One of the most telltale signs of all totalitarian systems, religious of political is that they demand complete loyalty from their members. No one or nothing can break that loyalty to the organization or the “cause”.
The Watchtower Society is of course no exception in this matter but is demanding the same kind of loyalty. Being a religious organization they of course pretend that the loyalty you as a member are required to show isn’t directed at them but at God, but this is just technicalities, for all intent and purpose it is the Watchtower organization that gets and benefits from the members loyalty. They are of course aware that loyalty can be misplaced:
*** w61 10/1 p. 591 Prophesying with the Loyal Organization ***
Today many persons think that by their loyalty to a religious organization they are loyal to God. But they can be wrong about this.
After having pointed this out they hurry to “identify” everyone but themselves as guilty of such “misplaced” loyalty. Not surprisingly it is the members of good old “Christendom” that are placing their loyalty to a “false organization”.
*** w61 10/1 p. 591 Prophesying with the Loyal Organization ***
Among things foretold to appear in our day are people and organizations described as being “lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, having a form of godly devotion but proving false to its power.” (2 Tim. 3:1, 4, 5) These make religious claims; they pretend to be devoted to God; they go through man-made religious ceremonies conducted by men who are ordained as priests, bishops, deacons, reverends and doctors of divinity. At the same time they go in for material things, the satisfying of the flesh rather than the spirit, and thus they betray that they are not God’s true organization.
Then follows the usual complete nonsense and written contortionist act where scripture, not very clear to begin with, as usual are bent totally beyond any shape to fit on the two-bit puny con organization in Brooklyn, as the only one that “deserve” loyalty. So it turns out that when a friend, relative or close family member are accused of some act that go against the Watchtower organizations vast volume of written and unwritten rules, this is your chance to prove your ultimate loyalty to this abominable organization:
*** w61 10/1 p. 596 Prophesying with the Loyal Organization ***
What, then, if the son of a family that is within God’s visible organization should oppose this prophesying concerning the Kingdom? What if the son should begin to proclaim or prophesy something contrary to the Kingdom message and try to influence others in the organization wrongly, doing this in the name of Jehovah? What should the dedicated, baptized father and mother do? They dare not let their affections run wild; they dare not spare even this dear one whose natural birth they caused.
22 They must declare to him the mortal sinfulness of his false prophesying or opposition to Kingdom prophesying. They cannot endure to have even their own child speak falsehood in the name of Jehovah. They must pierce him through because of his false prophesying. They must consider him as spiritually dead to themselves, as one with whom to have no religious association and fellowship and whose prophesyings are to be rejected. They must not hinder his being disfellowshiped from the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses. It is a situation in which to remember the words of Jehovah’s King, Jesus Christ: “He that has greater affection for son or daughter than for me is not worthy of me.”—Matt. 10:37.
*** w65 7/15 p. 435 Do Not Resist Jehovah’s Counsel ***
25 At times action must be taken by a judicial committee of a congregation against a person in the congregation. Although that person may be a close friend or a relative, do not resist Jehovah’s arrangement by taking sides with that one against the organization. The action is necessary, and it is taken for the good of all the congregation. Such unpleasant happenings test your love for Jehovah and his organization. You fail to show love and loyalty to Jehovah’s organization when you side with persons against whom it is obliged to act.—1 Cor. 5:9-13.
In a more recent publication the Watchtower Society are reminding their “flock” about this for the umpteenth time:
*** km 8/02 p. 4 Display Christian Loyalty When a Relative Is Disfellowshipped ***
11 As for a child, the same article continues: “Sometimes Christian parents have accepted back into the home for a time a disfellowshiped child who has become physically or emotionally ill. But in each case the parents can weigh the individual circumstances. Has a disfellowshiped son lived on his own, and is he now unable to do so? Or does he want to move back primarily because it would be an easier life? What about his morals and attitude? Will he bring ‘leaven’ into the home?—Gal. 5:9.”
12 Benefits of Being Loyal to Jehovah: Cooperating with the Scriptural arrangement to disfellowship and shun unrepentant wrongdoers is beneficial. It preserves the cleanness of the congregation and distinguishes us as upholders of the Bible’s high moral standards. (1 Pet. 1:14-16) It protects us from corrupting influences. (Gal. 5:7-9) It also affords the wrongdoer an opportunity to benefit fully from the discipline received, which can help him to produce “peaceable fruit, namely, righteousness.”—Heb. 12:11.
13 After hearing a talk at a circuit assembly, a brother and his fleshly sister realized that they needed to make adjustments in the way they treated their mother, who lived elsewhere and who had been disfellowshipped for six years. Immediately after the assembly, the man called his mother, and after assuring her of their love, he explained that they could no longer talk to her unless there were important family matters requiring contact. Shortly thereafter, his mother began attending meetings and was eventually reinstated. Also, her unbelieving husband began studying and in time was baptized.
So even in this regard the Watchtower Society is fulfilling all the requirements for a totalitarian organization. Of course like all true totalitarian organizations and totalitarian thinking individuals’ criticism of the Watchtower Society is the same as criticizing God himself. Stalin equated all criticism of himself as Anti-Soviet propaganda. The same totalitarian thinking is really quite usual today where criticism of Israel is automatically equated with anti-Semitism; criticism of the Bush administration is Anti American etc.
All of it typical of a totalitarian mindset, where nuances, details and such means nothing. Such thinking demands unquestionable loyalty to nations, organizations and other entities with a totalitarian mindset.
Norm