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 JEHOVAH LIVES IN BROOKLYN: JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AS A MODEL OF FUNDAMENTALISM

By Richard Francis [e-mail]

Copyright © 2000by Love Ministries, Inc.

Liberty Township, Ohio, United States of America

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DEDICATION

To Maria Francis, my wife and most devoted soul-mate, whose compassion is deep and matched only by her gentleness, strength and wisdom; it was her support that largely made it possible for me to emerge from the cult. To her, this work is dedicated, with timeless love.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A book such as the present one is never the result of the work of only one person; instead, it represents a synergy of many minds, many hearts, and much collective experience. Here, then, I wish to acknowledge the invaluable aid and assistance of dozens of Jehovah's Witnesses, who have provided much valuable and useful data. Even more important to the presentation, however, has been the crucial contribution of ex-members and ex-member networks all over the country.

While both groups contain far too many people to list -- and I fear that such a list would leave some out inadvertently, those who have given their inspirational support and important data for the completion of this work know who they are, and that they will be rewarded for their good work. 

More specifically, my deepest and most sincere thanks go to Maria Francis, for her patient and consistent work on completing the final manuscript, which was professional and beautiful all the way. 

I also wish to thank Pat Fields, who in many ways has made my continued work possible, and to whom my personal debt will always be great.

Special thanks to Frank Merriman, the finest teacher in Dublin, for his suggestion that the work be shared with the public, which started the path that led finally to this point in the development of the project. 

Thanks to Ann Bluefeather, whose help in proof reading (several times, In several versions) proved invaluable. 

May love continue to bless the lives of all of you.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE: ALIEN LANDSCAPES, SECRET SOCIETIES

 

Aliens from space can be terrifying, but aliens from earth are dangerous. No, what is being discussed here is not the xenophobic response of nativist conservatives and fundamentalists to the influx of European and other immigrants. Instead, the object of our concern is people who have decided that society itself is evil, even demonic or "satanic," and in that sense everyone in society is "alien". For these people voluntarily make aliens of themselves, bewildering and mystifying outsiders. Why would an otherwise sane person seek to increase his/her alienation to the point of actual hostility?

This is a question that I never really asked myself as a Jehovah's Witness, and most fundamentalists never ask it either. For me, as for them, alienation seems the "normal" or "natural" state of things; it's just the way things are, or perhaps even the way that God has decreed them to be.

In the course of time, alienated people tend to find and to be attracted to, other social aliens, who have also, for various reasons, found society to be distasteful and who have therefore rejected it actively. Most extreme right-wing fundamentalist groups are actually such enclosed, encapsulated societies, as was the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Jehovah's Witnesses, the group to which I once gave full and unqualified allegiance. For such extremists, the identity with the group is the most important thing in life, and everything else revolves around that central fact. He or she is a Jehovah's Witness or other fundamentalist first, and a human being a distant second. In such a group, every detail of one's life is regulated by uniformity and conformity to the group. "Obedience" is stressed as a supreme virtue, and this obedience belongs to a single leader or small group of people -- almost always men.

In the case of JW's* (*Jehovah Witnesses. In this book we use this common abbreviation simply for the convenience of the reader. This is to avoid having to write out the rather long title over and over again. No disrespect is intended), the leadership group was a small echelon of octogenarians and other elderly types who lived in Brooklyn. One might as well have said, for all practical purposes, that God himself lived in Brooklyn, for everything that this small cadre said was accepted and received as though directly from the mouth of God. Since this group referred to themselves continuously and in print with considerable pride as "older men" we will in this book use the phrase "old men in Brooklyn" to refer to them. In this their own phraseology is being used, and so no disrespect is referred or implied. Whatever these men said was regarded as the truth, and this truth was unquestionable. Indeed, in most fundamentalist groups, anyone who dares to question the prevailing teachings of the local pastor or the body of elders, or some other governing group, is said to be dangerous, falling victim to "doubt," flirting with apostasy, or even actively falling into the clawed clutches of Satan himself.

Even the most minor and insignificant aspects of one's life are monitored and regulated by fundamentalist leaders; one's style of hair or clothing might well become an object of immense concern, if they are not conformist enough. Often, short hair on men and long skirts on women are a must, in order to avoid the styles of the contaminating "world" ruled by evil spirits.

Ever since I was a toddler, I was reared as a JW, and was expected to conform my very thought-patterns to their unusual paradigm, which I successfully was able to do until I grew old enough to think on my own. In my early twenties, I began to have some serious questions about whether the JW's had a kind of "monopoly" on the "commodity" of truth. I was taught that all other religions were false and Satanic and I began to question this fearsome dogma. While it did untold damage to my earlier perspectives, being reared in a cultist and fundamentalist environment also served as a valuable tool. For one thing, it provided me with a very rare opportunity to experience metaphysical metamorphosis, which still includes a deep understanding and memory of what it felt like to be a right-wing extremist.

That experience served as the matrix for the present work. In the following pages, the attempt has been made not simply to explain, but to capture the very essence of being locked into a right-wing perspective. No quantity of mere intellectual analysis by an outsider can ever hope to accomplish this difficult task. It is analogous to the difference between having the taste of a lemon described in five pages of text as compared with actually putting a slice of lemon in your mouth. The actual experience of having been a JW might be said to be quite indescribable by an outsider, for it too has its own "flavor. And it does very much leave the proverbial "bad taste in the mouth" as a residue of the past.

This book, then, is designed as a kind of informal and experiential "guidebook" to alien psychological terrain and landscapes. A warning: You will be taken to some very unusual, and not very pretty places during your journey. But you will learn a great deal, especially about the behaviors and motivations of "fringe" groups.

This book is designed within a format of informal and non-technical analysis. Thus, it is not heavily documented and foot-noted; for its most important goal is not simply to teach, but to synthesize within the reader a kind of experiential grasp or "feel" of what it is like actually to think the way extremists think to create a kind of empathic association with those who exist in the alien subculture described. The book represents over thirty-five years of my personal spiritual journey, from the dark recesses and caverns of primitive exclusivity to the dazzling illumination of the principles of universal compassion.

As we enter the new millennium, we come into a time of frenzied expectation for many extremist groups -- particularly those of the apocalyptic or "Armageddonist" variety. People will be waiting with literally bated breath for the skies to split open, and for Christ to descend on a white horse, carrying a blood-stained sword with which to murder all the "bad guys" -- anyone, in short, who is outside the various fundamentalist groups. Exaggerations of the events of our time will be rampant, and attempts will proliferate to squeeze every minor occurrence into some kind of crackpot "prophetic" system, in a futile endeavor to prove, once again, that we are living in the "last days" of human civilization. (JW's have tried for a hundred years to prove this, and the Adventists for years before them, and the Puritans before them, and various Protestant and Catholic groups all the way back to the time of Jesus.)

Leaders of fundamentalist groups complain that they are being "persecuted" when charged with misbehavior and wrongdoing; but this is only a transparent attempt to hide their own sins, and to divert attention from a closer analysis. For example, the JW practice of "disfellowshipping," or formal rejection (shunning) of former members, is now being legally challenged, with some success. Elders are now more afraid than ever to indulge in the practice, and seem to be a bit on the run.

People are "coming out of the woodwork" with horror stories of injustice, shattered dreams, ruined lives, crushed hopes, destroyed relationships, and crumbled families -- all due directly to the cruelty and inhumanity of formal excommunication or "disfellowshipping," as JW's call it. Abused people are giving interviews to newspapers and magazines everywhere, and writing books exposing the fragility and stupidity of a "truth" so weak that it must be defended by immediately issuing "gag orders" to shut up dissidents. And leaders can no longer keep a lid on this organizational crisis, which threatens to blow to pieces all their cover-up.

Psychologists and sociologists have long speculated on the nature of the forces that coalesce to transform a "normal" person into a fanatic or extremist, and in the following pages, we hope to make some of these clear. For a careful study of JW's can serve as a microcosmic model for all exclusive fundamentalist groups. Many of these groups are not organized into viable churches, but, when this is so, it might be said that "fundamentalism," like its components "Armageddonism" and "Jehovism." represents a mind-set, paradigm, or world-view. It is characterized by a sense, often subconscious, of superiority; a crisis-mentality that gives urgency to the religion, and an expectation that some coming catastrophe will bring relief and liberation to the "chosen."

This is, then, the "inside story" of a multifaceted, covert religious and political force, much of which has been carefully concealed from the public. Every effort has been made to present the data with both relative clarity and reasonable equity. Yet the underlying sense of an Orwellian world of mind-control is ubiquitous, and can hardly be ignored. Extremist groups consider it absolutely necessary to exercise an often unskillful but unqualifiedly totalitarian control over members' thought and lives, and to do this effectively, they must do all within their power to highlight a sense of alienation. At times, this sense can be extraordinary, and at times subtle; but either way, it increases the power of the "us versus them" psychology that polarizes members against a "satanic" or "dangerous" world. If members realized that the world was filled with normal, decent, spiritual people, they would leave the extremist group. So, this secret must be hidden behind campaigns of incessant demonizing of culture, society, education, government, and other facets of normal but imperfect society. (In this context, normal imperfections so common in society are mistaken for commitments to deliberate evil, and damned.)

Converts, as per instructions, often erect an impenetrable barrier between themselves and the "normal" world. For to them, to become "normal" is anything but desirable; in many ways, it is to give in to temptation, if not to become a servant of the "lord of darkness." Proudly, they stand out; they do not want to be "normal." Yet, perhaps subconsciously, JW's tend to realize just how odd their religion really is, and so attempt to pretend to be as conventional as possible; they are known for being ultra-conservative in dress, entertainment, and other areas of life. Like the Victorians, they prize respectability above most other virtues, partly in concealment of their inner oddity.

Among JW's, as among some others, even the word "world" is a pejorative, a portrayal of spiritual uncleanness or contamination. Thus, they are capable of automatic, mechanistic responses to the world, which do not involve cognitive participation in every event or situation. It is kind of "shorthand," in which they do not have to question their conscience, for if an activity is "worldly," or does not conform to the JW way of doing things, it is already automatically "bad" or "dangerous."

Fortunately, mainstream Christianity as a whole seems to be moving away from partisan bickering and sectarian squabbling, from parochial divisions and the idea that "we alone have the truth." However, fundamentalists do not see this as progress, as a good thing, at all; if anything, they see it as a kind of betrayal, a sign of weak will, a compromise with temptation, a dilution of truth. They actually decry any attempts at ecumenism, which they see as a "subtle deception" on the part of Satan. JW's and many other right-wingers suffer from the "chosen people" syndrome, in which their church or organization has a kind of "monopoly" on truth. Nothing upsets judgmental, socially isolated, separatist groups more than a universal, eclectic, interfaith approach to a broad and tolerant spirituality.

This new openness creates a depolarizing effect within thoughtful individuals, which tends to drive them outside the barriers of minority religions that insist that closed-mindedness and narrow thinking are really virtues to be cultivated. (For example, one out of every three person who has ever been a JW is now an "ex-JW.") Thus, minority faiths that take a dogmatic, inflexible stand tend to drive out the very best of their own intellectually aware members, not in leaks, but in floods.

Further, these fundamentalists, who feel so divided from the world, hate each other and are divided even from each other. To an outsider, they look very much alike, objectively. (For example, few outsiders can discern meaningful distinctions between JW's and their Adventists ancestors, and yet the two groups look down on each other.) But minor and even microscopic variations exist among them, and they continuously damn each other; JW's damn all other religions to "eternal annihilation," which they believe will be activated by Jehovah at the final battle between good and evil, Armageddon.

After having been one of those most ardent and committed workers among the JW's (I was serving as a pioneer [full-time salesperson], missionary, and elder), not very long ago, I would have seen the writing of this book as a heinous sin, an act of rebellion against Jehovah. But I discovered to my immense disappointment, that not only could problems not be solved from within the organization, but that every fundamentalist group is absolutely obdurate in resistance to the recognition of, or solution to, problems. Each insists that it is already "perfect". If one works to make things truly better, one is faced with an unyielding obstinacy and intimidation by a monolithic leadership. This uniformity causes many members to fear speaking publicly about the many problems that they know or see in the organization. A "good and loyal" JW, or fundamentalist, is expected to behave as if the organization, or church, were absolutely perfect and always existed in smooth, flawless harmony. For it is the reputation of Jehovah himself that is at stake. Anyone who attempts an objective, realistic appraisal is instantly "marked" as a kind of spiritual leper, a "doubter" with weak faith, to be avoided. To disagree with the organization, or church, is an act of rebellion against God.

So, I attempt to write no cheap expose, although much of an expository nature is intrinsic to analysis; in fact, I strongly dislike the "hate" literature often produced by fanatics of one camp against the fanatics of another. This book is not the place for mere angry judgmental polemics, but is an arena for objective critical discussion of psychosocial issues that affect the fundamentalist mind-set. Vituperation is not vindication, and the intent of these pages is not to "spill blood," but instead, to diagnose potentially harmful patterns and to provide alternatives when appropriate. It is a call for moderation, balance, and reasonable priorities.

If I felt no indignation or emotional involvement at all with these issues, I would be something less than fully human, fully alive. But these forces of criticism must not burn angrily for their own sake; instead, they should lead to more positive orientations and suggestions for viable, feasible improvements. The inner soul cannot soar to its highest on anger, but must do so on the snow-white wings of the dove of peace and love. Thus, motivated by love for JW's and others, I call for reconciliation with the world on the part of all-separatist groups and exclusive organizations. I call for abandonment of the polarized and ferocious clinging to the right or to the left, and for the loving, joyful compromise found in the middle way of moderation. This implies leaving behind the view that all that are outside the organization are "evil" or "satanic," or misled by demons or evil spirits. Instead, I call upon all everywhere to join in, to actively reaffirm universal brotherhood and sisterhood, to turn swords of hate into plowshares of peace. I call for the complete elimination of religious and "holy" wars, even if these take place only with printed and spoken words, and a return to the Way of compassion, forgiveness, and universal love advocated by Jesus.

So, I do not want to add to the conflagration by "disproving" the doctrines and dogmas of JW's and other fundamentalists, for neither side ever wins that interminable squabble. You would think that, after twenty centuries of quibbling, we would have learned that lesson by now. Besides, other books have already taken up this issue, with both more interest and more zeal that I can personally generate. Also, other books have already done lengthy, even academic, studies of the history of fundamentalist thinking, and of the JW's. Instead, then, of cheap expose, theatrical histrionics, historical polemic, technical analysis, or doctrinal refutation, we present for the reader's consideration an unblinking gaze into the very mind of the JW, and, in so many ways, of the fundamentalist in general. Being neither traitor nor apologist, the very most that I can hope to do in these pages is to speak honestly of my own limited perspective and experiences, with a sincere quest for objectivity. I do not stand above, but among, the human beings that receive positive criticism here. I speak out of love for what they might have been, and out of heartfelt regret for what they have not become.

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Chapter 1 \ WE ARE NOT EVERYDAY PEOPLE: HATRED OF THE "SATANIC" WORLD

 

JW's and other rightist groups have effectively "disfellowshipped" themselves from the world, for, in joining the group, you make a tacit and implicit statement that you have left behind many if not most of your interactions with the "ordinary and regular" world. In fact, one feels strongly that the JW vision of a "perfect" world would be one in which a non-JW would never have to be encountered. I personally remember the warm glow that would come over me after spending a week at an "assembly" -- a temporary congregating of tens of thousands of Witnesses.

I realize now, to my chagrin, that this "glow" had nothing to do with a sense of deep inner peace or joy, as I thought then. Instead, it was the desperate outreach of a person who had been so isolated from all normal human contact that any contact seemed blissful by comparison with the devastating and usual loneliness and its accompanying isolation. It was a temporary reprieve from the alienation that had come to seem so natural, and so despicable, a part of my life. And the fact that it occurred only once a year was psychologically designed to improve "appreciation" for these social crumbs, and to heighten anticipation of the next such gathering.

Everything in the JW, and much in the fundamentalist, world seems geared to promote the social starvation of members. For people simply cannot interact normally with other human beings as long as they believe in the dogma that those others are under the direct influence of Satan. One cannot help but feel a bit superior, when he/she alone, among thousands, has been blessed with a special relationship with God, while all others are in horrible bondage to Satan. An ex-JW from Florida says, "After I left the Witnesses, you don't know, you just can't realize, what a great joy it was to interact naturally and normally with other people. I could say hello to the man across the street, without having to try to convert him, or without feeling that he was deeply evil and demonic. For the first time, I felt liberated! It was as if a ton of bricks had fallen from my back!"

Another ex-JW from Kentucky relates much the same mood: "Once, we were driving down the freeway, and I was suddenly struck by the fact that we were just like everyone else. We were not superior to others; we were all in the same boat. I felt a moment of kinship, a bond of love, with all the people in all the cars around us. We were all equally the children of God. They were not evil, ignorant, or satanic, but were just people like us, doing the best that they could. It was illuminating and refreshing."

JW's and other fundamentalists, are taught, and reinforced in their programming, to see others as servants of evil. What is so evil about these people? In the case of JW thinking, other people's great evil was that they were not JW's, that they did not sell books and magazines for the Watchtower Society. Since they were not Witnesses, they were assumed to be ignorant, inferior, benighted beings that wandered through life confused, miserable, and alone.

Much of this, of course, is classical "projection." In other words, JW's who are miserable unconsciously project their interior misery upon others, seeing them as depressed and unhappy.

In the same manner, projection might be occurring when JW's and other extremists see the world as "corrupt," "impure," "spiritually dead," "unclean," etc. People who suffer from these conditions themselves tend to see them everywhere except within their own interior beings. Projected onto other people, these feelings can be safely "distanced," and avoided. In extreme cases, the entire world, and everyone in it, is said to be "spiritually sick." Even granted that there does exist much spiritual illness in our world, still, it is a radical teaching that everyone who does not belong to your religion is spiritually deficient; it is also a very arrogant position. Like that of the Pharisees, it is also self-righteous.

Because everyone but JW's is so "vile" and "corrupt," all people who are non-JW's become "bad association." The fact of this sad and crippling separation is not only recognized, but also celebrated, by JW's and other fundamentalists. It is yet another "proof" that they are God's stainless, "chosen" people. The Puritans of the seventeenth century felt exactly the same about other people-- both the religious and the irreligious.

In many ways, modern fundamentalist's world views are very reminiscent of the Puritan world-view. For one thing, like the Puritans, they base much of their theology and activity upon the pattern of the ancient Hebrew culture, which they feel was led directly by God and even ruled by God. It is almost impossible for a fundamentalist to view the Hebrews in the same way that he/she might view the Chaldeans, Egyptians, Akkadians, or any other ancient people. Even though the Hebrews participated in some of the bloodiest wars, they are somehow interpreted to be pure and unsullied, as if their generals glowed with a special purity. This idealization of Hebrew culture almost always marks a fundamentalist group. The reason for this is explored later, but here we simply say that modern fundamentalists worship the same god as the Hebrews--Jehovah or Yahweh.

Like the Hebrews, who always seemed to be at war with neighbors, JW's and other fundamentalists find themselves in constant, uncompromising "warfare" with everyone else in the entire world. Like the mad egotist who cannot conceive of his being wrong even though a million people tell him so, JW's and others have "concretized" themselves into positions of such stubborn, immovable, irascible dogma that they cannot be budged by a thousand volumes or voices of reason. Reason influences only reasonable people. JW's and others do not trust or value "mere human" reason -- as if some other kind really exists. (They believe, as we will see, that they have a kind of "pipeline" to superior, or "divine" reason, but it always ends up coming through human channels; and so it, too, is arguably human reason.)

As the only "pure" and "right" people in the world, they are told that they must not even "touch the impure thing," which means that a regular sharing with friends and neighbors is out of the question for a solidly committed JW or other brand of fundamentalist. After all, it is crucial that they are never "contaminated" by the "world." Loyal JW's must have nothing to do with this civilization, spawned by Satan, or with governments, all of which are also ruled by Satan.

They see themselves as "a special property," a "chosen possession" belonging to God. What causes ordinary citizens to awaken one morning with the absolute conviction that they have somehow become uniquely, special "God's chosen people"? The answer is not at all simple, but, simplified, looks something like this: A person believes him/herself to be lamentably lacking in some good quality; the self is seen as hopelessly inferior, even as unclean, filthy, contaminated, polluted. (We have all passed through these phases, but in the chosen people syndrome this depressing view solidifies as a kind of permanent self-image.) Now, this self-concept is too terrible to behold. So, the person unconsciously turns away from it, repelled by it. Also unconsciously, the person begins to look around, both in the mind and in the environment, for mechanisms and perspectives that would compensate for this terrible feeling of emptiness, worthlessness, and uselessness. Then he/she discovers a group that says that he/she in not worthless; in fact, he/she is one of the very truly blessed, sanctified, holy, specially chosen people of God. Now, to be chosen by God is the greatest one-upmanship game there is, for it is better than a mere rise in social position, better than wealth, better than fame, better than accomplishment. This mechanism serves unconsciously, in a kind of blitzkrieg, to wipe away all self-doubt, and, for just a moment, to glimpse one's inner goodness. But the ego soon eclipses that goodness, and once again, one begins the plummet into the depths of despair. Then is the time when the chosen people syndrome kicks in at full power, for the ego must over-compensate for inner self-loathing. It has been well and truly noted that a person who truly loves the self is never arrogant, for arrogance is compensation for self-hatred. So, a person who believes in the inner goodness of the self has no need to parade like peacocks his/her "righteousness" before others, claiming to be special.

This means that all JW's and similar fundamentalists are actually people who are struggling to work out the enormous difficulties of a powerfully negative self-image; they are people who can barely tolerate themselves.

In their proud new status as the chosen people, they cannot possibly be as imperfect as they know, deep down, that they truly are. So, they become entangled in a cycle of projection, in which their own worst imperfections and fears are unconsciously projected onto all the people around them. Take for example the notorious fundamentalist type, the sexophobic sexomaniac. He (usually it is a man) cannot stop thinking about sex; he is obsessed with it. The more that he struggles to suppress it, the more powerful it seems to grow. It is always just on the very fringe of consciousness, but is repressed ruthlessly. Before too long, he begins to project sexual meaning into everything, to see sex in the most non-sexual and innocent contexts. A similar series of mechanisms works to prevent people from seeing clearly their own imperfections generally.

To reinforce the chosen people syndrome, JW's and others are drilled regularly, with monotonous and continuous restatements of their positions. JW's are proud of the fact that they have five meetings every week, for they see this as evidence of their studious and sincere qualities; in actuality, they have so many meetings because they need to have the dogmas of the cult reinforced over and over and over, ad nauseam. And, lest they should forget, they are also encouraged to "study" as much as possible on their own time.

This "study," which amounts to a kind of psychological hammering through incessant repetition, also gives them a feeling, however false, that they are doing something meaningful with their time. JW's might suffer from a variety of psychogenic disorders, but rarely will boredom be one of them; they are kept busy doing make work projects at a high pitch and intensity, so that they will not have time to think for themselves. Like the sales-work, this continual study is actually busy-work, for JW's almost never learn anything new, as one does in genuine study; instead, their basic premises are gone over again and again, in a kind of holding pattern or rut.

Among the incessant activities-- sales-work, study, lecture, return visits, informal proselytizing, formal prayer, etc., the JW's, like other fundamentalists, have no time to think about, much less to deeply research, other world-views. And they have absolutely closed minds when it comes to other religions; they have already found the "truth," the very best among all religions. Yet the psychological reality is very probably deeper than that: JW's and other closed-minded types actually harbor a great fear deep within. With some, it is the fear of infinity, of being lost without guidelines in an endless existence; still others are afraid that they will find better, more uncomfortable, answers that will not agree with their socially approved and complacent ones. Still others harbor real unconscious doubts about whether they really have all the answers to life's great mysteries. After all, for them, truth is not the matter of agonizing, sleep-depriving, tortuous contemplation and inner struggle that it has been for thousands of years among the greatest philosophers. It is simply a matter of accepting pre-digested spiritual food, prepared by others, agreeing with it, not making waves, and nodding the head in agreement. (We have a word for pre-digested food: vomit.) This is not only absurdly easy for the fundamentalist; it is all but effortless. This is why certain brands of fundamentalism appeal to those who are intellectually dull or lazy: it offers no challenges to the mind.

Fundamentalists in the U.S. almost universally claim to be Christian. But could even this most basic and foundational of assumptions be technically wrong?

Yes, for many mainstream Christians would argue rather warmly that fundamentalists, of no matter what brand, are not Christian at all. For the word means "like Christ." What kind of man was Jesus? Most people do not picture him as a grim, humorless, judgmental, condemnatory man; and the Scriptures show clearly that he was not. He believed in gigantic forgiveness, enormous compassion, and overwhelming love that was both universal and unconditional. He was not dominant.

Most disturbingly of all, the Scriptures do not indicate that Jesus was traditional, orthodox, conservative, or respectable. The Scriptures teach quite the contrary; Jesus was widely regarded as a dangerous renegade, a free thinker who questioned the sacred traditions; he was in active, open, and continuous rebellion against the theocratic organization of Jehovah's people. Ultimately, he was such a disturbance that the people of his day who defended religion killed him.

Would Jesus fare much better among the fundamentalists of our time? We must remember that he was not killed by heathens or renegades but by the respectable and admired conservative religious people of his day. Why? Because they could not tolerate religious diversity, they wanted everyone to conform silently to a monochromatic view of the universe, and Jesus refused to cooperate.

So, on at least two important matters -- his being a renegade of orthodoxy and his emphasis on unconditional love and forgiveness -- Jesus differed radically from the fundamentalists of our day. So, on this basis alone, fundamentalists are often regarded as not being "Christian."

But there is an even more serious objection to fundamentalist's appropriation of the term Christian to describe their own theology. For, if one analyzes their tracts, magazines, and books, one discovers that, at crucial points in their argument, they do not rely on the Christian Greek Scriptures at all; instead, they derive much of their theology from the more ancient Hebrew Scriptures.

Now Christianity and Judaism are clearly two distinct religions. And it is not being said here that one is better than the other. But if upwards of ninety percent of the fundamentalist dogma is drawn from the Hebrew Bible instead of the Christian Bible, one might be excused for concluding that the dogma is not Christian at all, but rather arises from a kind of Neohebrew tradition, a Neojudaic religion.

The main problem here is that fundamentalists also carelessly equate the ancient god-image, particularly the proto-Jehovaist views, with the God of love and forgiveness taught by Jesus. Yet they are also well aware that Jehovah is consistently and repeatedly portrayed as a god of vengeance, war, and violence; he is a god who has many enemies, and who does not follow Jesus' command, "Love your enemies".

Now, clearly, all Jews do not worship the ancient images of Jehovah, as a tribal war-god, prone to violence, implacability, temper-tantrums, jealousy, insecurity, etc.; but fundamentalists do not base their theologies on those that elevate the modern Jews. Instead, they insist on the literal infallible truth of all that was taught by the ancient Hebrews, including every word that was ever made into the wide collection of books called the Holy Bible.

Now, the God taught by Jesus was love. Jehovah, even if argued to have had love for his people, could clearly not be said to be love itself. But if these statements are true, we are forced to recognize the most horrific anathema that could possibly be imagined by any JW or by any fundamentalist: Jehovah was not the God taught by Jesus. This idea is so mind-boggling that it cannot even come into consideration at all by the average JW, but it does explain one of the greatest mysteries of history: Why was Jesus killed by religious people, the people of Jehovah? He was obviously not killed for being a kind, wise man; he was not even killed for the claim that he was the Messiah-- a claim that others made for him, but which he never made for himself.

What would possibly have triggered the immediate and monstrous forces of the religious community to exert the immense, intense force to murder him? Only one teaching could be that disturbing, that upsetting, to the traditional legalist of his day -- the teaching that Jehovah, the traditional god of the Hebrews, was not the totality of God.

Indeed, in the ancient Greek texts, the very best ones that we have extant today -- the sacred Tetragrammaton, the four-letter name of Yahweh or Jehovah, does not appear a single time. This is particularly strange when you consider the fact that those who wrote the Greek Scriptures were genetically and culturally Jewish. If Jesus and his followers had truly worshipped Jehovah, you would think that they would have used this name at least one time in all the thousands of words that constitute the Greek Scriptures. The fact that the name does not appear a single time can indicate only one thing: There must have been an explicit and deliberate policy to avoid the use of that name consciously. And the only thing that could explain this kind of omission would be the fact that the early Christians did not worship Jehovah.

JW's and some other fundamentalists, make a very important issue of the name Jehovah or Yahweh. But Christians through the centuries did not think that this issue mattered; it was simply not important to them. Why did Christians ignore what would have been the most important name in the universe, had it been actually the name of God, and why did they ignore the issue for two thousand years, since the time of Christ? The only answer must be that the ancient Jews recognized Jehovah as God, but the ancient Christians, being of another religious faith, worshipped by definition a completely different God.

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 Chapter 2 / Strict Obedience to Jehovah: Avoiding "Evil Spirits" and Everybody Else

 

Jesus was viciously, cruelly murdered by unfeeling, insensitive, vindictive people. But for what great sin was he killed? Clearly, he was not killed simply because his followers believed him to be the messiah, for there were in his time many who made similar claims. He was not killed for any of his good works, for they were laudable by any standard.

No, it was clearly for his teaching that he was silenced to death. But what teaching could have been so execrable and hideous that it brought upon him the tortuous death by crucifixion? What fundamental teaching could have so frightened the traditional, conservative, respectable religious people of his day that, in the end, they actually demanded his death? It is very unlikely that his teachings of love and forgiveness would have warranted such an over-reaction; nor would his disagreement on minor points of theology or doctrine have merited such a knee-jerk response of utter terror from religious leaders. In fact, there is only one teaching that could have been seen as so hideous, so earth-shaking, so threatening to the natural order of religion that his execution would have been deemed necessary. That teaching is so fundamental and basic that today, even many Christians miss its intent.

In fact, fundamentalists studiously ignore it, for it threatens them and their worship-patterns much as it scared the fundamentalist conservatives of Jesus' own day. JWs, like the ancient Organization of Jehovah, find the teaching still sufficient to make their hair stand on end. That great teaching was this: Jehovah was not the totality of God, not the true God and Lord of the universe.

What basis is there for such a bold statement? Historically, a strong indication is given in the fact that Christianity and Judaism diverged as two very different and separate religions. While some right-wing cults and groups like to pretend that it is not so, that Christianity is still somehow only a variation of Judaism, this denies the obvious records of all history. As a separate religion, it would not be surprising if Christianity had a different God.

Seen this way, Jehovah is not the name for the Christian God, as JWs assume and teach. Jehovah is a very different god altogether.

Further evidence of this mind-boggling perspective is found in the ancient Greek writings of the Christian Scriptures. Since those Scriptural texts were written by people who were genetically and culturally Jewish, would it not be the most natural thing in the world for them to use some form of the name Jehovah in their writings, over and over, many times? Yes, nothing could be more natural or normal. But the astonishing fact is quite the opposite: There is not a single location in the ancient Greek texts wherein any form of the name Jehovah is ever used. Now, one could understand the absence of the name in SOME texts as a mere over-sight. But this TOTAL absence implies much more: The fact that the Jewish name of God was not used a single time in any Greek text by any early Christian writer implies very strongly that there was in effect some kind of prohibition against the name. What would explain this? It could best and most simply be explained by the concept that Jehovah was a different god from the Christian God. This is, in fact, the only possible explanation.

Neither Jesus, Peter, Paul, or John state this teaching explicitly. In fact, Paul especially quotes the Hebrew texts that applied to Jehovah and infers that they applied to the Christian God. Some Christians have mistaken this use for evidence that Jehovah and the Christian God were one and the same. However, this does not necessarily follow. For example, I am not a Moslem, and do not particularly believe that the Moslem idea of Allah represents the highest or best portrayal of the true God of the universe -- in fact, any more than Jehovah does. But when speaking to a group of Moslems, I once did so with the theme: Allah is love. Now, of course, I do not believe that the historical portrayal of Allah is one of pure love, but in order to transmit the teaching that God is love, I translated my message into the historical and cultural pattern most familiar to my audience.

Similarly, and for the same reason, I quote the Watchtower magazine when talking to a JW. This does not by any means indicate or signify that I believe in the Watchtower, as he/she probably does, as some kind of infallible directive or direct communication of divine truth. The reason that I would use the Watchtower with a JW or the name Allah with a Moslem is to follow the principle set down by Paul himself, who said that when he was in Rome, he acted as a Roman. So, when his audience was largely Hebrew, which it almost always was, he spoke in appropriate cultural and historical terminology, and his message was embedded in that context. Quoting from a source, however, should not be mistaken for full belief in the veracity of that source.

So, when JWs and other fundamentalists teach that Jehovah is the only name for God, they are misrepresenting the facts. Jehovah was never the name of the Christian God, which explains easily and clearly why almost no Christian today uses that name in worship or in reference to God. It also explains lucidly why no early Christian ever used that name. For even during Jesus' own lifetime, it was becoming obvious to the astute that he was at least laying the foundations for a new religion. This new religion had very much to say about the important matter of God, and of human relationships to God. One of the most valuable and insightful of these profound teachings was that of grace. The concept of grace has no known precursors in the Hebrew tradition, and Jehovah neither spoke nor knew about grace. Simply stated, grace is the teaching that salvation ultimately results from the decision of God, and this decision cannot be changed or affected in any way by human behavior. The God of grace was very different from Jehovah.

Another important difference is that the God of Christianity was universal, while Jehovah was a parochial or local deity; he was the God of the Israelites alone, and they were his specially chosen people. This universal God terribly upset many from the ancient Hebraic traditions, who did not believe at all in universalism.

Most significantly, however, the God of the Christians was love; he did not simply have love, but love was his substance and essence itself. Any love that might have been ascribed to Jehovah was, by contrast, a kind of conditional love, which is really an oxymoron; for Jehovah's love was always given only to his favorite people -- the Israelites.

It is appropriate and necessary to say a few words here about modern Jews. They, unlike JWs and other fundamentalists, do not make the worship of Jehovah a crucial issue of argument or discussion. In fact, most modern Jews have evolved to a point where they welcome and worship a God that is more universal. They have emerged into a wider vista or horizon for their God, and are not stuck to the literal acceptance of the Jehovah-images of the Hebrew Scriptures. (Yes, there is more than one Jehovah taught in the texts, and the later ones are much improved over the former; but all trace historically to the proto-Jehovic portrayal of the Israelite god of war -- a tribal, limited, often unkind deity who has major problems with self-control and emotional maturity. This proto-Jehovah was eager to kill his enemies, and often threw tempter-tantrums if he did not get his way. He was always jealously nervous that the Israelites were going to worship other gods, because those other deities were a lot more fun than Jehovah. However, an objective view of history places Jehovah among the other tribal and mono-cultural deities of the Middle East, such as Baal, Nisroch, Chemosh, Molech, etc. Only because Western history had derived so much from Hebrew sources has Jehovah been selected as, and mistaken for, the God of the universe, the Lord of light, love, peace, and forgiveness.

The Puritans of New England, in the seventeenth century, had much in common with JWs and with fundamentalists in general. They worshipped a god called the great Jehovah. They believed that they were living in the last days. They looked forward to the immediate start of the battle of Armageddon. They practiced disfellowshipment. Their leaders were authoritarian. They believed in the activity of evil spirits, and ascribed certain human behavior to this influence. They believed in the absolute superiority of men over women reflected by immutable divine order. They believed in special creationism.

But they also embraced many fallacies which we today know to be socially and psychologically perilous and ludicrous. They thought that most illnesses were caused by hexes and evil spirits. They believed in slavery. They believed in unspeakable cruelties towards those who disagreed publicly or privately with the church. In their patterns, in which church and state freely mixed, one glimpses the kind of world in which we would live if fundamentalists enjoyed temporal or political power.

It is not a pretty sight. For the Puritans were as certain as any JW or fundamentalist who ever lived, that they alone had the truth. Again when analyzed, this doctrine gives some real data about interior psychology: For people who boast about having the truth are practicing a kind of over-compensation similar to the one discussed earlier in the chosen people syndrome. The truth monopoly syndrome is a related emotional illness, and springs from the subconscious awareness and fear of the fact that one might not know as much as one wants others to think. One is deeply disturbed, even threatened, by alternative presentations of reality only when one is deeply uncertain about one's own. So, oddly, the strongest dogmatism arises from the strongest doubt. People who are secure and confident in their understandings simply do not have to resort to inflexible dogmatism, but can afford to take a more open-minded, open-hearted, stance towards alternative viewpoints.

So, it might generally be said that Puritans, JWs and general fundamentalist all seem about equally insecure about their beliefs. The bluster and bravado with which they deny this might be an additional confirmation.

As would obviously be the case with Puritans, fundamentalists have no place, in either heart or mind, for New Age philosophies of universal goodwill, international peace, and harmony. Strangely and paradoxically, they have been trained to see Satanic influences behind every group that seeks to accomplish some major good in the world. Groups that teach universal brother/sisterhood are especially suspect. Satan, they say, is subtle and devious; but is he really devious enough to teach reasonable and rational peace and truth?

Like the Puritans, they also believe that Satan is highly active, and that his agents are everywhere. Behind every bush is a "bogey man" that is about to get you -- especially if you are one of the chosen people. Yet to many very objective and educated observers, this sounds more like classical paranoia than like spiritual illumination.

But they have a rule to cover even this: Never trust the experts, for they have been brainwashed by Satanic universities and educational programs. So when experts, who spend entire lifetimes studying their subjects, say that they feel that fundamentalists are ill, or are fanatics, these deceived men and women are haughtily and arrogantly ignored, often with a knowing sneer.

The entire world is seen as a kind of battlefield between God and Satan to snatch human hearts, like the old Faustian legend that Satan is out to get as many human souls as possible.

Seeing the world in these polarized patterns can help us understand why JWs, and people like them, never get along with anyone. They disagree with everybody about everything -- and rightly so, they would say, since the entire world is lying in the power of the wicked one.

This is also why they take themselves extremely seriously. In their lack of self-deprecation, they remind one of the Islamic fundamentalists, or, again the Puritans. This is yet another psychological sign of their obvious insecurity, for only a secure person can actually laugh at him/herself, and truly enjoy it when the joke is on him/her. Grimly, they push forward in a world without God, and refuse even the slightest indication of compromise with the devil's arrangement. This is why they are so hostile to interfaith; joining hands with another religion would be tantamount to cooperating with the devil himself. Only derogation towards that evil world is possible; conciliation is inconceivable, and peace not at all desirable.

The Greek Scriptures do say that Christians are to be no part of the world (Jn. 17:14,16). But the Greek word for world here does not mean people or social order. Instead, the ancient word here used is kosmos, and literally means natural order or material world. So, this and similar texts have nothing to do with an aloofness from ordinary social or neighborhood events -- many of which are regarded as borderline sinful by JWs and others. A typical JW said of a young man, "He cannot be very strong in the truth, for he has worldly friends." In the jargon of JWs, this translates as, "He cannot be a very good JW, since he has non-JW friends." Thus, JW philosophy subtly redefines the word world as every human being who is not a confirmed JW. One of the very worst insults that you can apply to a strong, steadfast, good JW is the adjective worldly. While in common parlance, worldly means sophisticated, in JW lingo it means Satanic.

To be "no part of the world," to use a favorite JW quote, can in no way be interpreted to have no friends or social life outside of the organization of JW's; the meaning of the original Greek of the text prohibits this kind of interpretation. So, is this interpretation created in honest ignorance, or in dishonesty?

This text also does not give any kind of license to judge others relative to doctrinal or ecclestical considerations as unworthy of one's company. When one begins to see everyone as unworthy of one's company, one has become arrogant in the extreme; and the exact same thing is true when one begins to see all others as less pure than oneself. Jesus ate with prostitutes, in what might be called even partying today; would not that make him excessively worldly?

In the JW vocabulary, worldly is the opposite of theocratic. The former is always bad, the latter always good. What is more, virtually anything -- car, home, dress, hairstyle, speech, music, intellectual interests, behaviors, career, or associates -- can be weighed down by the dreaded appellation worldly. And once something is deemed to be worldly, if one does not avoid it assiduously, he/she is considered to be spiritually weak -- another insult, implying the beginning of the end of one's relationship with Jehovah. Anything disapproved, in short, by either the Puritan elders or the JW clergy (elders) can be a damnable sin, or at best, a borderline deviation.

"One must avoid not only wrongdoing," an elder once told me grandly, "but even the appearance of wrongdoing." That is quite an order, since almost anything can appear wrong to someone somewhere in any community; and Jesus clearly did not qualify to meet this unrealistic standard. (Nor, for that matter, did the elder who pontificated the principle.)

So, the word worldly probably has about as many definitions as there are JW's. Wire-rimmed glasses, plastic-rimmed glasses, straight-legged jeans, flared jeans, wide ties, narrow ties, long hair, short hair, long skirts, and short skirts have all been described as worldly. Definitions of the word fluctuate unpredictably with the passage of time.

Many hundreds of hours were spent in heated, passionate, even violent debate as to whether or not women should be permitted to wear slacks, due to an antique Hebrew rule against women dressing like men (written at a time, by the way, when men wore dresses, or robes). An eighty-five year old woman wore slacks to a meeting of JWs one sub-zero night, in order to survive and stay warm. She became the target of repeated and angry criticism, and the elders were so very insecure that they actually accused her of rebelling against Jehovah's arrangement by questioning their sacrosanct rules. She was publicly humiliated, and became the subject of a torrent of subsequent gossip; no one stood in her defense, for fear that they too would displease the grumpy old men.

Another major theological storm developed over whether men should be permitted, among the JWs to wear facial hair. After a firestorm that damaged a number of sensitive hearts and minds, it was decided that even mustaches were a little too modern-looking, and, hence, worldly. Facial hair was banned, and those who wanted it were forced to shave. Even the Puritans, in their most bizarre excesses, never went that far. (Although nature herself makes facial hair normal for most men, at one time, the JWs subscribed to an odd dogma that perfect men had no facial hair, and their portraits of Adam and Jesus appeared clean shaven; later, this dogma was dropped, and beards began to appear on JW's Adams and Jesus'.)

This kind of debate, while amusing to outsiders, is taken with dead-seriousness by JWs and other fundamentalist groups, who often are more self-conscious about how they appear to other people than about how they appear before God. It is tragicomic to see otherwise intelligent men devote lives and energy and resources to the public debates about trivialities and petty issues.

