Being raised in “the Truth” from one’s earliest days has a profound effect on development. When I was quite young, certainly before I started Kindergarten, I can recall my mother telling me that Armageddon was 2 or 3 years off. From that point on, I was frozen in time. No matter what the situation, my worldview was that 2 - 3 years from then, everything would change. The effect of such thinking, especially in the early years of one’s life is hard to overestimate. Even after 17 years away from the Organization, I still have this reaction, on occasion, and have to talk myself out of it. I would never be so imprudent as to try to predict a date for Armageddon, but such thoughts are like a mental reflex.
When I first walked into Kindergarten, I was faced with a roomful of strangers and it was the first time I had ever been in a room with so many non-JWs. Having come from a different religious background, it’s no surprise that it was challenging, but because of my worldview, these “worldlings” were not to be adapted to, but to be endured; after all, they would all be gone in another 2 or 3 years, destroyed at Armageddon. This highly flawed way of looking at things was reinforced by comments I heard coming from adult Witnesses in my life. When Witnesses gathered socially, it was only a matter of time before the subject of Armageddon was in the air, usually in the form of outrage at some current event, followed by a long discussion about how this fit in with the “sign” that Armageddon was imminent. It was all but impossible to avoid developing a pattern of thinking which created a very strange view of time.
One’s View Of Time
The Hebrew view of time was linear, while many other ancient cultures tended to think of time as cyclical. The observation of a Sabbath served to delineate time in a fashion that was relatively unique in the world of its time. Many people never dreamed of a day off before that time, and there were advantages to this. While planting and harvest were obviously very significant in the agrarian economy of ancient Israel, they had an added dimension of linear time and had a marker, in the form of Passover. Celebrations linked to historical events, such as Passover, added a sense that time was passing, not just repeating. Also, every year brought them one year closer to the appearance of the Messiah, which was even more significant than the deliverance they had experienced from Egypt. It is not without purpose that ancient Israel was commanded to remember this deliverance and, to this day, an observant Jewish person is likely to know how many Passovers have been observed throughout history.
The Witness's view of time strikes me as being peculiar. There is a linear aspect, in that Armageddon is expected in the future. But there is also an element of being frozen in a cycle of repeating events that all resolve in waiting for Armageddon to deliver us from the challenges of life. Beyond that, there was a tendency towards the thought that this might be the last Memorial, District Convention, etc. before Armageddon. This is burdensome enough for anyone, but when a child is exposed to this sort of thinking, they may develop a long-term pattern of thinking which will taint their ability to deal with the harsh realities that life may throw our way. A person raised in “the Truth” could easily develop a pattern of not facing life’s problems by relying on Armageddon as the solution to any problem that seems challenging. It took me years to overcome this, in my own behavior.
As a child growing up in the JW world, time was a burden, of sorts, because I wasn’t supposed to think about the future, except as it related to Armageddon. Part of a child’s development involves coming to terms with their own lifetime, and how that fits into history. In order to orient oneself in time, it is important to have a sense of just how it happened that you got to this particular place and time, and this helps us in knowing what to expect from the future. However, in a JW family, there may be a sense of detachment because living with the End just over the horizon, makes family history seem unimportant. How can one plan a future when Armageddon is going to disrupt everything, and probably very soon? Beyond that, every mention of future plans would almost certainly be met with the assurance that Armageddon would be here before any of our future plans would come to fruition, that is, except plans that revolved around JW activities, which were almost always encouraged.
Effect Upon Personal Development
So a young JW can end up feeling stuck. The first priority for a young Witness is to survive Armageddon and the best way to do that, according to the Organization, is to concentrate on “theocratic activities” and wait upon Jehovah. This can impede one’s appreciation of serving God, not from fear of punishment, but out of love for Him as our Creator. There is also a subtle incentive to avoid anything that could unnecessarily expose one to the harsh realities of the “World”. Many Witness youths were expected to remain as pristine as possible so that they could enter into the New System as innocents, unaffected by the realities of life. I recall one JW father who was quite disappointed that his adult, and very responsible son, had taken a wife. He had expected him to wait until Armageddon. I know another that was incensed that his son, in his thirties at the time, didn’t want to continue to live in his parent’s home, waiting until Armageddon before establishing his own household.
