From: smith_w@apollo.hp.com (#Walter Smith)
Subject: Re: This is what the Jehovah's Witnesses do.
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 00:32:50 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Chelmsford, MA

 In Message-ID: <1992Jul29.205414.11276@e2big.mko.dec.com>, Mark Sornson        
continues to offer insight into a Jehovah's Witnesses' way of looking           
at things:                                                                      
                                                                                
>    This may well cause those other churches to view those who leave to        
>become Witnesses as 'apostates' (in some manner) -- but we *really             
>don't care* that they label us that way.  When Witnesses leave other           
>religions and are shunned by family and/or friends in those former             
>churches, WE don't cry about it, since we have already counted the             
>cost, and are convinced that Jesus' words will be fulfilled toward us:         
                                                                                
A good reason for that might be because when newly converted Jehovah's          
Witnesses renounce (apostacize by the definition you offered) their             
former faiths, it is unlikely that their former church will force their         
family members to shun them, like the Jehovah's Witnesses do.  Since            
the person decided to join the Jehovah's Witnesses out of a sense of            
love/obligation/duty etc *to* God, and not *against* God, most                  
mainstream church members won't view the person as being a                      
"spiritual enemy".  A radical, a little looney, or something along              
those lines, but at least as a well-meaning one who cares deeply                
about God and what He wants from them.   Unfortunately, the                     
Jehovah's Witnesses themselves cannot reciprocate that same                     
level of understanding to those who chose to leave the group                    
*for* the sake of the Kingdom of God.                                           
                                                                                
As for Jehovah's Witnesses "not crying" if they *are* shunned by                
family members and former friends,  that in itself says a mouthful              
for the heart condition of Jehovah's Witnesses as a whole.                      
If *my* family shunned me for the rest of my life because I chose               
to follow my religious convictions, you'd better believe I'd be                 
crying.  I'd be crying to God that they would understand what I was             
doing and respect my convictions; I'd be crying and pleading to                 
my family for understanding, so that my daughter would not be losing            
out on a full extended family, etc.  I'd be absolutely crushed,                 
knowing that the intolerance of people was causing everyone I love              
and who loves me to be losing out on so much.                                   
                                                                                
And the worst thing about it is, when a Jehovah's Witness leaves the            
group over religious convictions, he is not being shunned for the               
Kingdom of God at all; he is being shunned over membership in a                 
man-made institution.  And that is a shameful, needless waste.                  
What kind of people do we become when we dish out that level of                 
punishment on an individual who choses to follow his own convictions?           
What kind of people do we become if we see how crushed a person is              
by being shunned, and we continue to do it?  What forces are we                 
promoting when we do that?                                                      
                                                                                
>We are happy with our choice, and usually find that we are more than           
>amply compensated for personal losses with spiritual returns.                  
                                                                                
That sounds wonderful.  I can't help but wonder about it, though.               
How can someone be spiritually happy in an environment where they               
have to fear admitting to any level of disagreement with the                    
Official Policy (tm)??  You personally have been asked if there were            
any Watchtower teachings you might consider wrong; you would (could?)           
not even go so far as to publically admit to such a thing; in fact,             
I don't know *any* Jehovah's Witness who would do that.  Not suprising          
when you consider the potential penalty...forced acceptance to                  
doctrine, even when it is recognized that it may later be considered            
false, cannot foster a spiritually healthy environment for the people           
in it.  Of course, the people in such an environment can be conditioned         
to *think* they *should* be happy, just because they are in the group,          
and thus they might really believe they are happy; until something              
happens to get them away from the controls of said environment, and             
they "wake up" are rediscover themselves.                                       
                                                                                
>to oppose those who remain in that former one.  When people leave other        
>faiths to become Witnesses, they don't become full-time opposers of            
>those former religions; they become full-time advocates of their new           
>one.                                                                           
                                                                                
This is where Mark's posting went a little bizzare.  If someone is              
familiar with the preaching of the Jehovah's Witnesses for any length           
of time, they find that one of the primary thrusts; the entire reason           
for the existance of their "preaching work" is to "expose" all other            
faiths as FALSE and theirs as the only true one.   I can't recall               
reading so much as a SINGLE Watchtower magazine that built up                   
and edified the Witnesses without attempting to tear down and                   
discredit others in the process.                                                
                                                                                
And the wierdness continued:                                                    
                                                                                
>    Now, it's true that not all people who leave or in some way fall           
>away from being one of Jehovah's Witnesses are classified as apostates.        
                                                                                
OK, so why do they disfellowship someone, with the shunning penalty that        
goes along with it, anyone who resignes from the group, even if they            
have committed no moral evil?   Why is chosing to leave the group a             
sin worthy of shunning?                                                         
                                                                                
>But, as I said before, apostacy is much more a matter of attitude and          
>practice -- and I'll add, attitude and practice which is actively              
>demonstrated as opposition -- than it is a mere matter of knowledge and        
>belief (or as the case may be, unbelief).                                      
                                                                                
This is another one of those wonderful sounding speeches that really can        
be manipulated by people with power, like those at the head of an               
authoritarian religion.  Holding "Wrong Beliefs" (tm) is not a sin              
that makes you an apostate.  It is your attitude.   It works like this:"        
    "Son, you believe the Wrong Thing.  This is the Right Thing that            
     you should believe instead."  "But I don't think that Right                
     Thing is correct."  "Look son, I am God's mouthpiece, and I                
     have been commissioned by the Almighty God to dispense 'meat               
     in due season' to you.  You need to believe what I say is                  
     the Right Thing."  "But I can't just make myself believe                   
     something that I think is wrong."  "That's it, son.  You                   
     have a BAD ATTITUTE towards The Truth (tm) and to God's                    
     visible representative (me).  Because of your ATTITUDE, you                
     are now an apostate.  You will be shunned until you repent                 
     of your attitude, and start believing the Right Thing."                    
                                                                                
This is *such* a dangerous way of thinking.  It creates demi-gods,              
and promotes the destruction of people's freedom to think for                   
themselves.  Combine that with the encouragement to "turn in" other             
members of the group if they do something wrong, and you've got                 
the makings of a Gestapo State.   People afraid to freely speak                 
their feelings and convictions, for fear of reprisal.                           
                                                                                
>    Nice try, but you are really over-stretching the notion of open-           
>mindedness.  Open-mindedness does NOT require a person to sacrifice            
>conviction that certain notions are unquestionably true, and thus              
>others are unquestionably false.                                               
                                                                                
OK, so what does it mean?  If it is a certain, unquestionable conviction        
of mine that the Watchtower Society intentionally lies to and attempts          
to mislead people, and I will not sacrifice that conviction, am I               
open-minded?  Or do you get to decide what convictions a person can             
have certain, and still be open-minded?                                         
                                                                                
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Walter Smith                                                                    
smith_w@apollo.hp.com