To avoid the appearance of wrongdoing or worldliness places an immense, intense strain on the psychological structure of the average JW or other fundamentalist. Far too often, conformity is demanded, not to the standards of the Bible or even to those of the community, but to the idiosyncratic preferences of clergymen/elders. These men are sadly infected with the big fish in a small pond complex, which means that they would rather be the world's largest lizard than the world's smallest dinosaur. Or, to paraphrase Dante, he would rather rule in their self-created hells than become humble servants in an environment that could be paradise for all.

Among some groups, including JWs, it is not necessary even to be kicked out of the community in order to be humiliated and ignored. For a very good, active JW might become worldly enough to be marked. The marked person is still technically within the congregation, and has not been disfellowshipped, but he/she is recognized by one and all to be worldly and thus bad association. The state of being marked is a kind of friendless limbo designed to pressure one into conformity. For all JWs have already abandoned all non-JW friends; and now, when marked, they lose all their JW friends. This is a way of kicking a person who is down, or throwing an anchor to a drowning person. This is a policy of pressure-cooker psychological terror designed not only to humiliate, but cruelly to isolate as well. One becomes the subject of endless gossip, and all good members carefully avoid the marked person. This leaves one insulated within a sound-proof booth of agonizing loneliness, and is one of the cruelest, most subtle, forms of psychological torture.

There is a good psychological reason why fundamentalists so assiduously avoid the world, and it has nothing to do with theology. The reason is that the leaders know that, deep down, each member would rather not be a member of the fundamentalist fringe-group. Therefore, given only half a chance, the average person with average intelligence will jump at the slightest opportunity to escape the restrictive hell of the organization. Exposed to normal or average non-members, then, one is in a most precarious position. For, if one is exposed to average people long enough, the spell of the organization might well be broken. Normality, like group-psychosis, can be a contagious phenomenon.

Therefore, especially teens and new converts suffer in what might be described as prisoner mentality. They are locked into a cult through several distinct mechanisms: parental acceptance, social approval, material rewards, spiritual hunger, and many other factors. These are manipulated to keep young people from growing up to be normal and functional adults. Most horrific of all, from the elders' point of view, is the spurt of independence and phase of freedom that most teens pass through. During the crucial teen years, restrictions multiply, and are applied with doubled ferocity; still, a huge percentage of those who drift out of the organization are teens; for teens are not designed to be, and were never meant to be, only small adults. A certain immaturity and inexperience mark the teen-years accompanied by a thirst for experience for its own sake. This natural process is sought to be subdued completely to the will of the elders. It is usually a major struggle, of gigantic proportions, to keep a teen in the Organization at all.

An even more fundamental question arises here, however, about the rigidity and frigidity of control: How is it that a relatively normal person comes to be under the complete manipulative control of old men who are unqualified by example and education, but always ready with strict regulations and hollow platitudes? The psychological root here is more transparent than many: a strongly authoritarian group of any kind appeals to the inner child of a person without any self-confidence, who might also be crippled by a poor relationship with a dysfunctional father or loveless parent. Secretly, this child moves through life seeking someone to control him/her, to tell him/her what to do, and generally, to take over his/her life. When he/she finds someone who is acting from the unhealthy pattern of the inner parent, in other words, a person who feels insecure unless he/she is in control of all the people around him/her, he/she is then only too happy to be led around by the nose, to cooperate, to conform. He/She might even find punishment or humiliation satisfying in a sick way. So, in the organization, unhealthy inner children form unhealthy bonds with unhealthy inner parents, and everyone agrees to the rules of a dysfunctional game.

 

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Chapter 3 / Conversion and the Destructive Transformation of Personality Dismantling

Conversion, if it is genuine, is a complex phenomenon. It involves a total dismantling of one's older self and the reconstruction of a new self. The new self is not necessarily better or healthier than the older self is, especially if the reconstruction job is botched by clumsy force, manipulation, interference, or demands. Conversion is nevertheless quite subtle, involving a number of new bonds created, and techniques introduced to re-mold the personality and preferences.

In the case of transformation into a JW or other fundamentalist, the restructuring, like its precedent destruction, must occur on a major scale. In other words, most, not just part, of the personality must be dissolved and destroyed, dismantled, before the new self-image can emerge. If, as in some cases, this does not happen, the conversion is incomplete, and so might technically be only a semi-conversion.

For example, in our JW illustration, one must go from the state of a relatively comfortable, peaceful, adjusted human being at peace with much of the world to an extremist, alarmist, reactionary who really believes that the world is possessed and controlled by a super demon named Satan. Obviously, then, roots of very old archetypes are tapped from the unconscious mind. No archetype or primal mental picture is more horrific, frightening, or childish than that of Satan, the archenemy of all beauty and good.

Primitive gods and devils also go far back in human history, and thus have made massive impressions on consciousness; and so we carry their archetypes as well within the unconscious mind. One of the most powerful of the ancient god archetypes is Jehovah; one reason that Jehovah is so powerful is that he represents everything uncontrollable and unpredictable in the universe. If anything, Jehovah is neither transcendental love nor beauty but is very much too human; he often suffers from jealousy and insecurity, both forms of fear, and has a hair-trigger temper and a long unforgiving memory. He is a god of chaos, fury, vengeance, and explosive anger; thus, for those who believe in him, he is a source of great terror. Terror, in turn, is a great tool for disorganizing, disorienting, and even dismantling the personality. Not that those fundamentalists who engage in conversion know these things on a conscious level; many of them know nothing at all about even the most basic psychology. But in the very act of conversion, people are exposed to feelings, attitudes, and symbols that awaken these powerful fear-components and archetypes in the unconscious, and these have real power over the personality. Once released, the power of these interior symbols can become almost autonomous, and, in some phases of conversion, the person behaves unconsciously, almost like a person in a trance. When that same person is exposed to the group-mind of the assembled believers in the congregation or at an assembly, this inner power is increased many fold, and might even produce a false and alluring sense of solidarity or fake security.

Is it necessary, however, to invoke these arcane powers of the unconscious to explain the mysteries of conversion? No, generally it is not, unless the conversion experience is a dramatic reversal or shift of long-standing personality patterns. Most conversion phenomena can be explained by a person's natural desire to please his wife, her husband, his mother, her brother, his friends, or her acquaintances. Much of its power arises directly from the universal need for human approval.

At the beginning of the process, what psychologists call positive reinforcement is most common, and highly effective. Here is the phase that cult-psychology often calls love-bombing. Here, the new convert is surrounded by people who pretend very convincingly to love, value, and treasure him or her. The convert is wined and dined, greeted with smiles and hugs, and becomes generally the very center of attention. In short, it is the lonely, alienated person's dream come true. Most people are vulnerable to this phase simply because they feel that they have been deprived of sufficient love at some time in life. Smiles and approval and embraces increase notably when the person conforms to the group-norms. For example, a new convert might change hair or clothing style to be less "worldly." Obedience to the elders' rules increases positive reinforcement even more; perhaps the convert is given a small part in a public program, held up as an example to follow, or treated to a special meal in her honor.

After she is fairly well grounded in the group, and the elders feel that they have her, that is, have relative control over her self-image and behavior, very subtle forms of punishment begin to sneak in around the edges. If she earns the disapprobation of the elders, she might be ignored at a study when she raises her hand to answer; or she might become the recipient of a nasty glance by an elder or his wife; or she might simply be pointedly ignored -- all without ever having had conveyed to her in clear terms exactly what he did wrong. Or, she might actually be informed of what she did to earn disapproval, and then monitored to make sure that she alters that behavior in the future. If she does, she is once again rewarded by a bombardment of positive reinforcement mechanisms. But if she does not straighten up, she will receive punishements, perhaps in the form of withdrawal or refusal of privileges, such as being allowed to clean the public toilets. And, in time, she might actually be humiliated, at first in the presence of a group of elders, and, if she does not turn away from her sin, then in front of the entire congregation.

At first, believers know to be meticulously careful, as if handling fine eggs, to give the new convert the distinct impression that she is accepted unconditionally and non-judgmentally, just as she is; only later does she learn that this was hypocritical pretense and fallacy, designed to lure her into the group and make her dependent on its company and approval. Gently and carefully, she is severed from all her worldly friends -- non-believers -- even often at her request. When she has broken all ties, including even those with a previously very close family, she is then ripe for manipulation, for her social dependence on the congregation has become total. Now, the elders believe that they have become like God: They can take everything precious away, or give it generously, depending on how much and how well she obeys them. After social bonding in the in-group of believers has become complete, she begins to see people of the world as evil and dangerous. Even her sweet, harmless little mother is seen as a potential agent for Satan's trickery -- not, the convert is told, because her mother is evil, but because she is misled. It comes out to a question of semantics, however: Her mother is a danger to her spirituality, however you cut it.

Gradually, incrementally, she is fed repeatedly the line that all JW activities are good, but all non-JW's activities are bad or dangerous. Since everyone around her -- only JW's at this point -- believes that, it becomes easy to believe and hard to disbelieve. Psychological testing has proved that a person will embrace an idea that she knows to be wrong if pressured to do so by as few as three other people! Imagine the effect of being constantly surrounded by fifty or more true believers!

By the way, psychological tests, in the notorious Milgram experiments, proved that people will go against their own sense of right and wrong if asked or ordered to do so by an authority-figure -- even by one who is a stranger! This starkly illustrates the disaster of obedience and it is no coincidence that obedience constitutes a major theme among JW's and other fundamentalists. So, it is relatively easy to violate even the guidance of conscience in the presence of elders who are regarded by others as authorities. And once you go against the guidance of conscience, the second time is easier, and the third time even easier, until finally it seems effortless and even normal to do so.

It is fairly obvious, then, how one can be gradually, incrementally, almost invisibly, led down a path that is contrary to one's own inner guidance of conscience. Historically, people have claimed absence of personal guilt even in the performance of atrocities because they were simply obeying orders. However, there is nothing that a person can do completely to negate or neutralize her own personal moral and ethical responsibilities, and the "elders told me to do it" is as weak an argument as can be imagined, and is no defense at all. A healthy and psychologically adjusted person makes her own moral decision and choices, based upon the very best spiritual and moral considerations which she is capable of assimilating. She never falls back on the childish; "My daddy made me do it." For to be psychologically sound is to be strong and independent -- just the kind of person whom fundamentalists consider anathema.

Thus, in their search for converts, JWs and others seek those who appear weak, timid, shy, alienated, and generally vulnerable. They know that they can mold and take advantage of these, and many people are simply too easily influenced, too plastic, too malleable, to be able to resist a stronger personality. They find the enormous power of the group-mind even more daunting and irresistible.

Nevertheless, we are all still interacting in a world of great complexity and relative freedom. Because we are surrounded on all sides by pressures to normalize -- that is, to reflect the values of our society -- JWs must make sure that they can do two things with any new convert: 1.) Completely convince her that the world or normal society and groups are spiritual poison, and 2.) So deeply immerse her in the in-group of the JWs that she is in effect completely insulated from the effects of normal people. As noted, these normal people might include even her own husband, mother, sister, or dearest friends.

So, the convert appears aloof and unreceptive not because she has become a bad person, but because she truly feels that to have anything to do with normal people will contaminate her sense of spiritual purity. It is crucial that every member of a fundamentalist minority-religion feel deeply this sense of alienation from an evil world -- which also serves, incidentally, by contrast, to emphasize her own spiritual purity. The evils found in the world must be misinterpreted to say that 1.) These evils represent a monochromatically evil world, and represent all the evil of all people, so that 2.) The only way out of this evil is to join and fully to cooperate with and conform to the ideas of the JW's. We will consider this intriguing issue now in more depth.

 

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 CHAPTER 4 / Satan, Satan Everywhere: A Devil of a Story

Jehovah doesn't do miracles anymore; but Satan does. This is the teaching of JWs and many superstitious people, who ascribe all supernormal activity, very lop-sidedly, to the devil. Everything from speaking in tongues to miraculous healing to UFOs, poltergeists, and paranormal phenomena is ascribed to the power of Satan. One may be forgiven for the assumption that Satan is more ubiquitous in the fundamentalist world-view than God is, for there is much evidence to support this.

It would seem that this devil permeates the entire JW universe, and is much more real and immediate than their god. Of course, Satanic influence comes in degrees, and some activities and pursuits are more demonic than others are. I have personally known many JWs who were literally terrified to enter the church of any other religion, for fear that they might be possessed by demons if they went inside.

Unlike the obscure Jehovah, the devil is obvious and highly active in his work. In the history of the world, since the first century, very few things have been ascribed to Jehovah, but those caused or created by Satan have been legion. Why? Because Satan is the ruler of a fallen earth, outside of divine favor.

Another reason, however, is that far too many things are seen to be demonic when one chooses to view the world through a Satanic lens of paranoia run rampant. It is generally accepted that schizophrenics and psychotics often believe that the devil is alive and well on planet earth, but this same psychological dysfunction also affects many fundamentalists, including JWs.

In fact, everything that cannot be understood within the context of general, ordinary science stands a good chance of being demonic. This is also the exact same pattern of false logic used by primitive peoples to explain tape-recorders, VCRs, and jet-planes: If it is beyond common and understood technology, evil spirits must cause it.

JW literature and conversation are often peppered with a lively blend of ghost stories designed to warn members against Satan's supernatural presence, and his bag of tricks. Of course, the fears of JWs are plentiful and crushing: Jehovah terrifies JWs; Armageddon terrifies JWs, worldly people terrify JWs; sex terrifies JWs; but the horror engendered by the demonic and supernatural are in a league all by themselves; for the horror here is that of children terrifying themselves in a dark room by populating the closet with monsters and bogey men. Here, the imagination runs wild.

Still, every ghost story told by a JW, no matter how incredible, is taken as the truth. Demons have been known to leap not only from the terrifying Ouija boards, but from old rings, old sofas, paintings, pieces of clothing, houses, cars, toys -- just about anything that the imagination can conjure. When the little blue Smurf dolls were a popular fad, a parallel fad among JWs was to say that the origin of these toys was demonic. One told a story, with a straight face, to a group of awed, serious listeners, of a Smurf-doll that got up, under his own power, and walked out of a JW meeting. (He might have had more sense than those who decided to stay.) Years ago, when the little Nik dolls, with the long hair, were popular, a female Witness went into a frenzy upon seeing one, and nearly fainted, convinced that they were demonized.

To JWs, evil spirits are very real, here and now, and capable of assaulting you or your life at any given moment. To live in such a world, literally surrounded by demonic agents of evil, can itself be a terrifying experience, contributing heavily to emotional and mental instability. Sexually repressed females often report being raped by demons -- shades of the Salem witch-trials. Others report beds shaking and other harassment in demonized rooms or around demonized people (such as religious leaders, para-psychologists, shamans, mystics, and anyone who disagrees with their quaint theology). The only valid protection in an entire universe filled with these horrifying things is to "stick close to the Organization," and follow its rules. It is the "ark of safety."

Those who stray from the organization are likely to become demonized. And a main line of evidence that one is indeed demonized is that one's thoughts no longer conform to the teachings of the Society. Fears of nebulous bogeymen, notorious among children, are astonishingly rampant among JWs and other fundamentalists. That is why they gladly give ready credence to the most outlandish and silly stories. Of course, they then sigh with collective relief that they are the only people in the entire world who are protected from demons.

But it is precisely because of this belief-structure and paranoia that they have much more trouble, and many more problems, with evil spirits than average people ever do. Demonic supernatural activity is often reported among fundamentalists, but extremely rare among other groups. Almost every JW has had some kind of personal testimony to the power of Satan. Not coincidentally, there is a strong correlation between minor and major attacks of demons and the commencement of Bible-study with the JWs. In fact, it is common among some JWs to warn new converts that demons might attack when they start studying with the JWs. Their rationalization is that the demons are angry that another person has found the truth, and so increase resistance.

I suggest another cause: The idea of demonic possession or influence simply does not occur until it is suggested by the JW. Then the sub-conscious seed of the idea begins a maturation process, and the most harmless acts of imagination are then transformed into demonic attacks. One woman who began to study with the JWs heard voices, and so did the woman studying with her. It was as if many voices were speaking, but you could never quite catch what they said. Finally, however, the problem was traced to a fan in a heating-unit. It seems that a fan, as well as other white sound sources or noise-creating devices, gives off a number of sound waves of varying frequencies. When these strike the eardrum, the brain tries to make sense of the random sound, and so transforms it into what sounds like voices. The explanation was remarkably simple, but boringly mundane. (For some, demons might be just another way to make dull lives seem more exciting.)

Psychologists argue that superstition-contagion, as often occurs during a Bible-study, occurs gradually. Also, old guilts are stirred up by joining a new religion, and the person becomes aware of inner demons (weaknesses, violent feelings, sexual energies, etc.), which are then projected into the outer world; then, every creak and thump in an old house becomes evidence of demon infestation. In severe cases, this might call for an exorcism by the elders. Unlike the Catholic tradition however, JWs lack a clearly defined and designed formal ceremony for exorcism.

Under these conditions, every negative or harmful thought, every violent impulse, every sexual urge, becomes an attack by angry demons. When the programmed mind begins the unhealthy practice of projecting demons into every situation and person, the JW then lives within a nightmare.

Among the most demonized, and thus most terrifying (for demonism is regarded as contagious) are ex-JWs. As soon as they leave the organization, the lie is told, they are immediately influenced by Satanic spirits, and fall into horrible spiritual error; they are most truly and completely damned by Jehovah.

Under these conditions, it is easy for a new convert to panic; and so even this panic is interpreted as a demon assault. People often begin to study when they are beginning to undergo deep emotional crises, or when they have already begun to enter states of mental imbalance, bipolar swings, or other mental disorders. So, putting cart before horse, it is possible to argue that these conditions are additional evidence of demonic influence.

Demons are, in a word, everywhere. Everything from seances to Sunday schools is crawling with them. Special sensitivities, disturbing dreams, mysterious illness or lack of energy, insomnia, obsession, eating disorders and a host of general mental and emotional imbalances are regularly attributed to demonic influence. The whole scenario is straight out of the fourteenth century.

Demons are said to be the sources of, and are highly involved in, all astrology, palm reading, divination, I Ching, Tarot cards, and even certain popular songs and television shows. An active JW told the story, with the usual serious demeanor, of how he knew a friend who was watching the old television show Bewitched, a sitcom, when demons jumped out of the television set and did something; they surrounded him, or jumped into him, or messed up his hair -- the JW was not quite sure what the demons had done, but they had done something and you can bet that it was awful. (Similar stories appeared about other popular television shows, including "Twilight Zone", "Outer Limits," "One Step Beyond," "Strange Universe," "Unsolved Mysteries," and "Sabrina the Teen-aged Witch," to name but a few.) JWs seem particularly disturbed by any television show that might cause one to think for themselves, especially if one thinks about spiritual matters. (The old television show "Kung Fu" was a special target, for it was excellently written.)

Prophecy and spiritual healing are universally regarded as demonic. It is due to these beliefs that JWs very probably, statistically, experience fewer spontaneous healing than do members of more open groups. Oddly, and paradoxically, JWs are usually convinced that they are the least superstitious people in the world; in reality, of course, the JW life is all but seething with superstition. In a sense, the Organization, as the supreme demon protectionist, has become the ultimate superstition, replacing rabbit's foot and horseshoe, and four-leafed clover.

JWs are, however, superstitious in reverse. When one converts, he/she is expected immediately to destroy any symbols of good luck -- in case they bring bad luck from demons. (Good JWs are not allowed even to use the word luck, for the entire concept is regarded as pagan and thus impure.)

It is a common JW practice to burn objects, even objects of great value, when it is felt that the object is demonized, or contains or attracts demons. The object can be anything -- a necklace given to you by your great aunt, who used to have friends who were Gypsies, to a book containing forbidden religious views. I once loaned a Witness brother a copy of a book written by Frank Edwards -- at one time, a popular psychic investigator. The author signed the book. The brother began to have strange little problems; to make a long story short, he burned the book rather than returning it, fearing that it had brought demonic influence into his life. A skeptical critic might note that he did not have the demons in his head, but bats in his belfry.

It is not at all unusual for JWs who are experiencing negative or unbalanced thoughts to begin a careful examination of objects recently acquired, so that they might burn those determined to be causing the problem through demons. That is, of course, much easier than facing and solving a complex psychological disorder. "I was having severe emotional problems," relates an ex-JW, "I was going crazy, and my wife said that I was driving her crazy. So, I got more deeply involved in Witness studies and went more often into the field ministry (sales-work). The elders said that this would solve my problems. But they only increased. I attended all the meetings, but they made me feel worse. Finally, things got so bad that I was gulping drugs with alcohol. Then, one day, I noticed that the wallpaper in the hall had a Spanish grill-design (resembling crosses). Then I said, 'That's it! The wallpaper is demonized!' " To JWs there is no more demonized or dangerous symbol than the cross; it is seen to be symbolic of Satan's religion. The man continues, "So I went to the elders and asked them if they thought the wall-paper was causing my problems. They said, 'Sure; tear it down.' So I went home and said to my wife, 'We're going to tear down that wall-paper; it has crosses all over it.' " Stories such as this one are amazingly common among JWs. From most JWs the story would raise neither eyebrows nor laughter.

Here, as elsewhere, inconsistencies abound. Demons, it is said, cannot read minds; yet they are accused of being behind all forms of telepathy. Further, JWs are usually unaware that the ancient Greeks used the word diamonos to refer, not to exterior demons, but to what we today would call undesirable mental states or conditions. Yet psychiatrists, who are often invaluable in releasing people from exactly this kind of demon are themselves said to be demonized. (Psychiatrists cannot be trusted, because far too often, they will inform the JW that his/her religion is a major cause of, or contributor to, serious mental problems.)

These kinds of demons are not effectively expelled by elders' exorcisms, burning wallpaper, or clinging to an organization. They are neutralized only by the transformation of personality through the irresistible power of love.

JWs believe, also paradoxically, that rituals and ceremonies designed to expel demons such as those used in "The Exorcist" are themselves the products of demons. Only exorcisms performed by the elders can actually work; and those involve only prayer, study, and hunting down the demonized object, to burn it.

The most powerful exorcist tool possessed by the elders is the name Jehovah. Stories are innumerable in which a person, right in the middle of a demon-attack would simply shout the name, and his/her problems would disappear, as if by magic. Of course, all practices of magic are recognized as purely Satanic or demonic -- and, in fact, are among the most dangerous, insidious forms of demonism. It will therefore come as a terrible shock for JWs to learn that magicians, using the techniques and symbols of high occult magic, have long recognized some form of the name Jehovah, such as Jeova, or Jehova, or even Tetragrammaton, as magical power-words, used regularly in most systems and ceremonies of magic. And it is usually not used at all for banishing spirits, which JWs claim are all demons, in the rituals of magic, but for evoking or calling them. For centuries, the name Jehovah has served as an amulet or charm for casting spells and drawing magic circles and conjuring spirits. Any good historical study of magic will verify this. In fact, there is a Tarot card in the major arcana, number zero, called the Fool, and around his neck is the Hebrew Tetragrammaton.

Demonized people specifically design certain rock music, say JWs, to turn listeners into sex-crazed zombies without free will. The use of drugs, even mild ones like pot, opens one up inevitably to demon influence by destroying or loosening inhibitions. (Tight inhibitions are mistaken for virtues by JWs)

Possession is said to be the most horrifying possibility imaginable, and the best way to avoid it is continuously to read, and to sell, JW books and magazines, and to fill one's time with attendance at JW meetings. Here, JWs have a really powerful device for controlling the mentally unstable, who suffer from pre-existent demon phobia. Elders can literally scare them almost to death by threatening possession of these poor people if they do not strictly obey all the orders.

Since the entire world, according to good JWs, is demonized, the quality of one's life simply does not matter. If one leads a moral, sound, happy, service-filled life dedicated to God and to goodness, kindness, and compassion, it is all a clever demon-created illusion if one is a non-JW. For all non-JWs are servants of Satan. They love to quote the text that says, "Satan keeps on transforming himself into an angel of light," which they believe somehow proves their point. Thus charitable work, intense devotion, self-sacrifice, study of the Bible, community service, unusual material generosity, or amazing intellectual accomplishment, mean actually nothing to the confirmed JW. All that really matters in his/her mind is that one is or is not a JW; all other things are graded according to this single standard. It is as if a Catholic or a Baptist was to claim that goodness is really impossible unless one is a Catholic or a Baptist. But most Catholics and Baptists simply have too much common sense to make such an outrageous claim; JWs do not.

In fact, if a non-JW spends too much time in prayer or mediation, he/she is branded as a fanatic by JWs, and is said to be even more likely than average to be demonized. All healers, from whatever tradition, are also quickly labeled as demonized. For, in the JW universe, miracles simply cannot occur. If one of the ancient apostles had approached a JW to state that he had seen a man walking on water, the JW would dismiss that man as mad or demonized. Among JWs, cynicism is mistaken for rationality. It is strange to most that the JW finds it easy to believe that demons perform miraculous events, but that God cannot.

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 Chapter 5 / A One of a Kind Religion: Beliefs Designed to Make JWs Feel Special

 

A heart of gold, filled with God, makes a person truly special. If one believes oneself to lack this, he/she then seeks to compensate in other areas, often by the adoption of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that are unorthodox, simply that he/she might pretend to be unique.

In human psychology, the need to stand out, as something good or excellent is not just an ego-drive, though it is often reduced to that. Instead, it represents a very deep human need to be needed and wanted and admired. In the case of JWs, however, this profound drive has often been harnessed in service of narcissism. They thus see themselves as able to shine as illuminators in the world.

The absolute best way to be special, better than all others, is to be special to God, in matters divine and spiritual. If one is spectacularly unique in this field, he/she cannot be equaled and since JWs feel themselves to be the chosen people, they must have a number of subsystems to support this exclusive belief. And truly, over the years, JWs have evolved a superstructure of beliefs that they feel warrants their claims.

Here is a major source of another JW internal conflict: While embracing some odd beliefs that make them special, they are horrified at the thought of standing out as oddballs or freaks in the community; they struggle endlessly for respectability.

Older JWs can still recall the radical slogans of time long gone when JWs did not care at all about being respected, when their slogan was, "Religion is a snare and a racket." (Apparently, in those days, they did not even see themselves as a religion.) They actually went out of their way to enrage people, irritate people, and generally stir up persecution, and today look longingly back to the days when persecution was more than a delusion, when they were actually harangued, mobbed, denounced, and arrested. In those days they alerted more than they converted.

As the Organization began to grow, the inefficiency and self-defeating nature of badgering and belittling became apparent, and JWs sought conservative presentations.

Also, during the seventies, the JWs grew tired and pale looking in stark contrast with the media-magnetic cults and radical social movements, during the consciousness revolution. Despite bursts of great effort to regain lost publicity, they gradually began to fade into the background. JWs were evolving into a boring or normal religion, taken for granted. The only uniqueness left was in their strangely unorthodox dogmas. They grew into a kind of thorn, an uncomfortable but not intolerable fringe-group on the Christian right, especially as so many groups shifted to the left in emphasis on eastern philosophy. They gradually grew more invisible, blending in the common mind indistinguishably with Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventists, and others.

To increase their invisibility, other right-wing groups, such as the Hare Krishna cult and the Unification Church, began to use the tactics of sacred selling work, which had marked the JWs as unique. Sales schemes pushing everything from books to incense and peanut brittle hit the religious market.

Meanwhile, the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses began to attract new people who were less radical, and more shy of exhibitionism. They wanted more to tone down the oddities of the JWs, and actually wanted to blend more into the background. Many were wealthy or middle-class yuppies, and for a brief time, JWs bragged that they were a kind of fad among some social circles. Repeatedly, I heard a pervasive rumor that the Watchtower magazine lay on the coffee tables of some prominent persons in Hollywood. This kind of thing was so good for business that it was widely promoted.

In reaching for fame, however, JWs had to pay for it in terms of diminished commitment to their uniqueness as a special possession of Jehovah. For a brief time, the Society's teachings even downplayed the evils of the world, even though this has always remained a primary teaching.

So, conciliatory attitudes publicly began to replace the old public damnation, and the damnation retreated underground into the hearts and minds of true believers. JWs became more careful, in other words, to hide their hatred for the world, for it was not bringing in many converts. The JWs began to discover that a positive psychology was working better than hypercritical denunciation; and even in their literature, they tried to appear more mainstream, so as to appeal to more people. The old hatred was still virulent and crucial, but was more camouflaged than it had been previously.

In fact, in the late eighties and early nineties, some JWs stopped talking about the end of civilization altogether, and spoke instead about continued economic and numerical expansion of the organization. This new shift of emphasis or focus did nothing to change the basic, fundamental commitment of all JWs to the end of the system of humanity. Even while the exoteric, public face or presentation of JWs improved, then, the esoteric, hidden nucleus of JW philosophy and truth remained as darkly and gloomily pessimistic and hopeless as ever.

Throughout its evolution from a minor Second Adventist sect in the 1870's, JWs have evolved into a kind of Christianity of non-essentials, forming an unconventional potpourri of ideas that continued to make them feel special, though more and more this uniqueness was going underground, and their more harsh ideas were being hidden from public view.

One of these teachings, designed to capture people into a kind of group-mind or cult-consciousness, was that if one did not regularly attend virtually every meeting of the JWs, one's chances of surviving Armageddon were incredibly slim, microscopic, close to zero. (This was a non-Biblical precept, for beyond telling Christians to 'gather together,' in Hebrews 10:25, the Greek Scriptures nowhere mention regular meetings, even during the ministry of Jesus.)

It is also foundational to the survival of the organization itself, as a publishing and sales empire, that every JW participate in regular sales programs. This was esoteric, for seasoned JWs never refer to their work as sales, which is too honest, but always call it service, or use some other code term to hide or disguise the fact that they are selling. Even with the most active imagination, it is impossible to trace the roots of any kind of sales program to Scriptural injunctions. Preaching, as in Matthew 24:14, in no way implies selling.

Thus, the two most important JW essentials are really Scriptural non-essentials, not the products of divine injunction, but of human ideas and interpretation.

JWs are incredibly fond of other non-substantive religious issues as well. The very vocabulary of JWs betrays its human origin, not a divine one, for many of the most important words are not found anywhere in the Scriptures: Kingdom Hall, publisher, pioneer, Watchtower, field-service, contribution box, neutrality, assembly hall, circuit and district overseers, magazines, Bible-study aids, platform, public meetings, and dozens more.

The same is true regarding many foundational doctrines or dogmas: Amazingly, the term paradise earth appears nowhere in the Scriptures; nor does one find the made-up phrase anointed remnant, designed to describe the elite few thousand who are going to heaven; the word organization is not found a single time in the entire Bible. Neither is the common phrases heavenly class or great crowd of other sheep. (The latter is a patchwork or cut-and-paste that rams together unnaturally two phrases taken from different books of the Bible.)

With built-in contradictions and conflicts everywhere, it is no surprise that thoughtful, educated, sincere people often refuse to take the JW message seriously, or to consider it valid for their lives. To JWs this evidence is hard-heartedness. One JW told me, after leaving the door of an unresponsive sales call, "He has hardened his heart, like Pharaoh, against Jehovah." JWs literally find it impossible to believe that people simply find their message distasteful, impractical, or boring. (Sometimes, public unresponsiveness is welcomed as persecution, another proof that they have the truth.)

The persecution complex is all-pervasive, and permeates the JW life. If a person quits his/her job to attend a JW convention, and is then not rehired, that is persecution. If JW young people snub the chance to attend a birthday party (for they do not celebrate birthdays), and then is criticized for that attitude, that is also persecution. If people gossip about JWs because they give no gifts or send no cards at Christmas (for they do not believe in celebrating that either), that is persecution, too. The entire idea behind that persecution-complex is remarkably simple: The JW always comes out as an innocent victim, harassed and hated by vile, evil persecutors who abuse him/her.

In another example, JWs regularly and harshly denounce the world, or any program to make the world better, and mock these attempts to improve human society. But if even the mildest reply is made, or the gentlest attempt to defend the cause appears, that too is persecution.

On the other hand, when it comes to real and genuine persecution, JWs themselves are not a bit shy about heaping persecution upon other minority religions, mainstream religions, social groups, and that most horrible group in all the universe -- dissidents in their own ranks, or those who voluntarily left the organization.

Probably one of the most controversial and outrageous claims of JWs is that, out of all the thousands of sincere scholars who have devoted their entire lives to writing entire libraries of the most meticulous and detailed research in religion and spirituality, only the works of JWs contain the truth. Only they correctly understand the mysteries and secrets of the Bible -- and everybody else, no matter how brilliant is simply wrong. Worldly sources have value only insofar as they can be interpreted to support the explanations of the governing body in Brooklyn.

SUMMARY. These are some of the beliefs that JWs have adopted for the apparent sole purpose of making them appear special: All Christians must sell books, all other churches are evil and will be destroyed at Armageddon, Christmas is evil and pagan, Easter is evil and pagan, birthdays are evil and pagan, interfaith and ecumenism and dialog are evil, saluting the flag is an act of idolatry and so is pledging the allegiance.

 

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Chapter 6 / You and Me Against the World

 

Those who desecrate, denigrate, and derogate the world as benighted and inferior assume, consciously or otherwise, that they are spiritually light-years beyond anyone else in the world. Thus, the world-rejection theme so common among JWs and fundamentalists generally, is a form of thinly veneered arrogance.

We all know that the world is not really that horrible, nor are everyday people really monsters. Sensationalism that passes for news and talk shows that highlight the bizarre and freaky, give fuel to the fires of this bigotry against the human race. Still, most people are kind, decent, good, and loving, despite a myriad of psychological problems and hang-ups.

But JWs, and fundamentalists as a whole, have two major reasons for wanting to use a broad brush with which to paint the world of living humans in such lurid shades. The first is psychological, and the second, theological.

First, extremely insecure people -- and this describes well the profile of the average fundamentalist -- always try to make themselves look better, even if they must use unsound principles to make it appear so. This is one of the most unsound principles ever conjured up by an unhealthy mind: "If I can make others look worse, then I can look so much better." It is a technique often used by five-year-olds, and suits them at their developmental level. In an adult mind-set, it is jarringly out off place.

As we saw previously, however, many fundamentalists are not working consistently from an adult mind-set; instead, they prefer to work from the inner child mind-set, which is, among other things, both immature and gullible. (It is also pathologically dependent on the paternal, patriarchal leader -- in this case, the domineering and bullying elder.)

"How, then, can I make myself look absolutely beautiful?" asks the JW. Then the answer comes: "If I can make the entire rest of the world appear horribly dark, evil, Satanic, in rebellion against God, then I will truly stand out as the loyal, unquestioning son." Thus do five-year-olds attempt to curry the favor of their fathers, and so do JWs seek to placate the wrathful Jehovah.

Thus, the second reason for portraying the world as irredeemably ghastly is that Jehovah, the god-image worshipped by most fundamentalists, is a grumpy, capricious, dangerous, primitive god who is likely to throw a temper-tantrum with no forewarning. In fact, one gets the very strong impression that Jehovah just barely tolerates humanity; he does not actively and tenderly love and nourish them, or necessarily wish the best for them. Jehovah it seems is almost always in a bad mood.

This is proved by the connection between the Jehovah-image and the nightmare-scenario called Armageddon. According to JWs and other end-time fundamentalists, Armageddon will be the most hideous, ghastly, nightmarish bloodbath that the world has ever seen. During that horrific event, the "blood will be high as the horse's bridle" -- about five feet. It is obscene beyond description, beyond all imagination. Its violence will make the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps look like a Sunday picnic by comparison.

During this final battle between good and evil, Jehovah will finally murder the entire human race, with the exception of the minority religions that proclaim this dismal teaching. JWs often make new converts precisely because these new ones want to survive this attack from heaven. During Armageddon, everything that we have ever known as civilization will be irrevocably and irretrievably ruined. Gigantic storms will wash away whole blocks of houses, even while the children are still inside. Massive earthquakes will swallow schools filled with innocent children, and hospitals filled with the elderly and needy will be mercilessly crushed beneath car-sized hailstones. There will be fighting in the streets, and total anarchy. Hurricanes and tornadoes will rip apart human beings, and lighting bolts will fry their flesh. Afterwards, the JWs, or other groups, depending upon one's prejudice -- will emerge to take over the world and rebuild civilization.

Thus, even now, JW elders are training to become political and social world-leaders, and those in the congregations are being prepared to live under their proposed system of benign despotism. (Leadership among JWs, as among Congregationalists of other stripes, was at one time democratic; people in the local congregation were permitted to vote on their leaders. Today, however, the system is one appointed from the top down -- much more like a dictatorship.) Of course, in the new order as JWs call this new paradise earth (no relation, they claim to Hitler's "new order" or to Bush's "New World order"), the first major task will be one of clean up. JWs have actually discussed the matter in some grisly detail.

Since JWs are a tiny minority, the ratio of the dead to the living is likely to be more than a thousand to one; if the JW children are not included in the figures (JWs often count as active members kids only four or five years old), the ratio will be even greater. This means that each JW will have to take care of about fifteen hundred to two thousand dead bodies. There will have to be some efficient way to do this, and still, the task will probably take years. (It takes time to gather disembodied arms, legs, and heads.) Knowing the JW penchant for group efficiency, they will probably set up crematoria to take care of zones or districts all over the world. Thus, the air will be polluted for years by the stench of decaying bodies and the filthy smoke from their cremation.

So, the projection of the foul fantasy of the Armageddon horror provides two reasons for wanting to make the world as evil a place as possible: First, it could never be argued that Jehovah was a good or decent, much less kind or loving, god, if he killed good people. So, it is largely in order to justify the mass murder of the human race that JWs postulate that all people are evil; further, they claim that, before Armageddon, people will get suddenly, dramatically worse.

This rationalization/defense is used to produce cognitive dissonance in believers. For JWs like to see themselves as good people. This is only human nature; and in order to be truly good people, they reason, they cannot possibly worship an evil god. And Jehovah would be a terribly evil god if he were to murder all their neighbors in cold blood -- which they really believe that he is going to do. So, they say, Jehovah can read the heart, to use a catch phrase, and he, like "The Shadow," knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men. He sees the unseen, hidden evil core of people who pretend and appear to be decent, kind, good people. In reality, however, these average and good people are servants of Satan. They support hideous systems of false religion (any faith that disagrees with the cranky teachings of JWs is a false religion) and the evil governments of Satan. (Anyone can drum up ugly facts and statistics about the government, and many fundamentalists are even more rabidly anti-government than JWs.)

Here, traditional morality must be dismissed, or trashed entirely. The Christian Way of love, peace, and forgiveness must be discarded and ignored. To support this gruesome spectacle, fundamentalists are forced to turn back to the Hebrew Scriptures, where Jehovah is regularly portrayed as a kind of professional soldier; it is very understandable that most professional students of history have tagged him as a war-god. For, throughout Israelite history, its people are always involved in wars and conflicts. Bloodshed was a way of life, not only with the ancient Israelites, but also with every other tribe and tribal confederation in the Middle East; it seemed as if everyone was at everyone else's throat. (Some of the most famous of the heroes of the Bible were really army generals, and hence, mass-murders, including David and Joshua. Further, even the good guys are often indistinguishable from the bad guys. Samuel hacked a living man to pieces "before Jehovah." And Samson was also a mass-killer, despite later romanticism of his story.)

So, in order to make Jehovah look better -- or at lest to appear sane -- JWs must pretend, and even convince themselves, that the world is filled with the most despicable and damnable people. And people are not just ignorant, foolish, and unable; they are in direct and conscious, active rebellion against the good. This applies even to people who devote themselves selflessly to community projects, usually ignored by JWs, and to attempt world peace and world improvement -- also ignored by JWs.

Thus, the truth, never admitted by JWs, is that there are people who are morally and ethically superior to them who are not JWs. If they were to allow themselves even for a moment to catch the smallest glimpse of this truth, their entire religion would unravel rapidly. For the just occurrence of Armageddon is an expression of divine wrath and vengeance, and execution of all evildoers is a mainstay of JW theology.

This vision of universal holocaust also gives the JW smugness and aloofness that arises from what is, to him/her a very logical rationale: There is absolutely no possible future in any relationship with anyone or anything in the world. Some JWs tend to be rather cool, distant, and detached when it comes to friendships with non-JWs, and a truly good JW will not form such friendships at all. There will always be a thick glass wall that invisibly but hermetically separates the JW from everyone else in a room, and so JWs are often resented. (They say, predictably, that they are being persecuted because they stand for Jehovah's kingdom.)

Manipulative elder-control can be incredibly subtle, but is an Orwellian force that each JW must deal with. For JWs are told regularly both to spy and to report on each other's behavior, so that in some congregations, no one really trusts anyone. The stimulants of discomfort used by the elders as punishment might be tenuous and nearly invisible, but they are real and quite tenacious.

When a person in the congregation begins to feel the great freeze-out that comes from being marked, and inquiries as to why everyone is suddenly behaving so coldly, one is gently informed that there is something worldly about one's speech, dress, manner, music, car, home, customs, friends, etc. When a brother in Ohio was told that his wife's modest dress was sexually provocative to some of the brothers because the dress revealed her shoulders, she was forbidden ever to wear it again. Women, as the weaker vessels, (as an ancient writer called them in the Bible) are totally dominated by the all-male elder's good old boy club. These males, probably due to deep doubts about their manhood, often go out of their way to dominate women, and are absolutely captivated by the slightest scent of any sexual rumors or innuendoes. Any woman who disobeys the elders' restrictions can quickly get a reputation for being a slut, even if no sexual violations are actually involved. These women are then blackballed by all the other females, and avoided like lepers by terrified males. All this is a sad consequence not of actually sinning, but simply of being worldly.

"You should not only be different from the world," said a member of the JW hierarchy, "but you should also look different." This is, of course, a reinforcement of superiority to the world.

Their view of the world as alienated from God is most likely, in almost every case, a subconscious projection of the fact that they themselves feel deeply alienated from the sacred universe. For, deep down, they know that they embrace a theology of non-reason and non-love, and this creates horrible cognitive dissonance, especially in sensitive members. (Many lack all but the grossest responses; in living, as one elder confided, JWs must do with "clipped nerve-endings," feeling nothing.)

In fact, it is due to this very large block of alienation in the JW profile that they view as special target groups for conversion those who are already alienated from society, and those who have rejected or learned to hate the world: the lonely, the bored, minorities, the recently bereaved, the recently divorced, the recently fired, emotionally unstable people, the poor and disenfranchised, single mothers, teens, and others. To JWs, as with other minority groups, each convert is pure platinum, and becomes the immediate center of attention. (See the previous chapter.) For the lonely, the fearful, and the alienated are not seeking healthy ways in which to integrate with the world; instead, they are seeking havens in which to hide from the world. In the big happy family of JWs they believe that they have at last found what their souls always sought.