Going as far back as my teen years, I noticed that the less zealous among my peer group tended to do better in many aspects of life than the ones that were held up as shining examples. I think it boils down to getting on with the business of life. Perhaps their “lack of zeal” was simply a matter of a more pragmatic view of life, believing in God, but not convinced that Armageddon had to happen at any particular time. The antithesis of this was a phenomenon I observed many times, over the years; young single JWs that seemed frozen, with regard to progress in their lives. Many of these people would spend a great deal of their time in the preaching work, and there were strong social conventions among their peer groups. During a period of slack employment, I went out in service frequently with one such group of people, and the fact that I was seeking permanent, full-time employment was treated as if it were a dangerous notion. Once I did find reliable, full-time employment, I was no longer accepted among them, to the same degree.
As I mentioned, I’ve seen this phenomenon on a number of occasions, in a number of congregations. While a young non-Witness might measure their success in practical terms, these young Witnesses measured their success almost solely in terms of their Witness activities. The problem with this is that life can pass you by and soon enough, a 20-year-old pioneer becomes a 30-year-old pioneer, then a 40 or 50-year-old pioneer; one whose prospects are hindered because of a history of menial employment and limited formal education. Tragically, because such persons anticipate Armageddon at any minute, they can go deep into adulthood without having charted any course in life, beyond being a “full-time minister”. It’s quite possible for someone in this situation to find themselves middle-aged and with little in the way of marketable skills. I distinctly remember a JW man that was doing the grueling work of hanging drywall at an age when many men were retired. Imagine a man in his late sixties lifting sheets of drywall in order to make a living. It’s tragic.
Time As A Tool
Our view of time is actually quite predictive of our success in leading a happy and productive life. Our life is not a series of repeating years but is instead a series of non-repeating stages of development. Children find it much easier to learn languages and reading than an adult that attempts to master a new language or learn to read. It’s obvious that our Creator made us thusly. Even in perfection, there are milestones. For example, Jesus was 30 years old before being baptized and starting to preach. However, Jesus was not wasting his years up until that time. After staying behind at the temple (at the age of 12) and being retrieved by his parents, Luke 2:52 tells us “and Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and people”. He would not have been regarded with favor by people, had he spent his youth unproductively.
In order to succeed, we have to build a foundation for our lives, preparing ourselves for the challenges of making a living, and learning how to deal with our neighbors, co-workers, etc. These are not necessarily easy things to do, but if we view our life as a journey forward through time, we will be much more likely to succeed than if we simply kick all of life’s challenges down the road, hoping that Armageddon will heal all of our problems. Just to clarify, when I mention success, I am not talking about the accumulation of wealth, but instead, living effectively and happily.
On a more personal level, I find that I have had an unusual degree of difficulty in accepting the passage of time, over the course of my life. However, since leaving the JWs, this has somewhat abated. While I’m no psychologist, my suspicion is that being away from the constant drumbeat of “the End” being near, is the reason for this. Once this imposed state of emergency was no longer part of my everyday life, I found that I could look at life with much greater perspective, and see my efforts, not just as surviving until End, but as part of a flow of events that has continuity with the lives of my ancestors and my age-group peers. I can’t control when Armageddon happens, but I can live effectively and whenever God’s Kingdom arrives, I will have built a wealth of wisdom and experience which will be useful no matter what the circumstances.
Wasted Time?
It’s hard to imagine that it was 40 years ago, but I have a distinct memory of buying a cassette tape of an Eagles concert and being introduced to a song called Wasted Time, which was about the ongoing cycle of “relationships” in these sexually libertine times and hoping that one day the characters in the song could look back and see that their time has not been wasted, after all. That song has resonated with me ever since. From the perspective of 40 years hence, I have much more than I did back then. Greater practical skills, more education, durable goods, and equity in a home. But I don’t have more time than I did back then. The decades I spent putting off life because perceived nearness of Armageddon were the definition of wasted time. More significantly, my spiritual development accelerated after I took my leave from the Organization.
So where does that leave us, as persons who were influenced by years in the JW Organization? We cannot go back in time, and the antidote to wasted time is not to waste even more time with regrets. To anyone struggling with such issues, I would suggest starting by facing the passage of time, face the fact that Armageddon will come on God’s timetable and not that of any humans, then endeavor to live the life God has given you now, whether Armageddon is near, or beyond your lifespan. You are alive now, in a fallen world filled with evil and God knows what you face. The hope of deliverance is where it always has been, in God’s hands, at His time.
An Example from Scripture
One scripture that has helped me greatly, is Jeremiah 29, God’s instructions to the exiles taken to Babylon. There were false prophets predicting an early return to Judah, but Jeremiah told them that they needed to get on with life in Babylon. They were instructed to build homes, marry, and live out their lives. Jeremiah 29:4 “This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 ‘Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Take wives and father sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may give birth to sons and daughters; and grow in numbers there and do not decrease. 7 Seek the prosperity of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord in its behalf; for in its prosperity will be your prosperity.” I strongly recommend reading the entire chapter of Jeremiah 29.
