Please Switch Off Your Critical Thinking

by pale.emperor 51 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  pale.emperor

  I have an uneasy feeling inside that something is coming this year or the next. Perhaps a new big announcement that turns JWdom on it's head.

  We've seen the statement in the Watchtower November 15th, 2013 which said:

  

  Watchtower November 15th, 2013 - page 20, paragraph 17.
  

  I'm sure i dont need to go into great lengths talking about how chilling and worrying that paragraph is. For a religion who's belief system is based on paranoia about armageddon, persecution and the belief that we and our children dont belong to ourselves the possibilities for a dangerous outcome is very high.
  

  The term "adjust their thinking" is also quite concerning. Using synonyms for each word "adjust" their "thinking" becomes "change" their "mind".

  Then we've seen in the leaked 2018 convention videos the subtle and not so subtle hints to "just go along with what the GB say".

  One of the videos shows three sisters discussing the arrangement to move them into different congregations away from their family. The "good" sister acknowledges that the decision the elders came to doesn't make any sense but remarks:
  

  10:22: Whether is makes sense or not, im going to support that arrangement.
  

  

  WAIT... stop a second. You admit it doesn't make any sense, but you're going to support it any way?

  People "support" something they understand and believe in. I myself "support" the Labour party in Britain. I looked into their policys, their agenda, their aims and their history and i decided that they're a political party that i would back.

  Imagine if you will, if i lived in 1930 in Germany. A political party called The National Socialist German Workers Party (NAZI) comes along and, although i dont understand their aims, i decide to support them anyway. What are the consequences of my "just going along with it?". By 1945 looking back on what's happened and the result of many people "just going along with it" could i honestly have cause to complain?

  The "bad" sister in the video was absolutely right to ask why the arrangement has been put in place. She had every right to discuss, critique and offer counter ideas - that's in the normal world. And the video shown that she was "bad" for thinking for herself and trusting her own mind.
  

  They're really pushing this now. Maybe the GB know their teachings are based on wrong dates? Maybe the GB are going to drop the 1914 teaching but still expect the rank and file to "just go along with it"? I dont know.
  
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  cofty

  I agree they are preparing the ground for something that they know will be a hard sell.
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  Still Totally ADD

  Pale if what you saying does come true, I hope it just changing their teachings on 1914 or some other silly teachings they have. What worries me is something more wacky or dangerous. Remember how many years ago how they would talk about gradualism. How if we let certain things come in our life's a little at a time it could cause us to leave the so called truth. I feel this is what they are doing now to keep people trap in the cult. A little information at a time until everyone is comfortable with what they are saying then they come out with more information. You could look at it as putting a puzzle together. Right now we can't see the whole picture but in time we will. It could be a very scary picture. With kids and grandkids still in the cult this is what worries me. Thanks for bringing this out. Still Totally ADD
• 

  Fred Franztone

  Whatever it is, it'll be about money, they've started to drop the pretence of it being about anything else. Remember though, there is always something coming with them, it's how they sustain themselves, through keeping the R&F in suspense
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  pale.emperor

  I think they'll up the shunning non-JW family members. They already told the members at the last convention to shun faders. When i asked a JW about this they claimed that they've always done that (which they havent). It's like their brains are wiped and reprogrammed and they forget they ever taught anything else.
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  dubstepped

  I'm with ADD and PE above in that I think they're dropping the 1914 teaching. They are just "Christians" now and getting away from the doomsday message somewhat. Obviously nobody knows but that's my guess. I do think they're working toward something, but that's like saying the sun will come up tomorrow, they are always angling toward manipulating something.
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  Finkelstein

  The WTS knows the doctrines which they built this organization upon were false so from that realization it wouldn't be surprising they crank up the mind control, putting the wall around their members even higher.
  

  There is a lot information out there that they are paranoid about their members viewing.

  Its just simple fate that the WTS's doctrines (1914) have run out their appearance of viability, right at the same time there is easy access of information via the inter-net appeared.
  
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  carla

  I wonder what the general non jw population would think of the 2013 quote? I would like to see it done like a roving reporter asking the man on the street kind of thing. Kind of like how Jay Leno used to do.

  Hope my jw remembers not to drink actual kool aid if it is offered at the kh.
• 

  sir82

  I don't think they'll push any truly dangerous.

  I suspect their "hard sell", as Cofty aptly put it, will be to get JWs to (cheerfully!) support their congregation / Kingdom Hall reorganization plan.

  As rural Kingdom Halls, which have maybe only 1 or 2 congregations, are sold off to make more money for the WTS, those rural JWs will be forced to drive 30, 40, 50 minutes to their new, overcrowded Kingdom Hall, and sit with people they don't know, while their best friends, who maybe they've known for 50 or 60 years, will be assigned 40 miles in the opposite direction.

  Old, long-time, rural JWs can get cranky. Cranky old JWs (who aren't afraid to voice their displeasure) hurt morale, which hurts contributions. The WTS is trying to get them on board with their money-making scheme to sell Kingdom Halls and relocate congregations.
  
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  OnTheWayOut

  Removing any doomsday connection dooms the organization. They thrive on "The sky is falling...soon."

  Increased shunning would be difficult for even hardcore members. It would have to be tied to some major doomsday-connected announcement, or else it will shake out many more members.

  One day soon, they may announce a 2034 deadline, but I see that as a last big gasp from a nearly dead organization. Right now, it is most likely they will do more money/property/merging congregations stuff....or put all literature online and shut down printing.