 

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CHAPTER 7 / THROUGH THICK AND THIN: LEMMINGS UNITED

 

The two-pronged philosophy of alienation from an evil world and the false consciousness of being unique can create among minority faiths such as JWs an illusory sense of genuine solidarity, even friendship. Despite the fact that all in the group are supposed to be friends, even sisters and brothers, one usually remains on a personally detached acquaintance level with most others in the group.

JWs, like other minorities, call each other brother and sister. (In this practice, they also resemble some Puritans, who followed this practice.) But this is largely only a formality, as is proved by the fact that those who feel truly close to each other drop the prefixes brother and sister and address each other simply by first names. If, then, among JWs, you were to call a close friend Brother Smith, instead of Joe, he would be baffled and upset, believing that you were inserting a wedge of formality between the two of you.

The use of brother and sister before the surnames of other members, then, becomes contrived, artificial, and strained. Indeed, the words are drained of all their natural meanings, and elicit no feelings at all. Even when a JW is bitterly angry at someone, he/she will still refer to the object of anger as Brother Jones, and the word brother becomes a practical equivalent of Mister, and is no softer, warmer, or more tender in any way.

Group cohesion is reinforced by staccato reminders that JWs or our church is the only group of good people in the entire world. Others might seem good, or pretend to be good, but only we are truly good. The in-group thus becomes irreversibly separated from and elevated above everyone else.

One of the reasons that only we are truly good is that only we have the truth. For example, JWs believe that only they have the proper understanding of the Bible, with all its mysteries, over which theologians and scholars have battled and baffled for centuries. And their theology is not seen humbly and realistically as a tentative understanding subject to future revisions. When it appears in the Watchtower magazine, then it is the truth, said one firm believer, and that attitude is pervasive. (Of course, throughout their history, JWs have done many doctrinal flip-flops, often reversing important, life-affecting teachings, but they tend to ignore this in the discussion of what they call the current truth. And when pinned down, they argue that the light is getting brighter all the time, and that new light comes out in their books and magazines from time to time, to which once again they eagerly conform.) The objective historical truth is, however, that most of the teachings of the JWs have changed over the years, and that every presentation of the truth is tentative. To worsen matters they freely and radically criticize other churches for embracing the realistic position that revelation is not static and immutable but progressive. That is to say, JWs criticize other churches for what they do themselves.

What happens when one realizes that a truth is actually in error, and begins to teach this, and then later, the Society of the JWs actually agrees with him? More often than not, he is disfellowshipped, or excommunicated, for the sin of running ahead of the organization. It does not matter at all that he was right, for he was right at the wrong time, and displayed the unmitigated audacity not only to question the official teachings, but also to preempt the official declaration and publication of those teachings. Further, everyone nods with approval when they hear this kind of story, taking away the lesson that free and independent thinking is a danger and even a sin.

It must not be forgotten that by thinking independently one displays a despised worldly trait. (JWs and other minorities often prohibit or discourage higher education for this reason, and in this way, have severely damaged countless lives.) In their meticulous caution, and even paranoia, to avoid worldly contamination, the JWs might soon discover worldly tendencies even in their own family. What is the recommended course of action? Here, the elders do not hesitate to butt into intimate, loving, beautiful relationships, like chain saws, and rend them asunder. Even if it is one's husband or wife or most beloved friend who is worldly, the good JW is expected to drop him/her like the proverbial hot potato. Innumerable loves have been shattered. For fundamentalists, the word compromise does not represent the triumph of reason, but the weak and decadent betrayal of truth by the one who knows that he/she is right. It is seen as pathology and even betrayal to compromise with even a loved one.

Thus, in cases that I have witnessed personally, parents have totally rejected and turned their backs upon wayward children, brothers have become the fiercest of enemies, and lovers have separated with ferocity and mutual hatred. Every form of sentimentality is despised as weakness when it comes to the question of loyalty to Jehovah's organization. Every human being is disposable.

Once, in Lexington, Kentucky, I was talking on the phone with a new JW convert. At one point in the conversation, I said, don't you see that you are making doctrines more important than people are?

Yes, he replied proudly, when shame would have been more appropriate, and more human. The teachings of truth are much more important than people. This is an underlying flaw in much of fundamentalism, including JWs: ideas and concepts are more sacred even than human life. It is due to this distortion that JWs refuse blood transfusions even to save the lives of their children -- a teaching for which they have become monstrously notorious.

It is commitment to this kind of wholly uncompromising, unbending, literal teaching that serves as one of the massive cohesive forces among committed core-members. (With JWs, as with other groups, about thirty percent seem to be hard-core committed people who would give their lives for the teachings, and about seventy percent are just along for the ride; the latter are counted as active members, but are really in the organization because another family member is there, or due to loneliness, or some other factor, and their actual commitment is borderline.)

An elder expressed this attitude which involves cutting off non-JW friends, to a teen-aged boy, in these words: Why do you need worldly friends? In the organization, you have millions of friends. The elder knew that this was a lie; for he himself did not feel friendship for everyone who was a JW; and the young boy had no one of his own age in the local congregation. It is absurdly easy for elders to pontificate on how young people should behave, since they are no longer young, and since they themselves do not have to face the problems of the young. Further, when counseling the young, there is often some hostility just beneath the surface on the part of many elders, who resent the fact that they are no longer young, and envy the young men whom they are trying to mold in their quirky, humorless, curmudgenous image.

The highly divisive "us versus them" psychosocial pattern is common to virtually every religious minority. But as Eric Hoffer warned in his classic The True Believer, this is a dangerous and counterproductive orientation, for it moves the individual from wellness into pathology. Still, as long as it seems good for the group, the individual is viewed as disposable; and some group-leaders tend to see people as interchangeable, as only statistics.

This sets the stage for serious inner conflict. For if clothing, styles, entertainment, and friends can be worldly, if even one's dearly beloved love partner can be under the influences of Satan, what then about one's own thoughts? The cohesion of the personality itself can be threatened as one realizes, sooner or later that some of his/her thoughts are also worldly, and no amount of the study of JW publications can eradicate this fact. One can become seriously split in personality between the good theocratic self and the bad worldly self. This can lead to severe mental strain, if taken too seriously, and even to mental instability or emotional breakdown.

It is in order to compensate for these kinds of impossible demands, to cope with unrealistic goals, that JWs often give in to over-eating; or in many cases, the energy of this conflict may express itself, as in so many fundamentalist groups, as hyper sexuality. In extreme cases, the concept of being at least partly contaminated may lead to despair, chronic depression, or even suicide.

For we must remember the nature of Jehovah as an implacable god. One is, and can never be, quite certain of his unconditional love, or even of his favor. If one listens to the elders, then one is never doing quite enough and more is always demanded. Thus the good JW is never really relaxed, serene, or fully peaceful.

So, his/her very humanity guarantees a huge burden of guilt for the average JW or other fundamentalist. For one cannot escape from oneself, although several valiant attempts to lose oneself in religious work have been recorded and applauded. Further, one is expected to develop a razor sharp conscience, not for making free moral decisions, but for cultivating hyper-criticism of one's own worldly thought patterns. Thus, one carries around a heavy load of guilt that has at least three sources: Jehovah, the organization, and oneself. And since the good guys generate this horrible pressure cooker tension, one can only imagine what Satan and the bad guys can do.

Group-cohesion requires conformity, and true conformity requires thought manipulation and, at least for the self, strict thought control. So, one is encouraged to develop a tight feedback loop in which one's own thoughts are continuously monitored for worldly content; and, if one is honest, inevitably a great deal of undesirable material is found in one's own mind. So, one is driven to the boiling, perhaps to the bursting, point; and so psychological melt-downs are fairly common among serious fundamentalists, who take themselves far to seriously, and who have never mastered the fine art of self forgiveness.

Continually trying to match the contents of the psyche with Jehovah's expectations can be a traumatizing, endlessly frustrating, approach to life, draining away all joy. This is a major problem throughout fundamentalism, which is why a truly happy fundamentalist is all but a contradiction in terms. The root of this particular spiritual disease is the belief that one can please God by law or obedience rather than by the practice of deep spiritual love. Locking oneself into insoluble psychological conundrums just isn't the way to have fun.

There also exists a dichotomy stress between the inner and outer worlds. For in her inner thoughts, the JW must strive to be theocratic, but in the outer world, all that she encounters is worldly -- by minor extension, anti-God or evil. So, in public interactions there is the added stress of maintaining a kind of quiet inner secret identity as the non-worldly person, while at the same time not repelling clearly worldly associates. This is a tightrope by no means easily walked, and is the source of major psychological stresses among fundamentalists. The notorious and often transparent guilt-complexes carried around by so many fundamentalists might arise, at least in part, from the inner awareness that, no matter how great and convincing the outer pretense, deep inside we are all somewhat worldly.

This is driven and sustained by the fundamentalist's uncompromising insistence on inner and absolutely stainless purity -- an impossible dream for a mere human being. Before one can overcome one's inner weaknesses, psychology has shown the best approach is to make friends with them, to understand them; active resistance only gives them extra power. This explains Jesus' words, "resist not evil". This also clarifies why when fundamentalists do sin, they often commit the very worst sins that they can imagine; these are not murder, theft, lying, or dishonesty, but are sexual sins. Adultery and fornication have always been major problems among JWs, as among all fundamentalist groups. The reason is that they tend to construct rigid interior resistance's against natural sexual urges and energies; instead of being directed to constructive uses and sublimated, these sexual energies are simply repressed and suppressed, until they build up a kind of psychological pressure analogous to a volcano. When that volcano finally does, inevitably, explode, it tends to destroy everyone in its vicinity.

So, however much the fundamentalist wishes to delude him/herself, believing that he/she is above or outside of normal, ordinary patterns of worldly thought, it has been proved, over and over, that all people are human in their possession of some similar urges and thought-patterns. When these appear to take over, however temporarily, it is precisely because they have been imbued with such intense power by their continued suppression and denial. While this does by no means indicate that a swing to the other pole of abandoned expression is at all desirable, it does indicate the wisdom of self-examination and self-love as opposed to self-condemnation and self-hatred.

Group cohesion is increased by the outward conformity to laws and regulations. It is also increased by the fact that JWs and similar groups can be interpreted to be real political or social forces. For the JW, politics itself is evil, and participation in any political process contaminates one with the stain of Satan. However, by their very political neutrality and commitment to what they call God's government, they constitute a kind of borderline political party that is international in scope. By their aloofness and inactivity, they constitute a kind of dead zone in any active community, and are unresponsive in the extreme to any social concerns. This evasive, lazy life pattern of avoidance allows them completely to dismiss the entire world as unsalvageable and already as good as dead. Since the world is predestined to be destroyed at the hands of Jehovah, any attempts at social reform would be analogous to polishing the brass on a sinking ship, as one elder put it, and a complete waste of time and energy. Of course, all the time, energy, and money saved by being politically dead can then be poured directly into the construction and general work, including the sales work, of the organization.

JWs are a bit unique in that they insist that all of their allegiance be given to God's kingdom, which they often identify as God's government, alone and exclusively. They will not divide their loyalty with any real political party or nation on earth.

But precisely what is this kingdom? The word kingdom means domain of the king, and so most scholars and theologians for the past two thousand years have identified the real kingdom, or area ruled by God, as an internal structure of mind and heart. It is a kind of symbol for inner submission and service to God; all who serve God are members of this kingdom. Jesus himself said, The kingdom of God is within you. (Here, the Greek word for within is esothen, the very same preposition that one would use when describing something within a box.) So, there can be no doubt as to the meaning of this text. (Due to their own bias, JWs have translated the phrase within as "in your midst," which could also be rendered "in the very center of you". But this deliberate mistranslation is inconsistent with the generally recognized scholarly translation of esothen in other tests, where it is correctly rendered within or inside. )

But JWs, in a style that peculiarly marks fundamentalism, insist on seeing the kingdom as a kind of literal political or social structure. (This seems ironic in a group that so hates politics.) What, then, is their kingdom of God?

A few very elderly men in Brooklyn, New York run the Organization. These men, who often write the magazines and books of the cult, are said to be directly inspired by God, so that what the printed word teaches at any given time is regarded as the unquestionable truth. Exactly how does this inspiration happen? Do these men go together or singly into a deep prayer state, at which time they feel energized and moved by the holy spirit to write? Do they chant? Do they light candles? Do they mediate? Do they channel ? It is not exactly made clear, and never has been. The most likely reason is this: Either it is a carefully guarded secret, or else nothing special every happens to these men. They just sit down at a keyboard and begin to spew forth their own ideas -- no more or less inspired than the ideas or writings of any other human being.

At any rate, when the kingdom of God is considered in real, practical, human, earthly terms, it comes down to this group of elderly men in Brooklyn. They are actually an oligarchy and they do truly rule the JWs completely, issuing encyclicals and formal official regulations regarding everything from sexual and medical practices to hair and clothing- styles.

So, the magnificent kingdom of God in JW theology, is actually a secret conclave of their elderly leaders in Brooklyn. These authoritarian octogenarians exercise total power over the international organization and of individual JWs everywhere. They make the very rules of life and death, often deciding literally who will live and who will die.

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Chapter 8 / Duplicity and Double-talk: The "Truth" Made Unclear

  

The ideal JW is absolutely separate from the world, and fears touching it, lest he/she be contaminated by exposure to ordinary (non-JW) people, and indelibly stained. However desirable this might appear to the odd psychology of JWs on paper, it is very rarely the actual realistic path of life followed by most JWs in their day-to-day interactions.

A good JW is too clever, and too well trained, to admit to a non-JW that he/she believes the other to be evil, Satanic, contaminated, or even misled; this would posit the danger of turning the other away from the good news of the kingdom that might result in actual conversion. So, JWs are rarely completely honest with people about how they really feel. (I know these things personally because I was a super-active JW for over twenty years.)

Instead, instincts for possible converts have made some JWs masters at duplicity and evasion. They have to learn these sneaky techniques and tactics; for if they were boldly to tell the truth, as I seek to do in this book, the non-JW would be repelled, and their message often rejected, by offended worldly people (non-JWs).

JWs become even more plastic, artificial, and insincere wherever money is concerned. For example, one of their major laws, said to directly represent the will of Jehovah, is that they must have absolutely nothing to do with false religion -- that is, with any religion other than their own. To interact with another religious group would be, in the JW view, like becoming intimate with the devil. But recently, when Jimmy Swaggert, a notorious fundamentalist preacher, was taken to court in an effort to tax his publications. JWs officially backed him, for if Jimmy would have had to pay taxes on his books, the JWs would have had to pay taxes as well on their multi-million-dollar publishing empire. So, to avoid this contingency, they were only too happy to get into bed with Babylon the Great, their name for all satanic religion, of which Jimmy Swaggert is a part.

Another example springs to mind: When I worked as a full-time sales-person (pioneer) for the Watchtower Society, a new Kingdom Hall (meeting place) was constructed in the small Appalachian community where I lived. On visiting the site twenty years later, I was astonished to discover that the building had been sold to a church, and was now an active church building. The conclusion is irresistible that where money is involved, prohibitions evaporate. JWs do indeed have their price, and their leaders can be lured away from even the most powerful laws of God if enough money is involved.

Speaking of hypocrisy, JWs started out as a humble, small microminority whose groups met in storefronts and individual homes, much as early Christians did. They ranted and raved about the construction of costly religious buildings, and about how Christ disapproved of these, how they were an unfair economic burden on the poor, how they were ostentatious and absolutely unnecessary. However, when the JWs grew to a point where they had the financial resources, the first thing that they did was to begin construction of their own meeting places, which they call Kingdom Halls, and even large assembly halls. (The one near London, Ohio is said to have cost nine million dollars; that would be enough to care for a number of poor people. Actually few churches cost this much.) So, all their bluster and ranting about materialism in the churches proved to be nothing but the sour grapes of envy. For, the moment they were able, they engaged in a full steam ahead attempt to imitate the despised churches.

The JW dogmas are highly offensive; therefore, in order not to offend potential customers or clients, where money is involved, many JWs are only too happy, and too quick, to compromise their principles of separation from the world. For example, although there are not many JW executives, those few whom I have known were actually eager to attend parties filled with worldly people and every sort of debauchery. This was in direct opposition to the rules of JWs and, if they had not been elders, they would probably have been reproved publicly and humiliated for such conduct. JW execs often entertain worldly clients by sharing meals and evenings with them, as well; this constitutes another serious violation of the highest JW standards. But many JWs especially those whose reputations or careers are at stake, will go to incredible lengths in order not to be viewed as freaky or even the least bit different from colleagues. I have known them to struggle to keep their very identities as JWs a top secret aspect of their lives. Since their laws allow them to indulge in alcohol, they often overcompensate in the attempt to demonstrate normality by getting drunk, even though their laws do forbid this.

A major problem is that the philosophy of social non-alignment or social encapsulation and isolation was written by members of the governing body -- the aforementioned leaders in Brooklyn who make the rules. For these guys, getting together to study the Witness books is as close to a social event as they ever come; in fact, they have no social life at all, outside of interaction with other JWs and they figure, if they can manage to live this way, so can other JWs. But the leaders live together in a building owned and populated only by other JWs. They work with only JWs, and JWs pay their salaries, clean their toilets, and print their books. The building in which they live is fairly self-contained, so they can afford to live lives of isolated and insulated existences. Even their luxurious travels to other countries are backed by JWs, and even during the journeys, they are surrounded by JW lackeys. Thus, they hardly live typical or ordinary lives; and when they ask other JWs to avoid the world, they simply ask too much -- much more obviously than they themselves are willing to give.

A few attempts to meet the standards demanded by JW-only enterprises have been attempted. For a time, there was a company that serviced garages and mechanics, and the company was proudly touted as ninety-five percent JW. In time, however, the company probably ran into discrimination law violations; I am not sure what actually became of the enterprise, but doubt very much whether in our culturally diverse society, such an experiment could remain pure for very long.

The group of elderly men who constitute the JW kingdom of God representatives on earth is largely hermetically sealed in a closed and limited environment. Yet they regularly make sexual laws designed to govern young people, married and unmarried, and produce regulations regarding other areas of life in which they are by no means experts. JWs all over the world mistake theses decrees for the law of God, and sincerely believe that Jehovah will murder them and their families if they do not comply.

For this reason, JW youngsters are ordered to play with only other JW children -- often an untenable approach, since the local congregation might contain only one other age-appropriate child or none at all. This strict regulation of children is seen to be necessary in order to facilitate and maintain group cohesion. But it is questionable for elderly, childless leaders to make rules to govern children whose ages range from two to eighteen. While most JW children do attend regular schools, for example, they are commanded never to stand in respect for the national anthem or to pledge allegiance to the flag of our Satanic country. This can be enormously, repeatedly stressful and humiliating for a young child, who becomes rejected and sneered at by peers; but the elders who command this brave stand never have to take it themselves. One elder whom I knew would attend public events that would begin with the playing of the national anthem. He always made sure that he just happened to be standing at the time it was played, for the quirky rule stated that it was a sin of evil idolatry to Satan to stand for the playing of this song, but if you were already standing, you did not have to sit down. It is easy to tax people with burdens that you do not have to carry yourself, but it is also dishonest.

In fact, all extra-curricular school activities are forbidden to the good JW. An ex-JW from Michigan says, "My son came home from school when we were JWs, and asked why he could not play baseball, since the event was under parental supervision. Later, we began to ask ourselves why he could not play, and could find no good reasons; so we let him join the team. The elders became extremely angry at this violation of their rules, and started to treat my husband as if he were guilty of having committed some horrible sin." Having been a JW child, I can affirm the feelings of isolation and loneliness that necessarily accompany conformity to such restrictive laws. A young JW's life can be one of daily torment, and the elders only exacerbate this tension by their continuous harping and criticisms.

JWs and other fundamentalists have an almost superstitious fear of what they call influence, especially that which comes from worldly types. It is almost as if these people believe that they have no minds whatsoever, and so therefore are destined to respond automatically to the influences around them. An elder once confided to me that if he were to get in with the wrong people, he would likely commit adultery due to their influence. Here, influence is the ultimate scapegoat, the absolute cop-out, in refusing to take responsibility for one's thoughts and behaviors. Does this strangely peculiar mindset arise from having been brainwashed by cult-leaders until one believes that all decisions must be made by others? How does one come to believe, in the ultimate cop-out and scapegoat, that the self is a kind of marionette to be controlled by whatever influence is pulling the strings? How does one grow to believe in a self so devoid of intrinsic, inner guidance that one would commit execrable sins if not surrounded by the bulwark of the right people?

In my decades as an active JW, I found this attitude so often among members that it is almost a complete subsystem of cult psychology, and perhaps even of fundamentalist psychology, with its continuous over emphasis on Satanic and demonic influences. Somewhere along the line of the conversion process, in psychological terms, the inner locus of control, i.e. mature control arising from inner wisdom and discrimination, shifts to an outer locus, the belief that one is controlled by external things and people, environments and situations. Somehow, free will seems to have gotten lost in the process. Do people who become full fundamentalists do so because they harbor an unconscious belief that they are controlled by others, or by influences? Or does the conversion process itself create this kind of transformation in the psyches of normal people? It seems, an analysis indicates, that both factors might be relevant. At any rate, the inner convictions of fundamentalist often seem so pitiably tenuous, so weak, that simply being around certain people, or in certain environments, might cancel or effectively neutralize them.

The ideal JW, then, suffers from a number of emotional and mental weaknesses and vulnerabilities -- in some cases, even disorders. He or she is weak and uncertain of beliefs, has a very low self-image, blended with a strong need or tendency to practice various forms of overcompensation. Also, a tendency to feel strongly alienated or isolated from the normal world of people and events is considered a plus.

However, it must be admitted, even by the JWs themselves, that the ideal JW is a relative rarity, and even those who espouse all the right rules from the platform are guilty of secretly ignoring or breaking minor ones almost everyday.

In its appeal to misfits, the fundamentalist subculture seems ideally designed to receive into itself those rejected by, or who are total failures within, traditional society. It also impels those who are pathologically terrified of healthful interaction with normal human beings -- loners, hermits, alienated types, and the mentally unstable. In fact, not a small percentage join because they are seeking an escapist cocoon experience, a return to the womb of social inactivity and irresponsibility, in which they are neither asked nor commanded to respond to the actual needs of real people. But they must pay a high price for this insulation.

Once coalesced, this isolationist or separatist club sees itself as a collection of superior beings, who can then safely not only ignore, but also look down on, the rest of society. Like the Puritans, they have their own internal and independent local governments, and it is these they follow if there is any conflict between religious and secular law; they then rationalize this as "obeying God as ruler rather than men." The problem is, they are still obeying men; in the case of JWs, they choose to obey their leaders in Brooklyn, and in the case of other fundamentalists, they obey pastors and preachers.

The absolute inflexibility of their laws drives many fundamentalists to depression and despair, which they might seek to alleviate in destructive ways, such as sexual carelessness, alcoholism, or overeating.

Despite the heavy programming and constant reinforcement, there are always exceptions who do not fully buy into all that the leaders tell them. These will, from time to time, not obey the injunction to "marry only in the Lord," which does not mean, to fundamentalists, marry another Christian. No, to them the law is, "Marry only a member of our church or organization." When someone does choose to seek happiness by marrying according to the heart, and when that partner is outside the organization, as he/she so often is, it creates ripples of shock and waves of horrified rumors. Elders not only moodily seek to prohibit these unions, but, once they are formed, refuse to sanction them, unless the unbeliever converts. Often, he or she does so, but only for the marriage; after that, the new convert quickly leaves the group, never to return.

When the elders decide to retaliate for someone's daring to disobey orders the results can be shattering to the families involved. Reputations have been permanently ruined, and psyches damaged and scarred, by elder vengeance. Intimate friendships and deep love relationships have evaporated in smoke due to careless words spoken by elders. Ostracism and disapprobation are used by the elders to create the most terrible feelings of shame, guilt, humiliation, and permanent, irretrievable loss. Disapproval by the JW or other fundamentalist community might get the marriage off to the rockiest start, and much of it might in fact be over before it has even begun. Dire predictions for the happy couple do not nourish the seeds of joy or continuity.

This is only one among many indications that the elderarchy, tried before in Puritan and fundamentalist history, and in ancient Israel, is again a miserable failure. Even in the tiniest of the microminority fundamentalist cults, even as JWs, the leaks of people leaving the organization every year are enormous, and threaten its very continued survival. It is much more serious than the leaders want the followers to know. In fact, only frenetic, often frantic, conversion work allows the JWs to maintain their present size, and to grow at all. (Much growth is among the alienated and underprivileged, and in the third world; among educated people, or successful ones, conversion is a very rare experience. This is another fact that the leaders want to keep secret from members.) No progressive person with a good education tends to join the group; and if in the group she will not tend to stay very long.

Many leave due to social conscience and spiritual sensitivities; but many also leave because JWs, or other small groups, have a very limited pool from which to select potential mates. The selection in some congregations is so pitiably small, in fact, that some marriages are virtually pre-ordained or inevitable, since there might be only one or two age appropriate persons from whom to select. Not surprisingly, JW marriages are often between mismatched people, and are seldom strong. While they might well produce children, they might not be so often based on love. Such arrangements are forced, unnatural, and predestined by the heavy weight of the expectations of the entire congregation. During my twenty years as a JW, I often witnessed exactly this kind of artificial pairing, and knew that simply being of the right religion was no way to measure success potentials or value in choosing a marriage partner. I also saw a number of these radically mismatched unions dissolve with the passage of time, which was inevitable and sadly predictable. The only reason that some of them lasted a year or a little longer is that JWs and other fundamentalist groups despise divorce, and see it as a kind of personal failure. This kind of failure is precisely what most terrifies people with powerful self-image dysfunction.

The only way out of a JW marriage, besides death, is adultery. "I know that my marriage is a dead-end," said a JW brother from Florida. "We no longer love each other, and we are both miserable. And it has been like this from the beginning of the second year of our marriage. Still, we have hung on for five years, because neither of us can tolerate the humiliation of divorce. Besides, divorce is unscriptural, except in the case of adultery. Now, I do not want to commit adultery, but it looks like the only way to freedom for either my wife or myself. So, I guess I'll do it." All the legalistic regulations that surround marriage, then, can seriously backfire, creating the very problems that they were designed to circumvent.

A JW from Maine told of a common practice called divorce, JW style. In this process, a person commits adultery, gets disfellowshipped, butters up the elders and gets on their good side, gets re-admitted to the congregation, and becomes a JW again, good as new.

This obviously confused reasoning is not nearly as rare as JW leaders would lead everyone to believe. In a way, it makes a kind of crazy logical sense, although it is clearly immoral and opportunistic. Still, one might play this dangerous game and get away with it. I know of another case from southern Ohio where an elder ran off with an eighteen-year-old member of his wife's bible-study group, became repentant, got on the elders' good side, and now he and his girlfriend attend one Kingdom Hall, while his ex-wife attends another in the same city. What can possibly heal such relationships, which have been explosively shattered and ripped apart by tormented souls? (Fundamentalists are quite notorious for looking for love in all the wrong places, as will be discussed later.)

Through rigid insistence on the limitation of marriage to one in the same micro-group, the elders have created pressure cooker situations that force incompatible, troubled, angry, immature, hostile people into each other's arms and beds. JWs and other microminority groups have freely and honestly admitted that adultery and fornication are extremely common and powerful tools of the devil, and are among the top three most popular sins of all time.

It has been due to their beliefs that fundamentalists are the only ones who ever suffer from demonic possession, a disorder that never seems to affect skeptics. Might a similar operation be occurring in the subconscious minds of JWs and other fundamentalists when it comes to sexuality? In the classic The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorn showed how the Puritans' simultaneous obsession with and denial of sex created in them great pockets of sexphobic sexomaniacs. People, who are terrified of sex, paradoxically, simply cannot stop thinking about it and wanting it. If these groups were to accept sexuality as natural, and even a beautiful gift from God, their adultery and fornication rates would drop sharply. Also, if they permitted limited experimentation by curious young people, they would experience a plummet in sexual sins.

Fundamentalists insist upon seeing sex as a direct road to death or eternal torment at the hands of God. JWs do not believe in eternal hell-fire but do entertain the hideous and ghastly belief that the entire human race, with the sole exception of themselves, will be slaughtered and massacred at a grisly, spectacular war called Armageddon. People who indulge in sexuality see only this certain death as their inevitable future.

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Chapter 9 / False Prophecies of the End and the Expulsion of High Quality People

 

When Cotton Mather tried to explain the explosion of unbelief and the mushrooming of sin in 1695, he said that these things were occurring because they were living in the last days of earthly civilization, and that, any day Armageddon was very likely to come and wipe the earth clean of all sinners (non-Puritans). The writings of this cruel dogmatist, who defended the horrors of the witch trials, have a sickeningly familiar ring.

For this is precisely the way in which fundamentalists including JWs explain the existence of so much evil and confusion in the modern world. Like some that lived in previous centuries, they lack perspective. That is, they believe that our time is the only one that has seen such radical disorder, chaos, confusion, violence, disease, and hatred. But, although fundamentalist love to collect newspaper clippings proving just how rotten and irredeemable the world is, any seasoned student of history will assure you that these problems have been with us since the very beginnings of human history. In a related vein, fundamentalists like to believe that profound changes have recently occurred in weather patterns, earthquakes, hurricanes, etc. This kind of fear also permeated previous centuries. But statistical data prove that the occurrence of natural disasters, although much better publicized, has not increased in either frequency or severity over the centuries. Both of these ideas -- that people are getting worse, and that nature is getting worse -- are simply sub-myths incorporated into the larger myth of the last days as we head toward Armageddon.

I recall vividly in 1972, how the official printed words of the leaders of the JWs claimed that the end was very near. This stirred the JWs into a frenzy of activity, and the sales work was boosted enormously. That, of course, had been the idea all along. In 1966, the JWs released a book called Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God in which they predicted that the end of six thousand years of human history would occur in 1975. Through a number of complex and convoluted arguments, to make a long story tolerable, the JWs went into a kind of ecstasy of expectation. Stay alive 'till seventy-five became a most popular motto. I remember an older brother, who was one of the anointed remnant, telling me, "If you do not believe that the end is coming by 1975, you cannot possibly be a good Witness." I was impressed, for he had been with the organization longer than anyone I knew. All over the world, as the anticipated year approached, there was an explosion of activity. JWs printed and sold more books and magazines than at any pervious time in their history. During the month of October 1975, the expectation was so palpable that many JWs sold homes, quit jobs, postponed work on their homes, became missionaries, and postponed college, marriage, and the bearing of children. As that month came and went, the force of the false prediction began to dwindle, and spiraled down so quickly afterwards that one would have thought, a year later, that the prophecy had never been made. Indeed, the JW world leaders made several feeble attempts to deny any responsibility at all for the assumptions made by true believers assumptions based on those very leader's prophecies. These same leaders actually blamed the most loyal and gullible JWs for having jumped to unwarranted conclusions. But the truth is that in the years before 1975, men from every part of the hierarchy, from the leaders in Brooklyn, to local circuit and district overseers, were extremely excited about that special marked year, and were totally, absolutely convinced that Armageddon was indeed coming that year.

After that dubious year, JWs seemed to come back down to reality from the high of belief and expectations that their leaders had created so carefully and deliberately. People began to fix up their houses -- if they had not sold them. They began to make preparations for retirement, even though they were only in their forties. They began to have children again. A sister from California says of this time, "About every female that I knew was pregnant. That's where many of their new members came from." While this comment was probably less than serious, it did indicate an immediate and powerful about-face in members' attitudes towards the Armageddon concept. Many JWs began living for the first time; they were no longer living just to see the end, but began to make preparations for the planned continuity of worldly and practical existence in the future. They did not leave the organization, but they did begin in droves not to take the matter of Armageddon quite so seriously. After all, those who were at all familiar with the history of JWs knew that Armageddon had been prophesied for the years 1914, 1925 and somewhere in the mid-fifties. In fact, during over one hundred years of making prophecies, not a single one ever spoken officially by JWs has ever came true.

Shortly after that time, the Great Purge, which peaked around 1980, began. Tens of thousands of JWs were disfellowshipped or driven out of the organization -- many for disbelief or apostasy. By then, many realized that JWs hated so many people, groups, and ideas that, when they were finally kicked out, all that these disfellowshipped people could feel was a great sense of relief, liberation, or joy. (Previously, disfellowshipment was considered one of the worst things that could possibly befall a mortal. We will discuss this issue later in more detail.) "I felt as if the whole world had been lifted from my shoulders," said an ecstatic ex-JW from New Jersey,.

If anything is worse in the JW social value hierarchy than a worldly person, it is a disfellowshipped one. And even worse than those who are disfellowshipped, often against their will, are those like myself who have voluntarily resigned. These are considered to be little better than pond scum, and are actively, violently despised.

Such virulent hatred, however, implies fear as the underlying cause. What does the organization fear from those who were once members, but who are so no longer? For one thing, they have a fear that approaches phobic paranoia that we will talk to others about our experiences and reasons for leaving. The leaders apparently feel that their hold on their members is so tenuous that the slightest exposure to us ex-members will cause the leak of members from the organization to move from a light flow to a gushing flood. So, good JWs are not permitted by their spiritual daddies to read books such as the present one; and they are never permitted to speak or interact with any person who has left their group.

The fear is not so much that ex-JWs will join some competitor religion or church; the real fear is that JWs will normalize, and it is actually the process of normalization that the leaders fear so much. For when we face facts objectively, we can come to only one conclusion: A normal, happy, well adjusted being has no reason whatsoever to become, or to remain, an active JW.

A major part of the reason for this is that the normal person does not live in a world which he believes will soon be wrathfully consumed by an out-of-control, psychotic, murderous god of fire, anger, and vengeance. Many people have chosen to worship a God who is more compassionate, infinitely more tolerant, more peaceful, more just, and more loving. They have, formally or informally, simply turned their backs on the war-god of ancient Hebrew tradition, and now find that they can live in serenity rather than in fear. And they can love their neighbors, as Jesus commanded, as equals -- not looking down on them as polluted inferiors in service to Satan.

The JWs are so arrogant, so Jehovah-centric, that they believe that by completely ignoring ex-members, they are punishing us. But Jesus' own followers were disfellowshipped by the conservative and legalistic people of Jehovah; and he promised them that if this happened, they would gain a hundredfold in brothers, sisters, mothers, friends, etc. Once having emerged from the mind-control microsystems of the JWs, it becomes clear to us that they are the ones who have disfellowshipped themselves from the community of the entire world. By leaving them behind, we have not lost a religion, but gained a world -- a world filled with good friends and good times, with honesty, peace, love, compassion and goodness. In effect, they cut off their noses to spite their faces, for they harm only themselves by their exclusivity and rejection of every other human being but other JWs.

My own brother, who lives about an hour from me, has not spoken with me in twenty years, except to make an accusation. In a letter written to my niece, he accused me of starting a sect. I am sure that he really believed this when he wrote it. However, he still failed to confront me personally and directly, or honesty. So, I took the initiative and wrote to him. One thing that I pointed out to him was that we, as ex-JWs, were not forming a sect, but returning to mainstream Christianity. Further, he was told if he would consult any professional historian or student of religious history, he would find out that it was JWs who are universally recognized as a sect, or even a cult. He was clearly in no position to throw stones.

"We gave our daughter everything," sighed an elderly sister from New Hampshire. "And then, when we were disfellowshipped, she would no longer even speak to us." It would be nice to report that this was an exception; but it is not. It is literally the rule, and we have heard variations of it over and over, hundreds of times, from loving, considerate, compassionate parents, whose children now hate them in the name of their god. Since my brother is still a loyal JW, our mother -- also is an ex-JW -- is exactly this kind of victim.

JWs, like other fundamentalists I have met, are moved not at all by simple human decency or compassion. I have a very close friend in Scottsdale, Arizona, an ex-JW whose husband recently left this world. Her daughter had not spoken to her for many years, as the daughter was a good JW; and even after the enormity of the death of her father, the daughter made no attempt to form any kind of lasting, intimate bond of love with her mother. JW leaders, in fact, teach that all ex-members of their cruel little groups are to be viewed as literally dead. And we are literally treated like lepers, as if our doubts and insights were contagious. Another example of the stonehearted attitudes that mark the loyal JW: About twenty years ago, I lost my vision due to a biomedical condition to which I had an apparent genetic predisposition. At no time, during the worst crisis of my life, did my brother write, call, or visit even a single time, and he never offered a cent in financial assistance. With friends like that, who needs enemies? (As a matter of fact, out of the hundreds of JWs that I knew, not a single one offered any help at all, though they were aware of my condition. They had decided, rumor said, that it was a kind of judgment visited upon me by their petty, jealous, little god; this I regarded, and still regard, as the very height of absurdity.)

So, if anyone incurs the wrath of the elders, that person, even if he/she is your love companion, mother or brother, is to be coldly shunned as if infected with plague. He/she is to be avoided at all cost -- often quite rudely so: hang up the phone if he/she calls, return all letters unopened, ignore him/her in public, give him/her the silent treatment. All of this ridiculous and angry ferocity and prejudice is for his/her own good, of course, even as the Inquisitors literally tortured people to death for their own good. In their approach to ex-members, JWs are not only sick but pathetic as well. Their paranoia reaches the heights of actual derangement and phobia. Years after we left the group, an elder had to come to our property to pick up some tools; my wife was out mowing. Now, my wife is hardly scary; she is no threatening, ferocious monster. But, she said, he acted as if he were terrified, avoiding not only all possible contact with her verbally, but avoiding even eye contact. When she looked in his direction, he sped away in his car, as though fleeing from Godzilla. We had a good laugh over the incident, but, from a larger perspective, it was pathetically worse; it was a clear case of a phobia -- a psychopathology.

In a very real sense, disfellowshipped people come to be seen as the enemies of Jehovah. You would think the way they respond to us, that we were militia-members carrying ugly, threatening machine guns. They flee from us like scared rabbits, or wet cats. And we are just normal people, seeking whatever happiness we can discover in this life, seeking also to share our joy with an entirely new set of non-judgmental and relaxed friends who are not fanatics. We threaten no one, and do not carry bombs or grenades on our persons.

Thus, JWs are shooting themselves in the foot; even as they welcome people in the front door, they are also expelling them just as fast through the back door. So their efforts at frenzied proselytizing have little over-all effect on total membership in the educated countries. This is why they show absolutely no promise of ever becoming anything like a major spiritual force. And while they love to mock in riotous terms the Catholic Church (one wonders how much of this is envy and sour grapes), that institution has been around for many centuries. In its very first century of existence, it made many of the same mistakes that are now being made by the JWs, and now JWs appear to be evolving along exactly the same general lines as that church did in the beginning. For one thing, experience of the church has shown that excommunication (disfellowshipment) is no viable way to handle serious problems, disputes, or even heresies. It did not work then, and it will not work now.

Since about 1980, I have been blessed to meet literally thousands of disfellowshipped ex-JWs, through the mail-networks, over the phone, on the Internet, and through visits and conferences. I have never yet met a single one of these delightful people who ever regretted the fact that she was disfellowshipped.

Obviously, for expelling people for such arbitrary sins as studying the Bible and praying with the wrong people (it is a sin for JWs to pray with anybody from any other church), JWs are doing everything within their power to deny basic religious freedoms to their members. This too has already been tried historically, and failed miserably, in the time of the Puritans of the early history of the U.S.

But, you might object, how could a JW possibly be disfellowshipped for studying the Bible? Isn't Bible study a major theme encouraged by the organization? The answer is no. While JWs use the words "study the Bible," what they mean is not to sit down, open up the Bible, and begin to read or study it, verse-by-verse, in context. When they use the phrase Bible study, what they actually mean is to study one of the approved JW books about the Bible, looking up only selected scriptures referred to in the text. This is confusing, because it is deliberately misleading.

But believe me, people are being disfellowshipped everyday for studying the Bible itself without the aid of officially approved commentaries produced by the organization. I know, and have met, many of these people. They are fine, sincere, loving, peaceful Christians who have found true joy in their lives, but they are no longer JWs. Like individual JWs, the organization itself never accepts blame or responsibility for anything. There is always some convenient scapegoat on which to blame its imperfections, even when these are actually acknowledged -- which is very rare. Most of the time, the organization stumbles and limps by, through convincing gullible members that, unlike Christendom, of which it makes fun mercilessly, the organization is morally perfect, and hence, obviously superior. To criticize them, no matter how positive the criticism -- for example, to write a book such as the present one -- is to persecute them, and so to our litany of psychological disorders, we can add, for most JWs, a well-cultivated persecution complex. When an error becomes so glaring that it can no longer be hidden or covered up (and they are masters at cover-up), they then blame the world, Satan, or as their latest popular targets, ex-members who are now apostates or heretics, for all their problems. They absolutely, narcissistically refuse even the hint of imperfection in their perfect and God-ordained organization, whose leaders are appointed by the infallible holy spirit. They deny all responsibility, and completely disavow any knowledge whatsoever of corruption or immorality in their ranks.

For years, for example, there have been rumors that, among the enclave of their elderly leadership in Brooklyn who run the show, there is at least one homosexual. To admit this would not at all shock the average person, but it would have the devastating effects of a major earthquake on members. For the leaders have used the fact that some religious leaders are gay as evidence that their religious organizations are controlled by Satan. (There is more than a touch of homophobia here, as with almost all-fundamentalist groups). Such a scandal would rock the organization, and it might never recover completely. So, if it is true, it is scrupulously hidden.

History has proved more than once that any group that comes to see the entire world as evil or Satanic is sowing the seeds for its own irreversible and inevitable breakdown and ultimate downfall. The only thing that could heal such a broken organization would be a massive infusion of unconditional love -- which seems extremely improbable for the organization of JWs any time in the foreseeable future.

Thinking people, once they are traumatically released from membership by disfellowshipment, often brutally applied, almost never go back. The JWs own estimate is that fewer than five percent of those who leave ever return. My own life has become so much richer, more joyful, more peaceful, and my relationship with God and other human beings so much more profound and rewarding, that I would not consider returning for a million dollars. Further, every ex-JW to whom I have ever spoken (and there have been thousands during the last two decades) feels exactly the same after having overcome the initial trauma (a period that generally takes only a few months.)

