The JWs: Genuine, kitschy but not authentic
By
1985 I had been studying the Jehovah’s Witnesses intermittently for over five
years. This study had included visits to the local Kingdom Hall, and the JW
assemblies at Norwich City football ground, along with talks and correspondence with Kingdom Hall members. I can
say straight away that all I saw left me with the overwhelming impression of a
culture that reeked of flawed human motivation. I saw a repertoire of
unconscious and self-inflicted tricks exploiting the human vulnerability for
soaking up typical conceits and self-deceits: In particular a “swallow whole and digest slowly” world
view was served up on an enticing plate. Like so many other religious package
deals this included promises of banishing ambiguity with spiritual authority
and of being part of a spiritual elite who have turned their back on the cold
evil outside world and are now moving in the warmth and security of a caring
off-the-peg-community. That community is overseen by a presiding patriarchy claiming
to be in touch with absolute Truth. All one has to do in return is to sell up (figuratively
speaking, but sometimes literally as well) and let that patriarchal spiritual
authority do all your thinking for you. All you need think about is trying to
understand the message proffered and to become a proficient single minded
salesperson of the sect. Basically it’s
the same old, same old story repeated again and again by every Christian sect/cult
between here and Salt Lake City. All these cult people no doubt mean well, but
in the final analysis it’s the usual story of epistemically challenged humanity
throwing up their hands, abdicating epistemic responsibility and seeking the
security of clear cut, definitive and authoritative answers; and of course
there’s no shortage of egotistical religionists (sometimes boarder line
mentally ill) who claim to have those answers and will loudly pronounce everyone else to be fundamentally wrong! These religionists offer an all-or-nothing faith package none of which is negotiable. Any persistent attempt to negotiate
any part of it is taken as a sign of disobedience to the Almighty himself. One is
required to accept the whole package without argument or else be damned!
It
was in 1985 that I came across Raymond Franz’ book “Crisis of Conscience”, a book published in 1983. Franz was onetime governing
body member of the Watchtower publishing organisation. It is this organisation
that provides the JW Kingdom Halls with detailed instructions about their observance
of belief and practice. Franz’ book tells the story of his disillusionment with
this organisation and his eventual break with it. As with all religious cults
that try to envelop their members lives so totally, breaking with them can be a
painful business as Franz’ book confirms.
I can recommend this book to all cult watchers.
In
order to capture what I myself had got from the book in 1985 I typed up a five
page summary of my personal take-home lessons. This article is now in computer
readable format, and can be downloaded from here.
. It picks up on some general characteristics that as it turns out are common to all cults/sects and even, I’m bound to add, characteristics that can be found (albeit in a less pronounced precursory form) amongst fundamentalists and perhaps even some moderate evangelical Christians.
. It picks up on some general characteristics that as it turns out are common to all cults/sects and even, I’m bound to add, characteristics that can be found (albeit in a less pronounced precursory form) amongst fundamentalists and perhaps even some moderate evangelical Christians.
I
have to admit that having been a long time watcher of Christianity in its cult
forms I find the whole phenomenon disturbing; in fact I’m reminded of the
sinister legend of the Pied Piper of Hamlin. That story probably has a basis in
some real event, an event which prompted a Hamlin town chronicler to record in
1384 the macabre entry: “It is a 100
years since our children left”; if as some have suggested this was a reference
to the Children’s Crusade it is all the more appropriate to my case*. The idea behind
the Pied Piper legend is that of some kind of spell being worked to make people
leave their homes apparently voluntarily.
But with today’s communications secrets are difficult to keep even in the
control freak atmosphere of a cult and so the spell that these cults work on
their members can be scrutinised and analysed. I think it important to emphasise
the metaphor of a “spell”; for I believe it is wrong to accuse cult members of
lying as they appear to have been seduced by a self-deceit.
My
article has four sections that, as I have subsequently learned, describe
features common to other cults and which are part of the cult dynamic. So here
then is a brief summary of those sections which are admirably exemplified by
the JW Kingdom halls and their controlling publishing organisation, the
Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.
Section 1: Unaccountable
authority: The
sect leaders think of themselves as stewards of an institutional authority that
should not to be gainsaid.
Section 2: The clash
with reality: The
account that the cult provides of the world around them often does not match up well against reality itself. In the case of the
Watchtower this is seen in the repeated failure of their anticipated end time history
to correspond with real events. (Since writing my article in 1985 I note that the
Watchtower has given up on its prediction that “the end of this system of things” would come within one generation
of 1914)
Section 3: Spiritual
spin: The
leaders have to find a way to account for the intellectual dissonance that may result
of their failure. They therefore engage in what today we might call “spiritual
spin”, that is, they give the story a spin that in the first instance attempts to explain the
failure away. After that they rely on silence and short memories; new recruits are
not informed of the failures since nobody talks about them.
Section 4:
Character defamation.
The sect/cult believes that world beyond their community is depraved and in
particular those who take a robust stand against their observances are thought
of as especially depraved. It is therefore a very natural part of the sect/cult
mind-set to believe that those who attack them must do so because they are sold-out to the
darkness of evil and are on the wrong side of the Almighty. They therefore feel
entirely justified in abusing detractors by accusing them of heinous sin. For
people outside of the cult this equivalent of name calling may be just water
off a duck’s back, but for members who are
held thrall to the cult spell and whose lives have been so
thoroughly socially immersed in the cult this is a real threat: It provides a
frightening example of what will happen to you if you contradict the cult
authorities; one is cast into the outer darkness, or "hell" if you like. This
moral abuse, I feel, is an important part of the cult dynamic. For cults that
don’t have economic control over their subjects this social control is the main
means of coercion; one is effectively “burnt” with words of moral disapprobation,
the equivalent of the heretic’s pyre! In this connection, whenever I approached
JWs about Raymond Franz I found that they automatically concluded he was a
sinner and liar. The upshot was that this completely blocked even so much as a cursory
examination of the evidence. So let’s be clear: Unless cult members proactively
seek you out there is probably little point in you trying to “de-convert” them:
To them you are guilty until proved innocent. If they do seek you out it may be
a sign they are already having doubts. So
let them take the initiative first, but be ready for them when they come your
way.
Postscript: At the time I was studying the WT
and other cults I was moving in evangelical circles. What began to disturb me
in those early days of my faith was that the sort of thing I was seeing amongst
the JWs and these cults I also found, albeit in milder form, in some of the
stronger versions of evangelicalism and especially in evangelicalism’s
fundamentalist communities. For example, I note that AiG supremo Ken Ham is very
much into 4 above… those who disagree with him he will paint as morally flawed
compromisers. But that is another (long) story.
Relevant Link:
Relevant Link:
http://viewsnewsandpews.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/knock-knock-who-is-there-je-who-vahs.html
Footnote:
* If 1284 is the date when the Children of Hamlin left, then this is actually too late for the Children's crusade story which is dated circa 1212. Another theory is that the Children were lost to "Dancing Mania", a social phenomenon that occurred in mainland Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries (according to Wiki). As I read up on the subject it is clear that once again we are ham-strung by epistemological limitations.
Footnote:
* If 1284 is the date when the Children of Hamlin left, then this is actually too late for the Children's crusade story which is dated circa 1212. Another theory is that the Children were lost to "Dancing Mania", a social phenomenon that occurred in mainland Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries (according to Wiki). As I read up on the subject it is clear that once again we are ham-strung by epistemological limitations.
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