Somebody- Please Help Me UNDERSTAND?

by upside/down 47 Replies latest jw experiences

• 

  Mulan

  thus it appears the WTS behind closed doors is plotting all kinds of evil? I was pretty "dialed in" and I never saw anything more than the attitude of Osama BinLaden, he just KNOWS he's right and KNOWS god is with him.

  You say you were pretty dialed in. What does that mean? Were you an elder who had access to inside information? Probably not. Many who post here, do fit that description, including my husband.

  The WTS is now on a campaign of self preservation, at all cost. Maybe they aren't plotting evil, but you can go to the bank that they are definitely plotting. Why else do they have an army of attorneys. They are trying hard to hang onto their corporate presence, and their control of the masses in the local congregations.
• 

  Pole

  Briefly analyse the main characteristics of totalitarian systems and your conclusion will be confirmed in entirety:
  
  
  
  
  
  In a typical totalitarian system a few are totally cynical, many are totally fooled. There are also those who I'd call subconsciously-cynical. Imagine you have been in the truth for 30 years. You are a Bethel elder in a higly respected position. You give great public talks (from the perspective of an avg JW) and derive a lot of self-fulfillment from it. You get food and shelter for doing it. You have lots of friends and a happy family.
  
  
  Then you come across something that stirs doubts in your mind. And think just how easy is it to make them go away if your subconscious cynicism starts working. You've made huge emotional investments. You realize that if you voice your doubts you may get df'd and you end up as nobody. No social security, no friends, no respect, no family, no paradise, no Armagedon. You lose your promised position of a prince in the New System. :) You also lose your natural defense system against everyday stress and frustration (The end is just around the corner so there's nothing worth worrying).
  
  
  All you gain is the truth about the Truth. Not even an answer to the "What's the meaning of life" kind of questions, but rather a whole set of fundamental questions. The problem is that you have been told a million times that you already have the one and only Truth. You have been told and reassured a million times that you know more than the brightest minds of the world. So most of the time most people's subconsciousness won't even let them verbalize all those considerations. It's to scary to face it.
  
  
  Two women are watching the same piece of news. It's about a notorious rapist who has just been caught and there is irrefutable evidence against him.
  
  
  The first woman says: This bastard sould be jailed for life.
  
  The second woman says: They set him up! He would never do it. I know my son better than the police or anyone else.
  
  
  The thing is she doesn't. She has devoted half of her life to her son, and now it looks like it's all been wasted.
  
  
  
  
• 

  minimus

  It IS always ALL about $$$. The "organization" has turned so corporate, so legal. Most elders meetings with the District Overseer revolved around legal matters and money. The Wt. has a way about them that gets people to give up their normal lives and become a slave to the organization. Guilt is the biggest tool they use to keep people occupied in "doing more" and giving more---free manpower, wills, estates, donations----all in the name of Jehovah. Who REALLY is the beneficiary of this "do more" mentality?? The Watchtower Bible & Tract Society. Ultimately, the corporation has sucked us in to do the Society's will---BELIEVING WE'RE DOING IT FOR GOD!
• 

  Incense_and_Peppermints

  What I don't understand is this notion that there is an evil conspiracy on the part of the WTS

  hmm... yes i'm angry sometimes because of what the WTS did to me, my self esteem & psyche, and my fractured family... which took years of hard work and some therapy to overcome and heal. and i see them doing the same thing today to so many others, and i know it will never stop.

  if the witnesses "plot" anything it's the maintaining of a constant vigil to protect the organization at ALL COSTS... including SHUNNING THEIR LOVED ONES, LETTING THEIR CHILDREN DIE RATHER THAN GIVE THEM LIFE-SAVING BLOOD, OR PROTECTING CHILD MOLESTERS. any one of these things by themselves would be awful... yet they do them all earnestly to "give praise to Jehovah". without questioning it. they should call themselves "the blindfaithians"...
• 

  Neophulis

  As for all the comments referring to the WTS motives shifting to power and money and using mind control techniques to force members to stay in the organization...

  "Absolute power corrupts absolutely!"

  --George Orwell

  I rest my case...
• 

  funkyderek

  I was pretty "dialed in" and I never saw anything more than the attitude of Osama BinLaden, he just KNOWS he's right and KNOWS god is with him.

  Isn't that bad enough? How much more evil do you want them to be?
• 

  metatron

  UNMERITED SUPERIORITY

  That one phrase says it in a nutshell. It works that way for Muslims, too. You are an infidel, unbeliever, a "worldly person".

  You are condemned by God to death at Armageddon and I'm not! ( blah, blah blah).

  People caught up in this deception often are disadvantaged - by their religion, being poor, ignorant,

  burdened with illnesses that are amplified by their oppressive "faith" and so on. Yet, they feel superior in the

  knowledge that God hates you and ( somehow??!!) favors them.

  metatron
• 

  upside/down

  Well spoken-

  I guess I really appreciate well thought out and at least "coherent" responses. A baarage of antiDub spew does little for the intellect or the heart. But when what is said is TRUE and based on real experience not (I heard Dubs sacrifice cats at their meetings.lol) nonsense like some throw out there.

  As far as the comparison to Osama (isn't that bad enough?). You're absolutely right, it is bad enough. My point is the motive behind the act not the act. The reason I ask this is to clarify where the problem really lays. It appears that the WTS and the "middle management" (ie.elders and CO's and DO's) seem to be the perpetrators. The rest of "us" other sheep seem to be just that "sheep"! after all don't good little sheep follow their shepherds (or so we were led to believe)? Unfortunately this is too much for the average Dub to comprehend(or even want to know) Kind of like discovering "mommy" is a whore, you don't even want to know! (even if it's true it jacks with your head & hurts badly). No more than when I was Catholic and someone told me that Hitler was a Catholic- I knocked him out for such slander (oops- I had to apologize!). But I was a GOOD CATHOLIC! Tell me it isn't sooo. What a humiliation (at first) then outrage as to why was I lied to? I could care less if anyone of any particular faith turns out to be evil- it can happen to anyone anywhere- it's the avoidance of the truth with guile and cunning persuasion that makes me puke. I don't care how bad the news is- if it's the TRUTH I can deal with it.To sweep it under the rug is a crime. You know even the courts acknowledge this by the fact that if you KNOW of a crime and do nothing- you are GUILTY, even if you did nothing (Nuremburg trials ring a bell?).

  Thanks!

  U/D
• 

  mkr32208

  The dubs kill more people every month than waco.

  Is that a substantiated claim? It seems to me that if that many died every MONTH that it would certainly be a bigger issue!

  I was pretty "dialed in" and I never saw anything more than the attitude of Osama BinLaden, he just KNOWS he's right and KNOWS god is with him.

  It's a pretty small step from dieing for got to killing for god... Besides what does it matter if you kill these people? Aren't they going to die in Armegedon next month anyway? If you kill them before armegedon gets here aren't you really doing them a favor?

  I don't see this mentality yet but religions can change course quickly. A religion that is 60-80% mentally ill, power crazed janitors? Who know's what to expect of them!

  I was very involved too and I never really saw conspiracy more just apathy...
• 

  jgnat

  I don't see conspiracy either. The actions of this dysfunctional organization make it clear that they have lost touch with the "little people". Any one convinced they speak for god and expect their followers to act in unity are bound to cause harm, even if it was unintentional or misguided.