The absence of the only viable cure -- unconditional love -- keeps drawing the JW collective psyche into a state of chaotic disorder and disequilibrium. Belief in a hateful theology of death, violence, vengeance, and murder adds fuel to the antiagapic (anti-love) flames. JWs claim that they are willing to forgive but what they call forgiveness is not a simple and clear release, a wiping away of records of transgression; instead, it is yet simply another tool that the leaders abuse to guarantee the all-important conformity. For, unlike the love and forgiveness of God, that of the JWs must be earned and then re-earned, everyday. One reason for this attitude is that the whole idea of God's grace is unknown to them. (Grace is considered to be such a dangerous teaching that the word does not appear a single time in their translation of the Greek Scriptures, the New World Translation.) Since they feel that they have never experienced grace from God, they do not literally know how to offer it to others. Instead, rigid conformity is the sign of true repentance that they recognize. But to ask an ex-JW to return is like asking a grown man to become seven years old again; and it is as impossible to unlearn as it is to ungrow, and is just as undesirable.

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Chapter 10 / Where is the Love?

 

It is by far the most common complaint against JWs in every part of the world: They are a loveless organization. There is no doubt that they are efficient, they are also quite economic (some would say cheap) and some even have a limited degree of wisdom or intelligence. But when it comes to the supreme virtue of Christianity, that of unconditional love, they are found to be terribly lacking.

Love might even strike most obdurate, hard-nosed JW leaders as a rather trivial and idealistic concern. Anyone who embraces love as a guiding philosophy had better wake up and start living in the real world. For love is one of those despised, belittled, nebulous concepts designed by the weak for the weak. It has little or nothing to do with the everyday operation of a multi-million dollar sales empire.

Yet, according to the Christian Scriptures, which are ostensibly the final guide to all JWs -- love is supremely important, not simply as an abstract virtue, but as the very cohesive force that binds mind to mind in unity -- not merely uniformity.

JWs mistake the two. It is true that they have worldwide uniformity, much as a tyrant can impose uniformity on his subjects. But unity is an act of voluntary free will cooperation between and among independent, free beings -- and this, JWs do not have. So, their celebrated and vaunted unity is an illusion.

Their goal, they say, is to have one mind. And one line of thought. This they claim already to have achieved. But the way in which this dubious uniformity has been achieved is by kicking out all independent, free, intellectual, original, or creative thinkers from their organization. A hospital, by comparison, might well have a perfect record of no deaths, but this does not reflect well on the hospital if it sends patients home just when they are about to die. Yes, the record would look good, even enviable, on the surface; but the cause of the record would reveal duplicity and corruption -- a kind of lying by statistic.

So, when JWs brag about their unity, it is purchased at the great cost of the blood, sweat, and tears of their most spiritual and original people. Everyday, the organization becomes less spiritual; for a truly spiritual person simply cannot survive in the arid atmosphere of dull and endless recycling of old intellectual teachings, repeated moronically in a thousand different ways. A truly spiritual being knows that, by contrast, a loving relationship with God is a growing, changing, developing relationship with love in its many aspects. This includes love of self (the actual opposite of arrogance), love of other human creatures, love of all sentient creatures, and, through all this, love for God. In the life of a truly spiritual being, there is never a choice between loving your friend or neighbor and loving God; instead, God is actively loved precisely by and through the active expression of love for other people.

JWs, by denying love, have created a spiritual desert, a kind of spiritual nightmare in which only the unresponsive and insensitive can survive. So this is more than a numbers game; quantity, so important to support JW boasting, is not the major consideration for God; instead, he looks for quality. And JWs have striven hard and long to alienate and to expel people of high quality from their ranks for many years.

But why would any organization cut its own throat in this destructive way? Because the function of this organization is not to encourage spiritual development and growth, its goal is not to bring people to a greater state of spiritual wellness. It is in fact a sales and publishing empire, and its only function is to produce and to sell as many books and magazines as possible.

It boasts proudly, for example, that every two weeks it prints literally millions of copies of its major magazine, the Watchtower. The intended implication is that millions of non-JWs all over the world are interested in its message, and so support this huge printing. This, however, cannot be inferred from the facts; it is in fact a duplicitous statistical illusion. For every copy of the Watchtower, with very few exceptions, is purchased not by a non-JW, but by a JW sales-person, it then becomes his/her problem to sell the magazine to neighbors and strangers.

The writing is so dull, monotonous, sophomoric, and boring, and the materials used in the magazines so shamefully cheap, that JWs find it all but impossible to peddle the things. So, it is not uncommon to find a copy stuck in your door while you have been away, a free sample, as if you are actually getting something worth having. Stacks of five or ten copies might be found in Laundromats, bus-terminals, waiting rooms, and other public places. It is not uncommon to find a copy in a phone booth! Once, while on a trip, I found one in the men's restroom at a gas station!

The truth is, JWs just cannot get rid of these unmarketable magazines. No one really wants them. This I know for sure, because, when I was an active JW, I had stacks of the magazines six feet tall in my basement -- remnants of unsuccessful attempts to sell them. What is more, every other JW that I knew had similar over-abundance stashed away in closets, attics, basements, garages, and other areas of the house.

A major moral error made by the average JW, with the full endorsement of all the leaders, is that love can be defined as the attempt to sell magazines and books. They have actually convinced their membership that selling for the organization is one of the greatest acts of love possible. How did they swing this unlikely argument?

First, we must remember that the average JW is no genius. Many are kind and sincere, but this actually does very little to make them more discriminating or perceptive. And, especially when attending the dull meetings, they are often drummed or droned into an altered state of consciousness that might have conditions in common with classical hypnosis. That is, they become hyper-suggestible, believing uncritically almost everything that they hear.

So, they are told: 1) everybody in the world is doomed to die at Armageddon, unless he/she changes, 2) the only change the people need to make is to join the JWs, 3) to join the JWs, one must be familiar with, and believe in, all the doctrines and dogmas of the current JW leaders, 4) they cannot do this without education 5) the books and magazines are the only source on earth for this specialized education 6) you are personally responsible for the lives of all in this area, ergo 7) the most loving thing that you can possibly do is to help them save their own eternal lives, by selling them the books and magazines. Finally, to top it all off, and in case there is any vacillation, there is 8) God will murder you and your family if you do not sell these books and magazines -- and as many as you can. And you'd better spend at least 10 hours a month doing it, too.

Of course, there is objectively no love at all in attempting to sell a magazine. But JWs have tapped into the archetypal power of love to make their presentations more dynamic and convincing. And those who believe the eight points listed above will be out in the service (sales-work) seven days a week, in the most blistering heat or the most numbing cold. Many JWs do not realize that their free labor is supporting a massive cynical publishing empire; they are actually doing it all for God. (As noted, however, it is the poor JWs, many of whom live in literal poverty, who must pay for the magazines; only after they buy and pay for the magazines can they try to sell them and try to recoup their losses. Either way, the organization has made sure that it has protected itself first, for the organization never has to try to sell to the public. After a specific court case, which involved another fundamentalist group, with which the JWs took sides, it was ruled that religious organizations could no longer charge for their literature without taxation. Horrified, the JW leaders then decided (no doubt by divine guidance) to distribute the magazines to their members on a donation basis. However, in real life this changed virtually nothing since JWs still believe that the magazines are their only pipeline to salvation and the only way to save their neighbors. Also, they are lead to believe that not to donate very generously for these magazines is to be stingy with God and that is a mistake no one wants to make. Thus the magazines are seen as a kind of investment in eternity. Fortuitously, for the organization, this donation arrangement probably brings in just as much money as, or perhaps even a bit more than, they were making before so there is no net loss economically for the organization. *

The up-shot is that the authors of the magazine can write absolutely anything; their writing does not have to be professional, or even interesting or attractive. They can write the dullest drivel, and it will make not one iota of difference in the sales of the magazine, since each JW must purchase X number of copies of every issue.)

So the great spiritual masterpieces of both love and salvation have been largely reduced, in the slave-labor minds of the JWs, to selling for the organization. But the average JW sees absolutely nothing strange or out-of-place about any of this; to him/her, it is taken for granted as completely normal.

Why do JWs have even to mention love? Because the Christian Scriptures are replete with references to it; so it must be acknowledged. Love cannot be ignored, for it is the most basic message of Christianity. Yet, if JWs really did love, they would inevitably become free and independent thinkers, that is, "apostates" in the estimation of their own organization. So, they are given a kind of love-substitute, a surrogate-love, in the form of the sales program that is truly the real and genuine center of all JW activity.

But one cannot live by eating only menus, and talk of love can do nothing to sustain the inner soul of the truly spiritual being; he or she will still starve, even if surrounded by the most delightful pictures of foods. And so, spiritual beings tend rather rapidly to shrivel in the atmosphere of the average Kingdom Hall, where much discussion of love as an abstract does occur; but love, reduced to mere words, and not translated into feelings and action, is too sterile and dead to support spiritual life.

Further, it is because of the absence of real love that the organization is falling apart rapidly; for people do not cohere well with only mind-sharing; it is real and deep heart-sharing that really bonds people. It is love.

Further it cannot accurately be said that JWs never love each other. They do, as all human beings usually do, by nature; but it is not an important aspect of their religion. For from the viewpoint of the elders, love is simply another doctrine, to be turned into lines of intellectual text and consumed as spiritual food by the "publishers" or sales-people. Nevertheless, this kind of love is still nothing but a menu.

Paradoxically but predictably, it is the clergy of the JWs, known as the elders, which is one of the major reasons why the love of the greater number is cooling off. Kingdom Halls grow colder everyday simply because these elderly leaders are very poor examples; as models of love, they fail miserably and abysmally. Many of them cannot draw up even enough love to love themselves, and they clearly have none to spare for other people. Some of them, in fact, appear either to hate or to fear everybody. And the texts of the Christian Scriptures tell us clearly that love and fear cannot coexist simultaneously. (1 Jn. 4:18)

A strong, indispensable foundation of love is equality -- the recognition that others are at least potentially equal to oneself. The stratification created by the permanent clergy among JWs is thus anti-agapic, for it stresses differences, not similarities, and is intrinsically anti-egalitarian by its very structure. That is why so many JWs pine for the good old days, in pre-elder arrangements, when they were able to sense a true bond of love and simplicity among the brothers and sisters. They say that this is now gone, now that the organization has become so political, and men are jockeying and competing for power (such as it is) and position.

When the modern clergy-system began among the JWs, it was celebrated as a major Scriptural breakthrough; most JWs were completely unaware of how often this same system had failed historically. A flood of icy egotism and me first thinking immediately engulfed the congregations everywhere, and something like innocence was lost forever. Why did it happen? Because the elder-arrangement opened every opportunity for the toughest and most aggressive, self-promoting males, while gentleness, kindness, humility and tenderness became instant liabilities. The strong, but not necessarily the smart, played politics and moved themselves instantly into positions of relative power and influence. (Actually the local congregation offers pitiably little of either, but with the gung ho attitudes of some of the elders, you would have thought that they were vying for one of the crowns of Europe.) The only pitiable power possessed by these political elders is usually the game in which they earned the admiration of old ladies, women, and children by trying to dominate everything.

Through a number of significant permutations and changes, the elder system has managed to hobble along through its evolution, but it has hurt many -- especially those who were expelled by the new elders, when power went to their heads and started them on a microscopic kind of power-trip in which they imagined each member of the congregation of something, no matter how trivial. Before too long, the buddy system developed, in which elders began to recommend the appointment of those who obediently did their bidding. Intellectual and creative thinkers were blocked, and much love died.

Each new change was argued to be scriptural, when in fact, all the changes were made simply along the lines of organizational efficiency. This system which has hurt many, has delivered power over the life of the average JW into the hands of only a few. Further, these leaders refer to themselves as older men, and have actually created a kind of wobbly, laborious, inefficient gerontocracy that not too cleverly disguises itself as theocracy. It has become extremely divisive, stratifying the congregation into levels of status and prestige, killing off what little love might still have remained from older and better times.

______________________________________________________________________

 

*Note: (Comments by T. Scharrer) [This information was NOT included in the original manuscript] It must be noted that money is often donated twice for the same literature to the Watchtower Society. When a JW obtains his/her literature from the book store at the Kingdom Hall, he or she is expected (but not required) to contribute money for the books, booklets, magazines, tapes, and other Watchtower produced materials. For the most part, most JWs will do so. When a JW distributes this same literature in the door to door sales-work he/she is expected to tell the person who obtains the literature that this worldwide work is supported by donations. If the homeowner then decides to donate money to the JW, the Witness is then required to take that donation to the Kingdom Hall and give it to the Watchtower Society. Thus, often a double donation has been obtained. This can be viewed as a win/win situation for the Watchtower Society; a lose/lose one for the individual Witness.

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Chapter 11 / Escape from Freedom: God's Government and the Desperate Longing for the End of Civilization

 

Satan rules everybody -- except us. This is a primary assumption of JWs and many other fundamentalists. It might be little more than the equivalent of the childish taunt; My daddy is better than your daddy. We know that the ancient Israelites, who are the models for fundamentalists, played a similar mind-game with the peoples around them. From a study of the Hebrew scriptures, it is apparent that they saw Jehovah as only one of many gods with whom he was in constant competition, but their particular taunt, to the worshipers of Molech, Chemosh, Astoreth, and especially Baal, was, My god is tougher than your god. (Still, Jehovah always comes across as rather insecure, probably because it was more fun to worship the other gods.)

The illusion under which the Israelites labored was that they lived under a theocracy. (Modern fundamentalists still believe this.) Of course, this was illusion precisely because they, like every other nation, had human kings, judges, and leaders. Like the JWs, who live under a similar illusion with regards to their elderly leaders in Brooklyn, they believed that these human leaders were somehow inspired by Jehovah. Objectively, divine direction is hard to see in their history. For, like every other nation, they have had their share of major mistakes and errors -- and, quite often, more than their share. Many of their military leaders in particular have also been guilty of brutalities and bloody atrocities. Also, because Jehovah was essentially a war-god, the Israelites continually found themselves involved in war, disagreement, pillage, rape, and general destruction. The Hebrew Scriptures are, in fact, largely an account of wars, conflicts, divisions, and are pervaded with references to enemies of the Israelites. (This is in utter and stark contrast to Jesus' attitude of 'loving your enemies.')

The word theocracy comes from two Greek roots that mean rule by God. This word has been used all through human history to describe governments that felt the need for at least the appearance of support from heaven. The word describes the terrible Geneva of John Calvin, and is used in modern times to describe the repressive states of Islam. Clearly, to believe oneself to be ruled by God is not nearly the same as actually being ruled by God. (Early America, again under the Puritans, was also presented as theocracy.) Like the ancient Israelites, JWs and other fundamentalist groups give very little objective reason to believe that they're actually ruled by God. For "God is love," wrote the early Christians, and fundamentalism in all varieties is marked by divisiveness and hateful attitudes, not love.

There is no throne of gold in Brooklyn, and no god lives there. There is no oracle for getting in touch with a god, or with God. There is just a small group of old men who have managed to convince a gullible and desperate group that they are God's infallible mouthpieces. While JWs admit that their fundamental doctrines change as the light gets brighter, resulting in new light from time to time, this is not how it works out in reality. Some JWs will go so far as even to admit that the current form of teaching might not be the last word forever and ever; change is yet possible in the future. But if a JW expresses disagreement with even the smallest particle of current teachings, he/she will soon be excommunicated. There can be no quibbling, no questioning, of the printed words of these old men; like the pope of Rome, they hold claim to current infallibility.

It is obvious, then, that the JW who is trying to be honest, by admitting that today's truth might not be tomorrow's, is in flat disagreement with the official policy of the organization and its clergy/elder system. In fact, if such a JW were to make widely known his/her practical and realistic view of truth as an evolving rather than a static process, chances are good that that person too would be disfellowshipped.

An elder from the Midwest summed up the common attitude when he said, perhaps in an unguarded moment, "No matter what it is, when it is printed in the pages of the Watchtower magazine, it is the truth." I have heard similar statements repeated time and again, ad nauseam. Another rather childish elder said, "When the organization says 'Jump!' your only response should be, 'How high?' "

The truth of history presents a startlingly different picture, however. Since its first appearance in 1879, the Watchtower magazine has changed its official position on many major and significant issues. To give only two illustrations, the superior authorities mentioned in Romans chapter twelve have been identified at times a Jehovah and Jesus, and at other times as Satan's governments. Also, a character in Revelations called Abaddon has at various times officially been identified as both Jesus and Satan.

Still, the rank and file JW is never permitted to view the official decrees as sets of changing, evolving, tentative statements. No, the latest statement is expected to be swallowed, hook, line, and sinker by every good, loyal JW. Anyone, no matter how reasonable, who disagrees with anything stated by the organization is immediately labeled an apostate, and is then trashed by his/her family and friends alike. Every one of the latest statements and decrees is seen as the immutable voice of God.

Old men, who dominate local congregations according to an antiquated patriarchal system, seek to control members not only in beliefs, but also in grooming, employment, sexual habits, home-design, reading material, selections of music and movies, and a long list of other pursuits. These men represent the other men in Brooklyn, who are somehow directly in touch with Jehovah. This collection of old, conservative men, suffering from paternal complexes, is actually the great theocracy of which JWs are so proud.

The psychology and happiness-level of the average JW male is largely determined by his position in the pecking order or dominance hierarchy. The least active males simply have no place in the congregational political clergy system at all. More active, but still inferior, types are known as ministerial servants. And, of course, the relative place in society of his wife and children is also directly influenced in a major way. When I was an active JW, there were jokes secretly circulating, not just about the pomposity and pretentiousness of the elders, but also about the uppity nature of elderettes, the elders' wives. They form a closed clique of their own.

In fact, his relative status in the organization is often the basis for initial and subsequent judgment of a man's total worth. One of the first questions asked of a male JW by other JWs just coming to know him is, Are you an elder? If the embarrassing answer is no, then the others have already lowered him a couple of notches in their estimation and respect.

Also, in their strictly circumscribed and pitiable starved social lives, elders tend to seek out other elders: association with all JWs is officially encouraged, but it rarely actually works out that an elder's best friends are anyone but other elders. So, the internal congregational social pressure is immense, enormous, and intense for any young man who is worth his salt to climb the ladder of success in the hierarchy. In fact, refusal to allow a male into the inner circle is used as a control mechanism, or to punish those who seem out of line.

JWs also tend to believe that heaven is ruled hierarchically; their vision is in very many ways the same as medieval views. God is the president, and heaven is ruled like a corporation. Or, with angels continually whizzing in and out of the divine presence, bringing prayers and requests from earth, it is like a gigantic, chaotic post office. An elder told me, "I like to pray late at night, since Jehovah is not as busy then." This he said with a straight face. Thus, the confused, complicated, inefficient, and chaotic system of elders on earth is thought to reflect the way things work in heaven. This childish view of the stratified hierarchy gives rise to some amusing scenarios, including the elder's view that God might be overwhelmed at peak hours.

The unsophisticated and naïve view of the universe as a stratified system sees the theocratic pattern divided into many levels. It all starts at the very top, of course, with the big guy, Jehovah, in charge of it all. The scheme, from greatest to least, has the following layers:

 

JEHOVAH

JESUS

HIERARCHIES OF ANGELS

ELDERLY LEADERS IN BROOKLYN (GOVERNING BODY)

THE ELITE NINE THOUSAND HEAVEN-BOUND WITNESSES

DISTRICT OVERSEERS

CIRCUIT OVERSEERS

MISSIONARIES

PIONEERS

FACTORY WORKERS (WHO PRINT THE BOOKS)

ORDINARY ELDERS OF THE LOCAL CONGREGATION

WIVES OF ELDERS

MINISTERIAL SERVANTS

JW MALES WITHOUT OFFICE

JW FEMALES

JW CHILDREN

JW INFANTS

WORLDLY PEOPLE

RELIGIOUS LEADERS

VIOLENT AND EVIL PEOPLE

POND SCUM

DISFELLOWSHIPPED PEOPLE

PEOPLE LIKE MYSELF WHO HAVE RESIGNED VOLUNTARILY FROM THE ORGANIZATION

DOGS, RABBITS, PETS, AND SMALL BARNYARD ANIMALS

 

As might be discerned from the ladder or scale of relative merit described above, those who, like myself, have voluntarily resigned from participation in JW activity stand just above the level of the gorilla -- or, in some estimations, just a little higher than maggots or bacteria. For we are seen as the scum of the earth, as the very worst traitors to the government of God. In Puritan times, we would have been hanged or burned alive at the stake; and, if fundamentalists in modern times had real political power, our lives would be in danger even now. In fact, JWs never tire of gleefully and proudly saying, with an evil glint in their eyes, In Israel, you would have been stoned for your rebellion. Ah, those were the good old days, when men and women were stripped naked and bludgeoned to death by the cruelest, most painful method of torture that the human mind could devise. Stop for a moment and visualize just how hideously cruel was the torture and slow death of stoning, as the skin was ripped slowly in large chunks from the body, blood vessels were shattered and bones broken, one by one, and lungs, intestines, stomach, and other bodily organs pummeled and punctured by jagged rocks hurled by angry psychotics. There was nothing clean or holy about this form of murder, though it was said to be commanded by Jehovah. Where once a human being stood, it left behind only a bloody mass of pulp. In short, we may all thank God that we no longer live in that kind of anti-civilized culture.

Tying in the organization with imaginary lines directly to God supports the JW view of the universe as a black and white system, which gives the JW a false sense of stability. But stability founded on psychotic foundations is no real stability at all. The reason that JWs and many other fundamentalists take such a simplistic view of a complex universe is that they are very uncomfortable with subtlety, and seem so limited in intellectual gifts that they cannot effectively deal with it. They are disturbed by an infinite universe, with billions of gradations and variations. Insensitivity blinds them to intelligence, wisdom, and love. They want to fit everything neatly and categorically into neat, tidy little boxes. They are like the child, who, upon learning to identify the category dog, cannot discern that both the Chihuahua and the St. Bernard are both dogs. However the true God simply does not fit into their neat but cramped little boxes, and trying to force him into their tiny categories is like trying to get an elephant to climb into a tea cup. But, from their fear perspective, outside the box is not infinity, but only chaos. Thus, they suffer from terrible mystophobia -- an inordinate fear of mystery, or of infinity.

JWs and other minority extremists prefer to see the wide spectrum of human types as falling easily and clearly into two distinct and obvious categories: those who are right (who agree with us about everything) and those who are wrong (those who disagree with us about anything). Those who are right are good, while those who are wrong are evil. To a JW, then, there might be very little difference between an Adolph Hitler and a Francis of Assisi, a Saddam Hussein and a Mother Theresa; they are all alike under the subtle influence of Satan, for they have not embraced the truth (JW dogma). They are not a part of Jehovah's organization. They twist the words of Jesus, "He who is not for us is against us," to mean, "Anyone who has not formally joined the organization is an enemy of God."

The JW and other minority groups suffer from a limitation that in psychology is called categorical thinking. While we all do this to some extent, to make sense of our world, when it becomes extreme or inflexible, or all-inclusive, it is considered pathological. Such highly generalized and careless categorization betrays a kind of spiritually myopic perspective.

There exists an internal consistency even in this psychotic view: For if the government of God is the organization ruled by the men in Brooklyn, then all who do not belong to the organization have opted for the government of Satan. As the song reminds us, You gotta serve somebody.

Since they have voluntarily opted for Satanic control, all non-JWs deserve to die; the same Jehovah who approved of the hideous stoning practice has so decreed it. So, fundamentalists actually look forward to the end of civilization. Peace movements, ecology efforts, and the opening of tolerant dialog among human cultures are evil, but nuclear war would be an actual good, and would be welcomed by fundamentalists. This would also apply to ecological disaster, or to such things as worldwide plagues or major natural catastrophes. They are all welcomed as signs of the coming Armageddon. Their topsy-turvy world view is evident. Please note the moral backwardness of the fundamentalist position. Everything that helps human beings in any way -- interfaith, ecology, inter-cultural activities, the peace movement -- is evil, because it supports Satan's doomed world, but nuclear holocaust would be good because it would probably lead to the decimation of Armageddon. Further, the gargantuan and ghastly horror of Armageddon, in which Jehovah will massacre all human beings -- infants, sweet young girls, and sweet old grandparents alike -- is the greatest cause for celebration, for it will prove that the fundamentalists had been right all along. This sick view reminds one of the old joke about the hypochondriac who had inscribed on his tombstone, "I told you that I was sick." It is a victory that came about at much too great a cost.

This kind of moral reversal, which transforms goodness into evil, and evil into good, is the true opposite of love, of God. It serves no good purpose, and appeals only to the hopeless and those in utter despair, who have quite given up on life and the possibility of hope. They laugh at those who put their trust in mere man, and say that they trust in God instead. But God has always worked through people. Again, an old joke/parable seems relevant: A man was perishing in a flood. Sitting on a roof, he watched the water slowly rise around him. A boat came by and offered help, but he refused, saying, God will save me. Later, as the water reached still higher, a helicopter offered assistance, but he refused again saying God will save me. Finally, the waters became so high that he drowned. In heaven, he was granted audience with God. Angry and disappointed, the man said, God, I had faith in you. Why didn't you save me? God said, I tried twice; first, I came in a boat, and you refused; later, I came in a helicopter and you refused again.

Note, further, that survival of the coming battle of Armageddon has nothing to do with your inner goodness, kindness, tenderness, generosity, or love for life. It depends solely on your belonging to the right religion -- JWs. You can be the most saintly being in the world, and if you have not formally joined the organization, you will not survive; on the other hand, you can be less than joyful or friendly company, but if you are an active JW, you probably will survive. So, again, morality is reversed. The unavoidable message is this: "How you live your life is not important; being right and submitting to the "government of God" is all that really counts. Can we conclude, then, that a dishonest or grumpy or hateful JW has a better chance than a kind, benevolent, loving non-JW? Yes, that is precisely the implication. To support this position, they often quote the murderous general Joshua: As for me and my household, we shall serve Jehovah. By the time that this is filtered and interpreted by the JW mind, it comes out as, ". . . we shall serve as good JWs." The exact same distortion is applied in the case of Jesus' disciples. When asked if they wanted to leave, they said, "To whom would we go? You have the sayings of everlasting life." By the time this is filtered through the JW mind, it comes out as, "The organization has the sayings of everlasting life." That is a very different statement indeed.

The JW, like so many fundamentalists, lumps all outsiders together -- virgin and prostitute, deeply spiritual and atheist, mass-murderer or beautiful sage, wise and foolish, self-sacrificing and greedy. All who have voluntarily elected not to join their religion are worldly, and thus, evil. Far from being ashamed of this naïve judgmentalism, JWs are actually proud of it, for they mistake polarization and categorization for true discernment.

They, like other minorities, eagerly and joyfully anticipate the murder of the entire human race, with the exception of themselves. JWs are not particularly fierce or evil people; they usually have not thought through, or visualized, the true meaning of Armageddon. They tend to abstract and distance themselves from the sanitized concept, so that, by repetition, they become dulled to its horrible impact. On paper, they can detach themselves, and so JWs who would not ordinarily hurt a fly speak easily of the execution of the wicked -- meaning the grandmother next door or the little girl who lives down the street. Although since the advent of the ghastly ethnic cleansing, JWs do not often use the phrase anymore. They used to speak of Jehovah's cleansing the earth by the direct merciless slaughter of all its inhabitants.

The gigantic and enormous cruelty of Armageddon is thus not contemplated. When I used to engage in the sales work, I was carefully taught to highlight and emphasize the beauty and peace of the new order -- the world after Armageddon. But Armageddon itself was almost never discussed in the sales work. For even JWs have at least a subconscious awareness that the entire teaching, so fundamental to JW theology, is a disgusting nightmare whose proportions place it in the absurd. Yes, it is the way a Saddam Hussein or an Adolph Hitler would solve problems-- by thoughtless and ruthless extermination of enemies. But it is hardly a solution that would be expected from the Prince of peace and God of love.

The sustenance of the Armageddon-myth goes back to the very creation of the Jehovah image in the first place. Remember that, earlier, we discussed the need for each Middle Eastern culture to produce a bigger and stronger god than the tribes around it. The only models that the people had were potentates, who were often unusually bloodthirsty and inhumanly, psychotically, cruel. They assumed that the universe would be ruled according to the only patterns that they knew, and these were the government tyrants, despots, and generals who thought absolutely nothing of murder and gave not a scintilla of value to any human life. To put it in modern terms, Jehovah became a kind of glorified Saddam Hussein in the sky, a father figure who would put up with no nonsense from wayward children, and who ruled the universe in the same way the ancient patriarchs ruled their roost -- with an iron fist. Spare the rod and spoil the child was taken literally back then, and fathers actually did beat their children with literal staves or rods -- a practice that we today recognize, more wisely, as child abuse. If a child was disobedient, it was not unusual to beat her into submission. If she did not repent, she was possibly beaten to death by her good, righteous father. Naturally, the same standards were applied to Jehovah.

Granted that, from the perspective of educated twenty-first century people, this is obviously sub-standard behavior. This is because we have higher standards than did primitive, warlike, ignorant desert tribes. But, in modern fundamentalism, isolation from the evil world is precisely designed to insulate one from the standards of that very world. Conversion represents, at its deepest level, a reconstruction of the entire psychology. In time, the individual becomes disoriented, and begins to sacrifice ego boundaries to the group, thus loosing personal standards of right and wrong, and turning this crucial decision over to the elders. This is exactly what the elders want. This is the very root of the JWs hold on members. Members are encouraged never to trust themselves, for this would be seen as presumptuous, but to turn all major decisions over to pontificating, parading, peacocking, group-leaders. The convert gradually, subtly, begins to lose all reference points regarding what is normal, or even what is truly moral, and is repeatedly told not to think for him/herself, for that is dangerous. In time, the group standards become the only standards, and the rigid insistence on conformity guarantees that weak willed followers never disagree.

Self-image also undergoes a profound shift. This is indicated by the group's own terminology. For JWs often refer to their people as sheep, indicating not only a kind a gentle people, but also a people easily led by any arrogant shepherd. (Elders have been called shepherds, in fact.) The illustration has often appeared that a group of sheep, jumping a fence, one at a time, will continue to jump even when the fence is removed. In other words, they will mindlessly conform in behavior, and this is considered to be weakness but monumental exemplary righteousness. People who are overly pliable are said to be sheep-like, and this rather rude term is considered by JWs to be actually complimentary. So, in psychological terms, JWs and other extremists are forced to develop a negative cathexis, or unhealthy dependency on, and attachment to, the group. This can grow to the point where one feels naked, vulnerable, or even incomplete without the group; in these cases, a kind of unhealthy high can result simply from being with the group. A part of this arises from a false security generated by the fact that one is surrounded by fellow believers who not only support one's rather odd world view, but actually share it.

Hitler, in his horrible work Mein Kampf, stressed the importance to the Nazi party of having regular massive group meetings; one person, he said, could very easily feel like an isolated oddball, a member of a struggling minority or even micro-minority. There was no cure for this feeling more dramatic and effective than literally surrounding the isolated person with people who shared his atypical and unconventional ideas. It is not unusual for JWs to have around fifty thousand people at their national conventions or assemblies; and the psychology behind these events is the same.

Having been carefully, incessantly encouraged to develop a chronic passive dependency state, the unhealthy ego can find relief only by confirmation that it is surrounded by a supportive group -- and the more, the merrier. Further, once the sense of normalcy is lost in the belief that we are God's chosen people, and are supposed to be different, the inner mind becomes so plastic that it can be imprinted with even the most improbable or unrealistic perspectives. The JW leadership knows this, and in fact, relies on it.

Reality then grows into equivalence with the system or the organization. To be outside the organization, then, is not only to be forever barred from any favor from God, but also is literally to become psychotic, or detached from reality. No wonder it is such a terror to the average JW to contemplate the hopeless and helpless life outside the comforting illusions of the organization.

Before long, even the new convert begins to judge and evaluate the self according to the critical, inappropriate, imprecise, and biased standards of the elders. One is never good enough, one can never do enough. Despite the massive egos of some, the official teaching is that human beings are puny and insignificant, and that too high an opinion of oneself is absurd; this applies to all but the leaders, who consider themselves to be literally God's gift to the world.

***************

 

Chapter 12 / The Elder Catastrophe: A Spiritual Hurricane

The elder system is the "kingdom of God on earth" according to JW theory. So we must give some attention now to the examination of the structure of "theocracy" as that term is understood within the general order of the actual gerontocracy of the Organization. Elders are appointed by other elders. They have meetings in which the "qualifications" of a candidate to be promoted to "elder" are screened quite thoroughly; they might gossip about one person for over an hour. Yet despite the obvious fact that elders appoint elders, the Organization feeds its members the line that "all elders are appointed by holy spirit."

Presumably, this means that the elder's mind and heart are controlled or regulated by that holy spirit during the elders' meetings. But, despite the fact that every elders' meeting, like meetings of representatives and senators, begins with a formal prayer, there is no evidence whatsoever of very much "holiness" in the proceedings themselves.

Meetings among elders are dry, intellectual, and dull. When they are not so, when passion is actually given a place, the results are much more entertaining, but hardly any holier; I personally know of one meeting of elders that began to break out in an actual fist-fight. Most JW's and most fundamentalists are far too restrained to allow this to happen very often.

But because JW's buy the lie that "holy spirit"-- considered to be a non-conscious energy created by God and sent to human beings like the current from a battery-- has actually somehow participated in the appointment of elders, to question any elder on any issue is very probably revelatory of a "rebellious" attitude towards "Jehovah's sovereignty," his Organization, his theocracy. So, none of the declarations that come from elders, however ignorant, specious, or stupid they might actually be-- can be rightfully questioned by an "ordinary" JW. While JW's, like other Protestants, react very hotly to the idea of papal infallibility, and often laugh at gullible Catholic followers, they themselves have set up a "governing body" of old men in Brooklyn that is considered equally infallible.

The JW male is expected to ignore the "corporate ladder" of "worldly" success, even though some elders have climbed as high as one can go on that ladder. Instead, the JW male is encouraged to struggle his way up the "theocratic ladder" of success. First, he must work hard to be a good JW, blindly following all the rules, regulations, and doctrines. He must then extend this power by dominating his wife, or "having her in subjection," as JW's like to say. Then, he must struggle for a minor place in the congregation. If he is successful, he becomes a "ministerial servant." But then, his work has just begun, for now, he must "kiss up to" and "butter up" the elders, get on their good side, so that he can politically maneuver his way to personal appointment as an elder himself.

Ostensibly, elders have a fairly long list of "qualifications" that one must meet in order to become an elder. For example, it is said that an elder must be "irreproachable"-- a clumsy way of saying that he must pretend to be perfect, and convince others of the illusion. But, in actuality, the list of "qualifications" is not nearly as important as one's personal relationships with the elders. If one can cultivate a "buddy" relationship with one or more, then one can be "sponsored" for appointment by his "pal," completely regardless of any real qualifications. So, it is more important to stay in the "good graces" of the elders than it is to develop any personality characteristics. In fact, if one practices personal development too much, it is entirely possible that he might threaten the elders by his extraordinary gifts. The elders' major key in selection of candidates is friendship; but a close second is a kind of mediocrity, in which no person stands out too much from the "herd." Anyone who has special gifts or talents is often accused of developing a "personal following"-- and that is considered anti-Organizational.

So, in time, a person's self-evaluation no longer even arises from the self, but depends entirely on evaluation by the elders, who are more often than not strangers. At this point, it is appropriate to ask whether the elders have any training in psychology, since they hold the very sanity as well as future hopes of many in their hands, as well as the "spiritual well-being' of everyone under their "care." The answer, astonishingly, is no. Elders do not have any training whatsoever in any form of psychology. The paranoid view of the universe, with the entire world being Satanically controlled, is relevant here. For they have a strong distrust of psychology. It is taught by the devil's universities and demonic intellectuals, and so must be suspect. (However, one suspects that the real reason for wholesale rejection of psychology is that the average elder could not pass a first-year exam on the subject, and is deeply ashamed of his ignorance. Another reason may be that if tested according to regular psychological standards, the elders would probably not prove to be very healthy.) If a person is educated in psychology, he then might be "too worldly" (read "too educated") to be considered for appointment as an elder. Remember that the Organization does not want people of talent, skill, and knowledge; they want only gray and unexciting conformists who will never "rock the boat."

When I was about twenty- two years old, I attended an elders' meeting whose main purpose was to consider me for appointment as an elder. But I, partially inadvertently, said that one thing that burned their ears more than anything that I could have possibly said. It was the one thing that ripped apart their pretentiousness and denied their value system entirely, and at the same time deeply wounded their "high and mighty" egotism's. I said simply, "After careful consideration, I have decided that I do not want to be like you.." It was a simple statement, but it shattered their fragile self-images and exploded their "superiority." Since then, I have thanked God, from the bottom of my heart, that I never made the serious error of having become an elder.

The reason why this would have been a significant, life-error is that elders must harm people-- often permanently, for they can harm not only the body and mind, but the soul. This they do by kicking people out of the Organization, and damning them in the eyes of Jehovah. This inevitably results in a hideously tormenting self-damnation. I am so delighted to report that I never partook of this kind of hideous torture, this tragedy and travesty, against my fellow human beings. Had I been an elder, I would have been forced to dirty my hands with this bloody business, for it is not only the psychological equivalent of spilling the blood of your fellow human beings, but might lead to literal shedding blood in the form of hopeless suicide. For the sick JW cathexis, or attachment, to the Organization is so pervasive and so strong that some weak persons might feel that life outside that group is simply not worth living. Fortunately, most that emerge seek professional help, readily available, and become normal, happy, productive people.

To any objective outsider, it is clear that the JW clergy-system is arbitrary and biased. This is not to say that it is necessarily worse than sociopolitical systems in other groups, but this is all presented because the JW's actually believe that the entire process is flawless and perfect, guided each step by a kindly, benevolent "holy spirit." In the congregations which I served, unqualified, even illiterate, men were appointed as elders, and so were many who had all the personality and warmth of a slab of marble. With some, I had to resist the impulse to check the pulse to see whether or not they were still alive. Men of savage demeanor and dangerous character were regularly a part of the system, and so were men who were not blessed with the common sense that God has given a toad.

As might be obvious, there is absolutely no correlation between a man's level of spirituality or sensitivity and his appointment as an elder. Often the positions are snatched by those who are simply more clever, or politically adroit. One elder used to curry favor with the others by providing free tickets to major sports events for them and their wives and kids. Such practices occur all the time, and everywhere.

Even the members of the "super-elders," the old men in Brooklyn, are often shallow and simple-minded in pronouncing life-changing rules for members. They are also contradictory. For example, from 1967-1981, some kind of bias among them caused the Organization to issue an official policy-decree that organ-transplantation was a form of cannibalism, and was "detestable to Jehovah," as so many things are. So, JW's around the world, who desperately needed transplants, died for this teaching. But in 1981, the official policy was suddenly reversed; one strongly suspects that one of the old men in Brooklyn, or one of his relatives, needed a transplant. After that, transplants were "okay" and approved by God. But, of course, it was already much too late for those who had died agonizing deaths.

That same Organization never hesitates for a moment to interfere actively in the medical care of people. For decades, they have prohibited blood transfusions, based on an ancient Hebrew law against "eating" blood, and on the Christian avoidance of the same practice. Here, the JW has had to equate transfusion with "eating"-- a specious equality at best, and a tenuous argument when a human life, particularly that of a little child, is at stake. But JW's have, since the beginning of their history, been willing to allow sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, to die rather than to undergo a simple, routine procedure-- blood transfusion. Will this, one day, also experience a reversal? (JW's have already begun to define blood as an "organ," which is stretching the argument to the point of absurdity). Will blood transfusion become equivalent, in their interpretations, to an organ transplant? If this does happen, how will all those who have already died under the old rules seek redress?

As imperfect as the American, legal, judicial system is, at least, it goes out of its way to make sure that the defendant is heard and given an opportunity to speak. But JW's, in their local "elder-courts," are very much like the Puritans, who had their own religious courts. What the elders say is the very last word. There is no "higher court" to which one might appeal, for example, in the case of an unjust action on the part of these elders. One might complain to the upper echelons (to the circuit- or district- overseer, for example), but such complaints are often simply dismissed as "bitching and whining" from a rabble-rouser who refuses conformity. Thus, even if a JW is the victim of injustice, it is still her fault; it is imperative that the elders are never to blame, no matter how stupidly they behave.

The threat of disfellowshipment always hangs over the JW head like a dark cloud or dangerous sword; so, in many congregations, there is a fear of the elders that keeps everyone absolutely silent about their inability's and errors, as well as their blatant acts of stupidity and cruelty. Often, the eyes of the JW seem to cloud over when the issue arises, and then a shrouded, hooded look comes over them, saying clearly but non-verbally, "We had better not talk about that." So, elder-resistance is largely an underground and secret movement among the JW's and even the elders might have kept themselves carefully unaware of it. Still in every congregation, there is a quiet "resistance" movement.

Much of this secret resistance is fueled by the insensitivity of the elders themselves, especially in the matter of disfellowshipment (excommunication). When one is a carefully and fully cultivated member, the "world" simply does not exist, for all practical purposes. It is a void, not even taken into consideration when planning one's life. All one's family and friends, even distant acquaintances, are JW's, and one's entire world revolves around the meetings, sales-activity, personal study, and conversations of JW's. In a very real sense, the very being of a JW becomes a kind of classical study in obsession. One, in order to be a truly "good and loyal" committed JW, must be obsessed with this religion. So, if this religion is taken away from a devoted advocate by disfellowshipment, the psychological results are often catastrophically traumatizing. It can be a shock somewhat analogous to being frozen in a freezer, then tossed into a fire; it is a major shock to the nervous system. It can be exquisitely and agonizingly painful, especially to sensitive souls. And so, the average JW will do anything at all to avoid it. For when input from the Organization is seen as the only source of all good, and then that input is quickly ripped away, one is left with a sense of existential emptiness and loneliness.

It can take one several weeks or even months fully to recover from disfellowship-trauma. Gradually, however, people do recover, realizing that there is not only "life after JW's," but a more fully active, peaceful, harmonious, and love-filled life possible apart from their tedious and petty little enclosed world. If the disfellowshiped person can come to the perspective, not that he/she has lost a religion, but has gained an entire world, then disfellowship-trauma might last only a few days. Fortunately now, as never before, there is a wide network of supporters and understanding friends who can nourish the damaged being who has recently been kicked out. With love and sustaining friendship, we can help the person to see that he/she is still beloved by God, that life is richer and brighter than he/she ever dreamed possible, and the entire JW perspective is like looking at the universe through a very narrow slit in a fence. The world outside the Organization is a gigantic, wonderful, delightful, joyous place filled with wonderful and fantastic people eager to make quality friendships. And there is more of God outside the Organization than one was ever able to find in its limited concept of the angry, unpredictable Jehovah.

