Watchtower Opts to Make Service Meetings Even Worse

by metatron 31 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Nathan Natas

  One effective technique for grooup instruction is:

  • Tell them what you're going to tell them.
  • Tell them.
  • Tell them what you told them.

  Under the direction of Jehoober's 150 Proof Spirit?, the borg has gilded this lily and attained:

  • Tell them what you're going to tell them you'll tell them you'll tell them.
  • Tell them what you're going to tell them you'll tell them
  • Tell them what you're going to tell them.
  • Tell them.
  • Tell them what you told them.
  • Tell them what you told them you told them
  • Tell them what you told them you told them you told them

  Now we know how Dubs are going to occupy their time during eternity in paradise!
• 

  willyloman

  Nathan: Brilliant! These guys are good (at nothing of any value).
• 

  Gopher

  ... after the Circuit Assembly, the Service Meeting will conduct a review by asking a

  half page list of printed questions (16) about the whole program, as specified in the Kingdom

  Ministry. The same goes for the Special Assembly Day.

  This way those two or three people in every congregation who love looking good and giving those great answers will have YET ANOTHER chance to shine and show how attentive they are to spiritual things.

  The others who didn't pay much attention at the circuit assembly or even bother to attend can easily catch the highlights at the next service meeting.

  It's a win-win for all concerned!
• 

  metatron

  and here's a reaction from a somewhat enlightened JW!

  "Well, I hardly have to go to the assembly, then"

  Thank you Service Department, for once again, shooting yourself in the foot!

  It's very encouraging to us 'opposers' and 'apostates' to see you make this sort of dumb decision.

  metatron
• 

  cyber-sista

  The illustration that was often used in the Org over and over and over and over and over again was the one about the meetings being like a physical meal. "You want to prepare for that meal and then you will get so much more enjoyment and nutrition out of it. Not preparing before a meeting is like not preparing a meal. Think about eating a bunch of raw potatoes without cooking them first--they would not be very tasty nor digestable. Thus preparing ahead for taking in "spiritual food" is much like preparing ahead for physical food" If you don't prepare ahead you could end up not enjoying the meal or perhaps, or as I had heard it "suggested" you could end up with indigestion.

  Remember at the assembly when they reviewed at the beginning of it telling us to let all our cares go--to focus and prepare our minds for the fine spiritual food that we were about to partake of? I think this constant repetition and clearing the mind of all other though is all a part of their tecnique. I know some here don't like to use the term "brainwashing" but to me this term fits the description of the WT teaching methods to the "T"

  I began to see the patterns with this over the years--in the talks and in the magazines -- much of the teaching methods used are based on the "sandwich". I have also heard of the elders use the "sandwich" tecnique when giving councel. The sandwich is a term used by some elders and they describe it like this: First you start with the "bread" (the soft squishy stuff) you build the person up and tell them how loved and worthy they are. In the middle to the councel is the "meat" or the hard hitting (beat you over the head) councel. After that you end with the bread again--the soft squishy stuff--the encouragement to keep on in the faith. The elders are trained in tecniques. As JW we were trained how to talk with people using convincing arguments. We were brainwashed to brainwash. That is the only term I can think to use for it.
• 

  Undaunted Danny

  To:cyber-sister i think the 'sandwich method' is aka the passive/aggressive or the good cop bad cop routine. http://www.freeminds.org/psych/beel.htm A Study of the Persuasion Techniques Used by Jehovah?s Witnesses and the Watchtower

  A research report submitted to Tabor College, Adelaide, by NATHAN CHARLES BEEL as the Directed Study Project component for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Christian Counselling--- November, 1997.

  -Introduction
  -Lifton?s Criteria for Thought Reform
  -Milieu Control

  
  -Mystical Manipulation
  -Loading the Language
  -Doctrine over Person
  -The Sacred Science
  -The Cult of Confession
  -The Demand for Purity-The Dispensing of Existence-Hassan?s Criteria for Mind Control Behaviour Control
  -Information Control
  -Thought Control
  -Emotional Control-Conclusion
  -Propaganda
  -Cognitive Dissonance

  http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ Examples of Fallacies :AKA:"DON'T PISS DOWN MY BACK AND TELL ME IT'S RAINING" Boloney Detection Kit

  1. Inductive Argument

     Premise 1: Most American cats are domestic house cats.
     Premise 2: Bill is an American cat.
     Conclusion: Bill is domestic house cat.

  2. Factual Error

     Columbus( discovered America) is the capital of the United States.

  3. Deductive Fallacy

     Premise 1: If Portland is the capital of Maine, then it is in Maine.
     Premise 2: Portland is in Maine.
     Conclusion: Portland is the capital of Maine.
     (Portland is in Maine, but Augusta is the capital. Portland is the largest city in Maine, though.)

  4. Inductive Fallacy

     Premise 1: Having just arrived in Ohio, I saw a white squirrel.
     Conclusion: All Ohio Squirrels are white.
     (While there are many, many squirrels in Ohio, the white ones are very rare).