We’re in a fallen world, and life is not always easy. But we can apply Jeremiah 29 to our current situation, and leave Armageddon in God’s hands. As long as we remain faithful, our God will remember us when His time arrives. He doesn’t expect us to freeze ourselves in time in order to please Him. Armageddon is His deliverance from evil, not a Sword of Damocles that freezes us in our tracks.
Archived Comments
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Comment by BibleJon on 2020-11-13 10:35:07
Thank you Chet for a comforting and encouraging commentary. As an ex JW (some 25 years ago now) , I had been mentally in and physically out for 24 of those years , now thanks to people like yourself, Eric and other contributors I have now learned the path to Christian Freedom and Gods real truth.
So many of the things you so eloquently describe rang a bell of immediate recognition in my mind and heart.
My hope is that many more sincere seekers of truth will wake up and come to know our wonderful God Jehovah and our Lord Jesus as they really should be known. that we will all continue to grow in Love and the True knowledge.
My heart felt thanks to you all for all the enlightening videos and commentaries.
How wonderful to now know that in Gods own time and according to his purpose the Kingdom will come to earthly power and bring back all those rightly disposed to life now and eternal .
The wonderful realisation of the immeasurable value of Jesus sacrifice which is available to all members of the human race , the lie that approximately 8 billion people will be wiped out now exposed , the healing of the nations will become a reality , to Gods glory and loving appreciation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Note:
If you think about it if 8 billion humans were to be destroyed at Armageddon who would really be the winner? Only the Father of the Lie, certainly not our Great God Jehovah and our Lord Jesus Christ.Reply by Chet on 2020-11-13 11:38:39
Thanks for a great comment. Like yourself, I found that the mental element was the trickiest part of leaving. Perhaps, one reason for this is that I associated the good things in the Bible with the JWs. It took me a while to come to grips with the fact that the wonderful promises, such as restoration of the earth and deliverance of humans were not the sole province of the JWs, but are actually believed by many Christians, in many denominations.
The way the Witnesses present this, portray God as a heartless killer of the innocent. I remember, distinctly, the day my mother told me about this destruction and I remember the cold chill I felt, as adrenaline rushed through my veins. This was in my preschool years, but the fear of being destroyed at Armageddon tainted my thoughts from then on. I would hear the word destroyed, and immediately be gripped with that same feeling.
But what about the neighbor boy, who was harmless, would he be destroyed because his family went to church elsewhere? The answer was always the same; maybe God would bring them into “the Truth”.
in Genesis 9:9 says: “Now behold, I Myself am establishing My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; 10 and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the livestock, and every animal of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, every animal of the earth. 11 I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be eliminated by the waters of a flood, nor shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.” The flood was an indiscriminate force which killed all but the occupants of the ark. The next judgment would be selective.
No human knows who will be spared at Armageddon, but if our God would have spared Sodom for the sake of ten righteous men, we can be certain that He will never execute judgment indiscriminately.Reply by BibleJon on 2020-11-15 12:15:03
Hello Chet and Good Evening to you (at least its evening here in the UK)
Thanks for your response and yet more encouraging words, keep safe Brother, To Gods Praise and the fulfilment of his will and purpose. In Christ Bible Jon
Comment by cx_516 on 2020-11-14 02:20:44
Chet, very well written. I was only half way through when I forwarded this to my wife. She loved it too. We’re both PIMO in China. We had been doing some writing exercises to help us process the stress of leaving the JW’s and you eloquently captured many thoughts we had but struggled to express. Much appreciated. Thank you. We look forward to more of your articles.
Comment by Leonardo Josephus on 2020-11-14 06:19:04
Wise words, Chet. May I summarise what you say from my point of view.
Our early years are about learning, and how to deal with people, and facing challenges. The Org does not encourage how to learn and gets us to think all other people are wicked because they are not Jehovah's Witnesses, and then wriggle a bit by saying that only God can read hearts. As you observe, we do not need to worry because the end is so near.
Our next stage is one of building skills to last a lifetime, to provide us with a living, and to provide for a family. With limited learning, we will end up down a road where our full potential is not achieved. The problem here is that our choices have been limited, while not everyone wants to build some high flying career.
At least the Organisation encourages building a family life. However, this means passing on the limitations mentioned above. Some do not even get as far as a family life, because, again, they are led to believe the end is so near. My son often says "God's Kingdom will sort it out".