Not surprisingly, petty squabbles and quibbling often break out among the elders, and they whine a lot about "back stabbing" in their ranks. One common way in which this occurs is if an elder wants to transfer to another congregation. If the elders in the first congregation do not like him, they will not "recommend" him for eldership in the second, and he will likely be turned down. Elders regularly play one against another, and friendships are often quite tenuous, and betrayals too common. "Secrets" told to elders by brothers and sisters have a way of "leaking out" and becoming the stuff of common gossip. (In a closed community like JW's, every congregation is so racked with floods of gossip, one feels as if one were caught inside an episode of "As the Stomach Turns.") Thus, elders are seen as continually betraying not only each other, but also the "sheep" in their care.

Hostility towards the elders has started to emerge, as it so often does, in the form of humor. An entire collection of "elder jokes" has developed. Some samples are as follows:

What do you call an elder with a half a brain? Gifted.

Did you hear about the elder whose miserable life drove him to attempt suicide? He had heard that jumping out a window was the best way to do this, but he only ended up spraining an ankle, he had tried to jump out of the basement window.

Did you hear about the elders who drowned in the back of an open pick-up when it went off a bridge into the water? They could not get the tailgate open.

Did you hear the one about the elder who called the lock-and-key shop when he locked his keys in the car? He said to the locksmith, "Please hurry. It looks like it's going to rain, and my car's a convertible."

Some of the jokes are a bit more obviously cruel: An elder walked into a bar with a duck on his shoulder. The bartender said, "I told you not to bring that pig in here." The elder said, "That's not a pig, it's a duck." The bartender replied, "I was talking to the duck."

Or, consider: "How do you tell an elder from a bigfoot? One is big and hairy and stupid and stinks, and the other has big feet."

Or this: "What's the difference between an elder and a catfish? One is bottom dwelling, mindless scum-sucker, and the other is a fish."

Situations among the elders become enormously tangled and complex, simply because they have so few if any objective criteria to guide their arbitrary political moves. Interestingly, while most major decisions are claimed to be based on the Bible, most JW leaders possess an astonishingly poor knowledge of the Scriptures. Not only are they ignorant regarding textual details, history, chronology, and original languages, but are also very limited in awareness of context and content. So it is no surprise to find that texts are often violently ripped from context in support of some arbitrary rule or bias.

The clergy-system of the elders is, in short, as great a failure among the JW's as it ever was among the Puritans and other fundamentalists who have experimented with this primitive and uncultured form of "proto-government." For it is no real government at all, much less the perfect "government of God." It is ludicrous, a caricature of an effective, compassionate, balanced system of wisdom that really serves either God or the people. It is embarrassing to everyone who has anything to do with it, and is the object of ridicule among those whom it is supposed to rule.

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Chapter 13 \ Clash with Reality: "Study" and the Subculture

There is a group among JW's which is considered wiser and closer to God than the elders, though many in this elite are also elders. This is the very few thousand (fewer than ten) who are considered to be the only people on earth who will ever go to heaven.

For JW's do not believe that you-- or even they-- go to heaven when death occurs. People simply rot in the ground until that day in the future which JW's call the "resurrection," when all the dead will come back to life on earth. Most JW's, however, do not want to die at all; they really do hope to fulfill that age-old fantasy of health food and fringe or fanatic groups-- to live forever without ever dying.

One of their leaders, named Rutherford, even wrote a book called Millions Now Living Will Never Die, but almost everyone who ever read the book, written in the twenties, died. Still, decade after decade, many sincere, idealistic, teary-eyed, starry-eyed, women and men have put faith in the illusion that they would live forever. (The source of this belief is actually a radical form of "thanatophobia," or an unusual fear of death.) Yet hundreds of thousands who put their faith in this delusional system, since it was purposed by JW leaders in the 1870's, are now all dead.

It is a rule of life, and has always been, that birth is a guarantee of death. This is one of the great poignant truths that give time and life a kind of luminous splendor, causing us to treasure the moments and the days. Perhaps a person who feels death less tends to feel everything less. JW's are in total denial when it comes to death, and so perhaps they feel the daily luminosity of the transient less than most others.

They believe that they are unique in these beliefs, that in fact, their founder, Charles Russell, discovered or invented them. Of course, this is by no means the case. JW beliefs did not appear as a dazzling revelation in a religious vacuum. Indeed, most of Russell's ideas were appropriated, and some lifted wholesale, almost verbatim, from concepts that were very common in his time. The JW's represent a very widespread form of Christian theory called "pre-millenniumists." This means simply that they believe that the battle of Armageddon will come before the millennium (thousand-year-reign of Christ over the earth). Today, in the widespread resurgence of various forms of fundamentalism, this kind of belief is also mushrooming among a number of cults and fundamentalists generally.

Also, the history of the JW's can be traced directly, in a virtually straight line, to the "Second Adventists" of the mid-nineteenth century. Even that long ago, various groups were predicting the "end" of civilization, selling all their earthly goods in anticipation of the second presence of Christ. I listened with quiet amusement one day as a JW pontificated about how the Seventh-Day Adventists were "so close to the truth," and about how they "took some of their teachings from us." The truth is JW's evolved from the Adventists.

At any rate, it is a very important teaching of the JW's that only a few thousand people (all, of course, are JW's) in the history of the world, will ever go to heaven. This is based upon a literalization of Revelation, chapters seven and fourteen, each of which mentions a mystical and symbolic number-- 144,000 (which is twelve times twelve times ten times ten times ten). The official teaching of JW's is that the Revelation, the final book of the Bible, is symbolic. That is, most things mentioned in the book symbolize or represent something else. The "lamb," for example, represents, not a literal sheep, but Christ. The JW's pick, sort, and search through the components of Revelation trying, like David Koresh, to determine hidden meaning in the obscure symbols. The numbers of Revelation are also usually said to be symbolic: seven represents "heavenly perfection," and ten represents "earthy completion."

But when it comes to this one number, it is said, astonishingly, to be not symbolic, but literal. What is the foundation for this sharp and inconsistent turn away from symbolism? There is no reason; it was just arbitrarily assumed by some writer, that this number "should be" literal-- and literal it has been, ever since.

The teaching became this: In all of history since the time of Jesus, only 144,000 "chosen ones" have been called to heaven. Only a few thousand are still alive. This dogma neglects the historical fact that, during the first two centuries, there were as many as two million Christians. So, it did not take two thousand years for God to fill the "quota" of 144,000.

This rude clash with traditional religions and religious views is only one of the many ways in which the JW view is distinct from, and contradictory to, the mainstream understanding. Becoming a JW, then, or joining any extreme form of fundamentalism, means that one's entire reality-structure must change.

"Reality" is a synonym for "truth." JW's like to talk a lot about the "truth," but when they do so, they really mean the teachings of the organization, which are often in direct contradiction with reality. The illusion that the world is totally evil and "Satanic" is all a part of this mass-hallucination, illusion that JW's call "truth."

Many of the fantasy-scenarios are obviously egotistic in origin. The elders, for example, refer to themselves shamelessly as "princes in the earth," and "glorious ones." Other fantasies serve other, often unhealthy, inner needs.

Psychologists and sociologists have long been aware of the fundamental inaccuracy of taking categorization or generalization too seriously or too literally. Still, JW's concur that the world is evil, filled with stereotypes that are easily dismissed by them. They have almost no tolerance for human imperfections, and are quick to judge human errors as active rebellion against God. From this perspective, everyone fits into a convenient box, slot, or category.

Psychologists suggest that this is a device of convenience, like the stereotype. If one is dealing with stereotypes or categories, one does not have to try to understand complex individuals, real persons. A priest who makes a mistake is simply dismissed as a "corrupt" priest, and no one has to go to all the trouble of trying to understand him. Instead of being understood, which is an arduous process, he is simply dismissed and ignored, which is the pattern of the lazy and naive. Furthermore, he is easily and quickly damned.

For the human world, with all its variety, can be overwhelming and even frightening. To try to sort things out and piece them together into meaningful patterns is a challenge even to the most saintly or brilliant. To those with no interest in pursuing such a complex task, it is impossible to "make heads or tails" out of the human cosmos, and alluringly easy simply to dismiss all people as evil.

And in forming solid, inflexible opinions about the categories, they have a kind of destructive mental "shortcut" with which to judge people. For every new person can be placed in the "ready-made" category, about which a "standard" opinion is already entertained. This represents a "cookie cutter" model in which "one size fits all." This dramatically reduces the strain of trying to understand people, although it is anything but fair.

In fact, its cumulative effect is to present a totally distorted view of the world, a false image of reality. It lends a kind of support to the idea that the world is populated by evil connivers and ignorant dummies—and this is the real reason why there are so few converts to the JW's.

Yet how can this counter-realism survive in the midst of real data continually flowing in from the real world? How can it possibly survive amidst all the contradictions? Is it not clear and obvious, even to the most committed JW or fundamentalist, that the world is largely populated with good, kind, decent, gentlefolk? Surprisingly, the answer might not be as obvious as it seems. For JW programming can be extremely persuasive, especially to a mind that is already off-balance or unstable or undeveloped. That is why the newly bereaved and the teen-population offer such attractive "target" groups for conversion by JW's and others.

The distorted view of the world is continually being resisted by the reality of the world. Selective attention helps maintain the illusion that the world is evil, and here, the news-media and talk-shows also help, for they seek to present the very worst of the worst, often as though it were somehow representative of human nature or civilization itself. JW's and other extremists keep a careful eye on the news, then, partly because they subconsciously realize that it gives them "ammunition" to help confirm their dark, dreary view of the world as "evil." Negative personal anecdotes and experiences with unscrupulous people also help to "verify" this desolate perspective, proving that the world is not only evil, but also hopeless. However, this Geraldo Rivera/ Jerry Springer view of the world does not stand up to close scrutiny.

However, the supremely most important factor is the continual "study" of the JW's. While they call this study "a study of the Bible," or a "Bible-study," actually they do not study the Bible at all, but study only approved texts, commentaries, and books ostensibly about the Bible. These religious magazines and books work consistently and continuously to drive deeply into the mind the message that the world is irredeemably, evil, or "lost."

This approach is two-pronged: Not only are JW's ordered to read their own publications in all free time, but they are also ordered to avoid certain reading materials which might give then a more balanced perspective, and this they do assiduously. (For example, this book would clearly constitute "forbidden literature.") So, they must read their own propaganda, and must equally avoid as much exposure to the "normal" world as possible. Unfortunately, TV and movies, which could serve as powerful media for "normalization," often also exalt and spectacularize the very worst components of human nature and society, confirming rather then denying their bias that the world is evil. In order to amplify the effect, leaders imply those harmless components of these media, such as comedies, are filled with all kinds of gross indecency, immorality, and Satanic messages in other forms. This is especially true in terms of hidden, sexual messages or agendas. As one example, the media generally promote toleration of homosexuals. But JW's, like many other fundamentalists, still believe that to be gay is a conscious choice, which one makes in active rebellion against God, goodness, and morality. So, all toleration becomes part of the hidden or subtle network of "evil" underlying the media.

An ideal JW should be saturated in JW literature and totally isolated socially from all normal influences and people in the world. JW's, and other fundamentalists, are notorious for taking an aloof attitude, as if superior; this is no coincidence, for they really do believe themselves to be so, and will form no bonds of friendship with non-JW's. They do their jobs-- and often do them well-- but when it comes to sharing a drink after work, you can always leave the good JW out. In-group bonding is so strong that it actually excludes out-group activities.

Be careful, then, never to misquote the JW motto "study, study, study" for anything having to do with real education, studiousness, or intelligence. It is what more cynical critics would call a continuation of the "brainwashing program" to which every JW is exposed. Sometimes JW's euphemistically represent this as "repetition for emphasis," or "sounding the truth down into the heart," but, in reality, it is only incessant drilling. For a good JW never really has to learn anything; rote, memorization, and repetition are mistaken for real learning. For if a JW does begin really to learn, history and statistics indicate, then he/she will not remain a JW for very long.

 

This distinction between study and learning does much to explain the phenomenon of the Great Purge of 1980. For some reason, JW's all over the world, by the thousands, began to study the Scriptures independently, truly learning and growing. The response of the Organization was a "knee-jerk" mass disfellowshipment, a "clamping down" on even the contemplation of any attempt to understand the Bible by reading or studying it. Through this Gestapo approach it was made clear that the Bible could be understood only through the interpretative "lenses" of the official decrees of the Organization, and that anyone who loved God or discussed the Bible outside of official meetings and approved "Bible-study" formats was acting as independent, and therefore an "apostate." Still, so many had learned so much that was wonderful about God that they had no desire whatsoever to return to the Organization. This astonished and greatly offended the leaders, who had expected all the "apostates" to come crawling back on their knees, shame-faced and full of "repentance. " Instead, those who had been kicked out simply bid a joyful "good riddance" to the Organization, and continued on with lives more happy and productive than ever. The leaders complained bitterly about the "pride" of these "unrepentant" people, and blasted them as spiritual lepers or untouchables. (Ultimately, this freedom-movement spread into the world-headquarters of JW's in Brooklyn, and several of those who worked in the publishing of the JW propaganda, and even some who had written their books, were disfellowshiped.

During the nineteen years since, tens of thousands or more have either voluntarily resigned, as I did, or have been kicked out for "apostasy." If you will recall, just before the final collapse of the Puritan power in America, early Puritan leaders were whining loudly about the abundance of "apostasy." But what those early American pioneers, and the more modern students realized, was that the data coming from the "leaders chosen by God" did not at all correlate with the data coming in from every other source, including their own experiences. This created major dissonance among the Puritans, necessitating change in the leaders' world-view or in those of the members. Since the leaders were hopelessly mired in concrete, and their teachings carved in granite, they were never going to budge. So, the members had to do the changing—and change they did, for the better. It was a "grass roots" movement that ultimately led to freedom of religion.

When they were disfellowshiped, the 1980 "apostates" were possibly the very first group ever so abused who did not morn the fact, but celebrated it. For they saw disfellowshipment not as a humiliation—its intent—but as a liberation. They had gained the entire world, bursting forth in glorious, dynamic creativity and diversity, and now they to were free. (Some went so far as to send "thank you " card to the elders who had disfellowshiped them!) They had not lost a religion but gained a world. Thus, the JW subculture, with all its weapons of humiliation, insulation, isolation, and programming-reinforcement, was unable to hold those whom it had once claimed as its own.

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Chapter 14 / Why Is Studying the Bible A Sin?

 

"I was disfellowshiped for studying the Bible," a man recently told me in Georgia. A good JW would say that the man was lying; no one could ever be kicked out of the Organization, he would argue, for studying the Bible.

But tens of thousands of ex-JW's, especially over the last two decades, claim that this is, in fact, the reason that they were removed forcefully from the society of JW's.

Perhaps, in view of the strong effect of words, and due to the fact that JW's continually command, "Study the Bible," it cannot be emphasized too much that JW's actually do not study the Bible. Instead, they study books and magazines about the Bible; all these publications have been approved, because they are written, by JW leaders.

What, then, does "study the Bible" really mean? It means that everyone in the room has a copy of the Bible-- preferably, of many different translations, one of which should be a good Greek interlinear literal translation. Then with no preconceptions, each person should be allowed to comment on what a particular verse means to him/her, with nothing being prohibited or forbidden. Then, before moving on to the next verse, everyone in the room should feel content that he/she has had sufficient opportunity to share fully from the heart and mind. No view should be crystallized in solid rock as the "only correct understanding," but each in the group should hold the others in an unconditional tolerant respect, and the "rightness" of each view should be actively sought. If you ever find yourself in this kind of study, you can rest assured that you are not among JW's for this is the true meaning of "Bible-study."

Word-patterns, within "in-group" subcultures, take on specialized, unconventional meanings. Thus, when a JW visualizes a "Bible study," he/she imagines a group discussing selected, often unrelated, verses, mixing and matching, almost at random, verses from both the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures-- often, connecting verses that were written hundreds of years apart, and in very different contexts. JW's like many other fundamentalists are exposed to smatterings of history, archeology, and ancient languages, but this is more "window dressing" than it is substantial education. The training of the average JW consists in memorizing about a dozen texts. To the person who is Biblically illiterate, this seems very impressive, and so the JW's are often very proud of their "Bible-knowledge", despite its terrible limitations. But, actually, beyond the few verses that they have learned by rote and memorization, they are themselves spiritually illiterate. This is especially so when it comes to other religions, as it is for so many fundamentalists. If you were to ask the JW any question relating even to the most basic aspects of Hinduism, Buddhism, or Taoism, he/she would probably look at you as if you were speaking Greek.

This spiritual illiteracy is actually an aspect of their isolationist training. A true, objective, spiritually rounded program of balanced spiritual training would require reading the works of a wide variety of authors from many religious and spiritual backgrounds; that this is actually forbidden indicates not only the falsity and shallowness of the JW "education," but reveals their programs as not educational, but anti-educational. They are really programs designed to keep people from learning rather than to expose them to new learning.

Another objection to the JW "Bible study" program is that they usually insist on using their own idiosyncratic translation of the Scriptures, called the New world Translation. No one knows exactly who translated this version of the Bible, but it does not seem to have been experts in ancient languages, and it was clearly not well known scholars (for, if it were, the JW's would not hesitate to brag about this fact). Further, what appear to be "small" changes in the text alter the entire meaning of the phrases-- not coincidentally, always in favor of JW teachings. One fine example of this is the Greek phrase kat' oikon, found a number of times in the Christian Scriptures. In every other location, the phrase is rendered correctly as "in the house," but in Acts 20:20, one of the JW's favorite texts in support of the sales-work, it is misinterpreted deliberately "from house to house." One can conclude only that this poor and incorrect rendering was deliberately made in order to defend as Scriptural their house-visitations to sell their religious books.

Because of his/her programming, a JW is always shocked to hear that a person can actually be disfellowshiped for "studying the Bible." Of course, he/she would rationalize that false, inaccurate conclusions were drawn from this Bible-study, and so the real reason was "apostasy," not Bible-study. ("Apostasy" is defined as the willful embracing or teaching of doctrines or ideas, about religion, which are known to be false.) But many were disfellowshiped even before they could come to any conclusions whatsoever concerning doctrines or teachings, for insisting that they simply had the right to study the Bible independently. What is at stake here is freedom. Strangely, when the factor of independence is introduced, the Bible actually becomes a forbidden book. The documented cases of thousands of people confirm this remarkable fact.

In a healthy organization, one free of fear and certain of truth, a certain amount of dissidence would be welcome, and even considered exciting or stimulating. This is why dissidence, so long as it does not actually harm anyone, is considered one of the most precious freedoms in a democracy; its diversity is always combining and permutating to produce new and original solutions, concepts, and approaches. By contrast, the totalitarian governments, the "theocracies" of both the JW's and the Muslim world, crack down on dissidents and turn them into despised pariahs. No one, among the JW's, is permitted even to speak with ex-members. What do the JW's have to fear? A great deal; for they know from experience that if a JW and an ex-JW come together, the chemistry between them is much more likely to result in the JW leaving the Organization than in the ex-JW returning. So, you never find an ex-JW who tries to prevent other ex-JW's from speaking to JW's; it is always the JW that is not allowed communication. Like totalitarian governments, the JW's "theocracy" is terrified for its very survival, and feels terribly threatened when even the most insignificant member questions even the most insignificant dogma.

JW's are highly defensive and dogmatic; they cannot allow for flexibility or elasticity, as this would lead to the "terrible state" of open-mindedness. And to them, this would be like opening a Pandora's box full of "demons." For once freedom gets even the smallest foothold, totalitarianism is doomed. And whenever any member becomes a free thinker, JW's can already smell the doom in the air. Their unthinking, knee-jerk response is entirely predictable: Kick the free thinker out, and then, if possible, kick her when she is down as well. For disfellowshipment can be a moment of utter spiritual crisis and loneliness; and just at this greatest point of spiritual need, JW's fully abandon one; not only that, but they generally engage in a gossip-campaign of blackening his/her reputation and smearing his/her good name. "When you are down and out," says an old joke, "just raise your head and shout, 'I'm down and out,' and somebody will come along with hip-boots on, and stomp you into the mud."

This moment of great spiritual breakdown can, however, also be the moment of breakthrough. It is pregnant with possibility, and many find themselves reborn through the great "gift" of disfellowshipment. Truly it is wisely noted that before you can build a new structure, the old structure on the same site must be dismantled. While this is not without pain and some sense of loss, in the end, the day of disfellowshipment can be a day of great peace, joy, and celebration; for that day can be one's literal beginning of a new life. A disfellowshiped man in Virginia received a card on the anniversary of his disfellowshipment that read "Happy Rebirthday."

It should be reemphasized that it is not fear of "contamination" that prevents active JW's from speaking to ex-JW's; it is fear of normalization and spiritual education. An eighty-five year old woman in Washington State was recently disfellowshiped because she dared to talk to her son, who was branded an "apostate." This, despite the fact that she had faithfully served the Organization for forty-five years. The Organization does believe in the concept of "disposable" people. If anyone does not believe this, let him/her begin to study independently, and see how quickly a person can be completely replaced and erased-- and forgotten. "Reading and actively discussing the Bible, on your own, is disloyal and dangerous," summed up a still-active JW.

*******************

tomorrow's truth. Mix-ups, reversals, revisions, contradictions, confusions cloud JW literature from the beginning. With a good historical overview, one might well be forgiven the impression that the JW's simply do not know, and have never known, what the hell they're talking about.

If Charles Russell, the group's founder, were alive today, and teaching what he taught, he would be disfellowshiped as an apostate. The same applies, for that matter, to the second president of the Watchtower Society, a mobster look-alike named Rutherford-- or, as some less-than-gentle critics call him, "Rutherfraud."

The bold truth is that freedom of religion, one of the most basic freedoms guaranteed by our country, simply does not exist among JW's or other fundamentalists. Neither, for that matter, do freedom of speech, of the press, or of assembly.

Although the views, ideas, and dogma of the organization undergo regular changes, resistance to the "official" views at any given time is considered a real betrayal of God. If you teach an idea today, and then the Watchtower teaches it tomorrow, your teaching is "apostasy," but as soon as it is printed in the official magazine of the cult, it is miraculously and immediately transformed into "truth." It really does not matter so much what is said, but only who says it.

JW's hoot and howl with ridicule over the "inconsistencies" of other religions, and the changes that they make during their evolution, the JW's themselves have changed as much as, or more than, most Protestant denominations and other cults. (Most religious specialists classify JW's as a "cult", for, as a microminority religion, their slavish obedience to the old men in Brooklyn marks them as more cultish than would any open-minded program of free inquiry.)

But to make any sense out of this nonsense at all, one must understand the unusual-- some would say "bizarre"-- mind-set of the JW. For changes in JW teaching are considered progressive, and they are actually proud of them. The double standard used with regard to other religions, however, quite escapes them, for it is somehow "wrong" or proof that they are "false," when other religions change. Thus, it does little or no good to point out to the programmed JW just how the Organization has changed over the years, since most are completely closed to these arguments of reason. Further, the leaders often hide from the JW membership the most blatant reversals of their own history, much as they tried to hide the lie about 1975 and "Armageddon."

The idea that only a few thousand people are going to go to heaven (and are a JW elite) constituted one of the big doubts related to the Great Purge of 1980. The independent students of the Bible could find no support for this elitist doctrine, and said so. The result has been dramatically likened to the witch-hunts and burnings in colonial Salem. The dissidents pointed out that, at onetime, JW's taught that all good people were going to heaven, as is commonly believed both by mainstream Protestants and the theological ancestors of JW's. It was not until 1935 that this concept was changed, and only a few were thought to be heaven-bound, leaving everyone else behind on earth forever. Dissidents also complained about the "literal rendering" of the number 144,000, since this number is surrounded by symbols (such as the lamb, Mt. Zion, a song, etc.)

Most organizations would have welcomed the dissidents into constructive dialogue, and listened to their complaints. But JW's simply labeled then immediately as "evil" and "apostate," and hastened to try to shut them up by getting rid of them. Reason is never allowed to intrude when dogma is mistaken for "truth." (Some fundamentalists express a similar dogmatism in the bumper-sticker slogan, "The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it." Dialogue with this kind of closed mind and stubborn opinionation is quite impossible.) Since JW's believe that they already have the truth, they arrogantly ignore any variation, and absolutely, fearfully, resist any dialogue or debate. (Many say that they take this stand because they realize that, in open debate, they would not stand a chance.)

The Bible, says JW dogma, was not written for the entire world. It was not written even for all JW's. It was written only for the elite of about nine thousand (although the number varies) who have the "hope of heaven." So, the entire Bible was written to be relevant only to these; everybody else who reads it is a kind of "eavesdropper," and so reads the Bible vicariously. (This applies, they say, more to the Greek Christian Scriptures.)

Moreover, as the axis of JW philosophy and ideas, the Bible is not meant to, and cannot, be understood by any individual. It was written for an organization. Despite the embarrassing fact that the word "organization" is not found a single time in all the Bible (and JW's have not managed to squeeze it into even their own translation), the members buy into this lie, and feel that it is appropriate only for the Organization to interpret the Bible. It simply cannot, and should not, be interpreted by any person. This is directly the opposite of the teaching of most Protestant churches, who encourage individuals to study the Bible, and teach that it is one way in which God speaks to the Christian.

This organizational theory is weak, but is constructed on a still weaker foundation. For this theory depends on another theory: Outside the Organization, there is no "holy spirit" to help one understand properly. So, now, not only the Bible, but the holy spirit itself is a possession of the Organization, which apparently holds a monopoly on both. No wonder these people live in perpetual terror of being cut off from the Organization. One elder, who refuses to speak to his literal mother, who is an ex-JW, said coldly, "The Organization is my mother," crushing her and breaking her heart.

But this doctrine has always been obscure, because the doctrine of holy spirit is obscure. (The words are traditionally spelled by JW's with lower-case letters, for to them, the holy spirit is not a person, but a thing. It is a dumb, blind energy, like that of a battery, and Jehovah "pours it out" on those who gain his capricious approval.) Further, the manner in which "the truth" is transmitted directly to the writers of JW books and magazines has never been clearly explained. Do they do special chants? Do they use magic? Do they take drugs? Do they use autohypnosis? Or do they, most probably, just "feel" that certain things are true, and then write about these? The last explanation seems to be the only one that makes any sense.

To become a kind of "medium" or "channel" for Jehovah God, however seems to carry little or no responsibility, for the "truth" can always be changed, especially if it proves to be inconvenient, difficult or embarrassing. There are some indications, in fact, that the cadre of old men in Brooklyn even vote in order to determine what "truth" is. If they do not, then we are left speculating about some quasi-magical system of divine transmission straight from the mind of Jehovah.

The belief that 1) the Bible is a textbook, and 2) it was written for only a few thousand people, the "heavenly elite" of JW's causes JW meetings and writings to seem at once very dull and irrelevant. Many have commented widely on the soporific nature of both. An elderly sister whom I knew found the meetings an ideal time to catch up on her sleep; they worked more effectively for her than sleeping pills.

Even for those who maintain consciousness during the meetings, they are never moved by truly "religious" feelings; the meetings do not, and are not designed to, touch the heart. They are directed solely at the mind. The meeting-place, or "Kingdom Hall," is seen more as a school building than as a church; JW's adamantly refuse to call it a "church." Indeed one of their most important meetings is called the "Ministry School." For this reason, the Kingdom Halls tend to be cold and sterile, completely unadorned with recognized religious symbols. Candles and altars are alien to JW services, and even their songs, which they never call "hymns," have a rhythmic, almost mathematical, meter that often reminds one of a marching song or high-school band, rather than anything having to do with emotion or devotion. (The buildings are always free of the sign of the cross, which JW's see as a demonic symbol of sex, and avoid like the plague. You will never find a cross on a wall even in a JW home. They also reject the ubiquitous notion that Jesus died on a cross, and teach instead that he died on an upright pole, like a telephone pole.)

A good JW is expected to attend five classes per week, every week, and to spend at least two or three hours in the sales-work every week. Also, there is the matter of the "weekly family study," during which the indoctrination of children takes place. This latter is viewed as more-or-less optional by many, although some teach that it is mandatory. When you add all this "extra busy-ness" to the full-time jobs held by most JW's, you can see that the JW is kept so busy the he or she has no extra time to explore other philosophic or religious systems. And not that most
JW's would even have such a thought cross their busy minds, for they are not at all inclined to conjure up the independence and spiritual commitment necessary to develop any interest whatsoever in inter-religious studies. They are exactly like the people whom I used to encounter when I went into the JW sales-work, who said, "I already have my own religion." (Sometimes, we felt like saying something flippant, such as, "wouldn't it be better if you had God's religion?" but the nastiest and most sarcastic that we ever became was when we said to very rude people, "Thank you for your kindness." Paradoxically, if anyone went to a JW house wanting to discuss religion, he/she would be rebuffed with the same words used to turn the JW's away).

Attendance at the five meetings is not optional, but mandatory. When I was very young, I used to feel happy about getting sick, since that was the only acceptable "excuse" for ever missing a meeting. The sales-work is equally mandatory. Once, on a radio talk show, a lady was describing the JW ladies who came to her door. I asked, "Do you know why they keep coming to sell you their books?" when she admitted that she did not, but thought that they did it as a kind of "public service," I replied, "They do it because they are taught that God will murder them and their families if they do not sell those books." The lady was dumbfounded, as were many in the audience.

The five meetings emphasize what an ex-JW from Minnesota called "mesmerizing repetition," or "drilling." The same texts from the Bible are read over and over, and even the children can recite them. A few catch phrases are also repeated, almost like advertising slogans. This is the average JW "education." The level of stimulation at the average meeting is about equivalent to that in watching the paint dry on a house. Yet they still do have a kind of appeal, especially for pseudo-intellectuals who act out of inner insecurity and want people to believe that they know more than they actually do; often, these people are not at all willing to go through the arduous work and discipline necessary for a genuine religious or spiritual education, and find the system of "pseudo-education" among the JW's to be a fair substitute. (This kind of thing is common among a wide spectrum of fundamentalists, who are quite often too lazy to attend college or to develop a real education.) JW's usually do not have to worry about the quality of their meetings; they do not have, for example, to make then interesting or attractive, for the same reason that the writings do not have to be either appealing or interesting. No matter how dull, unappealing, or boring the meetings are, every JW feels that he/she must attend as a function of "worship." (There is, of course, no evidence whatsoever that Jesus held any kind of regular meetings, or, for that matter, used any books or magazines as "aids" to understand the Bible.) Few JW's even know anything about other faiths, which are alien to them.

The message of JW's tends to appeal especially strongly to very conservative people who are literally terrified of change, for the message implies that their lives will not be changed by death and that they need not change their mind's thought-patterns, desires, or even greed to become "good" JW's.

After having reviewed the false "education" of the average SW it might become apparent why so many JW's feel a powerful sense of envy toward every non-JW in the world, for they believe that others, outside the limits of the restrictions which they impose upon themselves, are enjoying life much more than they do. This envy seems pervasive among many who imagine that all outsiders exist in a state of continuously getting "high on drugs", having sexual orgies, and doing other immoral, but "tempting" things. What they do not realize is that this very envy betrays their lack of spirituality as well as the absence of any true fulfillment among JW's.

 

This painful perspective arises from the false belief that people can, and should, be strictly legislated by laws imposed from the outside, rather than by love emanating from their own hearts.

GOD LIVES IN BROOKLYN: JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AS A MODEL OF FUNDAMENTALISM

By Richard Francis [e-mail]

Copyright © 1998 by Love Ministries, Inc.

Worthville, Kentucky United States of America

_____________________________________________________ 

 Chapter 15 / Dogmatism and Fluctuation: Walking a Perilous Tightrope

 

The most controversial aspect of the rock-like JW dogmatism is its fluidity through history. It seems that the "truth" is so remarkably malleable and mutable that yesterday's "truth" night well be today's "apostasy," and today's apostasy might just as well become tomorrow's truth. Mix-ups, reversals, revisions, contradictions, confusions cloud JW literature from the beginning. With a good historical overview, one might well be forgiven the impression that the JW's simply do not know, and have never known, what the hell they're talking about.

If Charles Russell, the group's founder, were alive today, and teaching what he taught, he would be disfellowshiped as an apostate. The same applies, for that matter, to the second president of the Watchtower Society, a mobster look-alike named Rutherford-- or, as some less-than-gentle critics call him, "Rutherfraud."

The bold truth is that freedom of religion, one of the most basic freedoms guaranteed by our country, simply does not exist among JW's or other fundamentalists. Neither, for that matter, do freedom of speech, of the press, or of assembly.

Although the views, ideas, and dogma of the organization undergo regular changes, resistance to the "official" views at any given time is considered a real betrayal of God. If you teach an idea today, and then the Watchtower teaches it tomorrow, your teaching is "apostasy," but as soon as it is printed in the official magazine of the cult, it is miraculously and immediately transformed into "truth." It really does not matter so much what is said, but only who says it.

JW's hoot and howl with ridicule over the "inconsistencies" of other religions, and the changes that they make during their evolution, the JW's themselves have changed as much as, or more than, most Protestant denominations and other cults. (Most religious specialists classify JW's as a "cult", for, as a microminority religion, their slavish obedience to the old men in Brooklyn marks them as more cultish than would any open-minded program of free inquiry.)

But to make any sense out of this nonsense at all, one must understand the unusual-- some would say "bizarre"-- mind-set of the JW. For changes in JW teaching are considered progressive, and they are actually proud of them. The double standard used with regard to other religions, however, quite escapes them, for it is somehow "wrong" or proof that they are "false," when other religions change. Thus, it does little or no good to point out to the programmed JW just how the Organization has changed over the years, since most are completely closed to these arguments of reason. Further, the leaders often hide from the JW membership the most blatant reversals of their own history, much as they tried to hide the lie about 1975 and "Armageddon."

The idea that only a few thousand people are going to go to heaven (and are a JW elite) constituted one of the big doubts related to the Great Purge of 1980. The independent students of the Bible could find no support for this elitist doctrine, and said so. The result has been dramatically likened to the witch-hunts and burnings in colonial Salem. The dissidents pointed out that, at onetime, JW's taught that all good people were going to heaven, as is commonly believed both by mainstream Protestants and the theological ancestors of JW's. It was not until 1935 that this concept was changed, and only a few were thought to be heaven-bound, leaving everyone else behind on earth forever. Dissidents also complained about the "literal rendering" of the number 144,000, since this number is surrounded by symbols (such as the lamb, Mt. Zion, a song, etc.)

Most organizations would have welcomed the dissidents into constructive dialogue, and listened to their complaints. But JW's simply labeled then immediately as "evil" and "apostate," and hastened to try to shut them up by getting rid of them. Reason is never allowed to intrude when dogma is mistaken for "truth." (Some fundamentalists express a similar dogmatism in the bumper-sticker slogan, "The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it." Dialogue with this kind of closed mind and stubborn opinionation is quite impossible.) Since JW's believe that they already have the truth, they arrogantly ignore any variation, and absolutely, fearfully, resist any dialogue or debate. (Many say that they take this stand because they realize that, in open debate, they would not stand a chance.)

The Bible, says JW dogma, was not written for the entire world. It was not written even for all JW's. It was written only for the elite of about nine thousand (although the number varies) who have the "hope of heaven." So, the entire Bible was written to be relevant only to these; everybody else who reads it is a kind of "eavesdropper," and so reads the Bible vicariously. (This applies, they say, more to the Greek Christian Scriptures.)

Moreover, as the axis of JW philosophy and ideas, the Bible is not meant to, and cannot, be understood by any individual. It was written for an organization. Despite the embarrassing fact that the word "organization" is not found a single time in all the Bible (and JW's have not managed to squeeze it into even their own translation), the members buy into this lie, and feel that it is appropriate only for the Organization to interpret the Bible. It simply cannot, and should not, be interpreted by any person. This is directly the opposite of the teaching of most Protestant churches, who encourage individuals to study the Bible, and teach that it is one way in which God speaks to the Christian.

This organizational theory is weak, but is constructed on a still weaker foundation. For this theory depends on another theory: Outside the Organization, there is no "holy spirit" to help one understand properly. So, now, not only the Bible, but the holy spirit itself is a possession of the Organization, which apparently holds a monopoly on both. No wonder these people live in perpetual terror of being cut off from the Organization. One elder, who refuses to speak to his literal mother, who is an ex-JW, said coldly, "The Organization is my mother," crushing her and breaking her heart.

But this doctrine has always been obscure, because the doctrine of holy spirit is obscure. (The words are traditionally spelled by JW's with lower-case letters, for to them, the holy spirit is not a person, but a thing. It is a dumb, blind energy, like that of a battery, and Jehovah "pours it out" on those who gain his capricious approval.) Further, the manner in which "the truth" is transmitted directly to the writers of JW books and magazines has never been clearly explained. Do they do special chants? Do they use magic? Do they take drugs? Do they use autohypnosis? Or do they, most probably, just "feel" that certain things are true, and then write about these? The last explanation seems to be the only one that makes any sense.

To become a kind of "medium" or "channel" for Jehovah God, however seems to carry little or no responsibility, for the "truth" can always be changed, especially if it proves to be inconvenient, difficult or embarrassing. There are some indications, in fact, that the cadre of old men in Brooklyn even vote in order to determine what "truth" is. If they do not, then we are left speculating about some quasi-magical system of divine transmission straight from the mind of Jehovah.

The belief that 1) the Bible is a textbook, and 2) it was written for only a few thousand people, the "heavenly elite" of JW's causes JW meetings and writings to seem at once very dull and irrelevant. Many have commented widely on the soporific nature of both. An elderly sister whom I knew found the meetings an ideal time to catch up on her sleep; they worked more effectively for her than sleeping pills.

Even for those who maintain consciousness during the meetings, they are never moved by truly "religious" feelings; the meetings do not, and are not designed to, touch the heart. They are directed solely at the mind. The meeting-place, or "Kingdom Hall," is seen more as a school building than as a church; JW's adamantly refuse to call it a "church." Indeed one of their most important meetings is called the "Ministry School." For this reason, the Kingdom Halls tend to be cold and sterile, completely unadorned with recognized religious symbols. Candles and altars are alien to JW services, and even their songs, which they never call "hymns," have a rhythmic, almost mathematical, meter that often reminds one of a marching song or high-school band, rather than anything having to do with emotion or devotion. (The buildings are always free of the sign of the cross, which JW's see as a demonic symbol of sex, and avoid like the plague. You will never find a cross on a wall even in a JW home. They also reject the ubiquitous notion that Jesus died on a cross, and teach instead that he died on an upright pole, like a telephone pole.)

A good JW is expected to attend five classes per week, every week, and to spend at least two or three hours in the sales-work every week. Also, there is the matter of the "weekly family study," during which the indoctrination of children takes place. This latter is viewed as more-or-less optional by many, although some teach that it is mandatory. When you add all this "extra busy-ness" to the full-time jobs held by most JW's, you can see that the JW is kept so busy the he or she has no extra time to explore other philosophic or religious systems. And not that most
JW's would even have such a thought cross their busy minds, for they are not at all inclined to conjure up the independence and spiritual commitment necessary to develop any interest whatsoever in inter-religious studies. They are exactly like the people whom I used to encounter when I went into the JW sales-work, who said, "I already have my own religion." (Sometimes, we felt like saying something flippant, such as, "wouldn't it be better if you had God's religion?" but the nastiest and most sarcastic that we ever became was when we said to very rude people, "Thank you for your kindness." Paradoxically, if anyone went to a JW house wanting to discuss religion, he/she would be rebuffed with the same words used to turn the JW's away).

Attendance at the five meetings is not optional, but mandatory. When I was very young, I used to feel happy about getting sick, since that was the only acceptable "excuse" for ever missing a meeting. The sales-work is equally mandatory. Once, on a radio talk show, a lady was describing the JW ladies who came to her door. I asked, "Do you know why they keep coming to sell you their books?" when she admitted that she did not, but thought that they did it as a kind of "public service," I replied, "They do it because they are taught that God will murder them and their families if they do not sell those books." The lady was dumbfounded, as were many in the audience.

The five meetings emphasize what an ex-JW from Minnesota called "mesmerizing repetition," or "drilling." The same texts from the Bible are read over and over, and even the children can recite them. A few catch phrases are also repeated, almost like advertising slogans. This is the average JW "education." The level of stimulation at the average meeting is about equivalent to that in watching the paint dry on a house. Yet they still do have a kind of appeal, especially for pseudo-intellectuals who act out of inner insecurity and want people to believe that they know more than they actually do; often, these people are not at all willing to go through the arduous work and discipline necessary for a genuine religious or spiritual education, and find the system of "pseudo-education" among the JW's to be a fair substitute. (This kind of thing is common among a wide spectrum of fundamentalists, who are quite often too lazy to attend college or to develop a real education.) JW's usually do not have to worry about the quality of their meetings; they do not have, for example, to make then interesting or attractive, for the same reason that the writings do not have to be either appealing or interesting. No matter how dull, unappealing, or boring the meetings are, every JW feels that he/she must attend as a function of "worship." (There is, of course, no evidence whatsoever that Jesus held any kind of regular meetings, or, for that matter, used any books or magazines as "aids" to understand the Bible.) Few JW's even know anything about other faiths, which are alien to them.

The message of JW's tends to appeal especially strongly to very conservative people who are literally terrified of change, for the message implies that their lives will not be changed by death and that they need not change their mind's thought-patterns, desires, or even greed to become "good" JW's.

After having reviewed the false "education" of the average SW it might become apparent why so many JW's feel a powerful sense of envy toward every non-JW in the world, for they believe that others, outside the limits of the restrictions which they impose upon themselves, are enjoying life much more than they do. This envy seems pervasive among many who imagine that all outsiders exist in a state of continuously getting "high on drugs", having sexual orgies, and doing other immoral, but "tempting" things. What they do not realize is that this very envy betrays their lack of spirituality as well as the absence of any true fulfillment among JW's.

 

This painful perspective arises from the false belief that people can, and should, be strictly legislated by laws imposed from the outside, rather than by love emanating from their own hearts.

 

************************* 

 

************************* 

GOD LIVES IN BROOKLYN: JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AS A MODEL OF FUNDAMENTALISM

By Richard Francis [e-mail]

Copyright © 1998 by Love Ministries, Inc.

Worthville, Kentucky United States of America

_____________________________________________________ 

Chapter 16/ Misfits, Mediocrity, and Madmen: Inmates Running the Asylum

JW's are collections of "outsiders." They do not fit in-- with modern society. Like the Amish, they have broken off all relations with the modern world, but they have done it not in homes and horse-drawn carriages, but in alienated hearts.

