Jolene Chu and Ollimatti Peltonen publication

by careful 9 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  careful

  Just published in Cambridge University Press's Elements in New Religious Movements series, a short book or oversized pamphlet is now available by two Witnesses, Jolene Chu from Warwick and Ollimatti Peltonen from the Selters branch.

  https://www.amazon.com/Jehovahs-Witnesses-Elements-Religious-Movements/dp/1009509764
  

  It's small, just 84 pages, including the bibliography. Peltonen gave a talk at the Cesnur convention in Bordeaux, France in June on those who come back to the WTS after leaving. It was called "'Reaffiliation and “Reconversion' to the Jehovah’s Witnesses’s Community: Motivating Factors Behind the Process.

  After a 7-page intro, there are 5 headings: History, Doctrine, Identity, Organization, Interaction.

  Here are the two copyright pages:
  

  
  

  
  

  Among the interesting things here that struck me in this abstract is how toned down "false Christianity/apostate Christendom" is. It's simply called "mainstream Christianity" with nothing negative attached. Although this publication is billed as unofficial, surely the GB had to read and approve it. Is this yet another example of the many changes taking place in their collective mind?
  

  Your thoughts?
  
• 

  Sea Breeze

  The Watchtower has long referred to Christians as:

  1. Bird food that will feed the fowls of heaven with their rotting flesh

  2. Dung on the surface of the earth

  3. Whores and prostitutes

  4. Vomit eaters

  They found out that they don't need to hate Christians as much as they used to, to get the same desired effect.

  Belief in the doctrines of self atonement, 2nd chance theology and Arianism seem to be quite sufficient all by themselves to get people to reject "the forgiveness of sins" stipulated in the new covenant offered in Mt. 26: 227-28.
• 

  Earnest

  It is available for download here free of charge for two weeks after the publication date, which was 18 December 2024.
• 

  scholar

  careful

  Thanks for the news of this update on modern scholarship on Jehovah's Witnesses. At this time of year, when we celebrate the Bbrth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, this excellent academic work is surely 'Good News'.

  scholar JW
• 

  KalebOutWest

  A highly problematic work.

  It is academically dishonest in many places. For instance, on page 14, in the 2nd paragraph from the top, the claim is made that during Russell's lifetime the early Bible Students "concluded that 1914 had marked the beginning of Christ's heavenly rule." This, we know is not true. The earlier 1874 date for the parousia of Christ according to their doctrine was not revised until after WWII. 1914 did not mark the "return" to Christ's rule until the late 1940s.

  The claim that the Governing Body never said they were a prophet and their failure regarding 1975 is highly glossed over on page 23.

  By page 25 it begins to read like a glorified Watchtower publication, not an academic paper, sounding preachy and attempting to proselytize. It is just too much to stomach, really.

  The "Exit and Reentry" list adapted to fit the Watchtower reminds me how this same argument was applied by Mormon leaders not too long ago. They used this argument to explain that those who were leaving were to blame, not the Mormon leaders who may have lied or made up stories about Joseph Smith and the origins of the Book of Mormon. The application of similar data towards exJWs sounds like Watchtower has been coached or is stealing from someone else who already "sang that song."

  While I may be wrong, this smells fishy and the "academic" Witnesses who wrote this were just pawns working as beards and pawns for the Watchtower attempting to produce something for some scheme to use in a legal battle.
• 

  vienne

  "It is academically dishonest in many places. For instance, on page 14, in the 2nd paragraph from the top, the claim is made that during Russell's lifetime the early Bible Students 'concluded that 1914 had marked the beginning of Christ's heavenly rule.'"

  While I agree the document if flawed, I don't think this is a flaw, though it is misleading. Russellites believed Christ's parousia began in 1874, but they taught that Christ's rule over/on the earth would begin in 1914 when the Saints would be "Translated." For instance, Kingdom Come (Studies vol. 3, page 126 speaks of a dispensation, the harvest period from 1878-1914, as lasting "until the overthrow of the professedly Christian kingdoms, really 'kingdoms of this world,' and the full establishment of the Kingdom of God in the earth at A. D. 1914, the terminus of the Times of the Gentiles." Volume 2, Time is at Hand, chapter four, discusses this in more detail.

  The issue is misdirection by lack of detail.
• 

  careful

  An interesting observation from the Chu-Peltonen little book:

  on p. 2 in the Foreword, written by non-Witness British minority religions scholar Eileen Barker, she notes that both Chu and Peltonen “hold academic degrees.”

  Then just one page later, in the Introduction written by Chu and Peltonen, they state that both of them were “raised in Witness households.” These are interesting contrasts, don’t you think? Here the authors, obviously with the GB’s blessing, are admitting—without being obvious to their intended readership—that they and/or their Witness parents rebelled against the org’s directions not to attend institutions of higher education themselves, or in case of Witness parents, not to send their children to such places.

  What’s up here?
• 

  Gorb

  Chu is a long time Watchtower researcher and formely working at NYT.

  Worked with James Pellechia.

  Chu worked also for the Watchtower surviver fund organization.

  This all in the 90's.

  G.
• 

  careful

  Chu is a long time Watchtower researcher and formely working at NYT.

  Worked with James Pellechia.

  Chu worked also for the Watchtower surviver fund organization.

  This all in the 90's.

  Thanks, Gorb. How does that relate to their both not taking official line on higher education to heart, and then broadcasting that with the GB's blessing?
• 

  Gorb

  Chu was already higher educated when she worked for NYT and was asked to come over to work for JW headquarters.

  She did research the WW2 subject then.

  Watchtower was more liberal in the 90's and later on Jaracz closed the windows.

  G.