Grab just about any page from the Revelation Climax book. Talk about terrorism.
Shunned Father needs graqphic pictures
by Dogpatch 12 Replies latest jw friends
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Will Power
Not sure where I got this but I've had it on file quite a while - if anyone recognizes it please say... I think it is an important piece of the coercion puzzle. Any pictures in the "bible Stories" book with babies crying and parents with worried looks are scary to children. I used to freak seeing Hansel & Gretel walking alone in the woods at night. !! I can't imagine having WTs for bed time or even "awake" time LOL stories. How does the Watchtower indoctrinate its members?
Charges are often brought against the Watchtower of brainwashing its members. If brainwashing is understood to include the repetition of their doctrines over and over so as to immunize them against any other viewpoint, then this is certainly true. However, there are two techniques the Watchtower uses that are even more effective in establishing a cultic mindset:
(1) a highly controlled social atmosphere, and
(2) teaching the Witness to brainwash himself. In actuality, these two methods are usually employed together. It works like this:
(1) The Watchtower isolates the JW from his family and from society by keeping him totally occupied with meetings, study, door-to-door and proselytizing activity, and by warning them not to associate with "worldly" people, which often excludes one's own non-Witness family. As a result, a narrow, pessimistic and apprehensive mentality is produced. No one outside of the organization is to be trusted. One withdraws into the standard JW mindset, wherein he mimics the attitudes of the local elders as well as the Governing Body to a large extent. The JW learns how to "read between the lines" so to speak, when the Watchtower promotes its doctrines. Their doctrines may not actually look so unusual in print, but the JW interprets them differently than the person off the street who just picks up and reads the latest Watchtower. The JW has the key to understand the WT because he embraces the standard JW mindset and attitude.
(2) By the use of leading questions, the Watchtower study conductors can use their publications and even the Bible to direct the JW to certain conclusions, yet allow the Witness himself to give the answer. This technique of presenting certain one-sided facts and then using leading questions to get them to reason on these facts is the same as used in courts of law, where a lawyer may trap the defendant by reviewing certain selected facts (which may or may not be true), then asking the defendant "catch" questions, until the defendant admits he is wrong or his testimony appears inconsistent. While a new person studying with the JWs may suspect this technique, the committed JW responds out of habit, without even questioning the method or the doctrine. Because he is familiar with the attitude or the spirit of the organization, he generally knows the right answer to give, and automatically parrots it. For instance: A JW may read an article about dress and grooming, and how the way we dress influences others. Then the article may give a couple of experiences where someone with a beard was either dishonest or was perceived as such. Finally, the article may conclude with the leading question, "Would it be wise as Witnesses of the happy God Jehovah to display a form of dress or grooming that might cast doubts on our honesty or sincerity?"
The JW thinks to himself, "I don't know anyone in the organization who has a beard except a rebellious brother in another congregation, and so it must be a sign of rebellion to wear a beard. I don't want to be looked upon as `untheocratic'. Beards are obviously untheocratic." What we find is that the JW has brainwashed himself into believing that a Christian shouldn't wear a beard, and can even find Scriptures (provided by the Watchtower) to support his case. All this, while most all faithful men in the Bible had beards!
Same procedure for: bad associations, shunning, examining head office, you name it they are off the hook for it.
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Leolaia
There's a great chapter on these illustrations in the Bottings' "Orwellian World" book. I think it's the "mental regulating" chapter....