Where are JW's most vulnerable?

by PopeOfEruke 24 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Check_Your_Premises

  It is an axiom of human nature that people do not generally believe things because of conclusions reached through reason, rather they believe what they want to believe and use reason to justify their decision.

  The key is to realize that the JW wants to believe what they believe. They are doing exactly what they want to be doing. The second they don't, they start asking questions. The questions lead to more questions. Then to "apostate" material, which in any other area of human study is called a second opinion.

  Most of us here are trying to help someone out of the WT cult. To do that, you have to understand why they are there in the first place.

  Why did they choose to believe this stuff?

  It is a different answer for every person.
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  Check_Your_Premises

  Surveys of those who escaped high control groups showed that the most influential thing was learning about other high control groups and disecting the methods of control. It is nearly inevitable that bells will ring in the head when they later catch themselves supressing their own questions and doubts or fear

  This is interesting to me, since my wife is a soon to be jw. Where did you get this information? What surveys? What high control methods were studied, and how were they disected?
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  Robdar

  I would say all of those are good issues. You should introduce all of them into the conversation-- eventually. I have found that, when dealing with my JW family, it is better to casually bring up one point at a time. Many times I have started a conversation over something that I read on this forum and asked them what they thought about it. It seemed to open dialogue and they didn't feel as if they were being cornered or attacked. Over the years this has paid off.

  Is it the blood issue, either based on a scriptural attack or else a humanistic "value-of-life" approach?
  
  Does the modern-day history of the organisation, the lies and changes and evidence of false prophecy provide the best opening?
  
  Or are the scandals and lies, like the UN scandal, or the owning of shares in military companies, the biggest chink in a JW's suit-of-armour?

  Here is the order of what affected my family the most:

  First the blood issue.

  In private, my family has never really believed in this doctrine. I have found many interesting threads here on this subject. Some of the info I found helped get them over any remaining hurdles they had in disregarding the teaching.

  Second: The lies and Scandals.

  The UN scandal and the pedophile reports literally made them sick. Especially when they saw the Dateline episode a couple of years ago.

  Finally:

  The False prophecy of the WTS. Also the demands of the WTS that it's publisher's spread those false prophecies from door to door.

  No matter how the JWs respond when they hear about the above, if you just act curious and do not be confrontational, they will not feel the need to defend their beliefs. They WILL think about what you have said. Even though they think about it, it can still take years before they decide to act on it-- so do not become discouraged.

  Good luck,

  Robyn
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  AlmostAtheist

  I think we get some insight from seeing the almost-JW's and the just-leaving-JW's on this board. Listening to them and having their posts for reference gives us a snapshot of the thinking of a person in that state. Getting a snapshot of the thinking prior to making the decision to log on here is tougher.

  I knew about the UN thing when I was a dub. I considered it "theocratic strategy" to use the tool of Satan to serve the Watchtower's purposes, sort of like the Israelite spies in Rahab's day. The child molestation thing -- what little I knew of it -- I just put up to human error, or being faced with conflicting stories. The changing doctrine is all just "new light", so no worries there. Coming at me from the "but life is precious" angle, in regards to blood, would be deflected with, "If you had to commit fornication in order to save your life, would you do it?" Since abstaining from blood and fornication are classed together, I knew that regardless of the loss, it was more important to uphold God's word than to preserve my own life. Bad elders, lack of love, all of that was just people not doing what they ought to -- it didn't reflect on the rightness of Jehovah's organization.

  And the really vocal apostates -- the ones that yell stuff when you're walking into an assembly -- just cemented in my mind that all apostates were lunatics. (Rationale: if one apostate is a lunatic, all must be lunatics. Sure, that makes sense. )

  Until I opened my own mind, there was nothing anyone could do to get through to me.

  Dave
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  PopeOfEruke

  Dave
  what finally "made you open your mind"?
  Pope