 

  Listener

  Under the radar - it is in the Ethan video. Ethan is the one who tragically looses his father and son, he also has brain cancer and an operation that prevents him from working for a while.

  His brother, Bill, who is a non JW visits and appears well to do, after a warming cuddle he offers him some money. Ethan says no, that he has a little set aside and besides, Jehovah will provide.

  He later accepts the help of a Brother to fix his roof at a highly reduced rate after a storm has damaged it and he is not well enough to fix it himself.