As we get older, and reach retirement, we have more time to think. We can look back, as you have done, and realise how our lives have been manipulated. It is, however, true that we will have learned a lot about what pleases God, and probably avoided many errors in life. Life is more than just avoiding errors. Whatever Jesus meant with the parable of the talents, we want to feel we played our part on the great stage of mankind and used our talents (and our brain) as best we could in the circumstances we found ourselves in
Placing the end so near has cheated us of so much.
If that repeats your thoughts, Chet, thanks for listening.
Comment by Psalmbee on 2020-11-15 15:02:20
Hi Chet, thanks for sharing your life experience with us. Ironically Armageddon has already damaged so many peoples lives that have been in the ORG. So many things left undone in the lives of those that believed that Armageddon was coming next week.
Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year the threat of Armageddon is and has been shoved down people of the ORG's throats. That along with an iron fist of demanding people go preach just so they can be saved. Not to mention all the brain washing and mind control.
Hang in there my friend and be proud that you have risen above their veil. Do yourself a favor now, and get rid of "their NWT" because that's exactly what it is "their NWT".
Meleti even said it in his last article how misleading it is in certain places. It's like eating a half rotten apple or banana, you have to cut out the "rotten sections" and that true with all their literature.
Thanks again and love to all,
PsalmbeeReply by Chet on 2020-11-15 17:50:24
You said a mouthful, Psalmbee. The end of the world is a massive burden to carry everywhere you go. It permeated my thinking for decades. Every juncture in life was influenced by the “knowledge” that Armageddon could happen at any moment. 17 years after walking away, I’ve undone most of that thinking, but there are still moments where I have to manually take control and not let my thoughts go there.
There came a point where I concluded that it wasn’t worth it. If the Witness version of things were correct, then the survivors would envy the dead. Who would want to live in a paradise that cost the lives a billions of people whom were guilty of little more than belonging to the wrong church? The only possible way that Armageddon can occur, is if the judgment is fair. If it weren’t those who survived would forever have their memories tainted by the injustice of it all.
But it gets worse when we are talking about children raised in Witness homes. If the parents are not very careful, it’s entirely possible to raise children that have no regard for the lives of “worldly” persons. In my case, I was torn, feeling natural feelings of friendliness towards “worldly” people, but having been taught that these people are sentenced to death, by God Himself.
It can’t be so cut and dried. There has to be a way for God to eliminate what is truly evil, without wasting the lives of people who may not identify as being His worshippers, but whom are not deliberately evil. We can’t limit God to our own level of understanding. He is capable of dealing fairly, with all.Reply by new englander on 2020-11-27 11:36:20
Hi Chet, I also had a similar experience that I have shared on this forum before. I happen to enjoy the good old fashioned Christmas carols that are right out of the bible. I struggled with this for a time. I enjoyed the carols but had this guilt that I was sinning by watching them. Anyway one night two or three years ago I'm watching the Latter Day Saints Tabernacle Choir singing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and as I'm watching this I begin to think that here is a beautiful group of individuals that are every bit as God loving, zealous, devout, pious, and charitable as any group of witnesses. I find it quite likely that the majority of these people probably come from Latter Day Saint families going back generations. It was implausible to think that this group of people would ever become witnesses. I could not comprehend a righteous and loving God annihilating these people because they were Latter Day Saints instead of Jehovah's Witnesses. The phrase that I used was God saying, "Gee Mr. Mormon you are a pretty good person, to bad you weren't a witness." I just can not see a righteous and loving God acting in this manner. I know people of other Christian denominations who know their bible and can defend their faith and who are God loving, God fearing, pious, charitable individuals. I just do not see a righteous loving God destroying these people but preserving the life of someone who is less of a Christian but happens to be a witness. Something else that I found very disturbing about the organization that relates to your observation about witnesses potentially having no regard for "worldly people" are some of the very outrageous statements that I read in the publications. One example that comes to mind was in WT article "Look! I Am With You All the Days". Paragraph 8 states, "he [Jesus] rejected all imitation Christians, including all of those found within the churches of Christendom." So witnesses are to believe that just because someone is a Latter Day Saint, a Catholic, a Methodist, a Baptist, or whatever denomination, that they have already been rejected by Jesus no matter what and are doomed to destruction with no chance of appeal. This just does not seem to me to be a course of action that would be taken by a wise, righteous, and loving God. It does not seem like a course of action that would be taken by the God that was willing to spare the entire city of Sodom for the sake of 10 righteous men. It does not seem like the course of action that would be taken by the God that spared Nineveh in Jonah's day. The claims made by the organization are outrageous and their actions are truly shameful.