Part of this alienation-complex is simply due to a lack of education. JW leaders know well that educated JW's do not remain JW's for very long, and so strenuously object to any education beyond the high-school level. One sister complained about an elder that he was virtually illiterate. He did not, she said, "have any intelligence about him at all." Yet he was regularly put in charge of what the elders regarded as life-and-death situations. He was instrumental in ruining several lives, and shattering several families, and destroying a couple of promising careers.

The Organization has no training for dealing with society, but is instead a kind of haven for those who want to run or hide from normal social, political, or economic interactions. (JW's prohibit any participation in politics, have as little social contact as possible with non-JW's, and have often detached themselves economically by doing menial jobs.) The "government of God" has a powerful appeal to those who have been burned by, or disappointed in, real government-- and they are legion. These alienated and sour people constitute one of the major "target groups" for JW conversion.

Another "target" are the economically underprivileged and minorities. We always knew that we could sell more books and magazines in African American and Hispanic American communities than in those of upper-class society; but we were never told exactly why. "Why" becomes fairly obvious when it is understood that the JW message is designed to appeal to those who have already given up hope on all "human" solutions-- that is, real solutions-- to the problems of the world. For, to be a good JW, you must believe that human beings are incapable of solving the major social, political, scientific, and religious problems of the world; believing this, you can simply sit back and wait for divine intervention.

However, in the known, documented, and secular history of the world, divine intervention has never occurred during even the very worst of crises. You can, of course, look back idealistically on the early accounts and dream; but if this dreaming keeps you from taking real, practical action in the present, then you have lost, not gained, by this kind of "faith".

Any "faith" that leads to actual inactivity or paralysis is not a socially constructive faith. But, we must remember, JW's do not claim or even want to be socially active or constructive. Instead, when you talk to them about taking action to end poverty, starvation, pollution, war, or some other enormous injustice, they greet your words with an enigmatic "I know something you don't know" condescending smile. They are so very smugly certain that, any day now, Jehovah is going to descend out of the heavens with his "armies" of angels behind him, and turn the entire human race into a slimy grease-spot, thus "solving" all human problems. They will listen to plans to better the world, but it is usually with an attitude of superior and indulgent amusement.

That is why, as mentioned, JW's constitute a "dead zone" in an otherwise active community. They often extend this apathy to the point where they will not lift a finger to help their fellow human beings. It is not simply that they will not participate in Republican or Democratic plans; they refuse also to support the Girl Scouts, the YMCA, the Red Cross, the American Cancer Society, or the United Way, on almost every occasion. The money, they feel, could better be used by their publishers to make more books and magazines. Thus, they will almost literally take food from the mouths of starving people in order to print another magazine. It is, of course, "for their own good."

JW's actively pursue converts among minorities, and vulnerable and malleable teens, and senior citizens. These are all seen as "fertile soil for cultivation." These minorities, feeling rejected and ignored by society, fall easily and even gratefully into place as "chosen people of Jehovah." They are soothed by the illusion that at last they have "become somebody," that at last they have been accepted with open arms. (This illusion is usually shattered later.) They are also given the greatest imaginable ego-boost. Not only are they the only ones in the entire world who know and understand the truth, but this special comprehension makes them the real "saviors" of humanity; Jehovah, they feel, has really chosen them to save the human race-- oddly, from him. What's wrong with this picture?

Many in today's permissive society seek a strong, forceful hand to lay down boundaries for them. Their "inner children" have never known the security of having anyone impose strict rules of right and wrong, and so their lives have existed in an unstable fluidic limbo. They desperately, if unconsciously, long for someone-- anyone-- to act as "mommy" and "daddy" to them, to take care of them by making them feel important, but also to tell them what their limitations are, to slap their hands when they misbehave. For they never received any discipline as children when their own parents were too busy trying to be "buddies." So, if JW's do not convert them, they end up with Hare Krishna, Sai Baba, the Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventists, or even neo-nazi skinheads. Any parent will do in a crisis. (In fact, it is not unusual for certain personality-types to do decades of "cult-hopping." Jumping from membership in one group to another, each time feeling that the "ultimate truth" has at last been discovered, only to be disappointed.)

The Organization obligingly refers to itself as the "mother" of members, and to Jehovah as the "heavenly father" of which Jesus spoke. (Internal evidence indicates that the "father" of Jesus had characteristics different from those of Jehovah, and Jesus did not speak well of the "father" of the Jews of his day.) A major psychological mechanism behind all of this is called "transference," and often occurs subconsciously. This subtle process occurs when a person "transfers" her loyalty and obedience from a real parent to some other parental figure.

On the other hand, some have more conscious motives for being attracted to the seductive message of JW's. They are attracted by the idea of a paradise-earth in which there is no crime, pollution, disease, or death. But those who join in expectation of finding an unconditional love or a worldwide brotherhood, in preparation for a "perfect earth," are soon disappointed. They soon find the Organization to be rife with quarrels, internal arguments, jealousies, envies, governmental disputes, political power plays, dishonesty, and even violent conflict. Gossip is ubiquitous, and no one has very much respect for the rights of anyone else-- a phenomenon quite common in every kind of totalitarian society. Mutual disapprovals among members are legion, and cruelty rampant as elders disfellowship dissidents mercilessly. Freedoms of the most fundamental and sacred nature are regularly trampled on and ignored, and freedom of religion or freedoms of speech and press are quite out of the question. The freedom necessary to design one's own spiritual agenda or learning-program is unthinkable.

In any encapsulated, isolated group, gossip runs wild, and JW's are clearly no exception. The elders fuel this destructive fire by their claim that certain members, by exercising freedom of choice, have turned their lives over to Satan. Such hyperbole, as perilous and destructive as it can be, is also common. Playing the "name game" is also pandemic, as members single out those in the hierarchy for special adoration. The president of the Watchtower Society, and the old men in Brooklyn, are viewed with awe, as if they were somehow special prophets with an unusual and direct contact with Jehovah-- which is, of course, a childish illusion. JW's regularly try to impress other JW's by the recitation of a litany of other, "more important" JW's that they personally know; since few JW's are truly accomplished, or known outside their communities, the entire process soon devolves into a kind of pitiable parody.

Also marking strongly isolationist and encapsulated groups is the efficiency of the "grapevine' or lines of internal communication. If a JW does something unconventional in Ohio, JW's in California might know about it within hours, due to raging and ranging gossip. The elders are always lying in eager anticipation of sin-- the only thing going in their lives-- with moral magnifying glasses; and little black books containing the records of members' sins are also tragicomic. Elders keep files on members which memorialize indefinitely any peccadilloes of which they might be guilty; and even when they are innocent, their records or files are often permanently stained, and they can end up "marked" for avoidance by all.

The unattached, the young, and the very old are particularly hard-hit by incessant criticism. They also tend to be more harmed by those implicit but never explicit boundaries that informally divide every congregation into "special interest" groups, who pressure the local elders, or bribe them, to "see things their way." This perpetrates group weakness, for the bonds of "love" are attacked and weakened by these power-plays.

Those who have been suddenly and catastrophically isolated from the "world," from former friends, from family, and from all normal input, might then come to know even more icy isolation within the group itself; this is especially probable if, as so many do, they have become guilty of some minor infraction of some minor law-- not serious enough to warrant disfellowshipment, but bad enough to cause them to be "marked" to be ignored and avoided by all "good" JW's. The "brothers and sisters" are much too quick, even eager, to shun, reject, isolate and repel anyone who has broken any of a long list of often implicit taboos. These include even the most minor matters of grooming and dress.

The JW life is "anxiogenic," or stress-producing, for every member must continuously walk a tightrope hemmed in by scrupulous rules and regulations, some of which might be reasonable and some of which are founded upon the prejudices of a few, or of even a single elder. The unskillful manipulation of alienation is particularly stark and striking in the "limbo" state of the "marked person"; no longer a "part of the world," neither is he/she a part of the "theocracy." So incessant, relentless pressures of enormous magnitude are exerted to force conformity with group-standards.

The new convert, flooded with lavish attention and praise, is often abruptly ignored after membership has been confirmed by the act of baptism. Then he/she comes to be taken for granted as simply another zombie to be crushed by the load of rules, another sales-person to be used up in the impersonal "ministry" of pushing books and magazines, mostly unwelcome, upon neighbors and strangers. Now, the smiles and pats on the back are directed towards an even newer convert, and the newly baptized one is now fully expected to be one of the "welcoming committee," to give "encouragement" to the new potential convert. If during the process, one feels sensitively the effects of being ignored, then he/she is simply labeled and dismissed as "selfish" or "self-seeking," and is then "instructed" to "give encouragement" to others. (Divorced women, who are often attracted by the JW promise of a "big, happy family," find themselves manipulated rather cynically for their abilities to sell books.)

Because JW's are a minority-oriented religion, drawing even leaders from minority groups, racial prejudice is not as common as religious or sexual bias. But minorities should not be deluded by appearances into believing that they have found a "racial paradise," or a society free of racism. Many middle-class white JW's do hold racial bias deep in their hearts, but are careful to keep this a secret. Elders might be especially hard on young black or Hispanic "brothers" due, in part, to envy. For the elders quickly become envious of the youth of these men, full of energy, vitality, curiosity, and sexuality. The "perfect" congregation, one suspects, for many of them, would consist of older white males who unanimously disdained and despised all the latest in fashion-design, experimental rock music, and fast cars. In their "ideal universe," everyone would have gray skin, wear gray suits, and drive gray Chevrolets and Fords, and would be married to little, wimpy, silent gray women. At any rate, anything flashy, exciting or unconventional is immediately suspect, and draws instant hostility from the "body of old men" in charge of the congregation. A black person, for instance, might be appointed as an elder-- provided that he looks and thinks pretty much like a middle-aged, middle-class white person. He must act, dress, and speak "appropriately"-- which means, like an old man.

This kind of prejudice has a long history. Early JW literature was clearly prejudicial, and early illustrations, especially of the "good guys," contained almost exclusively white people. (Compare some of the early works, such as those of Rutherford.) Only much later, in the fifties, did JW's come to realize that their bread and butter lay in the free slave-labor of taking advantage of minorities. Now, minority-groups are used everywhere, especially in the sales-work, and constitute a large percentage of the labor-force of JW's, although still, probably a smaller percentage of their higher-echelon leadership. (It was always most usual, and expected, in my experience, for "circuit" and "district" overseers to be white males, and at that time, all the old men in Brooklyn were. Females are never allowed any positions of leadership, no matter how talented, wise, experienced, or educated.)

JW's in the southern U.S. used to conduct segregated meetings. So much for "obeying God as ruler rather than men." Or was this bigoted view thought to reflect the will of Jehovah?

JW's are gradually, very slowly, assimilating the lesson that alienation from the world, presenting the world as "evil," does not constitute in itself a major bond strong enough to hold a group together. It is proving to fail, not on inter congregationally (between congregations), but intra congregationally (within the congregation). Thus "us versus them" psychology has given rise to such sentiments as this bit of "wisdom" often shared with marriage-candidates: "The worst JW is better than the best worldly person." Apparently whoever coined this flippant phrase did not have to spend much time living with the "worst JW." The same "us versus them" attitude has also produced, in some truly immature members, an almost umbilical bond in which the Organization is seen as the giver of life and the sustainer of all good. The elders would be very happy if everyone were to regress to this embryonic position, for then, there would be no hassles with free thinkers and independent types, who are "trouble-makers."

Still, the elders are discovering to their chagrin, these bonds are not indestructible. For when the Organization threatens extremely strong family-ties, the Organization often emerges as the loser, which is as it should be. The fact that the Organization can challenge, even threaten, such bonds of natural affection is stressful and confusing enough; but that the Organization actually seeks to replace bonds with mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and other relatives with the bonds of impersonal "love," expressed as loyalty to the Organization, is outrageous. And although the ploys of the elders often fail when they challenge the family-bonds, in far too many cases, their intimidation succeeds, especially when family-ties are already threatened in some way-- for example, by dysfunction.

But the JW is clearly told unequivocally that the Organization is to be placed above, beyond, and ahead of any biological ties of family loyalty. In fact, it is amazing just how many lovely family-bonds have been shattered by the conversion of a single member of the family, when the others refused to follow. JW's have been directly instrumental in the weakening and the dissolution of hundreds of thousands of families, and the severing of strong ties in innumerable great friendships as well. The human emotional wreckage left behind by the Organization is immense.

Again, this is due to a distortion-pattern that we have seen before: The command of Jesus that one must love him more than family is translated, in the JW mind, as saying that one must love "the Organization" more than family-- a very different "animal" indeed. In this case, too strong a love for family becomes an act against God, an actual sin. Seeing love for family as a sin is reminiscent of when Jesus reminded the Pharisees of the command to "Honor your father and your mother," which they had disobeyed. The Pharisees said to their parents, "Whatever I have that might help you is a gift dedicated already to God." Thus, in believing that they were putting God first in their lives, they were actually breaking the commands of God; for refusing love is always breaking the supreme law of God, the law of love. My own mother, as of this writing, is eighty-three years old; and her son is a "good elder" among the JW's; she has lived in poverty all her life, partly in order to care for him. But he has never offered her any financial assistance at all, despite the fact that he himself is a regularly employed middle-class worker. Still, he adamantly refuses to call her on the phone, exchange letters or visits; and even when they are together-- which is excessively rare-- he will not deign to discuss any religious or spiritual matters with her, for his religion sees this harmless little lady as "dangerous" and "apostate."

Are JW's really so hard-hearted? Not all of them; but they do all believe that, any day now, Jehovah is going to murder all non-JW's. They prefer the nice sanitized euphemism "execute" to "murder." Subconsciously, if not consciously, many JW's may rationalize that there is absolutely no future to any relationship with any non-JW, and so to invest in such a relationship is simply a waste of valuable time and energy. Better to pour that time and energy, and money, for that matter, into the "sacred" book-sales of the Organization.

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GOD LIVES IN BROOKLYN: JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AS A MODEL OF FUNDAMENTALISM

By Richard Francis [e-mail]

Copyright © 1998 by Love Ministries, Inc.

Worthville, Kentucky United States of America

_____________________________________________________ 

Chapter 17 / Mental Turmoils and Storms: On the Imitation of Jehovah

It is an axiom of religious psychology that people tend to become like the gods whom they worship and serve. So, this is the appropriate place for examining the personality of Jehovah, the god of JW's, in order to ascertain whether the imitation of Jehovah is a worthwhile goal for one's life-direction.

Even the most cursory and prejudicial analysis in Jehovah's favor cannot deny that he has what we would call "major psychological problems." Among these are his enormous insecurity (so reflective of those who worship him), and his socially destructive tendency to see violence as a viable solution to complex human problems.

Impossible contradictions are not limited to JW or fundamentalist versions of their god alone. For example, a JW is commanded to "love," but then is informed that there is a greater loyalty to the Organization that has priority over love. Since one cannot at the same time both love and not love, this sets up an inner conflict, for example, in the mind of a JW who is married to a non-JW. In time, he/she might tend to try to resolve this conflict by withdrawing all affection from this "doomed" relationship, which then grows more loveless and painful with each passing day.

Such conflicts are rooted in a split-image view of Jehovah himself. This in turn, arises from the attempt to combine the Lord of light, love, peace and forgiveness taught by Jesus with the more archaic and primitive war-god of the ancient Hebrew texts. And JW's are by no means the only ones confused about these issues. Almost every fundamentalist strives mightily, but often in futility, to "hybridize" the two incompatible gods, to fuse them into one massive "false" god. The most intense stresses and psychological imbalances arise from the attempt to combine these two different ideals of God. It is said, for example, that Jehovah is to be known through a "personal relationship," but then, any "personal" activity that proposes to link the individual with Jehovah is forbidden. For in truth, a relationship with Jehovah on a person level is impossible; he works only through the Organization, say JW's, and only through the proper channels. JW's often buy into the idea that God has always worked through an organization; but the Bible itself flatly contradicts this, even in its discussions of Jehovah: Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and others recognized as "righteous" were not organizations, but individuals; clearly, Jehovah did establish and maintain relationships with individuals from the very beginnings of human history. And as far as the specifically Christian God is concerned, Jesus, Peter, Paul, James and John, among others, claimed to have divine revelations and personal relationships with God, and were not "organizations."

So, here we have traced one of the very most fundamental conflicts in JW psychology: the contradictory need to believe that Jehovah does and simultaneously does not have anything to do with personal relationships. Were the JW's ever to admit that a personal relationship with Jehovah were possible, they would be crippling their own efforts towards a conformist society, and opening a Pandora's box of dangerous freedom and independence. (Of course, we who have emerged from the confines of the Organization know fully well that a personal relationship with God is not only possible, but inevitable for a spiritual being.) For non-JW's, the teaching of a personal relationship with God is by no means threatening, but a cause for great celebration and inner rejoicing. For it fully frees each individual to follow the inner pattern of love in his/her individual way.

JW's fear this kind of independence, however, for the same reason that the Catholic Church of the fifth century had such horrors of "heresy"; for both make the same assumption, i.e., that "truth" consists of a list of dogmas and teachings, rather than a transformed way of life, touched by love. So, there can be only one rigid set of teachings that constitute "truth," and no variation from this must ever be permitted.

Here, a brief word might be said regarding the difference between scientific or historical "truth" on the one hand and its precise interpretation, on exact measurement, and careful theoretical extrapolation. Spiritual truth is very different; the Greek aleithia, or "truth," is a synonym for "reality." In John 17:17, it says, "Your logos is truth." In John 1:1, it says that the logos was God, meaning in cosmic terms that the "truth" of spirituality is none other than God himself. (The masculine pronoun is used here simply for convenience, and as a continuity of tradition, rather than to support a masculine view of God as all-male.)

So, God is truth. The text of First John 4:18 tells us "God is love." So, spiritual reality is not determined by the cold calculus of instruments and measurements of matter, but rather, by the presence of active love. To be truly "in the truth," then, is not to have joined a certain religious organization, but rather to live one's life in as loving, honorable, and honest a manner as possible. There is much evidence, for example, that in the first centuries, the Christian churches in different geographic sections were not doctrinally homogeneous. Instead, they constituted a wide spectrum of philosophic approaches, but were bound together in the solidarity of brotherly/sisterly love, which gave them the "one Mind" of Christ.

Jehovah's demand for uniformity, then, is not Christian; that is, it is not based upon the pattern of the earliest Christian congregations. It is based instead on the Hebrew, and later, the Catholic, tradition that sought to define "truth" in limited, verbal formulas and statements of fact, rather than as life-patterns. This is a regressive step taken by many if not most fundamentalist churches today.

Jehovah is laden with other inconsistencies, also reflected in the lives of those who worship him: sometimes, he is said to be forgiving; at other times, however, he is said to be wrathful, as when Jehovah would go to war for Israel and slaughter their enemies, or when he becomes the merciless tyrant/mass-murderer at Armageddon.

The idea that God was going to come in a final battle called "Armageddon," and eradicate all his "enemies" in a ghastly, incomprehensible act of incredible violence, goes back to ancient Jewish expectations of the Messiah, which really picked up speed and popularity about three hundred BC. Armageddon is probably the most insane and gruesome plot ever conjured up by religious minds, and infects everyone who believes it with unconscious sadism. Augustine, in a betrayal of the spirit of Christianity, said that one of the joys of heaven would be the psychopathic "joy" of knowing that sinners were in hell; it is a similar psychopathology that infects Armageddonist, who harbor at least subconscious dark fantasies of final revenge and final vindication; Armageddon will prove to a ridiculing world that they were "right" after all. Armageddon represents the very lowest of the impulses of the lower nature. If any theory were ever truly evil, it is the Armageddonist theory.

Actually, the word "Armageddon" is not found in the bible. It arises from a Hebrew term, Har-magedon, used in Revelation 16:16. It means simply the "valley of Megiddo" an ancient Israelite battle-field. Since the term "Har-Megedon" is found only in the highly interpretative and very symbolic book of Revelation, its exact meaning is uncertain. To make sense in the Armageddonist context as the final, terrible battle between good and evil, it must be tenuously connected with Scriptures from other parts of the Bible. These other texts are contextually not even related to Har-Megedon. Revelation, being highly symbolic, does use great natural catastrophes as symbols of major changes, but nowhere in the Bible is there any kind of description even similar to those written by highly imaginative, excited, psychotic writers of "science-fiction theology." Modern Armageddonist enthusiasts create quite specific scenarios that are nowhere indicated in the Bible, and have taken this single word as a kind of "trigger-word;" every time it is used, it explodes into a full-blown myth conjured from dreary, dark, and violent imaginations. Armageddonist fantasies include many components of full-blown mental illness, including blood-letting (in mass-quantity), crushing people alive, splitting them asunder, pummeling them to death, having them deformed, or perish of hideous diseases. Anarchy, chaos, and the rapid dismantling and collapse of the order of civilization into utter chaos is another aspect of this dark fantasy. At any rate, this hideous exaltation and exacerbation of terror and horror of all kinds can hardly be psychologically healthy.

Sometimes, Armageddon-scenarios become so extreme that they are absurd and ludicrous. One receives very much the impression that one has moved from the world of Bible-study to that of really bad, B-grade science-fiction movies such as "Chopper Chicks Visit Zombie Town."

This gruesome fantasy represents the very worst aspect of Jehovah's schizophrenia or psychosis. But in many smaller matters, too, he can be quite unforgiving and unreasonable. To imitate Jehovah, then, gives the believer a license, a kind of carte blanche to be as mean, cruel, and unforgiving as the lower nature wants to be. Far from elevating traditional Christian virtues of goodness, nobility, generosity, forgiveness, kindness, or even simple decency, Jehovah exhibits all the very worst of the human psyche in every sort of violence and revenge. Knowing the bloody, war-filled history of Israel, the "perfect people of Jehovah," it is easy for fundamentalists to assume, as apparently did Tim McVey, that Jehovah will start Armageddon by human acts of terrorism designed to begin the downfall of "Satan's government." While there is currently no evidence that JW's are in any way participating in such schemes, should a corrupt leader ever get in power and wish them to be so used, the psychological ground-work has already been fully prepared. I asked an ex-JW in Tennessee if he would have taken up a gun or other form of violence had he been told to do so by the Organization's leaders, based upon the warlike nature of ancient Israel, and he replied, "I would not have hesitated for a minute, especially if I had believed that the violence would either trigger or accelerate the coming of Armageddon."

So when the JW is commanded to be "like God," this might not mean that he/she will be a paragon of unadulterated virtue. By contrast with this dismal but realistic picture of Jehovah, the God of Jesus loved even his enemies, and gave both rain and sunshine to people regardless of whether they were good or evil. He then commanded his followers to "love their enemies," and said that they "must be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect." So, the God of Christianity was perfect, unmixed love, and did not contain any components of fear. First John 4:18 says, "Fear and love cannot coexist; when love is made complete, fear is cast out." So, those who still try to worship a god who is a mixture of love and fear make themselves split-minded, driving themselves, through the demand for the acceptance of incompatible polarities, into literal schizophrenia. Thus, the inner being of the JW is filled with conflicting signals and contradictory concepts.

In one major example, JW's are told that God is too "merciful" to torture his children in an everlasting hell-fire, and they are right. But this same God is going to smear those same children into bloody, pulpy masses at Armageddon.

JW's tend to believe that all religious non-JW's believe in the primitive fear-based myth of hell-fire and eternal damnation. Perhaps in the thirties, this was so; most Christians embraced this concept as literal. However, progressive Christians have long since ceased to believe in the literal "lake of fire" where souls are tortured forever and ever; so JW's can now stop acting superior because of their rejection of this ridiculous, absurd hyperbole, which many Christians give only symbolic value.

But this is not the only way that JW's deliberately misrepresent outsiders. It is a secret carefully hidden from all non-JW's. But they honestly and deeply believe that all people outside the Organization are controlled, influenced, directed, or even possessed by Satan the devil. Yet, paradoxically, JW's are terrified that they will do something to harm their reputation among these demonic people -- such as it is. Thus, one of their greatest fears is that of being embarrassed, especially in public. So they play many "games" to impress and even to deceive others and we will now take a more detailed look at some of these.

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GOD LIVES IN BROOKLYN: JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AS A MODEL OF FUNDAMENTALISM

By Richard Francis [e-mail]

Copyright © 1998 by Love Ministries, Inc.

Worthville, Kentucky United States of America

_____________________________________________________ 

Chapter 18 / Keeping the Mask On: Impressing Others at All Costs

The Organization rates its own value and acceptability on the basis of the "happiness: of its members. Many members, however, live lives of quiet desperation, to paraphrase the famous words of H. David Thoreau.

Happiness does seem at times to be a fairly rare condition on earth, for any number of reasons. Yet those who join hostile, antisocial movements such as JW's multiply their reasons for fear and unforgiveness-- major enemies of happiness. So, they tend to be unhappier than the average person.

This is a great secret that no one is supposed to know. JW's pride themselves on being able to keep it a secret, by keeping their internal problems and difficulties hidden from the public, and always being scrupulously careful to present a happy public face. Like the workers at an amusement park, they are repeatedly commanded to smile, as the old song says, even though your heart is breaking.

"They smile all the time, because they feel that they have to," says an ex-member. "It is considered almost a part of their worship to be always smiling and appearing to be happy. But the smiles are plastic; they are a mask."

When I was an active JW, about twenty years ago, I remember seeing a photo of a Hare Krishna standing on a street corner, smiling broadly and playing his tambourine. But I always remembered the picture because the man's eyes were not smiling; only his mouth was; his eyes carried sadness. This is the kind of smile that one will find among JW's, if one looks at them carefully and objectively. I once knew an elder who might not even have been aware of it, who had the habit of smiling very quickly, and just as quickly returning to the face with no smile. He distributed this obviously fake smile in parsimonious doses, and seemed completely oblivious to its phoniness. Most JW's are a bit more skillful, however, at convincing smiles and in synthesizing a form of apparent happiness or contentment, especially when they are in public.

It is absolutely crucial that a non-JW never see a JW who appears sad, miserable, or depressed-- actually, quite widespread feelings among them. An active JW who was in the throes of emotional breakdown admits that his problems are exacerbated by the fact that, "No matter what happened, I had to pretend to be happy. Otherwise, I would bring shame on Jehovah God."

Another JW tells an even more poignant story: "When I was six years old, I began to cry, and immediately was told, 'Stop that crying, or you will bring reproach on Jehovah's name.' Terrified, I stopped crying immediately. I have, in fact, found it hard to cry since then." Thus, the very reputation of the Lord of the universe was placed upon the diminutive back of an anxiety-ridden six-year-old. And what was his sin? Expressing deep sadness.

Living as a human being produces monumental stresses and sadness; these are compounded by the world-view and theological oddities of being a JW; and these, in turn, are made still worse by the necessity of making a good impression upon outsiders; at all costs. The JW is not, in other words, permitted to be human; she is not permitted to have, much less to express, normal human feelings. For every aspect of life is continuously dominated by the "public relations smile campaign." Many JW's smile with their mouths, but not with their eyes, or minds.

But the bright smiles and loud talk of the "public relations" pretense have often dissolved into tears of exhausted anxiety in private. I used to spend much time counseling JW's, and grew familiar with the patterns of agony, distress, sadness, and deep anxiety/tension that far too often mark the JW life. In my many private sessions with JW's, I discovered that tension and anxiety were regularly exacerbated by the need to appear "always happy," less they let others down; or, as "ambassadors" of the "Kingdom of God," even worse, they allowed others to see into their very real human weaknesses-- a virtually unpardonable lapse. In some cases, this factor did contribute to the use of drugs or alcohol, mental breakdown, and even impending suicide.

In order to maintain the illusion of being "joyful," (for to be unhappy is to be spiritually weak), deep social problems were often covered up by both leaders and members. When one showed sadness, it was as if the congregation really felt shame at having such a "weak" member; anyone suffering from depression or any number of related emotional or even chemical imbalances was hidden as a kind of "secret scandal" never to be revealed to the public, like the "notorious crazy aunt" that is hidden from everyone but family members. So, when strangers would visit the congregation-- which was an event rare enough to elicit dramatic responses-- they would inevitably remark on how "happy" everyone seemed. What the stranger could never be allowed to realize was that JW's kept their troubled members hidden away at home, for they never wanted to attend the meetings; and they kept their own dark secrets carefully hidden behind smiles. When rarely a problem with chronic depression did become known, that problem was "solved" by disfellowshiping the offending member, in effect, kicking her in the teeth during the greatest crisis of her life.

Unhappiness is prohibited, because it is, in the twisted logic of JW psychology, a sign that one has somehow lost the "holy spirit." Saying that because the holy spirit produces joy, the absence of joy must mean its loss is like saying that because a car runs on gasoline, so if it is not running, it has no gasoline. But we have all experienced cars that simply refused to run, even though they had plenty of gasoline. There are simply far too many complex causes for a car's refusal to run to say that it is always because of a lack of gas, and there are so many causes for depression in the complex human system that it can rarely be ascribed accurately to a single cause-- much less, to something as diaphanous and ethereal and intangible as the "absence of holy spirit." There is also a strong belief among JW's, as among other fundamentalists that, incredibly, still ascribes a fairly wide range of mental disorders to the actual influence of "evil spirits." This is descent into the darkest and worst superstitions of the Middle Ages, and results only in amplifying the torment of the isolated soul who is already in agony. I knew personally of a lady who always suffered from mental problems; when she heard voices, the elders took her delusions quite seriously as representing objective truth, and wanted to know what the "demons" were saying to her. One wonders who is the sicker-- those seeking help, or those giving it. Another sister had regular problems with depression, and the elders decided it was caused by "demons" or "evil spirits." They proceeded to visit her, and ended up destroying a lovely ring bestowed upon her by her grandmother, burning her couch, and tearing a number of paintings off her wall-- all in an attempt to rid her house of illusory "demons." Demonophobia is as rampant among JW's as among any other fundamentalist cults, or groups in the middle Ages that practice witch burning.

It gets more complex, as the "absence of holy spirit" is said to "open the door to demon infestation." Obviously, this kind of terror-talk horrifies the immature, simple, childish people, and is designed to do precisely that. The principle is the same as that behind the modern attempt to aid juvenile delinquents back into society; this program is called "scared straight." The JW analog might be called "scared stiff," for it scares people into making absolutely certain that they do not deviate in the very least form conformity. To listen to the wrong music, watch the wrong television show, or even wear the wrong clothing or hairstyle, its possible to "open oneself up" to "demon attack." The JW world is filled with malevolent "spirits" or fallen angels, who are actively seeking to mislead and otherwise harm "true Christians"-- the JW's. So, these "demons" become the universal scapegoats for thoughts of adultery, fornication, homosexuality, violence, dishonesty, and every form of evil. Again note that the JW is not to blame; it is only that she is being psychically affected by "demons." To rid herself of "demonic influence," she must redouble her efforts to read the books of the Organization, and spend more time at its meetings, in its sales-work, and with other "good Christians" or JW's. The wrong friends can also bring one under "demon control." The fastest way to become possessed by demons, however, is by the study of other religions. I have know JW's who were having psychological problems who blamed these on the presence of the sign of the cross on an old Bible-- which they then superstitiously covered up. Some other JW's tore down lovely wallpaper because it was decorated with a popular symbol called the "fleur de lis," which they discovered was an ancient sign of the trinity--a devilish teaching.

In the paranoid universe of JW's, almost any pursuit or active interest outside the Organization can easily make one a "prey" (their word) for demons. It seems that these evil spirits simply cannot wait to take possession of, or otherwise confuse, JW's. In a sense, this increases their own sense of self-importance, that even fallen angels would hold them in such a place of high esteem, be threatened by them, and attack them personally.

In summary, almost no effort is ever made to rehabilitate the fallen JW; he/she is given up for "lost," and life goes on without that person; all others in the group are "wisely admonished" to avoid the course of "destruction" followed by the depressed, lest the demons get them too. They look with horror, with hooded and submissive eyes, on the terrible fate of the ones who have already been "lost," and tremble with appropriate dread.

Everyone lives in constant fear and caution, then, lest he or she be the one who brings a "bad name" to the "congregation of God." Thus, for example, kids are never allowed simply to be kids-- wild, crazy, uninhibited. They must always carry the weight of adult hang-ups around their necks. Like adults, they must always appear "happy," but must also be respectably silent and relatively immobile, never free and rambunctious.

The JW elder-government takes swift, decisive, merciless action against anyone who has reached a crisis in life, or who has approached a precipice of despair. The elders often give her the final "nudge" to "push her off the deep end," causing a plunge into full-blown mental illnesses or nervous breakdown. Elders cannot be relied on to solve the problem, because they are a large part of the problem. In their careless intrusions, they often plow in with enthusiasm where even angels fear to tread. They use "psychobabble" or "pop psyche" methods for serious, profound disorders of the psyche, telling the despairing to "think positive," "look on the bright side," and, "keep smiling."

The bulk of JW's fear negative tendencies within themselves, and so do their elder-leaders; so anyone displaying these tendencies, mirror-like, comes a little too close for comfort, and is immediately banished to where she no longer has to be seen or dealt with-- outside the Organization. JW's, in short, can afford to brag-- and often do-- about how "stable" and "happy" they are, simply because the unstable and unhappy are immediately kicked out of the group. This is not success. This is not care, compassion, concern, or healing love. It is simply naïve rejection, arising from fear.

Impulses of subconscious origin, and their conflicts, are by definition not usually consciously perceived by the JW. He or she can literally keep the self so busy in sales-work, reading, "study", and meetings that the signals of her own mind are completely ignored. For decades, she might repress the contradictions and calls from within for reform, but that tactic obviously does not lead to any kind of permanent resolution, or to the finding of real inner peace.

Another example of conflicting psychological forces is found in the command by Jesus to demonstrate love even to those who are rejected (disfellowshiped) by the respectable religious community. Jesus created a minor scandal when he was kind to a Samaritan, who belonged to an entire class of "disfellowshiped apostates" in the first century, and, again, used one as an illustration of goodness in the parable of the "Good Samaritan." It is almost incomprehensible at our much later time to realize precisely with what ferocity Samaritans were universally despised by respectable, religious people. Yet Christian texts such as James 4:4, which warns against loving the "world" are applied not to the material state of things (for materialism is apparently a permissible lifestyle), but to living, breathing, actual people. Jesus, and God, love everybody. "For God so loved the world . . ." begins the famous text of John 3:16. But JW's are not to be like God in loving the world. They are, in reality, to hate the world. So, they must rationalize this interior hatred. Here is how they do it:

When the Bible says that God loved the world, it does not mean that he loved every person in the world. The world still contained many enemies of God, and these Jehovah hated. Now, one cannot simultaneously fully love Jehovah and love the world, too. So, one must choose; and fully loving Jehovah means necessarily hating the world.

But a major flaw in this argument is that the word "world" is taken to mean people; but in the ancient versions of the Greek Christian Scriptures, the word kosmos, translated "world" meant something like "natural order" or "material system," or "material arrangement." So, when early Christians were warned not to "love" the world, it was a warning not to love material things-- especially not in place of God or neighbor.

Many JW's, paradoxically, while hating people and organizations and churches, love material things. They are continuously building new Kingdom Halls, about which they boast regularly and with much fanfare, and are notorious for the fact that so much of their religion centers around sales of books and magazines. The Watchtower Society, their publishing arm, takes in hundreds of millions of dollars every year, and uses the money to purchase real estate in Brooklyn and other areas and to repair and maintain their large buildings. In fact, JW's now own a number of buildings in Brooklyn. Is this their secret plan to take over the world, by purchasing it one block or building at a time? It does not seem likely.

Instead, they are clearly going against that intent of texts that warn Christians not to "love the world." For they do love the world, and the things of the world; this they can do, dismissing the commands to do otherwise, because they have already explained away these commands as applying to people-- whom they obediently refuse to love. So, they have at one stroke been able to justify a voracious materialism and a deep hatred for humanity-- all in this one argument, and all through the misuse of a single Greek word!

This command not to love people sets up a chain-reaction of deep inner disturbances in the subconscious mind; for, deep within, the JW knows that the very essence of goodness and of real Christianity is the love of people; and so clever ways must be found around the commands to "love your enemies," and to love and forgive people in general. This they manage by the specious and shallow argument that they do love the "right" people, but their "Christianity" does not obligate them to love all people. But if one naturally loves one's friends, one's "brothers and sisters," and Jesus Christ directly commands all to 'love their enemies,' whom does this exclude? It excludes no one. So, the entanglement of inner conflict and contradiction can be plainly seen.

Another major mental gymnastic must be used to make mass-murder the sane solution of a loving god, since at Armageddon, Jehovah will cover the entire earth with rivers of blood. How is this managed? Largely, the enormous grotesqueries are "managed" by refusing to consider them in serious detail at all. As noted, most JW's tend to be fairly harmless, non-violent people; yet their major theological doctrine is the most murderous, violent, ghastly, and gruesome imaginable. Perhaps in fact they are so mild-mannered precisely because they are repressing immense, vitriolic, fiery rage, and the thought of Armageddon gives them a heinous outlet for disgusting human violence.

But, more often than not, the JW protects the core-self by a combination of denial and shallow rationalization. The denial consists mostly of refusal to face squarely, even in imagination, the grossness and enormity of the horror of Armageddon. The realization combines with denial in the use of euphemisms and abstractions to describe the hideous massacre.

For JW's never use such plain and out-spoken, dynamic words as have been used here to describe the ultimate holocaust. Instead, they seek to use gentle, non-exciting euphemisms, such as "restoring paradise." This focuses attention, not on the grisly Armageddon, but on the post-Armageddon "paradise earth," where everyone lives in supreme peace and abundance. But this displacement only distracts attention from the horror of Armageddon.

They used to refer to Jehovah's "cleansing the earth," until the term got a bad rap and rep in genocidal "ethnic cleansing" of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Today, only a fool would not see through that euphemism to its dark meaning, and so it is no longer regularly used by JW's. Instead, they speak of "restoring the earth" to pristine beauty, which again draws all attention to post-Armageddon reconstruction. Actually, JW publications rarely, and sermons almost never, focus on the "great day of God the Almighty" at Armageddon, although brief mention might be made from time to time of Jehovah's "slaying" of his "enemies," or of the "execution of the wicked." How sanitized and idealistic such phrases sound, as the Armageddon-doctrine is disguised as something beneficial and even wonderful. Fundamentalist Christians, including JW's, have in fact often looked eagerly forward to the outbreak of actual nuclear war-- which they saw as the beginning of the end, or Armageddon. Sooner or later, some terrorist organization-- perhaps a fundamentalist militia group of right-wing extremists-- will get a hold of actual nuclear weapons, and then might try to trigger "World War 3" in an attempt to lead the world into Armageddon. The old dark riddle asks, "With what weapons will World War 4 be fought?" and the answer is, "Sticks and rocks."

The Hebrew Scriptures, superseded in the lives of most Christians by Christ and the Christian Greek Scriptures ("New Testament") must be resorted to in finding some kind of religious justification for war in the first place. Jehovah was a god of war, not the God of peace and love and forgiveness taught by Jesus. And although the Greek Christian Scriptures quote extensively from the Hebrew Scriptures, this is a cultural artifact, not a blanket blessing; it was used as a method to reach the people, for most of the earliest readers of the Christian Scriptures were Hebrews. The reason Christianity soon became a religion completely separate from Judaism, however, was precisely because it taught things never encountered in Judaism. The idea of grace, and salvation through divine love, were entirely new and were not preceded by evolutionary precursors in Judaic thought. So was the entire idea of the Christ; the Greek khristos ("Christ") contained shades of meaning not anticipated by the use of the Hebrew mashiahh ("messiah.") Thus, "Christ" is much more than a mere translation of the word "messiah," as JW's and other fundamentalists believe, and as earlier translators might also have believed. This is why, although it was later widely claimed for him, Jesus himself nowhere claimed to be the Jewish Messiah.

Jesus had brought an entirely new revelation of God into the world-- a revelation not anticipated by or evolved from earlier Jewish sources. (Early Christians, contrary to popular opinion, did not draw exclusively from Jewish religious sources, but also drew from ancient Greek and other "pagan" or pre-Christian philosophies, as indicated by the contents of the Nag Hammadi Library of early Christian literature.)

Christianity could not "fit" into the Jewish theology, for its vision of God was not only more universal than Jehovah, but was a wider general concept. The proto-Jehovah of the Hebrew texts had been an exclusively Israelite god; he belonged to Israel, and claimed that Israel belonged to him. But the God of Christianity was not this Jehovah-- not a tribal war-god at all, but a universal God of all people, Jewish and Gentile alike, and was a peace-God. It was within his right and power to bring into the process of salvation, or the state of salvation, anyone whom he chose. And a good textural case can be made for the idea that God ultimately foreordained or predestined all human beings to enter the ultimate state of salvation.

Why was this? Because salvation arose from a state of being made pure by grace. Being pure meant being forgiven from sins. God could forgive all sins; otherwise, there would be a sin greater than God's love-- a contradiction. And if there were a sin which God could not forgive, then God would be finite, not omnipotent-- another inconceivability. So, early Christians believed that "all men" would come to enlightenment, as "all men" had died in Adam. (Rom. 5:12ff) Here, the Organization's translation of the Bible has obviously been shamefully altered according to the bias of its theology. For it quotes Paul accurately as saying that "all men" died in Adam; but in the second part of the clause, when he said that "all men will be made alive in Christ," translators boldly insert the words [sorts of] men" will be saved. (See also, John 12:32; 1Ti 2:4, and 4:10; Titus 2:11) This abuse appears in at least four other texts that imply universal salvation.

So, the sharp dichotomy between the "good person" and the "evil world" that is so central to JW psychology has no basis in early Christian world-views at all.

It is impossible, they say, actually to be a "good person" at all if one is not a JW. This explains their almost mad and certainly maddening urgency and energy in their never ending, incessant attempts at conversion. For some JW's, despite their beliefs, do actually care for other people. And most are quite interested in doing something to resolve the horrible, inner conflict between the vision of God as love and Jehovah's predicted massacre of the human race. It is time now to say more about this dichotomy.

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GOD LIVES IN BROOKLYN: JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AS A MODEL OF FUNDAMENTALISM

By Richard Francis [e-mail]

Copyright © 1998 by Love Ministries, Inc.

