The following article found in the October 22 Awake magazine is about Witness youths and chat rooms. Only the main paragraphs are given.
Pg 17
Young People Ask – Chat Rooms – How Can I Avoid The Dangers?
Organized for a Purpose
Chat rooms are usually organized according to topics that attract certain groups of people. Some might be set up for enthusiasts of a particular sport of hobby. Others may be devoted to discussing a television show. Still others might cater to people claiming to belong to a particular religion.
If you are one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, curiosity might prompt you to visit a chat room that claims to be a place where Witness youths from around the world can make new friends. Finding friends among youths who share your faith is a desirable goal. However, these chat rooms harbour insidious dangers for Christians. What kind of dangers?
Introducing Moral Corruption
“I was in a chat room with a group of people who I thought were all Jehovah’s Witnesses,” says a youth named
God’s Son, Jesus Christ, warned that some of those who followed him would turn on their companions. The apostle Paul called such individuals in his time false brothers and says that they “sneaked in” to do harm to those in the Christian congregation. The Bible writer Jude says that they “slipped in” with the goal of “turning the undeserved kindness of our God into an excuse for loose conduct.” He also describes them as “rocks hidden below water.”
Notice that Paul and Jude identify the stealthy methods often used by apostates. These Bible writers noted that apostates “sneaked in” or “slipped in” with the purpose of morally corrupting those in the Christian congregation. Today, chat rooms offer such corrupt ones the perfect cloak for their devious endeavours. Like rocks hidden below water, these false Christians mark their real intent beneath a pretense of concern for Witness youths. But their goal is to shipwreck the faith of unwary ones.
This journal, as well as other material produced by Jehovah’s Witnesses, has repeatedly warned of this particular danger.* Therefore, anyone you meet in a chat room ostensibly set up for Jehovah’s Witnesses is, at best, a person who disregards such counsel . Do you really want as friends those who choose to downplay Bible-based direction?
* See Awake! Of , pages 18-21.
There are several points which raise flags.
First of all, the Watchtower says that any Witness met on a chat room is a person who disregards Bible-based counsel. When did the Watchtower start making rules for witnesses about not going on chat rooms? There are plenty of witness youths who really want to meet other witness youths – why does the Society label all such ones as downplaying Bible-based direction?
Secondly, the Watchtower is quick to point out that apostates have a false concern for Witness youths, and that there only reason to “pretend that they care” is to critisize their beliefs. They are spoken of as “sneaking in”, as if they are some kind of snake.
I think it is fair to say, that most apostates are those who have seen the light, have seen that the Watchtower is not God’s channel to mankind, and are simply trying to warn witnesses that their religion is a snare and a racket.
Thirdly, once again, the Watchtower will demonise apostates, without even discussing their arguments against the Watchtower beliefs. Kill the messenger is their method, and we are seeing this happen now with the Society suing Quotes.
Obviously, the fact that JW youths are on chat rooms at all, is of great concern to the Society. You can see the desperation when they write that, “This journal, as well as other material produced by Jehovah’s Witnesses, has repeatedly warned of this particular danger.”
Also, I disagree with the Watchtower labelling those witness youths who go on chat rooms as bad eggs. What if the witness youth has no friends in his/her congregation, what then?
This article clearly sums up the paranoid mentality of a cult, that is losing it’s best and brightest youths who are clearly seeing the truth behind the “troof”.