Reply by Chet on 2020-11-27 13:56:29
Wow! Another mouthful. It’s interesting, because I have had lengthy discussion with an ex-JW friend who is a professional musician and we have talked about Christmas music. Both of us agree that Christmas, as it is currently celebrated, has a lot of Pagan elements in it, and neither of us want to be involved with Pagan celebrations. However, both of us agreed that there are Christmas Carols which are in harmony with the scriptural account of the nativity and neither of us find such songs objectionable. Why would there be anything wrong with writing a song about an event recorded in scripture, so long as that song portrayed the scriptural account accurately?
I know many members of the LDS church and many of these people are sincere and devout. While I can’t agree with all of their teachings, I know that many of them lead moral and upstanding lives. I couldn’t imagine that the God who would have spared Sodom for the sake of ten righteous men would condemn such people to death, just because they were raised in a certain religion.
Judgment is not the province of mere humans. I was thinking about this, just yesterday. In my reading of secular history, there are times that I come across actions which are egregiously wrong. My reaction is to consider such persons as unfit to live, but so am I.I may not be some despotic tyrant that wantonly kills numerous people, but I am still a sinner and worthy of death, should God hold me to His righteous standards. Only by the shed blood of Christ am I, or anyone else, afforded the chance to escape God’s wrath and only Christ, as God’s appointed judge, has the right to decide who is, and who is not, entitled to be saved.
For the Organization to write the words you mention in your post strikes me as foolhardy. Jesus made it clear that the judgment we level towards others will be the basis for how we are judged. When I left the Witnesses, I got on my knees and repented my former actions. I had been a judgmental fool for most of my life and that was wrong, on my part. I pray that I will be forgiven for this and have left that matter with God, as it is in the past and beyond my ability to influence. I endeavor to not repeat these past mistakes.
As to the article you quote above, I have to wonder; what sort of judgment awaits a person that would write such a thing? I don’t claim to know what any individual’s judgment will prove to be, but if we are told to judge not, that we may not be judged, then such words might place its author and publishers in a bad situation. There is a reason I no longer promote Watchtower literature, and this is a big part of it. No one; no one; no human; has the right to judge. The civil authorities are afforded the right to enforce laws for the common good, but no human has anything to say about the salvation prospects of another.
Comment by new englander on 2020-11-26 21:34:20
Hi Chet, Thank you so much for sharing. I too was basically born into the witnesses and raised as a Witness. I check this site occasionally though not as frequently as I used to. I no longer have the need visit this site regularly because I know that the organization is evil and I need no further evidence to reinforce this. I do not visit jw.org anymore because I could care less about anything that they have to say and I do not need to see it exposed either because I already know that anything that they put out is rubbish. I do appreciate the work being done here though to help others get out. What I most like about this site is reading the experiences of others because that is something that I can relate to and something that interests me.
I have a few things to share and probably have shared some of it in my other posts. I have just seen so many lives severely negatively impacted that I could go on and on. I could write a book. Where to begin? I think maybe I will begin with my dad. If my dad were still alive he would now be nearly 74 years old. He was baptized in the late 1970's when I was about 2 years old. Evidently at that time, even though it was shortly after the 1975 debacle, there was significant growth in the organization, at least in this area. In fact most of the congregations around here today are comprised of 75% or more of relatives because the congregations started in that time period with a few families. These witnesses that were dad's contemporaries are now the grand parents. They have lived for over forty years believing that the end was imminent. My dad told me one time about another "brother" who during this time period purchased a new car that he was ill equipped to pay for. This "brother" did not think that he would have to pay for it because armageddon was so close. Most of these people never imagined that they would grow old. I have heard some of these older folks who are struggling with old age talk about this and say that it wasn't supposed to be like this. Many of these people only ever had menial jobs and never prepared for retirement and are now like the old guy trying to hang dry wall. My dad was kind of looked down upon because he always worked a forty hour a week job. It saddens me because I have seen many people give their blood, sweat, and tears to the organization only to support the retirement of the hierarchy of the organization instead of their own. I'm glad that I'm free of this corruption and that I am contributing to my and my wife's retirement instead of that of the governing body.
