WOULD YOU GIVE THE JW'S THIS?

by integ 100 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • AlanF
    AlanF

    I'd give the JWs credit for doing some things right. But as another poster suggested, I'll only give them half credit on most things. The reason is that they don't do certain things they consider moral because they've figured out that they're moral, but because the Watchtower Society tells them to. The typical JW has little concept of morality outside of what the Society says. That's why you so often find Watchtower officials and writers telling half-truths or outright lies to defend Momma Organization.

    Take war, for instance. JWs are not pacificsts and have absolutely nothing against war, but to give the appearance that they do, they loudly proclaim that they don't take part in it, when the reality is that they simply obey the Society's command not to participate in "worldly" wars. You can bet that most JWs would participate in war if the Society decided they should and wrote some WT articles instructing them to. The same goes for many other "moral standards".

    Take child molesting, for instance. While most JWs in theory detest child molesting, when push comes to shove and the Society tells the parents of a molested child to shut up so that "Jehovah's name" won't be besmirched and to avoid telling others about the molester, and the parents obey, what has been proved? That the Society is more interested protecting itself than in protecting children, and that the parents are more interested in keeping on the good side of the Society than in protecting their child and other children, and doing the moral thing by exposing a molester.

    My point is: A morality based on obeying the dictates of a cult is no morality at all. And I give little credit to anyone who is moral merely because cult leaders tell them to be.

    AlanF

  • jayhawk1
    jayhawk1
    Pudding! I loved their chocolate pudding at the district assemblies!

    Tammy

    Then there is their cheese danish and lemon-lime shasta sodas I loved. I think when food service was discontinued is about the same time I started to wake up to the reality of the Watchtower.

    Was their something in the food?

  • Sassy
    Sassy

    I am not sure what I would give them credit for? Most every aspect of my life has, now in retrospect, been stunted because of the religion. From the loser men I dated who were raised to treat women like doormats, to never really fitting in in school because you had to be 'seperate from the world' and the difficulty growing up in a divided household, to the loss of my children, my friends and family. Maybe it kept me from a life of drugs, who is to know? I guess I can give it the possiblity of that.

  • flower
    flower

    Alan F stated it much better than I could..I totally agree.

  • Sassy
    Sassy

    Wait, I thought of something, going in service as a teenager with two teenage boys and gettng to sit between them.. that was pretty fun.. and following the boys at conventions, I remember that fondly, passing notes, etc... sitting next to a young man at the meeting and making sure your elbow rested near his arm on the arm rest, feeling the physical warm as it burned from contact.

    Ok.. I came up with something I can remember fondly that I can give credit for enjoying.

  • mustang
    mustang

    Update:

    The complete title of the booklet is Defending and Legally Establishing the Good News. It is from 1950. So, it didn't quite make it back to the 40's.

    Mustang

  • Swan
    Swan

    ALAN F,

    I loved your post! Very well stated.

    Tammy

  • Singing Man
    Singing Man

    Sorry but I can not find anything they helped me with other than keep me in suits and ties.

  • BluesBrother
    BluesBrother
    My point is: A morality based on obeying the dictates of a cult is no morality at all. And I give little credit to anyone who is moral merely because cult leaders tell them to be.

    Surely the question was "What would we credit JWs for?" so the fact that members do things as a direct consequence of membership and out of loyalty to the movement is a valid credit for the group

    J Ws do promote good behaviour , the trouble is that it is not consistantly applied, and if you fall foul of the Org, then loyalty to that body will always come first

  • rocketman
    rocketman

    Alan did state things well. When it comes down to being either truly moral or obedient (in matters where it is one or the other) they go the obedience route virtually every time. Those who don't often end up labeled as weak, compromising, and / or acting against the FDS and thus God himself.

    It seems to me, from what I've read of this thread thus far, that quite a few posters would give the jws something, but a qualified something, not an absolute.

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