The WTBTS published a criticism on one of its articles. Do you remember?

by Gill 26 Replies latest watchtower scandals

• 

  Gill

  I remember, possible 15 to 20 years ago an actual challenge to the WTBTS from a reader published in the Watchtower, I believe. But it did stick in my mind.

  It was on the subject of the Nazi persecution of Jews and the JWs. It related the story of a little girl, who was Jewish and put in the concentration camp with her very beautiful mother. She related the story of how her mother was gang raped every single evening and she was forced to watch until one night she was raped and murdered.

  She spoke of how a witness encouraged her not to bear hatred for the Nazis who did this to her mother as this would only destroy her and not them.

  A reader supposedly wrote in and complained that the description of what happened to this poor woman verged on pornographic and hoped it would Never ever publish such a story again.

  The reply from the WTBTS was that, this woman and little girl actually suffered these appaulling attacks and so why should we who do not suffer such an atrocity should not be afraid to hear what happened to them.

  It is the ONLY time I remember the WTBTS publishing a criticism and giving a reply.

  Does any one else remember it?
• 

  glitter

  I don't recall that, but I do remember seeing a stern letter on the letters page from a Catholic critising JWs (in general I think not refuting an article) also about 15 years ago.
• 

  Gill

  Morning Glitter!

  I wish I still had old literature to look this stuff up in. It's funny that it's more impressive to accept criticism than hid from it. If only they were still like it. Perhaps they would eventually change and make the lives of people who cling to the cult more acceptable. But I can't remember anything like that for years upon years now.
• 

  steve2

  It is the ONLY time I remember the WTBTS publishing a criticism and giving a reply.

  Does any one else remember it?

  I don't remember this one, but a similar set up occurred in the Awake letters from readers page. Periodically they'd publish a critical letter but place it next to a complimentary letter which made the critical letter look mean and unfair. It's an old editor's trick found in a lot of worldy journals and newspapers: When you publish critical letters, it gives your publication an appearance of being open to opposing views, but you can simultaneously make the letter writer appear foolish by either your erudite reply or have other letter writers dismiss the critical letter.
• 

  Gill

  Hi steve2!

  I should have realised it was just a editors little trick. I remember reading the original article, which was far more graphic than the quick run down I've just recounted and being totally shocked and sick to the stomach from reading it. Then I read the question from readers and to be truthful, I totally agreed with the sentiments of the reader.

  After reading the reply, I felt small and stupid for having been so sickened by the article.

  Bloody WTBTS!!!!

  There I was actually entertaining the possibility that at one small point of time, the writers at the Watchtower were entertaining the possibility that ordinary mortals thoughts and feelings mattered!
• 

  slimboyfat

  Gill,

  I remember that article.

  I also remember thinking how I must have had a "wrong attitude" to initially see merit in the complaint.
• 

  Gill

  slimboyfat - How easy it is for them to twist the minds of people who believe in them! They can even make you dismiss your own feelings and reactions which are totally natural.

  It's made me realise why I never knew, before I stopped being a JW, what I really thought or felt and why I was always afraid to say what I felt, doubting it as only the bOrg knew what we should and shouldn't feel.

  Now, I say it as I see it ... and it feels good!

  Damn the WTBTS and its mind twisting crap!
• 

  slimboyfat

  By giving up the right to make our own decisions and judgements, we also give over the responsibility for those determinations to the "organisation": the perpetual safety of "mother knows best".

  I think you would enjoy Andrew Holden's discussion of how Jehovah's Witnesses, in a world of endless offers, options and choices, have cornered a niche religious market consisting of individuals with a strong preference for being provided with a complete system of definitive "answers" over and against having to make one's own way through the bewildering array of paths, viewpoints and alternatives offered by the modern world. Holden ties in this analysis of Jehovah's Witnesses with a famous philosophical work by Erich Fromm called "The Fear of Freadom". I highly recommend his book.
• 

  diamondblue1974

  I also remember thinking how I must have had a "wrong attitude" to initially see merit in the complaint.

  
  

  
  SBF: I know what you mean here...its funny isnt it how you are made to feel guilty for your own sense of morality or your own conscience...its sickening to believe that the WTBTS had so much control over our minds in this respect.

  DB74
• 

  Gill

  Thanks SBF. I'll look into that.

  What really annoys me, however, is that it's fair enough if an adult wants to have his decisions on everything taken over by the bOrg, but being born into that crap, I didn't want that. I was forced into it, and only realised later that I'd stayed in it for fear of the relatives I would lose.

  How dare they decide how I or anyone else should feel about any particular piece of crap they write.

  I think it's time I stopped giving them the occasional gift of the benefit of the doubt as well.

  I see more and more of the big WTBTS picture the furthur I get away from it. What keeps drawing me back to this 'WATCHTOWER' problem, is the innocent victims left behind, too scared to get up and run.

  There's quite a few injustices in the world that really get me cross, amongst them paedophilia, child poverty and child prostitution, trafficing of people for one kind of slavery or another. I think it's saying something that the 'WTBTS' problem, ranks up amongst these profound abuses.

  They may well turn out to be one of the most prolific cults, and destroyers of productive lives of our age.

  I just want to say something else, that |'ve said before and not to bore anyone, but, as a JW from my young teens, there was not many a week that I was not at the doctors for one problem or another.

  I have been desperately trying to remember when I last went to the doctors for myself in the last two years.

  All I know, is I don't feel sick to my stomach any more.

  All I know, is though I don't expect to be permanently well, I don't expect to feel that particular stress that only the WTBTS manages to hand out, anymore.

  Long live freedom!