Worthville, Kentucky United States of America

_____________________________________________________ 

Chapter 19 / The Conversion of the World or the Mass-Slaughter of Humanity: Between a Rock and A Hard Place

Once upon a time, Abraham was told by Yahweh that He was going to destroy the "sinful cities" of Sodom and Gomorrah. But Abraham was apparently much more merciful and sensitive to the value of life than Yahweh/Jehovah, for he asked, "If I can find only a few righteous people in the city, will you please spare it?" After Abraham had done some divine arm-twisting, Jehovah agreed to spare the cities if only a few good people could be found.

Later, the story goes, Jonah was told by Jehovah that He was going to destroy the city of Ninevah. Jonah preached this destruction far and wide, but, in the end, the people of Niveneh changed and repented, and Jehovah spared the city, contradicting all of Jonah's predictions. He thus made a fool of Jonah, but sparing the city was more important than Jonah's pride.

So, is it possible that there are enough good, decent, kind people in the world to deter even Armageddon? Let us say, for the purpose of argument, that Jehovah had decided to bring about the holocaust of Armageddon. Following his precedents already established in the Hebrew Scriptures, would he not then change his mind, as Jehovah did in the story mentioned above?

For, day after day, the same JW who preaches the certain and sudden end of all life on earth except the "faithful" JW's, comes into repeated contact with non-JW's with the highest moral standards-- with people of goodness, kindness, love, joy, and peace. They are honest, often self-sacrificing, people. Stories abound where a poor person found a wallet stuffed full of cash, but returned it to its wealthy owner intact, due to the principle of belief in the goodness of honesty. In almost every case, it is a non-JW who does this.

So, here, another series of contradictory impulses must face the JW, at least at an unconscious level: Jehovah has decreed the mass-slaughter of a vast enormous number of people of wisdom, goodness, honor, peace, and honesty. And the Organization says that everything is proceeding according to plan: Jehovah has not changed his mind about Armageddon.

The Organization implies even that Jehovah cannot change his mind, just as he cannot deal with people outside the Organization. But in ascribing these two "can nots" to God, the JW's admit that they worship a god of limited power, not the God of Jesus, with whom nothing is impossible. (Mt. 19:26)

Despite their tiny population and rather embarrassing microminority status, JW's lamely argue that all good people will be converted to the JW cult before Armageddon comes, and so no "good" person will suffer death at Armageddon. All experts and students of population, demographics, religion, and statistics see this as an extremely improbable scenario. The trend is, in many ways, the exact opposite: During the last twenty years, there has been a virtual exodus, a flood-tied of people leaving, not joining, the Organization. And many of these honest souls state their determination never to return to that unsatisfying, illogical, pretentious system of odd beliefs and practices. Common sense itself, combined with a wide experience with people, and detailed discussions and interviews with hundreds of ex-JW's during the last two decades, flatly contradict the idealistic dream of everyone's "conversion" to JW's. All good people are not about to convert to the JW philosophy and Organization.

Although obvious to outsiders, this practical assessment is almost impossible for the JW to accept, due to the fact that she really believes that Jehovah will murder all non-JW's, and this would place Jehovah in the untenable position of murdering good people. So, the JW with compassion has to undergo a kind of self-hypnosis in which she is convinced that all people, no matter what their education or background, will "fall into line" and fully convert just before Armageddon.

But, returning to our former scenario from the Hebrew Scriptures, how would JW's respond to the message that, although Jehovah had originally planned to destroy humankind at Armageddon, a sufficient number of good non-JW's has been discovered to exist, and he has now changed his mind? Would they delight, and celebrate Jehovah's loving kindness? Or would they respond with disappointment, hurt, anger, and embarrassment? Knowing the notorious JW pride, which caused them to wait for five full years before admitting even any complicity in the 1975 debacle, one is safe in assuming that they would feel a kind of stunned disappointment, followed by a terrible sense of betrayal and rabid anger. What if, further, Jehovah had decided to give the planet a kind of "second chance," and to wait another hundred years, before passing judgment on the world?

JW's everywhere would roar with rage at the very suggestion, for they are all personally set to "take over" the world. They want their "new order," and they want it now; postponement of any kind is out of the question.

Granted even that there truly are many ignorant, confused, and even evil people in this world, this is not enough to justify the death of everyone. So, the JW has the inevitable burden of proof; he/she must demonstrate at least to the self that all persons who are non-JW's deserve "destruction"-- the favorite sanitized phrase for the massacre. This is a staggering concept, and if accepted by the JW, will inevitably explode into a stress-pattern of such immense magnitude that it will twist his/her every judgment, decision, and thought. Everything will be colored and contaminated by the specter of the world as a doomed system, struggling under God's irrevocable condemnation. A black cloud of anxiety begins to hang permanently over the JW's mind, possibly as free-floating, endogenous (internally generated) anxiety or depression.

A JW elder from Indiana was exposed to these ideas, and countered in a way that he thought was cleaver, with the following "yes, but . . .": "Before Armageddon, they will all turn bad."

This does not at all strengthen, but actually weakens, the Armageddon theory. For it bases the theory rather precariously right on top of another shaky theory. Armageddon can occur justly only if everyone killed is evil; ergo, everyone will be evil before Armageddon occurs. This is not logical, but closed, circular reasoning, and therefore is not really "reasonable" at all. It is highly illogical to assume that something is going to happen because you assume that something is going to happen. In this assumption, there is no real solid factual basis whatsoever. Real evidence has been abandoned in favor of bias and mere speculation, which are both groundless.

So, one is now asked to believe not only in the incredible tale of the slaughter of humanity, but in the incredible tale of a massive, worldwide psychotic shift towards madness and evil. If one is further asked to believe, most incredibly of all, that Jehovah will somehow initiate this change, then one has left behind the principle of free will; if Jehovah forces people to become more evil, and they do so, they are not responsible; and Jehovah is doubly guilty if he punishes them with a grisly, agonizing death for obeying his orders. This is because he is the indirect creator of all the evil; if there is punishment it is only he who deserves it.

On the other hand, without Jehovah's causation, the understanding must involve Satan's mind-control-- a position favored by JW's and most fundamentalists. But if Satan is really behind this future mushrooming of evil, then Jehovah could be justified in punishing only Satan-- not the "pawns" or "dupes" which he has misled into following him. So, still Jehovah's genocide is fully unjustified, because it is obviously unjust.

This glimpse into the tangled world of psychosis demonstrates how complex it is for the JW to present the Jehovah-genocide as the method of entry into the world of the "kingdom of God." For when one studies carefully the life of Jesus-- a perfect mirror of God's qualities in human form-- one does not see or detect the slightest tendency towards unjust violence or careless disregard for life, or casual regard for death.

The hidden truth is that Armageddon is seen by the Organization as the only method by which the pitiable "government of the Organization-- the old men in Brooklyn -- will become the government of the world; through this monstrous blood-bath, which will apparently kill as many good as bad people-- the elders will take over the world. Again, this sounds like a badly written science-fiction movie for a reason: It is nothing but badly written science fiction.

Most JW's are completely unused to such brutal candor when discussing the means by which "paradise is restored to earth." If asked whether all non-JW's will be killed at Armageddon, a slick, polished, well-trained JW will probably say "no" or "I don't know." For to say otherwise, he/she knows, would be to make one out to be a closed-minded fool. Nevertheless, the JW's work so hard for their religion because this is what all of them sincerely believe; and if any one of them truly doubts it, he/she will not remain in the Organization for very long, but will be branded an "apostate" and ejected.

The JW's did make the mistake of setting a specific year for the battle of Armageddon, and indicated with all their considerable influence that that year would be 1975. Although it is popular now of them to deny this, and even to blame "apostates" for making all this up out of sheer imagination, many current JW's were not in the Organization in 1975; indeed, far too many were simply children then. But I was there, and was an adult, in 1973 and 1974, and can tell you, from the perspective of an actual observer, that expectations were running very high, and some were running wild, as the "special year" of 1975 approached. The strongest and best JW's were convinced with every fiber of their sincere being that 1975 would see the end of civilization and the beginning of the "new order" after Armageddon. A JW in Ohio must have come across as a bit odd when, in 1969, he asked his dentist if his new fillings would last until 1975, and seemed very satisfied when told that it would. Now, much of the old urgency has turned to a sense of disappointment, and letdown and betrayal by the Organization, and the 1975 fiasco is never even mentioned. (Indeed, modern JW's might never even have heard of it.) But an extremely high intensity of arousal was universal among JW's before the arrival of that "marked year," and the die-hards hung on to the belief until the very last day of October, sure that something amazing and miraculous was going to happen at least by that month. When 1975 fizzled, it was as if a massive chemical stimulant "wore off," and the Organization slumped into a dejected and lifeless heap, from which it has not even now fully recovered. But I was there, an eye-witness to JW's and their hopes, and I can tell you honestly that the view of the year 1975 as being marked was all but whipped into a frenzy of expectation by the Organization's leaders as well as by members. (Later, the Organization was to blame "misunderstandings" of the members for the fiasco, instead of standing up courageously and accepting responsibility.)

The excitement that accompanied the expectation that "Armageddon might come tomorrow" has nearly died away, and is but a fond relic of a former time-period. JW's are no longer enthusiastic about the immediacy of the coming of the kingdom, and the leaders were "burned" so badly by the 1975 fiasco that they have resisted temptations even to attempt to set a new date. So, as before, JW's find themselves on a rather chronologically uncertain and aimless path, with the "kingdom" in their "someday" in the unknown future.

Witnesses have even stopped bemoaning the "great loss of faith" among members that occurred in 1976 and the following years, determined to get back up and try all over again-- this time, without carelessly setting up exciting but wrong dates which can come back to bite, or to haunt, them.

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NOTE: The Organization was finally forced by popular demand and embarrassment to make an official apology, though it remained aloof and taciturn, in the March 15, 1980, issue of "The Watchtower" magazine. This was nearly five years after the fiasco; the Organization's leaders apparently thought that the problem would just "Go away," but, when it did not, an official recognition and apology seemed necessary to save face.

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GOD LIVES IN BROOKLYN: JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AS A MODEL OF FUNDAMENTALISM

By Richard Francis [e-mail]

Copyright © 1998 by Love Ministries, Inc.

Worthville, Kentucky United States of America

_____________________________________________________ 

Chapter 20 / The "Kingdom of God" and the Old Men in Brooklyn

There is a vital question here, which must be asked by any serious JW, or anyone contemplating conversion: Do the leaders really believe that Armageddon is imminent, or do they cynically simply use it as a tool to manipulate the gullible masses? Do they feed the "sheep" an exciting tidbit, some line that implies that Armageddon is just around the next temporal corner, whenever sales appear to flag, or zeal falls into a slump?

In 1985, the year 2000 seemed to be yet in the "far" distant future. Today, by contrast, we can actually "feel" the "presence" of the new millennium. But most JW's, in 1985, were absolutely certain that Jehovah would not permit the existence of this "evil" system of things beyond the year 2000. At least, that was their unofficial position. But in order to test this proposition objectively, Love Ministries, Inc., of Worthville, Kentucky, drew up a legal document in which JW's, and the old men in Brooklyn, were challenged legally to donate their assets to Love Ministries on January 1 of the year 2000. Had any single JW signed this document, it would have been a monumental and undeniable verification of his/her faith. But every single JW refused to sign it. That proved only one thing: Even in 1985, not a single JW believed that the "end" was coming during the next fifteen years. And, remember, this occurred at a time when JW's were teaching officially that Armageddon could come any day. So, let us renew that same challenge: If any JW reading this book is absolutely certain that Armageddon will have come by a certain date in the future, he/she has a wonderful opportunity not only to "take a stand" for the faith, but to demonstrate to the world beyond any shadow of any doubt the firmness and reliability of that conviction. Any JW is advised to choose the date, and to sign a legal document that will designate Love Ministries as his/her rightful heir, to all material possessions that are held by that person on that date. We feel, in view of the dishonesty of the Organization, that it is very unlikely that even the most "gung ho" JW would be willing to "put his money where his mouth is" in this startling and realistic experiment.

Talk is cheap, and words may be meaningless. The sole criterion of real belief is action. So, are the elders really living like men who actually plan for civilization to come to a climactic and violent end? Or are they not instead, seen realistically, living as men who do have real tomorrows in this world? Most elders are economically oriented and minded towards the material world. Do they have long-term investments in stocks or bonds? If so, are they not actually supporting the economic system of Satan? And is this not a slap in the face not only to the members who listen to their words, but to Jehovah personally? (The legal document described above was also sent to the world-headquarters, to the "governing body" or old men in Brooklyn; it was followed only by an embarrassed hush and silence; not a "peep" of a reply came from them.)

I submit, therefore, that "Armageddon" is a very emotionally laden and highly charged myth, but that the leaders, including the local elders, are aware that it is a myth, and it is not going to happen at all. Further, they use it cynically to manipulate pitiable and gullible members through fear.

For elders, including the old men in Brooklyn, are beginning to invest in the things of this world as never before; it has recently been estimated that JW's took in over one thousand million dollars, and that New York City lost ten million dollars in revenue in one year, because the Organization is tax-exempt. Real estate is being purchased by the JW Organization all over Brooklyn. Why are they investing in, and rehabbing, old buildings, if there is no future? It simply would not make sense.

In the most notorious and widely-circulated book in their history, The Truth that Leads to Eternal Life, is a prime example of how the Organization "nudged on" and encouraged speculation about 1975. For in the original edition of that book, former secretary of sate Dean Acheson is quoted as having said that by 1975 "this world will be too dangers to live in." Now, that is a completely meaningless and very alarmist statement. Perhaps Acheson was simply having a bad day; but this shows how the Organization officially supported members' expectations that 1975 was a "marked" or special year in the unfolding of Jehovah's purposes on earth. Shortly after 1975 came and went, with even the microscopic studies of the Organization unable to conjure up anything remotely resembling divine intervention, the entire matter was allowed to die a quiet death. But its lesson was remembered, and today, the Organization is extremely reticent about setting a specific date for the "end," lest they end up with another farce like the seventy-five fiasco.

Before the history of JW's began, a stem-group called the Millerites became notorious for their having predicted the "end" in October 1844. When that date came and went, they rationalized that something truly important had happened that year after all, but it was an "invisible" event in heaven. The Russellites, who later became the JW's, did the same thing; they predicted Armageddon for 1914, but of course it did not come. Still, World War 1 did break out that year, and that seemed too good a coincidence to let pass. They began to adopt a "close enough" approach. Of course, the predictions of Armageddon had been wrong, but World War 1 was "close enough" so that the prediction could be given some retrospective respect. Russell took up the litany of the Millerites, and said that something indeed important in cosmic history had occurred in 1914, but it had occurred in heaven, and so was invisible. This claim was adopted by all subsequent JW's, and still has some currency.

From one perspective, the prediction of Armageddon in 1975 was a good tactical or logistical move. Although probably made cynically, it did create a huge if momentary boost in converts and a spectacular peak in the sales-activity-- probably precisely the effects that the leaders hoped for. But they were short -sighted, and did not foresee the painful crash after the fateful year. For, feeling embittered and betrayed by what was evidently "false prophecy," people began an enormous exodus from the Organization in the subsequent years; and the effects of that time are still reverberating.

The flurry of converts and programs of mad frenetic activity were very short-lived, and the Kingdom Halls built during that time are today filled only to half their original capacity. The militant armies of Jehovah failed to arrive with their murderous intent, and will never arrive. As of this writing, twenty-four years later, the JW's are still expectantly waiting, but with a sense of boredom rather than excitement.

The "government" of God has no army, for it is an internal rulership of the heart by the principle of unconditional love; the rulership exercised by Christ is personal, not political. But the JW's have positioned themselves, and their leaders, as the earthly representatives of the "theocracy," the "government of Jehovah." This Orwellian government has complete control of the minds and life-details of a few million people all over the world. It absolutely prohibits any involvement in any earthly government. Clearly, however, its intent is to make as many converts as is humanly possible.

What would the world be like, however, if JW's became a majority of the population? Or how would the social structure of any given country be altered? For one major change, politics as we know it would be dead. There would be no longer any democracy. The country ruled by JW's would be headed by a president who was appointed, not elected. There would be no senate or house of representatives, for the voice and wishes of the average person would not at all matter; people after all, have neither the right nor the power to alter or influence "God's will." So, the country ruled by JW's would be a dictatorship.

There would probably be a kind of crude court-system, but it too would be peopled by harsh, unbending judges appointed, not elected. Those who served as judges would have as qualifications only their political toughness and insensitivity, and the laws and their implementation would be much harsher than those that currently exist. It is conceivable, for example, that following the pattern of ancient Israel, stoning as a hideously form of execution would be resurrected. People would regularly undergo this horrible form of torture-death for such sins as fornication, adultery, and homosexuality. Teen-agers might also be stoned for radical or repeated disobedience to parents.

At any rate, capital punishment would be not only more horrible, but much more common. The community would probably be encouraged to participate in this blood bath, as they did in ancient times. It is also probably that these JW courts would follow the self-righteous pattern of the Puritan courts, burning people alive for "heresy" or "apostasy", or even "witchcraft".

Freedom of the press would be non-existent; everything would have to be "approved" through an appointed council or moral magistrates; for example, only films that could be seen by twelve-year-olds would be made or shown. Thus, freedom of speech or expression would be non-existent. To make sure that bands of "apostates" did not network in conspiracies, telephone-calls and computer communications would be regularly monitored by a kind of "thought-police."

Freedom of religion would never be even contemplated. Churches would be publicly dismantled and burned, and their leaders imprisoned or stoned. Mass-imprisonment's would form a series of "concentration camps" for Catholics, Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans, Buddhists, and all other religious groups. The camps would most likely be used to "warehouse" atheists as well. The lucky ones would be killed.

It would be a law that everyone smile all the time. Any unhappiness would be punished. The roles of psychiatry and psychology would be diminished as the attitude that people were consciously responsible for emotional and mental illness took over; in some areas, exorcists would replace psychologists as "demons" were expelled from troubled souls.

There would exist new and strictly enforced laws prohibiting litter, and streets would be swept, and the exteriors of houses cleaned, regularly-- again, enforceable by law. Pay-offs, bribes, and cover-ups would become everyday facts of political life.

These are just a few of the radical changes, extrapolated from JW Organization, that would occur in a society controlled by JW's. People who believe that they alone know the law, or will of God, can be very dangerous indeed.

What is recommended here is NOT persecution of JW's, but rather a critical and precise awareness of the social and political values for which they stand. For anyone to indulge in persecution of JW's, or in careless expressions of hostility, or in any expressions of rage, would be to sink to-- or even below their own level. Nor do we recommend scandal mongering; the facts alone, and reasonable extrapolations of those facts, are enough to question the value-system and entire world-view of JW's. So, no encouragement is here given for any kind of attack on JW's.

Yet these scary facts are presented in order to awaken and enlighten people to the dangers inherent in the distorted views of the Organization. No one should contemplate becoming a member of the JW's while laboring under the delusion that they are a "harmless" group of peace-lovers.

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GOD LIVES IN BROOKLYN: JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AS A MODEL OF FUNDAMENTALISM

By Richard Francis [e-mail]

Copyright © 1998 by Love Ministries, Inc.

Worthville, Kentucky United States of America

_____________________________________________________ 

Chapter 21 / Under My Thumb: The Clergy of JW's

An international quasi-political group that feels that it is soon going to take over the world, after the blast of a "World War 3" Armageddon turns its enemies to bloody masses-- this is not how the average JW would describe the Organization. But, in its fundamentals, the definition can hardly be incorrect.

Just like virtually every other group, sect, or cult that has existed during the past nineteen centuries-- and they have numbered in the thousands-- JW's believe that they alone have the truth. They see nothing odd or even ironic about his claim. To them it is "self-evident," and taken completely for granted, that they know more, and better, than anyone-- or everyone-- else on the planet. They inhabit a divinely superior place in the scheme of the universe. That is why, after the armies of Jehovah descend from the sky to obliterate the human race, they will be the only ones left in the entire world.

In science-fiction movies, aliens have come down from the sky to destroy human civilization, but understandably have found no human supporters to cheer them on. Were this actually to occur in some wildly improbable future, these invaders just might be interpreted by fundamentalists to be the "vessels" or "instruments" used by Jehovah to bring about Armageddon, and thus, might be supported and welcomed with open arms by these religious extremists. They would serve as the aliens' "cheerleaders".

Tradition, however, holds that those who invade and take over the earth will be, not aliens, but angels-- with bloodthirsty cruelty on their minds, and filled with ideas and feelings that are anything but "angelic."

It should not be surprising, then, that members who one day plan to rule the world should gear up an international organization which they have already, formally and in print, repeatedly recognized as a "government." This is, despite the fact, that JW's universally claim to be absolute political neutrals. Is this kind of reference designed to "soften up" the members, to prepare them for the coalescence and evolution of the Organization into a kind of international "political" party? One thing is certain: Unlike all other religions, JW's insist that one cannot be a good JW and be active in any other political party; they demand what they call "exclusive devotion." But why set up the Organization as a rival not only to other religions, but to the prevailing political parties as well, if you have no plans to evolve, at some future date, into a genuine political force?

JW's could as easily change the formal doctrine here as in other crucial areas. As already noted, "truth" is a fluctuating, evolving, even reversing, always changing concept among JW's. What if, after their Organization has sufficient numbers, they decide that political participation is okay after all-- provided that it serves the goals of Jehovah, not Satan. If this kind of change did take place, JW's would be ready to vote tomorrow-- especially for a JW candidate. Is this within the scope of their future evolution? No one can say. But is it possible? It certainly is. Thus, it is possible that JW's are carefully positioning themselves for political or social control that the average JW today would find absolutely inconceivable.

In their hundred-year past, JW's have themselves experimented with many forms of internal or congregational government. It is astonishing with what ease and rapidity each new form has been fully accepted by members as "Jehovah's arrangement," when, to any sane, objective observer, it is more than obvious that the JW's are in the process of continual human experimentation, with each answer considered to be the "final" one. At one time, for example, in the previous elder-arrangement, elders were elected democratically by members of local congregations. But, as time passed, the system evolved into a rigid government controlled from the top down-- the beginnings of the current despotism. Today, the Organization-- and every individual within it-- is controlled exclusively by the decisions of one man, who works with a panel of all-male associates (the old men in Brooklyn).

JW's claim that their present "government by clergy" was initiated by "holy spirit." But, as noted earlier, they claim also that "holy spirit." Is a dumb, blind, non-conscious energy like the electricity from a battery. If so, then the elder-arrangement is controlled by this mindless force; recent operations tend to verify this assumption.

Clumsy, stupid, and inefficient, the present elder system is unlikely to represent any kind of finished product or project. It appears to be still in evolution, the direct "blessing of Jehovah" notwithstanding. It is actually, of course, a human experiment disguised as a "divine institution."

This is certainly not by far the only time that this ruse has been attempted. "Theocracies" as forms of government are as old as written records. Other religious bodies have already been down this path, have tried elder-systems just like that of the Organization and have already discarded them. Among those who have tried varieties of "elderarchy" are included the small millenarian groups from which the JW's evolved, (the second Adventists pre-1870). And independent Protestant churches all over the world have experimented with a wide variety and spectrum of elder-systems; the Mormons are controlled by a similar system. And, of course, the primitive ancient Hebrews were largely controlled by old men in their system of patriarchy. It appears that some early Christian groups, at least when they were simple and embryonic, experimented with a related order of church-government. So, the modern JW system is far from newly or "divinely" revealed.

What has evolved is similar in important ways to the early priesthood of the Catholic Church. This system began by separating "priests" as a special class from the "laity," or regular members. The clergy of JW's has already taken this step. No longer is every person equal or "one in Christ" among JW's. The elders form a special class that is the religious analog to an exclusive "country club," and the very highest (although pitiable) goal of all JW males is to get entry into this club.

In fact, the modern elder-system conforms more closely to the patterns of the despised Christendom than did the pre-elder arrangements of the sixties-- completely unknown and foreign to newer JW's.

Technically, the elder-system, as its name indicates, falls under the form of rule known as a "geruntocracy," or rule by the old. Most elders are quite old, and so they use their special status to compensate for feelings of inequality and inadequacy.

To be in harmony with the "theocracy"-- a term borrowed from, among other places, Puritan Massachusetts-- one must be "theocratic," and adjective par excellence among JW's. The terms "theocratic" and "worldly" are seen as polar opposites; the former is as good as the latter is bad. "I'm looking for a theocratic husband," is a common whine often heard from young sisters among the JW's, for this kind of person is thought to be unusual and rare. The term refers to one who is a good sales-person for the Organization, and who is careful to attend all the meetings of JW's.

In the matter of micromanagement of members, it is interesting to note that even facial expressions can be viewed as rebellious or "untheocratic." At a circuit assembly, for example, which is a moderate-size gathering of all JW's in an area, it was demanded that "sisters" not express disagreement with elders "even by their facial expressions."

Micromanagement through JW internal government is a significant stress-factor in the life and psychology of the average JW. As a matter of fact, the great "divine" model for the government of JW's is, significantly, a political one. Like the Puritans, JW's believe that the government of ancient Israel is worthy of imitation because, according to its own propagandists, it was established by Jehovah. (Actually, it was established by immoral intrigue, manipulation, murder, and war, like most other governments of the ancient world. For a single example, David, who is often adored and embellished by JW's and other fundamentalists, was a notorious mass-murderer. In fact, an ancient Israelite song, recorded in the Bible, contains the words: "Saul has killed his thousands, but David, his tens of thousands." Such a bloody, violent ruler is hardly an appropriate role model for modern people.)

What is often neglected by those who insist on idealizing the elder-arrangement of ancient Israel as being run by clean-cut, courageous, righteous men is that the country was continually submersed in rape, pillage, theft, murder, and warfare; so, its elder-system, as a government, was a spectacular failure. JW's, who model their international theocracy after its primitive, warlike pattern, are playing with deadly social fire.

Also, these idealists ignore the fact that Jesus appears in history as an enemy of, and renegade against, this "respectable" elder-system. He is regularly, throughout the Scriptures, portrayed as a clear adversary of the ancient Jehovic theocracy. From the viewpoint of the conservative traditionalists, he was quite "untheocratic," and "worldly."

Here, too, is another irony and contradiction with which the JW must deal: Jesus, who is considered by JW's, in an abstract way, to be the supreme example, was never formally inducted into the elder-system. The purpose of the Christian Greek Scriptures ("New Testament") was to record every important event in his life; yet, despite the fact that we have four separate Gospels, not a single mention is made of any attempt of Jesus to gain the favor of the elders, or even to make peace with them. To the contrary, we have some clear records of remarkable disputes, disagreements, and arguments between Jesus and the elders. They saw themselves as representing "Jehovah's theocratic Organization," or the "theocracy," on earth, but they fully rejected and denied the message of Jesus. The elders, throughout the Gospels, are not at all presented as Jesus' friends and allies, but as his most determined opponents and enemies. In the end, they were very instrumental in promoting his murder.

The Christian system did include a group called the "older men," or "elders." But is there really strong evidence that they were appointed in formal ways by each other? Or that they held some kind of permanent "clergy" position, above that of ordinary "members" of the church? No, these are not defensible ideas from the perspective of the ancient texts themselves.

Were special titles such as "elder" or "reverent" bestowed upon them? Again, there is no evidence whatsoever that this was the case. For, in the first-century congregation, every member was recognized as an equal minister of God. (This idea later came to be called the "priesthood of all believers.") The word "elder" seemed to be a generic description of what a person did, rather than describing a position, what a person was. It described function, not position.

Thus, by analogy, a person who writes is a writer, a person who paints, a painter, and a person who banks, a banker. And one who performs the functions or actions of an older, presumably wiser, man was an elder. No specific formal human appointment by committee was ever needed, since this "appointment" or "anointment" did come directly from God, as the Holy Spirit acting in the heart of the elder.

We must also remember that Paul, who tried the first attempts at organizing the Christian community, had strong Pharisaic background-material in his own mind. Much of this, perhaps sub-consciously, he superimposed upon the Christian church, attempting to model it somewhat along the old lines of Jewish tradition. Still, there is absolutely no good evidence that early churches were strictly organized into the many-layered forms represented today by JW's. (Also, it is known that early Christians met in homes, and did not have buildings whose exclusive purpose was religious meetings; this was an inheritance of JW's from more traditional Protestant churches, who got the idea from Catholicism. Jesus did not work to build either a physical church building or a Kingdom Hall, and there is no evidence at all that he or his disciples ever used one.)

The understanding of "elder" as a function rather than a political title, and that it comes directly from God in the heart of the believer, not from a committee of men, does away with any possibility of corruption, such as so often appears in modern elder-systems.

A member of the upper hierarchy, a circuit overseer, once remarked, "There are many who are appointed as elders who are not real elders, and many who are real elders are never appointed." This man at least had the beginnings of a more spiritual understanding of the word, as contrasted to its more mechanical, legalistic meaning among the elder-systems of JW's. Is it just possible that the men in charge of "God's government on earth" have lost touch with the very Source of wisdom, as their ancient counter-parts in Jesus' day had done?

This elder-system has been very catastrophic, in that it has placed the eternal. Spiritual well being of gentle, compassionate souls in the harsh hands of political manipulators, whose only real agenda is personal aggrandizement. How did this cumbersome, ungainly, ineffective system ever develop?

It arose from the rather smugly arrogant assumption that some human beings are more spiritually advanced than others, and that these others need the higher types to tell them how to live-- to dominate their lives. It arose from the perception that the public was, in a word, just plain stupid. The "higher" types saw it as within their purview to take away the rights of these ignorant peons, and then to impose rigid controls on their behavior. Like other fundamentalists, JW's have allowed their elders to tell them what books they can read, what movies they can watch, what music they can enjoy, what clothes they can wear, and even what sexual practices are approved between husband and wife.

We live in a society of specialists; physical problems are referred to a doctor, architectural problems to an engineer, plumbing difficulties to the plumber, electrical problems to the electrician. But spiritually, human beings were meant to be different; each person was designed with the full range of "heart/mind" equipment to be able to design his/her life independent of meddling or interference. The idea of "spiritual specialists" developed in the early Catholic Church as a thin veneer for obtaining the mechanisms of power over other people, and this sad heritage has survived into our day. The monstrous "parenting" of other adults has occurred not just among priest, but among a wide spectrum of cult-leaders, gurus, ministers, pastors, teachers, psychologists, radio talk-show hosts, and elders. Everyone seems to think that he knows better how to live your life than you do. And while it is true that, when technical or complex problems are involved, it pays to have an objective, educated advisor, it is social insanity when these programs move from the self-help to dominance. Empowerment is the opposite of such dominance.

The authority of God speaks as love, joy, peace, kindness, and goodness within the heart of each person; this is called guidance by conscience. People who become overly dependent on the elders often lose all ability to communicate with, or respond to, the direction of personal conscience. In terms of psychology, they move from a healthy "inner locus of control" to an unhealthy "outer locus of control."

In the very beginning of the elder arrangement, elders were self-appointing. In every congregation, the males were told to get together and discuss who would be "appointed" as the very first elders. Not at all surprisingly, the most aggressive among them naturally appointed themselves, and so did the most egocentric. Those who were more honest, or humble, disqualified themselves. So, the elder system was flawed (harsher critics would say rotten) from the beginning, tilted in favor of the arrogant, tough, self-serving, and against the tender, gentle, and compassionate. It appealed strongly, in short, to those who felt smug enough to control the lives of others. Most of these men were unqualified to do any psychological or spiritual work, and were untrained in either. Yet they were to dispense final answers to life's most important questions, often to life's most vulnerable people. No wonder they ruined and shattered and crushed the lives of so many sensitive people. Overnight, plumbers, electricians, painters, and janitors became the supreme rulers of JW's, the final and unquestionable "voice of God on earth." The ego-rush must have been terrific, but it was to drive a wedge between the clergy of JW's and the JW members that would never properly heal.

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GOD LIVES IN BROOKLYN: JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AS A MODEL OF FUNDAMENTALISM

By Richard Francis [e-mail]

Copyright © 1998 by Love Ministries, Inc.

Worthville, Kentucky United States of America

_____________________________________________________ 

Chapter 22 / Can the System be Changed?

Not all elders are bad, of course. But those who are kind and wise are caught in a much larger system, which has a powerful inertia of its own, and which they are powerless to change. For one thing, ego-sensitivities are simply too great, and "eldership" too great an ego-prize, to allow such minor matters as love, justice, and wisdom to intervene effectively in the system. Elders do not have much power or recognition in the real world, and so they seek to overcompensate by being extra tough, or even nasty, towards those whom they feel that they do control. They rule with an iron hand. Ex-members do not hesitate to describe them with a word that to me smacks of hyperbole: "inquisitorial."

Still, they do share with the historical Inquisitors the idea that, however much pain that they might cause, it is all for the "good" of the person suffering; and so, far too often, they are careless with their power.

Probing, surveillance, and microscopic examination of members' lives is quite common. And, especially if one becomes the target of such analysis, it can also be alarming. Interrogations before "courts" of untrained elders, with no advocate to defend oneself, makes one feel intensely the intended isolation of facing from three to five accusatory elders alone. A favorite subject of theses "elder-courts," predictably, is the sexual activity of young men and women. They often take a sick delight in detailed descriptions of forbidden sexual activities of members; and, usually, sooner or later, the sexually active young member ends up leaving the Organization, or being forcefully kicked out.

Elders have also been known to keep files on members, files that contained compromising data, and which were copied and sent to the old men in Brooklyn for their data bank. Thus, a person who slips up sexually at age sixteen might be branded for the rest of his/her life. Years later, a male might still be denied appointment as an elder; far too often, the system is unforgiving and even vindictive. (The situation is even more greatly exacerbated by the fact that the old men actually envy the prowess, however misdirected, of young men.)

At any rate, the Organization has drifted very far from the original vision of a cooperation among equal brothers and sisters. Now, the system is pervaded with a sense of rank and hierarchies, and "brothers" give unquestionable orders to other "brothers." In this stratification, of course, all sense of "brotherhood" seems ludicrous, and is lost entirely. Those who in any way question the orders of the elders are blackballed, and might even be marked. They are considered to be "dangerous influences" in the congregation.

The elders' minor harassment's can, with amazingly little provocation, mushroom into a kind of vendetta or witch-hunt against those perceived to be personal "enemies." The elders generally follow the principle, "Hate your enemies," and they can do so with a vengeance. In fact, thousands of good, loyal JW's have been disfellowshiped for questioning the elders, or for forming independent assessments and opinions that were at variance with theirs.

Also, for the first time in history, the Organization has been flooded with voluntary resignations from people who have seen all the way through the political, mental, and spiritual games. They are no longer held in the gridlock of paralyzing fear, and now they simply laugh at the ridiculous pomposity of grandiose elders. They know that God has no intent to murder them, and has never had this intent.

JW's claim a growing membership, but, even if their dubious figures are to be believed, we must remember that they include people who stay in the religion for reasons that have nothing to do with spirituality. Many stay because a wife, brother, or parent is an active JW; others, particularly senior citizens, stay out of simple inertia, since they are intimidated by change; others counted as full members are children or toddlers. Teen-members hover on the very fringes, ready to break free at the first opportunity. Friendless and social recluses often stay just because the JW's pretend to be their friends. Probably the actual active, committed membership of JW's is closer to about fifteen percent of the reported total, with the rest being "hangers-on."

Since there are absolutely no checks and balances in the power-system of the JW internal government, the more corrupt tend to accumulate increasing power. (While JW's would have everyone believe that they have the very first corruption-free group in the history of the world, this is contradicted by much data from many sources, including approximately one million ex-members.) Unfortunately, generally people do not change the system; instead the system changes people. Those who believe that the system can be changed, repaired, or fixed by working within that system-- and there are many-- are being idealistic at the cost of being realistic.

I do not believe that any person is capable of altering the traditional framework of the elder -system. Years ago, a man who worked at the very world headquarters, in an executive capacity, began to entertain ideas about some changes, and even he was simply ignored and ultimately disfellowshiped. If he, in his position could not initiate major change, it is wildly improbable that anyone else can do so.

One can precipitate changes in an individual, but usually not in an organization. An old Zen parable implies that when a person is ready for change, the snapping of a single twig can initiate the process; but until she is ready, ten thousand words will have no effect.

Time and again, I have witnessed young men, filled with fire; zeal, compassion, and idealism enter the elder arrangement only to emerge as gray, neutral, aloof, reticent "old men," even though their physical age had not changed. They were transformed into frightened and fearful men with the attitudes and concrete mind-sets of much older people. Perhaps they played this terrible game in order to win the respect of the old men or of the congregation; but they lost so much of the flowering beauty and intensity that had given so much color and life to their personalities, that in many ways, they all but literally "died." Becoming an elder is generally a deadening, mind-numbing experience. To succeed, one must become a kind of stoic marionette of those in power, or their "clone." High ideals soon disappear, killed by a toxic fog of fatigue.

I do not write of mere theory, for I spent a large part of my life in a vain attempt to reform the system from within. Of course, I gave up much personal freedom and joy simply in order to remain a part of this life-draining system. But, in the end, for my own sake and that of family and friends, I decided voluntarily to resign.

When one attempts to introduce even the most positive changes, impenetrable barriers instantly spring up, and the entire matter is forever non-negotiable. Resistance to change in any form is awesome, precisely because stagnation is always mistaken for stability. Added to active resistance is the more pervasive impediment of apathy; most JW's, and elders, simply do not care about matters of compassion. Those who do passionately care generally end up leaving the JW's sooner or later. They feel smothered and stifled by the burden of apathy.

I was shocked and stunned to learn that most elders are not at all interested in growing spiritually, in expanding their horizons of knowledge, truth, and wisdom. Had I been more perceptive, and less idealistic, I could have predicted this kind of "agnophilia," in which people pathologically grow to love their ignorance. But what they seek is not greater or clearer truth; all they really want is security, to gratify their egos in being "right."

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GOD LIVES IN BROOKLYN: JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AS A MODEL OF FUNDAMENTALISM

By Richard Francis [e-mail]

Copyright © 1998 by Love Ministries, Inc.

Worthville, Kentucky United States of America

_____________________________________________________ 

Chapter 23 / "Education" and "Unity," JW Style

A JW would rather be "right" than happy. He or she would rather be "right" than loving or compassionate. In fact, most JW's would rather be "right" than anything else they could be. Psychologists are familiar with this pattern and recognize that it arises from a deep, unconscious fear of being wrong. One of the reasons that JW's are so regularly and consistently wrong is that they adamantly refuse to listen to anyone else. They just as stubbornly refuse and resist any kind of formal education, feeling that they need none.

JW's, like so many other fundamentalists, cannot discern the difference between education and drilling. This is why they so very commonly mistake themselves for educated people. An active quest to probe into the unknown mysteries of existence, the heart of education, is not only frowned upon but is actively forbidden. So, JW's forbid actual spiritual education.

Paradoxically, they love to talk about always "studying" which means replaying and rerunning old, dogmatic materials of JW doctrines ad nauseam. The meetings of JW's, although mistaken by members for "instructive," never contain any new or challenging material; in fact, they never present anything from the wider spiritual community outside of the limited JW microcosm. They never encourage anyone to grow. Older members can easily predict everything that is going to be said; they have often attended for years, without even being exposed to a single new idea. Critics often harshly describe the meetings as vapid, insipid, or vacuous. The meetings are not designed in any way to quench spiritual "thirst," but simply to indoctrinate. Outside or original material is strictly forbidden to be used in the programs of these meetings. The meetings are pre-planned and carefully designed, often to the word, by the old men in Brooklyn and their staff. This has caused some critics to describe the "spiritual food" of these meetings as "pre-digested."

I used to give regular lectures at these meetings, and I know that if one deviates from the "outline" provided by the Organization, one is in for severe reprimand. It does not even matter that one is teaching the purest JW teaching; the problem is, one is not using the actual words "provided" by the Organization. Spontaneity is actually prohibited, and enthusiasm must be artificially drummed up. It is almost like those lights at the filming of a television show that ell the audience LAUGH or CLAP. Enthusiasm that is planned ahead of time cannot be real enthusiasm.

Like their brain-dead meetings, the growth of JW's in the United States and other developed countries is stagnant. It is getting so that it is a remarkable event when even one new face shows up at the Kingdom Hall. In modern industrialized countries, JW's are more often the object of ridicule than of serious interest. The single exception might be Japan, where, due to what might be regarded as a national mind-set, the people actively seek and immediately respond to demands for conformity. It appears now that much of their growth will occur in third-world countries. This is good news for them, because they can use this as propaganda to boost activity in more developed countries; yet this is bad news because these countries are very poor, and will do much less to support the multi-million-dollar publishing empire of the JW's. In the third world, they are easily able to find the poor, alienated, and discouraged who are their "target conversion groups" even in the U.S. It is well known even among the JW's that people who are satisfied, successful, and happy simply have no interest whatsoever in joining the JW's.

A still-active member from Canada distills the attitudes of many when he says, "It just isn't any fun to be a Witness anymore." The JW religion, like their meetings and sales-work, can be extremely wearisome and dull. As soon as one converts, the quality of life begins to plummet; suddenly, one's mind is filled with nauseating contradictions and the world with one's enemies. A young, active JW sister from Tennessee complains, "You can't do anything at all. According to the elders, everything is either worldly or demonized, or else it is immature or sexually immoral." Her complaint is universal among younger JW's, who are sick of living within the right-wing boundaries of fear-filled fringe ideas.

Despite all their glorious talk of "unity," JW's have never experienced the real thing. For real unity implies voluntary cooperation among free minds, and all the JW's really have is uniformity or conformity.

When people start to get out of line, or exercise too much independence, the JW reaction is simply to tighten and increase restrictions. This is self-sabotaging policy, and it has never worked. As long as JW's fear freedom, instead of embracing and celebrating it, they will never know the joys of real unity. Their "Unity" is like that of prisoners who are all forced to dress alike, not that of free beings who share much in common. For the prohibition of diversity is not nearly the same thing as unity.

"As a JW," said an ex-JW from Wisconsin; "I found that all the joy had gone out of my life." A young, active JW from New York confided, "We have to walk on eggs always afraid that the elders will disfellowship us, or that our friends will report us for something." JW's seek to maintain a miserable populace in a sense of false "unity" by sealing members off from others-- especially from ex-members, who are considered the most explosively dangerous of all. The mere multiplication of laws is proving to be no viable solution, either. For when there are more laws to disobey, then disobedience is by definition more rampant.

