Has anyone read the book when God becomes a Drug by Leo Booth.
I read it back when I first started to wake up in 08 and am now just rereading it. To me it is just amazing how much it parallels JW’s well any religion that people abuse.
Like on page 84 he says “The too-bright, falsely cheerful expression is also a mask. Underneath it seethe tension, anger, and rigid control. God’s children are supposed to be happy; that’s the fantasy, the illusion. Don’t let anyone know that you’re not happy, for admitting not being happy in the Lord is to admit imperfection, failure, not doing it right. Such an admission courts disapproval, so you paste on your false smile.”
How many time in field service I was so miserable and depressed I could not stand it but I would never say it out loud. In fact I even made comments at the meeting that you never have a bad day doing Jehovah’s work. I said those words because I was trying so hard to make myself believe them.
On page 85 he says “You have reached rock bottom. You hate yourself and may not even know why. Or, if you recognize that you are hopelessly addicted to your religion or belief system, you don’t know where to turn for help. You can’t stop the meditating, praying, incense-burning, crusades, and obsessive scripture quoting. Your family does not know what to do. You’ve tithed away you savings: maybe you are nearing bankruptcy. Certainly you are spiritually bankrupt-you can’t sleep: your head aches; your stomach is in knots; you’re so depressed you can barely function. You may have a nervous breakdown. Perhaps you may enter treatment for another addiction-thinking your eating disorder, alcoholism, or fits of rage are causing your problems.”
I was just like that where I could not sleep, still at times I can’t we were near bankruptcy because of pioneering but I was not allowed to voice it because as my husband told me I just needed more faith. Jehovah would pick it up if I just gave it to him but I kept on working and I did not give it to Jehovah so that was why Jehovah was not helping us. I needed to stop working and throw it all at Jehovah. I thought of suicide all the time while out in service. And mostly I blamed myself for being so horrible.
On page 30-31 he says “For thousands of years, humans beings have been accustomed to living under an authoritarian theocracy in which the few, the chosen, and the called control the many. This divinely appointed power group claims not only to speak for God but insists that it is also the only way to God. – This power group can manipulate scripture to create doctrines and dogma designed to keep people in submission, fearful of error. They make the rules and say the rules are God’s, so that questioning the teachers or teachings equals questioning God.” Does that not scream what the GB have been telling us.
Leo Booth also speaks of “the lack of education among the lower classes.” It just makes me think that is why the GB does not want us to go to college. They do not want us to be educated. They only want us to read the WT, Awake, and their publications. Not to think for ourselves.
On page 77-78 He gets into black and white thinking he says “Many religious addicts, become of narrow and restrictive beliefs, often have conflicts with medicine and education. Those two disciplines challenge black-and-white thinking, the need for simplistic solutions, and the inability to think and question. Frequently we read about parents who refuse to give permission for a doctor to perform an operation or administer a blood transfusion because of their belief in a certain faith. Some of these faiths manipulate scripture to justify their dogma. For instance, some cite Acts 15:29 as the basis for refusing transfusions: “That you abstain for what has been sacrificed to idols and from what is strangled, and from unchastely.” – Those verses refer specifically to the Jewish ritual concerning preparation of meat, which is part of the Jewish Orthodox tradition and called keeping kosher. Much of the early Christian teaching was devoted to moving people away for Jewish tradition in order to distinguish Christianity as a separate religion rather than a sect of Judaism. Yet certain religions have twisted these verses to legitimize their stance against medicine or whatever it is they oppose.”
This book has just hit home with me so much. I know I totally enabled my husband, by sitting in the car for hours while he was in elders meeting. Crawling on my hands and knees in my own home because we were forbidden to go to the police over a matter. Living so poor because of pioneering. On and on. No wonder I was so depressed my whole life.
The religion of Jehovah’s witnesses sets a person up to fail if you truly believe it and try to do what you are told you must to live forever.
I look back at my life and just feel like I have wasted it. Maybe this is not a good book for me after all as I feel like I have blown the gift of life, my life.
LITS