Right now the coordinator of the body of elders in the local congregation around here is somewhere around 50 years old. He and his wife never had children. I do not know the reason but I suspect that it was because of their misguided desire to give all to the organization. I would think that if the choice to not have children is voluntary it will likely be regretted, especially by her. They have spent their adult life going here and there in order to serve the needs of the organization. They do not have a pot to piss in and probably not a dime to spare. I'm certain that they have zero retirement. Maybe the end will come sometime during the next 15-20 years but if it doesn't then they will be an unnecessary burden on others. I do grant the fact that they have done some good because one of their assignments was rebuilding homes in Puerto Rico but overall this lifestyle is in my view irresponsible and ultimately selfish. Now instead of learning from all of the examples right around them that lived their lives believing the end to be imminent and now ill prepared for old age, they are choosing to follow the very same pattern. Don't get me wrong here. I fully believe that there will be an end but the responsible course is to prepare for old age.
When my sister was in kindergarten she and little boy witness told the class that they were going to be destroyed. The teacher was not very happy and called my mother. I feel bad that at 5 years old witness kids are thinking about the other little kids being destroyed. I have to wonder what kind of a "witness" that this was to all of those other families and the teacher. I used to like to hunt and remember wondering as a teenager if this would be the last hunting season. My wife tells me now that I have a bad habit of talking myself out of things that I would like to do or pursue and I wonder if this is because for most of my life I thought that the end was imminent. Almost like why bother or why start because the end will be here? I have "scars" from my families involvement with the witnesses.
I have a decent job and am not lacking but I sure wish that I had gone to college, I think most of the folks on this site are familiar with the organization's view of college. My parents and my dad in particular were not supportive of a college education and I really regret not going because I could have. I would probably be much better off today. I could go on and on but it's late and I'm getting tired but anyway thank you so much Chet.Reply by Chet on 2020-11-26 23:10:09
Thanks for your comments, New Englander. They spur several thoughts.
Much like yourself, I no longer visit JW.org, unless I am researching a particular point that would require looking at their online library. I afford them no place of honor whatsoever. While I have doubts regarding them which go back many years, I especially feel that the current leadership, whomever actually controls the output of their literature and webcasts, are of questionable character. It seems that their output has morphed into only one core message, that being that they are appointed as God’s representatives and that we need to accept their word as binding upon us.
Even worse is the message that they believe that Christ only died for a limited number of people and that the salvation of the rest of us depends upon our association with and support of them, as the self-declared “Faithful and Discreet Slave”. If they are falsely placing themselves in the place of Christ, I can only imagine that they would place themselves in opposition to the actual Good News and could be found to actually be workers against God.
A friend died recently; an older Witness man of nearly ninety. As his health failed and it became obvious that Armageddon was not likely to come before he died, he began to repeat several things over and over again. He couldn’t understand why Kingdom Halls were being sold, after having spent decades when growth and building were significant parts of Witness life. He would also repeat that it should have come by now. I believe that he suddenly came to the conclusion that he had been fed a false narrative and he had lost hope. He died within a month or two of that time.
My own mother, associated with the Witnesses for over 80 years, at the time of her death, became obsessed with news programs and would seize upon comments which she felt reinforced the Witness narrative. She had accepted that Armageddon might not come in her lifetime, in word, but I don’t think that she aver accepted that in her core. By the time of her death, she was out of touch in many ways, but spoke endlessly about her congregation.
I do not have a degree and work in a field where this is very unusual. I thank God for the fact that I have been able to make a good living. There was a pint where I found myself at a blind alley, career wise, and an opportunity opened which is almost beyond belief. That was twenty years ago, and I have had steady employment ever since, in a position which would be all but impossible to attain without a college education. My current job is likely my last job, before retirement, and it’s the best job I’ve ever had. I have to state that God has provided for me, but I wish that I could have had more education in my younger years.
I tend to talk myself out of things, as well. I live modestly and certainly not as well as many people at my level of income. I have no complaints, but with the exception of a few items, I love very simply indeed. I also have met a number of other persons raised as JWs whom seem to struggle against prosperity. I see this as an artifact of mentally living with the prospect of Armageddon at any moment.
This leads me to a very unsettling conclusion: it may be impossible to ever completely undo the damage caused by being raised with the Witness worldview, which places Armageddon as imminent, but not quite visible because it is still just over the horizon. This isn’t to suggest that a person cannot overcome and have a successful life, but I believe that, until Christ’s return, i and many others will be affected by the JW worldview and have to maintain a degree of conscious resistance to falling into counterproductive ways of thinking.Reply by new englander on 2020-11-27 10:40:06
Hi Chet, I completely agree with your point on the witness core message and would add that there is another very prominent core message as well. The second message is "give us money". I was raised as a witness but thankfully I was never baptized. Then I was away for twenty or so years before making an attempt to return. When I made the attempt to return I immediately noticed two very disturbing characteristics that I did not remember from when I was a child. The first was the trinitarian doctrine of the father, the son, and the governing body. The second was the constant "encouragement" to give and the training on all of the different avenues to do so. It was not easy for me to attend the meetings especially the Tuesday evening meeting. My wife did not like the thought of my being a witness at all. She does not like to be home alone after dark. I worked all day and had to work the next morning. It was not easy to be there and then I go and they just want to educate me on giving to the organization constantly. This just did not add up to me to be the "truth". I still think the the majority of rank and file witnesses are wonderful people. They are just brainwashed victims. As to the leadership of the organization, I see no honesty and no scruples whatsoever. They are spiritually bankrupt.
