Can a Spiritual Paradise Have 80+% Defection?

by metatron 21 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  metatron

  So, the Society is still using the phrase "spiritual paradise" ? ( Dec Wt)

  Communist countries ( you remember, the ones that collapsed?) claimed to be "workers paradises"

  I don't recall any Communist country that had a defection rate of its young people that exceeded 80%!!

  Yet, it is reported ( and what tearful Witness parent would deny?) that more than 80% of Witness kids

  leave or get df'd. How fortunate that the Society isn't permitted to shoot them as they try to escape!

  If you are a devoted fan of the History Channel, you keep seeing the same unlearned lesson repeated

  over and over again : dictatorships always make the mistake of believing their own boasts, leading

  directly to their own ruin. "Spiritual paradise", indeed!

  metatron
• 

  SanFranciscoJim

  How fortunate that the Society isn't permitted to shoot them as they try to escape!

  Not necessarily. Can you imagine living under a dictatorship where defectors are not allowed to leave the country, but everyone, including their own family, must shun them?

  I'd rather be shot!
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  Odrade

  Well, I'm glad I didn't get shot. I'm pretty happy right now. And even if my family (not "and friends" cause I pretty much don't have any JW friends anymore) decide they are obligated to shun me, my life is really full. I'll deal fine.

  No shooting.

  O
• 

  drwtsn32

  defection rate of its young people that exceeded 80%

  Is that the supposed defection rate among JW youths? How do we know?
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  blondie

  Would JWs shoot defectors?

  The Diary of an Armageddon Survivor

  http://www.macgregorministries.org/jehovahs_witnesses/armagsurv.html

  This is an interesting account of life in "paradise."

  DAY 112

  I made it out of town today. I wonder if They miss me yet? The destruction in the countryside is incredible. How will we ever rebuild everything? I've seen quite a few skeletons already. I guess there Is still a lot of burial work to do before we build a paradise.

  ---

  DAY 113

  I ran into a group of brothers from Westview congregation. I was detained at gunpoint! Brother Thorn had gotten word to them to be on the outlook for me. I am furious. Why can't I visit my brother ?

  ---

  DAY 114

  Ed Thorn and two ministerial servants arrived today to escort me back "home". They were all carrying guns.

  ---

  DAY 115

  After my attempted escape and several other disciplinary problems involving other brothers, the elders have now set up a gun-toting police force. I was, of course, disfellowshipped at the morning meeting. I have been assigned to latrine duty.

  DAY 126

  Well, this is the end. Later today, I will be led out for my execution by stoning. I would rather be shot in the back of the head, but the Society obviously feels that stoning provides a better object lesson. If I get a chance I will throw one of the rocks back at Ed Thorn. The funny thing is that I don't really feel so bad about my impending demise. This New World Society is not my idea of a paradise and I don't want to live with these people for all eternity. From paradise lost to paradise regained to paradise lost again.
• 

  morty

  I dodged so many bullets,they moved up to a machine gun....hehe

  mortons68
  
  
  
  
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  metatron

  Maximus discussed this a long time ago and brought up the figure, which he asserted was kept secret within

  Watchtower walls, so as to avoid making Witness parents give up completely. I see every reason to accept his

  percentage because the loss of Witness kids is almost an open scandal in the organization. It's so bad that

  I've stumped highly loyal Witnesses with its implications : "In ten years, Jehovah's Witnesses will be no different

  from any other religion - just look at the kids!" One brother ( now fading) told me in his extended Witness family

  every grandchild of his parents (17) are gone.

  that really takes the wind out of their sails

  metatron
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  blondie

  Based on my over 40 years in the WTS, and current happenings, 80% sounds about right, almost 100% of the young men. Some try to come back when they get married and have children, but most of these young men and women marry non-JWs so it rarely lasts. I was a teenager growing up in the WTS in the 60's and 70's and the attrition was bad then, about 50 to 60%. It is much worse now. The hypocrisy of the parents and other adults does not make them want to stay. If they are lied to about the smaller things, why should they buy into the prophecies?

  Blondie
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  Spudinator

  Here is a link to Maximus' thread on this situation, alluded to by Metatron. The entire thread is very enlightening.

  JW Kids Leave the Organization: Facts

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/10417/124694/post.ashx#124694
• 

  AlanF

  I wouldn't stick my neck out with claims of solid figures, but an astonishingly high percentage of JW-raised kids quit by the time they're 30. In 1993 George Couch gave a "Special Assembly Day" talk in Oregon, which I attended (Couch was the Bethel Home Overseer at the time, I believe, and was for many years Nathan Knorr's secretary and right hand man). Couch lamented that so many young JWs were quitting by the time they reached 18-20. He said that right there in Brooklyn, there were congregations where not a single young man, and only 20% of the young women, stuck with the JWs over a 20 year time period. The situation has only gotten worse for them since then.

  The problem is simple: there is so much information available to young people these days, through school but especially via the Internet, that a good percentage of what the Watchtower teaches is simply not believable to them. Most young JWs today have no idea that the Society still officially teaches that dinosaurs lived on the earth some time between 13,000 and 6,000 years ago, and are shocked to find this out. Stuff like that has to have a sickening effect on young people. It certainly did on me when I found out the truth about a lot of the Society's traditional teachings.

  These days it's only the young people who for whatever reason are mentally or emotionally disposed to be in a cult who stick with it. This isn't a tautological statement, because a careful examination of the lives of such people shows a pattern of blind acceptance of nonsense, along with an extreme reluctance to look at contrary evidence.

  AlanF