Another source of perceived "unity" used to be respect for elders. But since they lack an operative understanding of the most basic laws of psychology and spirituality, advising poorly in matters of great importance, they have fallen into universal disrepute. This is amusingly conveyed by an ex-JW from California, who says that the elders in her congregation were called "snoopervisors." When it is realized that the elders claim, with no experience or training whatsoever, to dispense the "law of God" on important matters, one must rethink every position. Among the areas where the elder's word might be law for a true believer are the following: friendship, politics, sex, birth-control, euthanasia, medical treatments, employment, education, career, business, marriage, divorce, recreation, child-training, hobbies, interpersonal activities, family-bonds, social relationships, social action, etc. The fact that the governors are often in even worse shape psychologically than are the governed only is a monumental reminder of our society's tendency to find "quick fixes" and to "blame others" instead of accepting personal responsibility.

There are two factors that play heavily on JW life-designs: 1) the belief that the Organization and its leaders represent the will of God, and 2) total submersion and submission of the self relative to group-directives. With this explosive combination, almost anything is possible, and "obedience" might recognize no limits at all. People who have placed their full confidence and trust in the bad advice given by elders have been driven into full psychosis or even suicide. But the consciences of these elders are not at all troubled; they even have the unmitigated gal to blame the victims, claiming that they had become "worldly" and thus "lost the holy spirit," and that is the "real" reason why they ended up as they did. Often theses victims are accused of being even "demonized." Thus, the elders emerge, as always, stainless, unsullied, and lily white. Then as if to pour salt in the open wound, elders refuse to conduct a funeral for a suicide, because she "broke God's law."

Inappropriate, even dangerous, advice is far too easily and quickly dispensed by people who feel that they speak for God. If people buy into this nonsense, they often accept the direction uncritically and gullibly. In truth, it has been the elders themselves who, in many ways, have actually done the most to destroy individual JW's and congregations-- not so much through active malevolence, but through ignorant ineptitude.

The tendency of elders to blame the victims is all-too-common. An elder told me, "If a woman is raped, we must consider what she was wearing." This sick attitude reflects that of the male-dominated Organization as a whole, where no one ever accepts responsibility for his own behavior. Even the elders who write the Watchtower have never shown the slightest sign of any psychological or spiritual depth. Nor have they been presented as fountains of compassion or sources of love. One elder told me, "If a person is serving Jehovah," and by this, he meant the sales-work and meetings, "he will never have any problems." That kind of stupid naivete has no place among those whose job it is to aid people to find joy or peace. Another elder agreed, and added, "If you stay busy enough in Jehovah's service, you just don't have time to get into trouble." Elders' even labor under the simplistic idea that "studying the Bible" is therapeutic for all mental and emotional disorders. There is nothing like being a spokesman for God to insulate one from moral accountability; farther, elders are supremely confident that no JW will ever express moral outrage about even the most awful advice. Also, the average JW will endure horrible abuse rather than to have her loyalty to the Organization questioned because she "rebelled" against an elder. Thus, while a member's life is being torn to shreds, she might feel that no one in the world truly cares, especially when the Satanic "world" is closed off, and the Jehovic elders ignore her.

Predictably, the Organization teaches that criticizing the Organization is close to committing the "unforgivable sin"-- a term nowhere found in the Bible, but a kind of chimera used to frighten people who would otherwise speak up against the inequities of the Organization. The idea of a sin so monstrous that it is beyond even the reach of God's love is so terrifying to unstable and fearful types that it effectively shuts them up forever.

The idea that there can exist a sin greater than God's love is not new; it was used by Puritans, among others, to scare their members into conformity and obedience. The idea flatly contradicts Jesus' own words at Mark 3:28 where he promised that "every sin and every blasphemy" would be forgiven. But that there was a sin whose effects would last "into the ages."

Thus, the members of the Organization, like the Organization itself, are locked in the icy grip of unrelenting fear. But while members fear the absence of Jehovah's forgiveness, the old men in Brooklyn, and other elders, face a still more terrifying fear -- the fear of a blossoming and irrepressible freedom.

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GOD LIVES IN BROOKLYN: JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AS A MODEL OF FUNDAMENTALISM

By Richard Francis [e-mail]

Copyright © 1998 by Love Ministries, Inc.

Worthville, Kentucky United States of America

_____________________________________________________ 

Chapter 24 / A House Divided: Dissidents and Dissonance

Gripped and shaken to the core by an invisible and invincible power, the Organization trembles. For that power sends cracks, splits, and crevices through the foundation of the structure of the Organization; and that power is freedom.

Despite continuous barrages of harangues against "evil" people, the Organization realizes that it is rapidly losing its most spiritual, wise, and intelligent people. No group can long afford this kind of "brain-drain," or, in this case loss of soul. Without a direct effect on the quality of the entire structure. So, even while the Organization claims to be growing quantitatively, it suffers in quality.

Conservative, fearful leaders insist on mistaking dissonance for decadence, and thus have lost the fine art of discernment. The Watchtower magazine complains about complainers, and thunders about disloyalty and destruction.

The voice of revolution has at last arisen in the camp of JW's themselves, and is creating stirs everywhere. It is quickly becoming powerful enough to drown out the tremulous claims of "infallibility" that have always marked JW "truth." The style of writing of the leaders has become jumpy and nervous, ranting and raving, disjointed and dishonest. The sound of desperate alarm is heard throughout the land.

The tiny cracks that have appeared during the past twenty years are converging into giant chasms in the foundations of its "fortresses" against the world. For the current revolution is different both in scope and tone from any pervious attempt of JW's to find freedom. This applies also to ex-members; for the first time, disfellowshiped people are not hiding shame-faced or coming back to the Organization on their knees, hat in hand. Instead, they are finding each other by their thousands, and beginning to evolve into a unified front. There is even a new phenomenon that might be called "ex-JW pride" loose in the world.

Ex-JW's are not, however, forming another organization, as a kind of anti-organization. They have carefully examined history, and see that organizations by their very nature, are often doomed from the start, in matters religious and spiritual. Instead, true validity and strength lie in the flexibility of the formation of networks of free, independent thinkers who come together to share, but who are not conformist. Organization is the way of the past, and of failure; networking is the way of the future, and of success. In networks, there are no massive financial concerns, no superior leadership-class, and no dogmatic stances; instead, there is freedom, elasticity, flexibility, and personal growth supported by many others.

The current revolution began about 1975, with the spectacular failure of the Organization's greatest prophecy-- that Armageddon would come that year. It picked up considerably with the Great Purge of 1980, and has picked up inertia and velocity in the subsequent years since.

Gradually, the structure of the Organization itself has changed. In the 1870's, when it began, it was seen as a highly energized, unconventional minority, with a strong sense of mission and coherence. Over the years, old members have grown bored, and new ones entered without much enthusiasm, as the Organization has struggled long and hard to establish a façade of conservatism and respectability. JW's are still seen as fanatics, as a minority on the lunatic fringe, but paradoxically, the "public relations" have altered until today, especially in the context of much wider and more bizarre cults, the Organization has attained an air of condescending and superior conservatism. Thus, it might have achieved a rare balance of the worst of both worlds: To the progressive, it drags its heels in the mud, mistaking stagnation for stability; and to the conservative, it appears wildly radical in so many of its odd teachings. And mainstream, middle-of-the-road people avoid it like the proverbial plague. A large part of the problem is simply that the Organization is growing old, not only in terms of the ages of its members, but as a kind of institution. In the seventies, it became a haven for alienated "hippies" who had no stability in their lives at all, and often spent much time "cult-hopping." (Most of the ex-hippies who joined the JW's found that it had nothing to do with the high ideals of love and brotherhood, and soon left to find other faiths.)

Now, the Organization is in the long process of fossilizing; petrification and ossification have set in, and these processes are anything but healthy. A fossil-bone might be a good parable of what is happening: While a fossil-bone seems much stronger than a regular bone to the untrained or unaware, it is in fact dead, while a living bone, which might seem weaker, is active and alive. So it is that when an organization loses a certain percentage of plasticity or adaptability, it too begins a slow downward process towards social death. The Organization has taken many years to reach its present solidification into immobility; but, in all the ways that really count, is dying, not growing. Yes, its numbers might be still increasing, if we are to believe its own statistics; but the quality of individual members indicates a kind of interior necrosis, or death-process, of the Organization's mobility, creativity, joy, and love. The intellectual quality is also rapidly decaying, such as it ever was.

The reason for this is obvious, since it regularly prunes away or "kicks out" its very most promising members. It does not want quality, but conformity; its leaders would prefer ten million mindless followers to two million creative, dynamic, spiritual people.

The general deterioration began around 1981, when many of its top writers and educated theologians began to defect, and pressure was increased to shut up and conform. Truly brilliant and intellectually respectable works, such as the Bible-encyclopedia Aid to Bible Understanding, and the Kingdom Interlinear Version of the Greek Scriptures, had been produced during the Organization's greatest intellectual blossoming, but with the over-reactionary people of the extreme right seizing power, many who had contributed to these reference-works left the Organization, and the quality of its printed material plummeted. The writing became colorless, dull, and repetitive.

The revolution, however, continues to this day, and keeps on growing in every important way, as well as numerically. The new revolutionaries or dissidents, some who are still JW's, quietly and often secretly question the right of the Organization to interfere with some of life's most crucial human problems, and they do so on moral, ethical, spiritual, and rational grounds. Also the new ex-JW's are not silent and embarrassed, as were their predecessors; they are, quite the contrary, quite vociferous; they are highly active in discussion, lecturing, writing, and teaching, and are well represented on the Internet.

But they do not tend to be strident or immoderate. Instead, they use analysis and reason quietly to warn people of the real dangers inherent in cult-psychology, and to alert the community about the potential harm that arises from rigidity and dogmatism. With a few exceptions, they are not radicals or extremists.

Until recently, ex-JW's were quiet, like reprimanded puppies who crawl on their bellies and refuse to make eye-contact; then, it was easy for the Organization to ignore them as of no account. However, today it is no longer plausible or even possible to pretend that ex-members do not even exist. Ex-JW's are prepared actively to defend themselves and their new spirituality and ignoring them will not make their message, or them, magically disappear. They come armed with facts, and with a thorough and complete understanding of JW doctrine, history, and psychology, and actively reach out to their sisters and brothers with a message of new freedom and Joy. "Modern JW's do not leave the Organization by themselves," notes one, "but usually take all their friends with them." It is precisely this kind of "domino-effect" that has the Organization so terrified, especially of ex-JW revelations, or of any communication between active JW's and ex-members.

The Organization is being severely questioned and criticized on all fronts. The sanity and validity of their teachings, such as that of universal murder at Armageddon, is being tested in the light of love, compassion, and genuine spirituality-- and it has been found badly wanting. A more realistic, and even somewhat cynical, view of the Watchtower Society-- not as the "prophet of God," but as a massive sales-organization or scheme-- is beginning to emerge and to gain wide acceptance.

The new ex-JW seeks reconciliation with society as a whole, in part, to heal from his/her own long-standing alienation. The real revolution is one of tolerance, not compromise, and calls for laying down the JW sword of bitterness and attack. The voice of the new dissident has now grown strong and loud enough that it is penetrating even the Organization's insulated core, shaking up even the old men in Brooklyn.

As a prime example of the normalization process so feared by the Organization, the ex-JW often begins active participation in politics. To the JW, this represents a voluntary participation in the devil's evil world, a betrayal of the "theocratic government." But, as we have seen, loyalty to that "theocracy" means simply doing nothing but acquiescing to obey the old men in Brooklyn.

Political decisions appear to be so complex that they frighten away a certain simple kind of mind; this mind, in turn, finds refuge in the Organization's stand of "political neutrality," which is really a euphemism for complete inactivity or lazy apathy. Being a social "dead zone" marks the average JW, in his/her own sight, as a "theocratic" person. But as the political theorist Edmund Burke said. "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing." If that is so, the JW's might contribute to a triumph of evil. For in refusing to embrace any social position, they also refuse to resist any social position.

This attitude, however, is belied paradoxically, for the average JW will not hesitate to use a government-program if it is deemed personally desirable and necessary. And compromise with "Satan's government" is possible, indeed inevitable, where money is concerned. JW's are not known for helping poor members, who must rely on government-welfare, since their "brothers and sisters" absolutely refuse to help them economically.

Also, JW's will cry out as loudly as any when they feel that their own rights are violated. The Watchtower Society has a tax-free status, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars with which it deals; and JW's are even proud of the fact that they have gone into "Satan's" judicial system to win certain rights, and brag about this often. So, where is there any consistency in all this? There is none; and this is yet another conflict-factor that increases internal stress in the minds of JW's.

Ex-JW's, being immediately freed from such internal conflict, celebrate a real, profound, uplifting sense of freedom once they have left the Organization. For they are free for the first time in their lives to vote, to become friends with whomever they choose, and to design and guide their own lives; all this has enormous appeal for mature, cultivated minds. Another freedom that they feel and in which they rejoice is the chance to celebrate holidays. JW's absolutely prohibit any celebrations, or even symbols, of Christmas, birthdays, Easter, Mother's Day, or even thanksgiving. Most celebrations can be traced back to pre-Christian times, and so they are viewed as "unclean." Again, though, JW's cannot hope for any consistency, for many things in our culture have pre-Christian roots, including the names of the days of the week and months of the year. In order to have consistency, JW's would have to stop using these; but because, among other considerations, that would make ordinary business-transactions difficult, inconvenient, and confusing, they conform to the traditional uses. Also, the wedding ring has pre-Christian origins, and they make regular use of this.

No longer having to live as a generic puritan, or a purist, not only releases the ex-JW from enormous stresses, but gives him/her a sense of greater participation in and unity with the world of normal people. There is also great joy in the abandonment of an apathy that ignores human needs in the legislative process in the name of "neutrality." Ex-JW's can once again become energetically active in the promotion of causes of fairness, equity, racial harmony, ecology, and other areas of social life.

JW's take the prohibition against voting quite seriously; they are often willing to die rather than to cast a vote. True, voting might be an imperfect system, but at lest it gives people a choice and a voice. (The "divine right" of a single ruler, which is the system of JW government, was already tried in Britain under the absolute monarchy, and abandoned as impossible and inequitable. The "elder" or tribal form of government is effective only for small groups.)

JW's aloofly view all political activity as beneath them, as petty. Also, there is the matter of the paranoia that colors all JW views of the "world" and government; an elder reflected the common JW view when he said that when the president of the United States prays, he "prays to Satan."

But there are serious, and, for some, lethal inconsistencies in the JW stance against all political involvement. For example, JW's in the African country of Malawi were required by their government to purchase a twenty-five cent political card; and under the direction of the old men in Brooklyn, they refuse to do so, not wanting to rebel against God's "government." They were horribly raped, tortured to death, and mutilated because of the stand demanded by the old men in their plush offices in New York. But when a similar demand was made by the government of Mexico, JW's were permitted to purchase an almost identical card.

Exactly how cynical was this? Were the brothers and sisters in Malawi somehow "expendable"? Or were they disposable, to be set up as martyrs and examples, just to excite and bring enthusiasm to brothers in the United Sates and other areas? Was the fact that there were many more Mexican JW's really relevant?

Predictably, JW elders will admit no wrongdoing in the Malawi farce. But these Africans paid the ultimate price-- and for what? Their hideous torture and struggles were portrayed in agonizing detail in Awake! magazine, with unforgettable horror. Why? Did JW's simply need a quick "shot in the arm," to bolster sales-activity? Was the enthusiasm-level so low that the old men in Brooklyn went to the extreme of literal human sacrifice to boost the energy of JW's? Or did JW's, lacking any real enemies, have to create the illusion that they were standing firm against this despotic African government, as an expression of Satan's hostile intent towards all JW's in the future? Why these poor Africans were displayed as "examples of integrity" might never be known by the pubic, but, at any rate, the farce was shameful.

Like many minority fundamentalist groups, JW's have a penchant for creating "enemies" where none really exist. In our free society, for example, it is all but impossible to find a genuinely threatening enemy, and certainly the tolerant government "of Satan" does not qualify, for it even defends JW rights. The fact is, there is no real enemy strong or vivid enough to unite the JW's in shared fear or hatred-- at least, not in this country. Since the JW's believe very much in the "enemy of my friend is also my enemy" approach, they must often go outside the United States to find a vicious enough target.

But a current and most convenient enemy-scapegoat is being found in a surprising place-- among the JW's themselves, or at least, among former "loyal" members. Ex-JW's are portrayed as diabolical and malevolent, for ex-JW's know all the secrets of JW's. And as an archbishop is reputed to have said of the Catholic church, in paraphrase "we are willing to argue and fight with you, but the one thing that we will not tolerate is that you try to explain us."

These words, although spoken about the Catholic Church, could apply equally well to JW's. In fact, in their long history the Catholic Church has accumulated very much wisdom precisely because they have already made, centuries ago, many of the mistakes that the JW's are just beginning to make. This is to be expected of a young religion and even more so of a cult.

One of the fiercest and most serious errors ever made by the Church was their centuries long attempt to stamp out "heresy". The Church learned, after many agonizing trials, that this is not a viable way to approach spiritual diversity; today, in fact, Catholicism embraces a wide spectrum of belief patterns among its members.

It is now recognized that the anti-heretical behavior of the past grew largely out of paranoia and fear. Now it is time to take a look at why and how JW's are still making the same terrible mistake.

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GOD LIVES IN BROOKLYN: JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AS A MODEL OF FUNDAMENTALISM

By Richard Francis [e-mail]

Copyright © 1998 by Love Ministries, Inc.

Worthville, Kentucky United States of America

_____________________________________________________ 

Chapter 25 / "We Know Their Secrets: The "Threat" of Ex-Members"

"Spiritual fornicators" and "dogs returning to their vomit" are the vivid, but tasteless and dehumanizing phrases used by active JW's to describe ex-members, who have left the cult. The "unforgivable sin" has been committed by these people, goes the lie, for these are the most feared among a long list of JW "enemies." As one of these despised ex-members, let me say that I could find this amusing were it not so tragic.

The odd paradox is, although JW's see us as "frothing at the mouth" with mad bitterness, most ex-JW's do not hate the JW's at all. After years of study and scrutiny, I have, for example, tried to understand and explain them; and although they would in many ways prefer that I hate them, I have no hatred for them at all. I do see the entire JW movement or cult as a regrettable waste of human resources, time, energy, money, and love; but I still feel much love in my heart for individual JW's, whom I realize are often very good people-- even if they are not the clearest thinkers in the world.

But JW's do not return this favor. Far from loving their enemies, they hate anyone whom they see as "betraying" their cause, and use such words as "defiled," "unclean," and other perjoratives to describe us. This is too bad, since an openhearted dialogue between us and the JW's could accomplish very much. This kind of dialogue has very often and sincerely been requested, but JW's have repeatedly, consistently, and adamantly refused. What are they afraid of?

The ex-JW's are actually the very real target of persecution by the JW's. However JW's go so far in denial as to project even this persecution on to themselves as the poor, harmless victims. (Even a rather mild psychosocial study such as the present book will no doubt be interpreted as "persecution" or "attack." All that I can say, as the author is that its intention is to be neither.)

JW's imply that ex-JW's are ignorant and/or bitter. But I have met hundreds of ex-JW's in the past twenty years, and have not at all found them to be so. Most are quite intelligent, sincere, and many are extremely compassionate, loving, and spiritual. Granted that there are a few extremists among the ex-JW's, they are still few and far between. Most are moderate people whose main interest is in living a sane, peaceful life, and helping others to do the same. Most have abandoned the science-fiction/nightmare Armageddonist theology, and many no longer claim to have any kind of monopoly on an exclusive "truth." Some have also turned away from the nightmare-image of God as Jehovah.

Even where genuine enemies do not really exist, JW's will conjure them, in order to provide their lives with a sense of drama, and the organization with another interpersonal bond. So, besides ex-JW's, active JW's see everyone else either as enemies or potential enemies, including Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, Pentecostals, other Christian groups, Buddhists, Hindus, Taoists, Islamic people, Jewish groups, and just about everybody else, including such disparate groups as the YMCA, Girl Scouts, and atheists.

JW's, though, are so very unpopular, not because people enjoy attacking them, but because they have continually, incessantly, repeatedly attacked everyone else, often sarcastically, or viciously. They will not hesitate to attack every other religion as a tool of "Satan." They live in a world in which virtually every human being is their enemy, but they never stop to question their own psychological health. Instead of asking whether they might be having adjustment problems, they arrogantly assume that everyone else in the entire world is psychotic, or influenced by the "devil." Relentlessly, they criticize the leaders and teachers of every other religion, and love to poke fun at their "inconsistencies." They are especially quick to express intolerance towards tolerant people; for they see tolerance as a kind of moral "weakness," as a compromise with Satan. (Contrast this with Jesus' view of sinners and forgiveness.) They are especially envious of anyone who shows greater success in religious endeavors; and, because almost every other group enjoys greater success than JW's, there is very much indeed of which to be envious.

Far from being enemies, most people are fairly willing to tolerate JW's to the extent that they will actually listen to the rather convoluted sales-presentation of a JW trying to sell a book or magazine. (A reciprocal courtesy by a JW would be unheard of.) Some will even purchase their stuff, often just to get rid of them.

As a group, they exhibit a strong masochism, and darkly fantasize a time in the "near future" when they will be captured by government forces, thrown in jail, beaten, and otherwise abused during a period called the "great tribulation." (I was told such stories nearly forty years ago as a very young child. Like Armageddon, this "great tribulation" was projected to come "any day now".) Twenty-five years ago, I know JW's who, believing that this great persecution was just around the corner, buried a steel box filled with JW books in their back yard. The feeling was very much like that of "spies" doing "secret" work for their own government. But it was all an illusion. JW's were talking about their work and books being "banned," but it never happened. Partly to enhance a sense of group-cohesion, they still talk from time to time, about the negative fantasy of being banned, but this kind of talk is not as popular as it used to be. This paranoid vision gives a kind of illusory thrill to an otherwise dull, ordinary life. They all get to "play spy" for a while, much in the same immature way that right-wing people, forming militias, "play soldier."

The major question is, "To whom are they really loyal?" They would answer, "To Jehovah God," of course. But Jehovah is said to speak through the Bible, and most Christians are unable to discover any prohibitions against voting anywhere in the Bible. Yes, early Christians did refuse to offer incense to Caesar; but that proves only that you should not worship a ruler-- not that it is wrong to cast a vote.

Since by far the greater majority of Biblical experts do not see the Bible as prohibiting voting, then the JW's are not technically following the Bible, but are in fact following the interpretations of the Organization, of the old men in Brooklyn. It is, as with the "theocracy" discussed above, to these old men that their loyalties really belong. If the Watchtower said tomorrow that voting is all right, okay, and approved by Jehovah, the JW's would be the first at the polls.

JW's have learned very well the group-cohesion that can arise from a sense of being rejected and persecuted, whether in a real or imaginary scenario. It is much more exciting to see oneself as a member of a small band of courageous Christians, surrounded by enemies, who have seen the great and hidden truths of God, than it is to see oneself as a rather ordinary cult-member. Satan has a wide alliance against them-- all religions, all governments, astrologers, new-agers, liberals, progressives, atheists, humanists, occultists, as they intrepidly shine in their pure stand "in the holy spirit." They are the sole illuminators in a world of demonic darkness. (Despite the universal fundamentalist assumption that astrologers serve Satan, the only mention of astrologers in the entire Greek Christian Scriptures is that found in Matthew, where, in the story of Jesus' birth, only they knew when and where he would be born, and they followed the advise of an angel; these are hardly "Satanic" activities.)

Belief in one's uniqueness as an especially enlightened follower of Christ is heightened and amplified by belief in being persecuted. Some psychologists believe that this need marks an unhealthy sense of guilt in the fundamentalist, a need to be "punished" for past sins.

Beyond and below the JW façade of "perfect happiness and unity" lies a boiling caldron of rage, unhealthy conscience, instability, confusion, and interpersonal conflict. Despite their being ostensibly "brothers," rarely do two or more JW's get along well, much less intimately; in many cases, a stiff and formal distance separates them, and keeps them barely on speaking terms. In the most extreme cases, they hate and despise each other. Further, the "enemy paranoia" has infiltrated even the Organization, and even "brothers and sisters" view one another with a suspicious eye, and are encouraged to "tell on" each other, reporting each other to the elders. No one really trusts anyone. The "brother" sitting next to you at the kingdom Hall might well be an "apostate," a traitor to "Jehovah's government." Added, then, to the "top ten" list of JW enemies are the JW's themselves.

Ex-JW's have often exposed the fact that the only place where the "us versus them" stand of the JW seems to be compromised is wherever money is involved. The same "brother" who madly denounced "worldly" people from the JW platform one day, can be seen brunching with them the next, laughing at dirty jokes and sharing alcoholic drinks. The JW seems comfortable even though he is "up to his ears" in the "Satanic" world. (Actually, most JW's, especially those who are businessmen, spend much more time working for the "devil's" world than for Jehovah and the Organization.)

The JW's love to pretend that they always take an "uncompromising" stand against "Satan's world". They pretend to be obdurate, unyielding, and inflexible when it comes to interaction with non-JW's. But real life JW's, in the everyday world, often make major exceptions to this rule especially where economic concerns are involved.

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GOD LIVES IN BROOKLYN: JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AS A MODEL OF FUNDAMENTALISM

By Richard Francis [e-mail]

Copyright © 1998 by Love Ministries, Inc.

Worthville, Kentucky United States of America

_____________________________________________________ 

Chapter 26 / "Up In Smoke: Denial of the Pursuit of Liberty"

The Organization winks at interaction with the evil world if it means cash. Business-people are regularly excused from the laws regarding "bad association" (With non-JW's), missing meetings, and non-participation in sales-work if it is in pursuit of money. A great deal of the money of most JW's ends up in the hands of the old men in Brooklyn, in the overflowing coffers of the Watchtower Society (the legal corporation of JW's). I still remember how boggled my mind was upon learning that there is an entire office full of desks in Brooklyn where about twenty secretaries spend all day doing nothing but opening and recording checks from all over the world.

In all other areas of life, however, the old men are not so lenient. (One reason for this is that as far as materialism is concerned, no one could possibly set a worse example than the Society. The increasing level of materialism among JW's is inescapable and obvious, especially as they expand their vast real-estate holdings in Brooklyn. Most of the workers at their giant manufacturing and printing presses are starry-eyed young people, who work for the merest pittance).

Each person has his/her own motives for working in the sales-work in the local congregations, as well. The old long for the end of civilization and the reversal of the natural order, so that they might become young again. (They have talked themselves into actually believing this.) Unattached and single people often have lives so uneventful and boring that the sales-work actually gives them something to do. Others feel that there is a kind of "meaning" in this sales-work, for they believe that they are truly serving God in a practical way. (Their youth, strength, and energy could better be invested in helping the poor, sick, and underprivileged.) But all of these people have one thing in common: They have given up absolutely any personal choices or rights to their own life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness; and both their inner and outer lives are regulated by the old men in Brooklyn. Nevertheless, as indicated above, the average JW male, when viewed in terms of his use of time, and priorities, is not fully involved. Indeed, most of his time goes straight into a job that is part and parcel of the "devil's world."

Nevertheless, a fully conditioned and programmed JW is fully expected to quit or change his job if the old men in Brooklyn decide that this is necessary. (Disfellowshiping will be threatened if the Organization's orders are not followed.) In the seventies, for example, a great controversy arose over whether one could work as a clerk or cashier in a store that sold tobacco-products. Many people, especially women, quit their jobs according to the orders of the Society, and then found themselves without employment, often for years.

Before the seventies, and this controversy, many JW's who smoked died in full favor with the Organization. Yet after the ban, any JW who did not quit smoking was disfellowshiped. Thus, another major inconsistency arose in the JW life; and this one-wrecked marriages, tore apart families, and ruined relationships. From the ban forward, but not before then, anyone who smoked became Jehovah's "enemy." And any enemy of the theocracy must become a personal enemy to every loyal JW, even if he/she is married to the "enemy."

The non-smoking leaders showed no compassion, understanding, or leniency towards even those who had a biochemical-based habit of many years' duration. Further, some who were instrumental in formulating this dogma had never smoked, and could not possibly empathize with the difficulties of overcoming this habit; some say it is worse than overcoming a heroin-addiction. As is true of their naïve view of biochemical/genetic alcoholism, JW's never saw smoking as a medical problem; for them it was a moral illness that could be solved by will-power. (The same naivete and ignorance apply to views of homosexuality among JW's and other fundamentalists, as if it is merely a conscious moral choice.)

By now, the evidence is of course overwhelming that smoking is destructive and highly hazardous to health. Anyone who has any love for his/her body needs to make every attempt to stop this habit. To cease smoking would be a great kindness, then, not only to oneself, but to others, who would also suffer, from "second-hand" smoke. But the cessation of the habit must be a free-will choice of every individual, and it is wrong for adults to try to force other adults to follow a chosen course. The recognition needs to be, "when he/she loves the self sufficiently, then smoking will be stopped," instead of, "God is going to murder you, and you are his enemy now, if you do not stop immediately."

Again, the ugly head of inconsistency is raised: If the hazards of smoking are the cause and root of its damnation, what about other compounds that scientists believe or know to be harmful? What about the chlorine in treated water? What about alcohol? What about certain drugs? What about toxic and artificial chemicals used in everyday life, from cleansers to bug-killers? What about caffeine, salt, sugar, chocolate, white flour? What about fat? Just where do you draw the line?

The line needs to be drawn at the individual's own mind and conscience. Some people claim that all beef and pork are intrinsically damaging to the body, but no one has ever questioned these popular dishes among the JW's. So, as each person designs his/her diet and exercise program, each person should decide freely, in a personal pursuit of liberty, when or whether he/she wants to stop smoking. If it were up to me, no one in the world would smoke.

But it is not up to me. And that is the entire point. It is not up to any adult to force any other adult into designs of life that must be chosen by, and according to, individually trained conscience. These must be matters of free-will choice, not of arbitrary and cruel enforcement.

Also, many JW's work with, or transport, chemicals that are known to be hazardous to health and well-being, especially in professional cleaning. In order to be consistent, these too would have to be banned, and these jobs changed. (Oddly and somewhat paradoxically, in view of the "paradise earth" of which they dream, most JW's do not care at all about the environment; human beings can be as filthy and careless as they like, and Jehovah will clean it all up.)

But the major argument against the ban on smoking is this: The Bible does not even mention smoking, not even a single time; and it never prohibits the practice. So, as with voting, above, the old men in Brooklyn have once again extrapolated or interpreted the texts of the Bible to support their own biases. And JW's, in following these rules, are not being loyal to Jehovah God, but to the old men.

Smoking is but one example of an area where the Society's directives interfere with the individual's right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. JW's, for example, laugh at the backwardness of fundamentalist groups that condemn dancing. During times in its history, however, the Organization has banned certain forms of dance. Many dance-fads have been condemned by the old men as "sexually stimulating," although one wonders here about their recognition-level and qualifications to make this judgment. (Many clothing styles, incidentally, have been condemned for the same reason.)

H.L. Mencken is said to have quipped that the Puritans lived in absolute horror that someone, somewhere might be having a good time. Much the same criticism can be leveled at the old men in Brooklyn, who actually seem to have very few good times themselves. They are always more than eager to pounce upon the fads and styles of young people as "sexually immoral"; in this, however, they simply mirror the sexual obsession that is characteristic of many fundamentalist groups, especially old leaders.

The reason for its condemnation of old dances such as the "Twist" is amusing; they claimed that the movements originated with African sexual ritual-dances.

Thus, even as demonophobics see evil spirits coming out of the woodwork, sexophobics tend to interpret even the most harmless activities as brimming with sexual intensity. It is the old story again: The entire world is filthy sexually, but the one who so labels it is "pure," and it never occurs to him/her to question or to examine the self-- the true and only source of much of the "filth." Stereotypically, those who are most mentally unbalanced, always tend to see themselves as perfectly sane.

It is partly due to this obsession that even slow dancing is not believed to be harmless-- as it would be to a normally adjusted psyche. Even slow dancing has a hidden sexual agenda, and sexual jealousy and possessiveness are so rampant among JW's that husbands and wives from different couples would find dancing together inconceivable. "Whenever flesh touches flesh," said an elder, "there arises impure sexual desire." This sexomania/sexophobia is pervasive throughout JW's, and permeates fundamentalism generally. The problem that they never quite see is that they believe themselves to be sexually disgusting, perverted beings with no rational control over the sexual impulse. No wonder they don't dance.

JW teens, then, have no outlet for normal energy. They are totally non-experimental, and are not permitted officially even to touch each other. Masturbation although psychophysically harmless, is also considered "dirty" and forbidden. So, young JW's leaping into bed together is one of the major problems of the Watchtower Society, proving once again the old maxim that suppression does not create, but actually resists, the truly moral life.

The continuous erosion and atrophy of the personal conscience, and the resulting inability to make any decisions at all, is part of the price paid for becoming overly dependent on the Organization to make all one's spiritual choices. Very subtly, almost surreptitiously, almost every facet of life, no matter how insignificant, comes to reside under the unyielding iron hand of the elders and the old men in Brooklyn, until one is so hemmed in that liberty and its healthy pursuit are only distant memories. Through a mountain of inefficient, bureaucratic red tape, the old men govern with grimness and lethal boredom; further, they dominate lives about which they care not at all-- the lives of strangers.

What force, though, drives the elders to seek this power over others? Axiomatic to psychology is the principle that, when one cannot control one's own self, one often overcompensates by trying to control either things in the environment or other people. So, the elders are really projecting a pathetic lack of self-control; their own thoughts, infested with evil, are projected onto an "evil" world; their hypersexuality makes everyone seem obsessed with sex; and their absence of self-control forces or drives them to seek to control others. It is in this kind of "mirroring" behavior that they go entirely too far, beyond the boundaries of common sense or good taste, and fall into ludicrous extremes. Painfully aware of their own sins and weaknesses, they seek to impose strict regulations on others. If this is so, then many elders must be quite guilty of the most lurid and perverse thoughts and feelings.

These men see demons, enemies, and sexuality exploding everywhere, and yet so great is their arrogance, it never occurs to them to question their own sanity or balance. One of the reasons for this is that they come together often and share their agreement that the real problems are "out there," in the world, and they thus mutually reinforce each other's delusions. Like those who are mentally stressed in a hospital, and who all come to share a delusion that the nurses and doctors are actually malevolent beings from Mars, they support and strengthen each other's illnesses and illusions. (Elders are not alone in this, but JW's, and many fundamentalists, also do the same thing. Incidentally, the old men in Brooklyn are quite as ill as any local elders.)

But it is reasonable to ask whether this kind of illness can occur on so large a scale. Yes, it can, and we have historical precedence for believing that mental imbalance has its own kind of "contagion," although not physically transmitted. Just examine the history of any extremist cult, or of Nazi Germany, or of any form of Satanism, and you will see that it is quite as easy to visualize people en masse losing perspective as it is to picture an individual doing so. Just remember the hideous spectacle of the witch hunt craze between 1450 and 1650.

A major part of this "elderitis" is hyper compensation. They really do hate themselves at times, and feel quite useless and worthless. This causes them not only to see other human beings as worthless, but also to cry out for attention; this they must publicly do at the large conventions, where they virtually beg for respect and even admiration. Once one has seen the mechanisms behind this, it is pathetic. Indeed, elders often behave like little boys overlooked by a callous world; for they have often been completely ignored by the real world, in matters of success. Many adopt humble jobs, with which there is nothing wrong at all; but they feel lower on the social scale, and so are always rushing to catch up. (Possibly another manifestation of their overcompensation is that an astonishing number of JW's become involved in some form of profession-- cleaning-- perhaps, at least in some cases, revealing that they feel "unclean" inside.) All honest work is honorable, but they denigrate and derogate themselves because they are not living up to higher potentials. Since their religion is definitely one of the factors that hold them down, it is no surprise that much of their anger is expressed through this convenient medium. The problem is, when expressed by elders, this expression of displaced anger crushes and hurts other people, ruins careers, and stifles the potentials of others.

This is especially true of bright young people. Since the elders have never "made it," and have little or no success in their lives, they want sub-consciously to strike back at the world, and their misery loves company. So, they regularly discourage higher education and anything else that might lead younger, brighter people to higher levels of success than they themselves have know. In the perfect world of the elders, all young people would go into mind-numbing jobs without possibility of any advancement, where they would work without question or thought until they dropped dead.

They are also self-berating because they realize that their "power" in the congregation is only "facsimile-power." That is, it is no real power at all, but only a kind of pseudo-power; they lord it grandly over widows, children, unattached women, teens, and old people; in a word they dominate "sheep," and there can be no real challenge in that. So, they realize that their power plays are pathetic, and their political maneuvers lead nowhere, and that even if one comes to be in charge of the elders of a local congregation, one still has nothing worth having. (For the elders cannot even be guaranteed the respect of those in the congregation, who, as often as not, find their antics amusing.)

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GOD LIVES IN BROOKLYN: JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AS A MODEL OF FUNDAMENTALISM

By Richard Francis [e-mail]

Copyright © 1998 by Love Ministries, Inc.

Worthville, Kentucky United States of America

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EPILOGUE / THANKS A LOT: HOW JW'S HAVE ENRICHED MY LIFE

When I was four, my family converted to the cult of JW's and, all during my youth, I never even knew that the "normal" or "outside" world even existed. I was supremely delighted and excited to discover it much later. I stayed in the Organization, and under its relentless control, until I was in my early twenties; and I have spent about twenty years since then trying to piece together, understand, and make some sense out of my experience as a fully dedicated, zealous, passionate JW, to whom my religion literally meant everything.

I learned actually quite a bit of value from the experience. I learned how not to do just about everything. By doing everything incorrectly, JW's helped me see most lucidly how to do things correctly. Due to my having been a JW, I know that there are foolish mistakes that I will never again make.

For one thing, I will never again join any kind of mind-controlling cult, which dominates me, telling me how to "tie my shoes" and "brush my teeth," as if I were four years old. As Paul said so eloquently, "Now that I have become a man, I have done away with the things of a baby."

This applies doubly to religion. I am no longer a technically "religious" man; JW's have "turned me off" completely to organized religion; but they have also helped me realize that all religious organizations are nothing but conveniences. The relationship that I share with God is an intensely personal one, extremely fulfilling, but requires no "middle men" standing between me and my Creator. It is a highly intimate and intensely personal relationship. The lie that the JW's told me, that I could never have any relationship with God outside of the boundaries of "his Organization," the "ark of safety," has evaporated completely, leaving me the freest of beings to follow my own exciting, satisfying path of deep contentment and utter tranquillity.

The JW's also, quite inadvertently, taught me quite a bit about exclusivity as it contrasts with inclusively. They excluded everyone but themselves, and their little cult, from the people who believe in, and practice honestly the "truth." I now feel a wide-open heart to all beings of goodness, and no longer have any prejudice or bigotry against anyone in the world-- completely regardless of his/her religion, culture, history, or background. I can now see great truths as they have been revealed in every major spiritual tradition, and feel free to incorporate into my eclectic spiritual path anything that works to make me a better person, or the world a better place.

JW's also served, by bad example, to awaken y social conscience. While I do not suffer from the delusion that I can solve the problems of the world, neither do I take the opposite extreme, believing that it is completely fine for me just to sit by and let the world disintegrate-- socially, morally, or ecologically. I now realize that it is the duty of each person to use to the fullest his or her gifts to serve other people.

And while God has given no clear mandate to become involved politically, I now have a deep appreciation of the democracy under which we live-- especially when contrasted with the tyranny of the cult. I now have much more respect for our laws, and try always to obey them. I also now deeply appreciate our great leaders-- religious, scientific, moral, and spiritual. Before, as a JW, I would have only mocked them, and derided their inability to solve human problems. Now, I have a much brighter view of the future; I see what our human brother/sisterhood has already been through, and how we have successfully survived as a civilization, and I now have faith in our shared future. I know now that human beings are not only very tough, but also resourceful and compassionate.

I have dropped the cynicism with which I was programmed. I now truly believe, and have discovered, that most people are basically good, even if confused from time to time. I trust people usually to do the right thing. I trust that even our questionable leaders have a strong streak of goodness within them, which cannot be obliterated by scandals and peccadilloes.

When I was a JW, I was a JW precisely because all that I ever wanted to do was to serve God completely, with my whole mind, my whole heart, and my whole soul, as Jesus commanded. I truly thought that I was doing this as a JW. But I learned later that there are two distinct varieties of JW: those who, like myself, are honestly trying to serve God; and those who, like the cynical leaders, are members only to facilitate personal, often unhealthy, agendas. I am happy, indeed, deliriously so, to report that I took away from the cult the intact passion to serve God. (But I did not get this from the cult.)

Not only did the "JW education" prevent me from ever falling victim to any other cult; it also brought a dazzling illumination to my mind. This realization exploded with the power of a super-nova at the very center of my being, and I still stagger and reel from its impact: Jehovah, the ancient war-god of the Hebrews, was a different god entirely from the God of love, peace, joy, and forgiveness preached by Jesus. It is due to this realization, not due to any ignorance on their part, that Christians generally have never used the name "Jehovah" in their worship. (The exceptions have included a few Puritan and fringe-fundamentalist groups, and the neo-Nazis, who prefer the more correct form "Yahweh.")

The Lord that I discovered through years of obsessive and focused search was not capable of anger, for anger is a result of frustration; and you cannot possibly frustrate an all-powerful God. No, my God was no longer the Jehovah of the Hebrew Scriptures, but the God of the apostle John who wrote twice in his little epistle the famous words, "God is Love." So, the God that I worship now is unstained by human folly, unsullied by human weakness, uncontaminated by out-of-control emotions. The Being of God is stainless, luminous, eternal Love.

JW's did not help me to see this; indeed, this kind of discovery is the very last thing that they want to see happen. But by continually presenting a god of anger, ferocity, hatred, bloodthirsty cruelty, vengeance, insecurity, jealousy and warlike, they made such a strong contrast that it finally allowed the Lord of the heart to manifest, with spectacular pristinity and shining brightness.

Now, I feel an enormous sense of fulfillment and joyful, ecstatic freedom in my life, arising from the deepest recognition that God is love and that, in touching love in my life, I have found the only God that is needed to fill life with joy to over-flowing.

Just in case you missed it, or have forgotten, let me repeat a very crucial premise: I do not hate JW's. Indeed, this book has been written precisely because I deeply love JW's, as well as future, potential JW "wannabes," and all ex-JW's. To you all, I wish every good blessing in all the days to come. May your hearts and minds be filled with the brilliant light of divine love, and may you know unlimited joy in every pursuit of your life.

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End of, "God lives in Brooklyn: Jehovah's Witnesses as a Model of Fundamentalism", by Richard Francis Copyright © 1998 by Love, Ministries, Inc. Worthville, Kentucky; United States of America.

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