Although it saddens me to think so, I believe that you are also 100% correct that it may be impossible to ever completely undo the damage caused by being raised with the witness worldview. I'm mentally scarred and suffer mentally in ways that I attribute to my witness upbringing and past. Your phrase of "having to maintain a degree of conscious resistance to to falling into counterproductive ways of thinking." unfortunately fits me to a T.Reply by Chet on 2020-11-27 12:54:14
My families roots as Witnesses go back at least 90 years, if not more. In the case of my father’s side of the family, it may be even further. The old school Witnesses I remember from my earliest years took great pride in the fact that the Organization never solicited donations. They felt themselves above such practices and chided other religions for doing so. “Seats free, no collections” was a slogan going back to the days of Russell. In the seventies, when I started attending regularly, they would sheepishly read the accounts report every month and the amounts of money that a congregation needed to operate were minuscule. I don’t, as a rule, carry a lot of cash on my person, yet I am still carry enough cash to keep my old congregation in operation for several months. This was a prosperous congregation serving a second ring suburb of a major city and it ran on a shoestring.
That seemed to change rapidly and, as I understand it, congregations are now expected to send a substantial donation to the Worldwide Work, every month. Old school JWs were proud that “the Truth” didn’t beg for money or have paid clergy. I was proud of that, at the time.
The changes in the Witness organization are a study in gradualism. I started attending meetings 50 years ago, almost to the month, and the Organization of today would have seemed as foreign to us then as any other church of Christendom. In 1971, the Elder Arrangement was first announced and focus began to subtly shift to the elders, whom were believed to have been appointed by God’s Spirit. It was subtle, but over the decades, many people felt that the elders should have a hand in their major life decisions. Elders would impose themselves in marital disputes and, if they got it wrong, could easily push a marriage in the direction of divorce, which usually meant sanction against one party, while the other party might be held up as a shining example. Now, at this point in time, the Organization is the centerpiece of worship for many JWs.
Which leads to your very interesting comment on the de facto trinity of the Witnesses, which places their governing body as objects of worship. Just look at a video of Stephen Lett, with his bizarre facial gestures and highly stilted speech, and try to tell me that the average person wouldn’t be put off by such a spectacle, if not alarmed. But JWs can’t seem to get enough of this sort of thing. I’ve seen clips from JW Broadcasting and, in every case, came away feeling less intelligent for the experience.
This is not accidental. The purpose of these displays is to dumb down the viewers and get them to release their natural defenses against such foolishness and make them more vulnerable to influence. If you are somewhat uncomfortable with a teaching or a statement, but surrounded by peers whom seem to accept it, the effect is to make you place the groupthink of your peers above your own judgment.
It is well known that cults deliberately employ the tactic of coercing people to go along with something that is slightly unbelievable as a way of wearing down their members natural defenses, and the comic tragedy I have observed in some JW Broadcasting is a perfect example of this tactic. Get someone to tolerate the ridiculous and they will soon be easy to influence in almost any matter.
While I am deeply concerned that the Organization has promoted their self-appointed “Faithful and Discreet Slave” to a position of being worshipped, I see this as a sign that they are an organization in its death throes. Think of it in these terms: when a business begins to serve an increasing share of a decreasing market, they are bound to die. The best buggy-whip maker either went out of business, or contracted to a fraction of its peak size, when buggy-whips became a niche market, instead of a mainstream product.
Likewise, the JW Organization has increased the pressure for its members to comply and this will alienate an ever greater proportion of thinking and productive people, many of whom will quietly back away and “fade” out of the Organization. The remainder will be people with less discerning natures and the Organization can maintain a greater degree of control on such people. But, the fatal flaw in this is that such people are not likely to contribute much of value to the Organization, either materially, or in useful voluntary work. The value of knocking on doors is not all that great in these days of two-income families, anyhow, and that work is suspended for the time being, with no end in sight. Other than keeping the lawn mowed at the Kingdom Hall, dusting and vacuuming, there is essentially nothing for the average Witness to do, beyond useless letter writing and phone soliciting. So they are left with elders delivering meeting parts via Zoom sessions and little more. Virtually everything has become a “privilege” at this point in time and in order to remain a part of the JW Organization, you have to be either a very compliant person, or one of thePhariseesElders.
