Personally, I take pride in being able to think for myself. Most organized religions don't encourage critical thinking. The Jehovah's Witnesses view independent thinking as coming from "Satan". Don't question the stories, claims or "rules" written in the Bible or what your religious leaders tell you or else you will be annihilated by Yahweh's angelic army when "Armageddon" comes. The JW's view pride of intelligence as being an "arrogant" thing to do. I strongly disagree with that view. I do think that acting as if your superior to everyone else is an arrogant and even obnoxious thing to do, but I don't think there is nothing wrong with being proud of trying to be intelligent and to think for yourself. A Jehovah's Witness cannot question their religious views or research any topic, independent of the WBTS' literature. Luckily, I can do that and am glad that I am able to do so.
JW's view their apostates as being "mentally-diseased". So, if you no longer agree with the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society's views, you are mentally-ill. I wonder if medical specialists and psychologists would agree with the WBTS' assertion. I've never heard of any doctor or psychologist who came to discover any findings that ex-JW's are "mentally-diseased" due to the fact that they are no longer able to agree with the Jehovah's Witnesses teachings, but I have heard that some ex-JW's have to go through counseling because of emotional and psychological difficulties that they may have when trying to adjust to life outside of the Witnesses due to the lack of limited interaction and isolation they had from non-JW's as member of the WBTS and possibly due to the fact that many ex-JW's are being shunned by their JW loved ones. So, I'm guessing that this is just used by the Governing Body to demonize former members. That is sort of a childish thing to do, I guess respectfully agreeing over the idea that people hold different opinions isn't an idea that the WBTS is very fond of. If they can't do it, then how is it that I, a "mentally-diseased" and "worldly" former JW, can disagree with the JW's without stereotyping them or dehumanizing them as individual human beings?
Some JW's have psychological issues which may or may not be related to the religiously-based restrictions in their lives. JW's are not too fond of psychology to begin with. You can see a psychologist if you need to in the eyes of the JW's, but they usually tend to view any problems that you are having as being the result of some sort of "sin" that you secretly have been committing. If you are a JW teenager or adolescent who was baptized into the Organization, if you engaged in some sort of "sinful" activity, your father can have restrictions placed on any "calling" that he might have received. If you are a JW adult male and have a child who figures out that they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered for instance, and that child was baptized as a JW and if that child decides to live their lives as an authentic LGBT person, you could be denied the ability to serve you congregation as an elder because of that. That sounds a little bit unfair to me. So, technically you can blame people for their loved one's "sins", while upholding prejudiced views towards a minority group who isn't do anything to hurt you personally because what they do in private might bother you, and because some people wrote claims about them in a text whose views on the subject may not be questioned or challenged? That strikes me as being such an indecent thing for any human being to do. It strikes me as being very irrational.
Sincerely,
B.W.
No comments:
Post a Comment