It was actually the shunning that freed me. When the Witness people showed me and my family their mean condescending behaviors I lost what little respect and tolerance I had for them. I have absolutely nothing but bad will towards them.
The publishing company is prone to error and most of the Witness people I know are mean and unfriendly. I have very good reason to want to stay away from them.
The Concept That Holds Jehovah's Witnesses Captive.
by Blueblades 24 Replies latest jw friends
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garybuss
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Check_Your_Premises
"Captives to a Concept" is boring because it is a feable attempt to make some money. C of C, at least, was from the heart.
Well first of all, comparing the to books is like comparing apples to oranges. C of C was really just the story of Ray. It alluded to, and dealt with the most important question about the jws, but it took several hundred pages to do it. Don's book is really only meant to deal with the most important question, using ONLY jw literature, to prove that they could not possibly be TFDS. It is actually quite a clever argument, and it is particularly effective for jws because it really questions what Jesus (big medicine for a jw) could possibly have been thinking by choosing the org based on what they were teaching in 1919.
And furthermore, I really do have to stand up for Don here. That guy has been an invaluable help to me in my current situation. I have corresponded with him extensively, long after I bought his book. He was only trying to help me. He had nothing to gain. So criticize the book all you want. Criticize his arguments all you want. But don't quesiton his character or motives when you really have no idea what you are talking about.
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Cameron
I got the title of the book from page 296 of Ray's "Crisis of Conscience" (first edition). I said...
"The following statement by former Governing Body Member Raymond Franz may well be the best explanation that has ever been written about what makes Jehovah?s Witnesses ?tick?"...
"I try in my own mind and heart to understand the feelings of all [Jehovah?s Witnesses], including those of the Governing Body. Based on my own experience among them I believe that they are, in effect, the captives of a concept. The concept or mental image they have of "the organization " seems almost to take on a personality of its own, so that the concept itself controls them, moves them, or restrains them, by molding their thinking, their attitudes, their judgments?The ?concept of "the organization"? becomes, in fact, the dominant, controlling force."
As soon as I read that in 1984 I realized that it was true, not only in my case but with everyone I knew. It is just as former elder Peter Gregerson had observed during his 50 years of association with the Society...
"It seemed that everything always
[comes] back to the question: Is the Watchtower Society and its leadership the "faithful [and discreet] slave [organization] ?"According to the Society's interpretation of Matthew 24:45-47, there is only one way to know if the Society really is, or ever has been God's "faithifiul and discreet slave organization." It has nothing to do with anything that the Society has taught or done since 1919.
The book tries to explain and investigate that one way.
It is in the process of being translated into German by the same person who translated "In Search of Christian Freedom" into German. It is also being translated into Russian. Someone recently expressed the hope that it will be available in Spanish. He said that Mexico is having a real problem with Jehovah's Witnesses.
The book is available in both PDF and print form at www.CaptivesOfaConcept.com
Don
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stillajwexelder
so 2014 will be an interesting year- I think it will cause them embarrasment when it passes
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Blueblades
Slimboyfat, I beg to differ with your response. Many post have been a subject of one book or another. For example search and you will note the many times that books such as Crises of Conscience, ISCF, both by Ray Franz, Apocalyse Delayed, by M.James Penton, The Gentile Times Reconsidered, by Carl Olof Jonsson, Releasing the Bonds, by Steven Hassan have been recommended as books that will help a loved one escape the Organization that has entrapped them.
Many are not aware, including lurkers, that such books are available to help them. What has been Shamelessly and Relentlessly plugged as you describe it, is the Watchtower Organization's claim to have been appointed by Jesus in 1919 to be God's Organization.
This is not in anyway a feeble attempt to make some money, you just don't have your facts right about Don Cameron's years of service, blood sweat and tears that he gave, and the many including myself and my family entrapped for over 30 years in this cult, gave to an Oganization that has no Shame.
None of the books mentioned here and there are others, were written to be compared against each other, all have something to share and help those who are seaching for answers about the Watchtower's many policy changes and it's History that has affected the lives of it's members, some to the wrongful death.See "Blood On The Altar" by David Reed.
Slimboyfat, Don does not need me to argue his case about his intention as to why he wrote this book. I can tell you , it's not about money. I and many others have also recommended many other books on this forum in times passed.
Slimboy, this is not an argumentative post , just a clarification.
Blueblades