Now I ask; what sort of person would be interested in joining such an “arrangement”? As I see it, the only people willing to join would either be people interested in climbing the ladder and gaining control over the sheeple, or sheeple, few of whom will be able to contribute anything of value to the Organization. So you end up with numerous leaders, vying for power and influence over a diminishing number of subjects, many of whom are of modest means and modest talents; which makes them unable to support the overburden of the material assets of the Organization.
By the way, this is what happened in the Soviet Union. The laws became so restrictive that everyone had to break the law in order to survive. Eventually, anyone with talent or skill ended up operating in the black market economy which ignored the laws. It became so widespread that the legal authorities expended most of their energy on the petty violations of the masses and didn’t even try to tackle the larger problems. The legal authorities demanded ever more compliance and it appeared that they were getting their way in these matters, but in reality even the police were forced to participate in the black market in order to survive. Quite suddenly, the entire authority structure crumbled under its own weight.
The “Visible Organization” will end up in the same situation. They will have absolute authority over a shrinking group of people, but be unable to put that authority to any use which will bring results. They will disfellowship and disassociate so many people that it becomes meaningless and virtually everyone will quietly make exceptions to the rules regarding those put out of the Organization. At that point, their last weapon will cease to function and the overburden of the Watchtower hierarchy will collapse down upon the few remaining members like a coal mine that has been poorly engineered and collapsed due to inadequate support.
Comment by new englander on 2020-12-15 21:01:09
Hello Chet, It's been a few weeks and this post is not on the front page anymore but I was thinking about your comments and the potential demise of the organization. There was a man in a nearby congregation who recently passed away. I did not know him. His obituary stated that the family needed assistance to pay for his final expenses. I felt compelled to write a letter to his congregation in behalf of his family urging the congregation to assist with the funeral home expenses. The letter was returned to me, appearing to have not even been opened. I have written other doctrinally critical letters to what would be my local congregation so perhaps this nearby congregation was warned to avoid any correspondence bearing my name. I do wonder though if the congregations are under orders to ignore all correspondence unless from headquarters or the phone bill and heating bill. When the letter was returned I reached out to this man's wife who I do not believe to be a witness just to tell her that I had written the letter and that it had been ignored. She said that she has heard nothing at all from the witnesses and that she is really struggling. Witnesses always talk about giving a witness to non witnesses. There could be no better witness to this lady and her family than for the congregation to step up and do whatever they could to make certain the the funeral home bill gets paid. If beyond the means of the local congregation than headquarters could step up.
I have to wonder if similar experiences of the organization's unwillingness to provide real and meaningful assistance to it's members will alienate a large portion of those members. It seems to me that the organization assists people when it has the opportunity to advertise that assistance. If they can use assistance for propaganda purposes then they will do so. An example is the hurricane in Puerto Rico. Witnesses could go and rebuild homes and then it could be broadcast in all the Kingdom Halls what a benevolent organization you have the privilege of being a part of. And of course we are doing this great work so keep the money coming. It must be noted that those folks who went to Puerto Rico had to pay their own travel expenses and who knows what else.
I have always maintained the the majority of rank and file witnesses are decent people just brainwashed. If a local congregant gets sick or hurt the locals will very likely bring over a meal and maybe shovel a walk and that is wonderful but it does not go very far. It doesn't make a car payment, or pay a heating bill, or pay for someone's final expenses, or put gas in the car, or buy a week's worth of groceries. I have to wonder if a significant number of witnesses will leave when they find themselves in dire situations due to the corona virus and the economic fallout from it and then receive no assistance from the organization. Many witnesses have invested their blood, sweat, and tears, in order to advance the agenda of the organization and it will be a very tough pill to swallow that should the need arise they will most likely receive zero meaningful assistance. Imagine being down and out and then seeing kingdom halls that you sacrificed to help fund and help build being sold and then not being offered any kind of assistance. That would make for a real gut punch. It is a scenario that very well could occur. It will be interesting,Reply by Chet on 2020-12-17 15:13:54
What few "charitable" works the Witnesses perform are probably done as a way of receiving government money. Government agencies will use various organizations to distribute food, rebuild damaged homes, etc. on their behalf. These can be a great way of raising money. I have never seen the Witness Organization get too excited about the welfare of its membership. IMO, charity is against their religion.