Some Elders Know...

by metatron 12 Replies latest jw friends

  • metatron
    metatron

    I ran into an old elder buddy recently and we got talking.

    To put it simply, I don't know how he does it! - that is, I don't know how he continues to be an elder when I consider

    what he knows about.

    He knows about the Bulgarian compromise. He sees the exodus of young people. He grew up in an area that had

    a lot of Amish families - who "looked out for each other, why can't we be like them???""

    Why don't Witnesses have their own college? The kids are going to college anyway, so what's the big deal?

    How can they say that the organization has no paid clergy? He knows about Circuit Overseers and the cars, paid

    expenses, paid insurance, and personal contributions they get. Why no communal meals like early Christians?

    He knows. How does he do it? He wants to "help people" and has nowhere else to go - in an extended Witness

    family ( a family now fraying at the edges, given the exodus of the young).

    When I see publishers clapping at the local release of the new Organization book, I wonder if they secretly hope

    that it will say something different and bring change. ( well, fat chance!).

    metatron

  • TheListener
    TheListener

    If he's like some elders I've known and know it's all about the most basic belief that even with all the wrongs, the society still represents Jehovah and it will all be alright in the end.

    I believe itj's called cognitive dissonance. Although I'm not sure if I still completely understand the term.

  • minimus
    minimus

    Wait on Jehovah.

  • Goldminer
    Goldminer

    Ha,Minimus got it right...WAIT ON JEHOVAH!

    That is such an ingrained jw mentality,they just can't shake it.Sometimes I tell my wife I'm gonna start a new religion and when someone complains I'll just say " wait on God to take care of it".

    This wait on jehovah thing sure covers a multitude of sins.

  • LongHairGal
    LongHairGal

    Listener:

    I think cognitive dissonance is when one believes two opposite and contradictory beliefs simultaneously and the person feels distress and upset over this (because the brain is rebelling against it). Emotional problems will then result.

    LHG

  • Doubtfully Yours
    Doubtfully Yours

    That's their mantra alright... "WAIT ON JEHOVAH. LEAVE IT IN JEHOVAH'S HANDS."

    DY

  • Buster
    Buster

    What is the Bulgarian Compromise?

    (I've been around for a while. Perhaps I know it by some other name?)

    And yes, I think a lot of elders know. And all the COs and DOs know. But it isn't about logic. Its about a lifestyle. Its about asking someone to rebuild the way they incorporate information. Its about asking someone to leave a life that at least includes a social circle.

  • The Thinker
    The Thinker

    Elders are conmforable in there postion, they don't want to rock the boat because they may loose there postion. Its Like when Jesus told the pharsees, but they ddin't listen because they would loose there postion too. Elders have sold their integrity to the WTS.

  • outoftheorg
    outoftheorg

    Well at a very basic, "I am not a psychiatrist" dissonance means this.

    You or I have a set of beliefs. These were learned at an early age or implanted at an older age.

    We KNOW that these beliefs are true and active and help direct our lives. We Know this with all our heart. It was taught or delivered to us by the most reliable people or even God.

    We are so sure that we will adhere to them even if it may cost our life.

    Or we may have not so deep a belief but still cherish them or the thought of them.

    HOWEVER in our daily every day lives, we experience things that contest these beliefs and in spite of it they turn out to be TRUE or helpful or loving or successful and they are coming from people we are supposed to detest.

    Or a date is given for this or that incident or medical beliefs, instead of giving us faith and comfort we find them doubtful, but we hold onto the belief.

    It is like a part of your brain telling you, this room is black and another telling you, it is white.

    There are several possible results. Mine was a constant low level anger that applied to everything.

    Another was a fear of and anger toward the religious cult I was in and their attitude and treatment.

    I hadn't reached the level at which I hated their beliefs= my beliefs yet.

    When it did reach this level I sought counseling and I needed it.

    dissonance-discord-disharmony confusion collision at a mental level

    Outoftheorg

  • Dynamite1
    Dynamite1

    And none of them actually follow the mantra "Wait on Jehovah". If they did, they wouldn't be popping pills for every headache that came along (as I knew sisters to do all the time), they'd just wait for Jehovah to make the headache go away. IMO, they wouldn't seek medical advice on anything, they'd just wait for god to take care of it. What crap!

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