Glenster's Guide to GTJ Brooklyn

GTJ Brooklyn 4
Home
GTJ Brooklyn 1
GTJ Brooklyn 1a
GTJ Brooklyn 1b
GTJ Brooklyn 1c
GTJ Brooklyn 1d
GTJ Brooklyn 1e
GTJ Brooklyn 2
GTJ Brooklyn 3
GTJ Brooklyn 4
GTJ Brooklyn 5
GTJ Brooklyn 6
GTJ Brooklyn 6a
GTJ Brooklyn 6b
GTJ Brooklyn 7
GTJ Brooklyn 8
GTJ Brooklyn 9
GTJ Brooklyn 10
GTJ Brooklyn 11
GTJ Brooklyn 12
GTJ Brooklyn 13
GTJ Brooklyn 13a
GTJ Brooklyn 14
GTJ Brooklyn 14a
GTJ Brooklyn 15
GTJ Brooklyn 16
GTJ Brooklyn 17
GTJ Brooklyn 18
GTJ Brooklyn 19
GTJ Brooklyn 20
GTJ Brooklyn 21
GTJ Brooklyn 22
GTJ Brooklyn 23
GTJ Brooklyn 24
GTJ Brooklyn 25
GTJ Brooklyn 26
GTJ Brooklyn 27
GTJ Brooklyn 28
GTJ Brooklyn 29
GTJ Brooklyn 30
GTJ Brooklyn 31
GTJ Brooklyn 32
GTJ Brooklyn 33
GTJ Brooklyn 34
GTJ Brooklyn 35
GTJ Brooklyn 36
GTJ Brooklyn 37
GTJ Brooklyn 38
GTJ Brooklyn 39
GTJ Brooklyn 40
GTJ Brooklyn 41
GTJ Brooklyn 42
GTJ Brooklyn 43
Free PC Pinball, a lot of game mods, etc.
Led Zeppelin Lift Offs
Contact Me

Enter subhead content here

  Winstein--4

  Theocratic warfare
 
  A good collection of quotes from Watchtower literature about the JWs leaders' stance for JWs called theocratic warfare is at the silent lambs web site at the next link:
  http://www.silentlambs.org/theopressinfo.htm
 
  Here's a May, 2007, Nashville, TN, WSMV-TV news clip about Bill Bowen and Silent Lambs support for abuse victims, their claim that the JWs leaders' organization provides a way for abusers to be handled in the JWs organization and not be brought to task by the law, and that in March, 2007, over a dozen molestation lawsuits were settled by the JWs organization--with gag orders.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlRHaO0y4ro
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gag_order
 
  JWs are taught to withhold self-image damaging truth about the JWs leaders' organization from others--"theocratic warfare."  JWs are taught how to create a softened version of JWs leaders' stances for court cases specifically.

  "Do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?" (oath taken before taking the stand in court).
 
  JWs leaders' response:
 
  "Of course, being truthful does not mean that we are obligated to divulge all information to anyone who asks it of us.  Do not give what is holy to dogs, neither throw your pearls before swine, that they may never...turn around and rip you open, warned Jesus, at Matthew 7:6.  For example, individuals with wicked intent may have no right to know certain things.  Christians understand that they are living in a hostile world.  Thus, Jesus advised his disciples to be cautious as serpents  while remaining innocent as doves. (Matthew 10:16; John 15:19)  Jesus did not always disclose the full truth, especially when revealing all the facts could have brought unnecessary harm to himself or his disciples.  Still, even at such times, he did not lie.  Instead, he chose either to say nothing or to divert the conversation in another direction." ("Awake! Feb.8, 2000, p.21)
  http://www.silentlambs.org/Warfarequotes.htm
  http://freeminds.org/psych/whylie.htm
 
****
 

  Peer pressure
 
  The JWs leaders' stance on such a distinctive doctrine involves a strong element of peer pressure.  Peer pressure is a two-edged sword that could be thought to cut either way in such things, and I won't consider it a decisive factor in determining the validity of the JWs leaders' stance on the medical use of blood.
 
  It does bear pointing out that the Governing Body's way of regulating regimented obedience commonly has the effect of keeping many of the followers from reading or listening to persistent criticism of the JWs leaders' rules.  The JWs are taught that such critics are to be con- sidered hateful of God (even though the alleged "apostate" may have not had anything like that in mind).
 
  That can't be healthy in regard to the basic procedure used by courts and by common sense about making judgments otherwise: you need to hear both sides give their case and weigh evidence against gossip before rendering judgment.  No matter how per- suasive the forced points, etc., may seem in isolated consideration, it should at least seem suspicious to followers on the face of it that the JWs leaders' make a literal 144,000 claim of exclusiveness, make forced points to insist on agreement with distinctive rules that seem meant to serve the estab- lishment of that exclusiveness, yet it's about common old material and taught by JWs leaders who discourage that basic procedure, described above, of judging things.
 
  I won't follow that example the other way around and shun people if they read JWs leaders' literature.  Some of the JWs followers I met are some of the nicest people I've met.  You don't have to have the same outlooks as me on such stuff to be a friend of mine (or not be).  (Not pushing 'centric condemnation of other whole groups to the fore is a plus for that to work out.)  And I need to use the JWs leaders' literature as a part of the comparison of evidences that are important to a study of the issues of this article.
 
  Psychologist Ruth W. Berenda and associates once tested peer pressure.  When a teacher asked ten students to "Raise your hand when we point to the longest line" of three lines, nine were pre- pared beforehand to raise their hand when the 2nd longest line was pointed at.  The tenth student was the tested variable and was a different student for each effort of the test.  The tenth student con- formed to the group and raised their hand for the 2nd longest line 75% of the time this was tested.

  A JW might get peer pressure from JWs or non-JWs.  But I'd imagine that if the JWs leaders maintain a threat of particularly strict disfellow- shipping from a JWs' friends and family in on the mix, you could get a lot of people who show that, as Ruth put it, "Some people had rather be president than right."
 
****
 

  The JWs leaders' doctrine on transfusions isn't the only or most reasonable way to interpret the pertinent verses (pp.12-42), so it's likely that the reason that some followers don't want to look at alternate views, or admit that they doubt their leaders' views, to avoid disfel- lowshipping.  This could be handy for the JWs leaders whose flocks go various places and talk to lots of people.
 
  If the JWs leaders know their blood doctrine isn't a scriptural guarantee, and don't think they're God's sole channel of info any more than I think so, the leaders are then using their extreme version of disfellowshipping, beyond the intended scriptural use of disfellow- shipping (interpretations differ, but it's generally seen in Christianity as a punishment for extreme sin), to keep a larger percentage of their followers from learning or expressing faults with the JWs leader's distinctive doctrines and claims of exclusive (144,000, etc.) authority.
  http://www.freeminds.org/doctrine/simon.htm
  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/disfellowship-shunning.php
  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/32638/disfellowshiping-wts-tightens-control?page=1
 
  1967  "In Jehovah's organisation it is not necessary to spend a lot of time and energy in research, for there are brothers in the organisation who are assigned to that very thing...." ("The Watchtower, June 1, 1967, p.338)
  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/wrong-with-being-jehovahs-witness.php
 

Enter supporting content here