Once my parents became baptized and 'zealous' in the truth, they became holier-than-thou, self-righteous, mean-spirited a$$holes. But their aging knocked the wind out of this particular adopted type of sail for them. So much for "never growing old in this system of things".
The smug arrogance of "having the truth".
by stuckinarut2 44 Replies latest jw experiences
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Heaven
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punkofnice
It isn't just JWs but other religious nuts too.
As far as the JWs are concerned they can be very smug and arrogant. I refer to an Elder called Nick in Peterborough...what a smug Richard head he is. When I decided to stop going to meetings he would talk to my then wife and ignore me totally.
Once you stop going they have to find something to justify their smug superiority. Apparently, I was a 'false prophet', 'Homosexual', 'pastor of a Baptist church' and even 'spiritually weak(tm)'. Yes, I was called 'spiritually weak(tm)' to my face by an elder with smelly breath. Someone else I know has been call 'Lesbian' by Nick. All lies an rumours but shows what arrogant thickos we have to deal with.
Nick, you are on my list of most stupid jobos! I don't forgive. I don't forget. Expect me.
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Simon
People love to imagine that some religion causes people to be judgemental assholes, but often it's that they have found somewhere that appeals to them because it allows them to be who they are - judgemental assholes*
That's why "destroying the watchtower" is nonsensical, even if it were destroyed, there would be a watchtower-like religion in it's place, something to serve up something to satisfy the market segment it appeals to.
The actual beliefs are secondary and it's why they can change and no one really bats an eye. Few people are there because they really believe any of it, it's a lifestyle choice.
*NOTE: there is obviously some influence that a religion has on people's behavior, but often it's like an amplifier effect. It's the same in society - nazism didn't happen because that set of Germans were particularly more evil than other people are today, but the environment allowed the people who were that evil to behave as they wanted without the restraints normal society imposes. There are people today who would act like nazis if they could. This is how religion affects people - it gives them excuses to be who they are. For some, it provides restraints on who they are. For some it fails to curtail their innate 'self' and they are who they are in contradiction to the religion.
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UnshackleTheChains
I noticed this smug arrogant attitude about a year after I got baptized. The first time was when the press tried to interview 'a brother' coming out of bethel over the blood policy due to a death as a result of refusing to take blood. The ' brother' just smugly walked past them which I thought bizarre. Little did I know back then that organisation was an insular high control group.
The panorama program ' suffer the little children' showed that same smugness when a GB dismissed the panorama presenter in a matter of fact way.
Look at the smugness throughout the Australian royal commission. Uncaring delusional assholes.
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Vidiot
Simon - "...That's why 'destroying the watchtower' is nonsensical, even if it were destroyed, there would be a watchtower-like religion in it's place..."
Personally, I could give a rats' ass who or what filled the void...
...as long as the void was made in the first place.
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BluesBrother
Yes, I was a smug, WT opinionated so and so. Looking back, I cringe at some of the smart ass comments I made to my work mates . They were very decent not to hold it against me.
The WTS teaches you to be like that. You believe you are one of God's chosen people . You have knowledge that shows the great minds of the world to be wrong .... we used to joke that our little kids "know more than the Pope of Rome" , if they know basic "truths"
No wonder we were big heads!
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TD
Yes. I got it all the time when my wife was a true believer.
Sometimes it was irritating enough to hand them my Novum Testamentum Graece when they offered to 'prove' something to me from my own Bible
I don't think it's intentional as most of the JWs I've known have been basically good people.
It's an unavoidable consequence of their belief, or more specifically the fragility of that belief.
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Muddy Waters
Omg... yes... the smugness, the arrogance...
Juxtapositioned against being meek, lowly, humble, submissive... a worm... a grasshopper... nothing but dust... a weak, inferior, fleshly organism... unworthy... sinful... imperfect... unrighteous... undeserving of kindness... doomed...
And then, footstep followers, blessed by the sovereign of the universe... clean, righteous, holy, moral, like a pig washed from his mud, like a dog not eating his vomit... a precious pearl... highly valued in god’s eyes... blessed with special knowledge and insight, saved from the wicked world... upstanding... a glory to the nations, a spectacle to the world... (the JWs somehow thought that was a good thing, the spectacle to the world thing, where people would oooh and aaah at our holiness and uprightness...)
Yes, omg, I think I even have some wrinkle lines of total smugness still etched on my face... but they are changing...
I remember once even praying, “Oh Jehovah, thank you that I have the truth, and that I am not like these sinful, worldly people all around me...” and then I stopped cold, because I sounded JUST LIKE the Pharisee who was praying how thankful he was that he was not like those sinners... I remember feeling very confused and not knowing what to think... the cognitive dissonance was strong at times...
And yes, I totally agree with Sparky that JWs do not have the market on arrogance smugness... I see it and recognize it instantly with any person or group or religion who also holds similar, superior types of views ... which I now find very sad, divisive, and un-enlightened ...
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Finkelstein
otherwise they are viewed contemptuously as "worldly" and therefore of little value...after all,they will be destroyed right?
As the OP says that's absolutely correct.
There is an established contemptuous to all people and things that are not JWS.
The WTS even instructs its members to demean, curse and disrespect anyone who was once a JW member at onetime, they are worse than those who were never involved.
They boast how they alone are in " The Truth " where everyone else who is a practicing Christian are not for they are a part of false religion.
This of course has been intentionally mentally indoctrinated by the WTS heads to its members, not only to allure people but to also sustain them into the organization for exploitation and manipulation purposes.
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Muddy Waters
Finklestein, This is what hurts the most about being in that goddamn cult....
The way I treated my non-JW family… and everyone not “in the truth”.... it takes time to forgive yourself, and for some of them even to forgive you.... 😥