  Index

  1. Ad Hominem
  2. Ad Hominem Tu Quoque
  3. Appeal to Authority
  4. Appeal to Belief
  5. Appeal to Common Practice
  6. Appeal to Consequences of a Belief
  7. Appeal to Emotion
  8. Appeal to Fear
  9. Appeal to Flattery
  10. Appeal to Novelty
  11. Appeal to Pity
  12. Appeal to Popularity
  13. Appeal to Ridicule
  14. Appeal to Spite
  15. Appeal to Tradition
  16. Bandwagon
  17. Begging the Question
  18. Biased Sample
  19. Burden of Proof
  20. Circumstantial Ad Hominem
  21. Composition
  22. Confusing Cause and Effect
  23. Division
  24. False Dilemma
  25. Gambler's Fallacy
  26. Genetic Fallacy
  27. Guilt By Association
  28. Hasty Generalization
  29. Ignoring A Common Cause
  30. Middle Ground
  31. Misleading Vividness
  32. Personal Attack
  33. Poisoning the Well
  34. Post Hoc
  35. Questionable Cause
  36. Red Herring
  37. Relativist Fallacy
  38. Slippery Slope
  39. Special Pleading
  40. Spotlight
  41. Straw Man
  42. Two Wrongs Make A Right

  "SELF-TERMINATING CLICHES-------all apostates are 'full of hate' and 'hate the truth'.the JW as the articulated manipulator

  Danny's dangerous words dictionary

  cognitive dissonance : When Prophecies Fail A Sociological Perspective on Failed Expectation in the Watchtower Society by Randall Watters:

  http://www.freeminds.org/psych/propfail.htm

  DANNY CALLS THIS CULT PHENOMENON (cognitive dissonance); "JUSTIFICATION OF SOUR GRAPES". e.g.The car of my dreams was sold to another party just as i got there,ahhh,it was probably a lemon anyway...or,armageddon didn't come in 1975,just think,"now apostates will have time to make it back".

  Last but not least:"apostate opposers R full of bleep cause they like to,""Throw around LARGE words" to show that they R know-it-alls"

  or "Your post is silly. JWs aren't like you depict them. You seem very hateful and bitter. Seek help.

  
  Watchtower's canon of ethics [Rules] Also known as; 'approved operating procedure' [ A.O.P.]Jehovah'speak=doublespeak. Carefully crafted cult rhetoric..JWessse It's plain old: mealy mouthing, innuendo / deception / flim-flam / hoodwink / bamboozle / fraud / mind games / confidence game / blowing smoke and bluster...... It's the, deflection "JEOPARDY GAME"!.

  Framing false "profitcy$" in the form of a QUESTION

  
  OCCAM'S RAZOR aka the K.I.S.S. rule "Keep it simple silly"

  » Theologically,Jehovah's Witnesses are a cult of Christianity.The oppressive organization does not represent historical, Biblical Christianity in any way. Sociologically, it is a destructive cult whose false teachings frequently result in spiritual and psychological abuse, as well as needless deaths.
• 

  Jim_TX

  I find this '16 questions' bit somewhat amusing.

  I can see the day when - in order to 'keep the meeting going', the fella in charge will be handing out pre-prepared answers to 'random' folks prior to the meeting... just sose he can be sure to get answers from more than his wife, in the audience.

  *chuckling to self*

  Regards,

  Jim TX
• 

  Joker10

  Metatron, do you know how many publishers reported in Arpil?
• 

  Euphemism

  The Ministerial Training School came up a few years back. Kinda like the Pioneer school for Pioneers, it's a specialized week (or two?) of training for single brothers who (I believe) are already MSs.

  I think you may be confusing it with the Kingdom Ministry school. Elders and MSes go to these every year or two; there's generally a one-day session for MSes, and two days for Elders.

  Ministerial Training School is for Ministerial Servants or Elders; it's actually a two-month program. Unlike the KM school, which is for all Elders and MSes, MTS requires a special application process, and only a small number attend (maybe a couple of hundred a year).

  Basically, you have to quit your job to attend (unless you work for a Witness and thus can get a two-month leave), and you have to be willing to move anywhere in the country after the course is done (although they've been easing up on that requirement a bit). Ministerial servants who attend the school are usually appointed elders shortly afterwards.

  As was mentioned, the idea is to create an elite cadre of elders who will be firmly loyal to Brooklyn and obey all their instructions to the letter (which very few of the local elders do).
• 

  jgnat

  I wonder if our board is at least partly responsible for this new arrangement?

  Then, after the Circuit Assembly, the Service Meeting will conduct a review by asking a half page list of printed questions (16) about the whole program, as specified in the Kingdom Ministry. The same goes for the Special Assembly Day.

  After all, many here have shared fond memories of wandering the hallways, people watching, and generally daydreaming through the entire experience.

  What I wanna know, what is Brooklyn going to do with the slackers, once they winnow them out? The new reviews is a dumb idea. Witnesses with brains will be dragging their feet to the meetings.