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--- jehovah_s_witnesses [2023/12/24 23:39] – ultracomfy
+++ jehovah_s_witnesses [2025/06/05 00:32] (current) – ultracomfy
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+~~Title:Jehovah's Witnesses~~
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+{{page>Templates:Secularization}}
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-Avoid independent thinking... questioning the counsel that is provided by God's visible organization.
+Avoid independent thinking [...] questioning the counsel that is provided by God's visible organization.
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-<WRAP centeralign>~Watchtower, WTBTS. January 15, 1983. p. 22.</WRAP>
+<WRAP centeralign>~Watchtower, WTBTS. January 15, 1983. p. 22., recited from [[RationalWiki]]</WRAP>
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 (Remember that these are just two examples and more like this is hidden in the article.)
-I write that JW teach to reject secular authorities as much as they can (well, as far as they can before getting into //too// much trouble). Strictly speaking this is //not correct//. Witnesses are taught to "respect" the secular authorities. Here is what [[:piouslittlechristiangirl|my friend]] would consider to be accurate:
+I write that JW teach to reject secular authorities as much as they can (well, as far as they can before getting into //too// much trouble). Strictly speaking this is //not correct//. Witnesses are taught to "respect" the secular authorities. Here is what my former best friend would have considered to be accurate:
 //JWs are taught to listen to the secular authorities insofar as the Bible, and more relevantly, the Governing Body agrees with them. They are also taught to be no part of the world (John 15:19), and to reject worldly people and ideas. That is, unless they are preaching, where they have been commanded (Matthew 28:19) to convert people into their cult.//\\
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 ====== Jehovah Hates... A Lot ======
-Essentially being fundamental Christians, are primarily marked by their hatred for things, a list imported directly from the bible, always with a personal spin depending on the specific witness and their biases. In general, however, witnesses hate everything pagan (people, traditions (FUCK YOU [[Christmas|CHRISTMAS]]), whatever), they hate gay people, people not yet part of their cult, people who are part of their cult, equality, [[woman|women]], doors (!!), blood, education, non-nuclear families, everything not yet mentioned on this list and especially everyone they //want// to hate, they usually //will// find some bible verse that they can spin around enough until it vaguely supports their hate, all in the name of Big J whom they do their utmost to make happy by hating things so much they get a [[Hateboner|boner from the excitement]]. It seems to be that the general concept of JW day to day life seems to be a cycle of self-reinforcing hate cycles balanced with the occasional bit of being a nice person every once in a while to reach the quota. If only someone told them that YHWH hates hate (WTBTS would never tell them, that's one of the most important things to keep a witness busy and distracted).
+Essentially being fundamental Christians, are primarily marked by their hatred for things, a list imported directly from the bible, always with a personal spin depending on the specific witness and their biases. In general, however, witnesses hate everything pagan (people, traditions (FUCK YOU [[Christmas|CHRISTMAS]]), whatever), they hate gay people, people not yet part of their cult, people who are part of their cult, equality, [[woman|women]], doors (!!), blood, education, non-nuclear families, everything not yet mentioned on this list and especially everyone they //want// to hate, they usually //will// find some bible verse that they can spin around enough until it vaguely supports their hate, all in the name of Big J whom they do their utmost to make happy by hating things so much they get a [[Hateboner|boner from the excitement]]. It seems to be that the general concept of JW day to day life is a cycle of self-reinforcing hate cycles balanced with the occasional bit of being a nice person every once in a while to reach the quota. If only someone told them that YHWH hates hate (WTBTS would never tell them, that's one of the most important things to keep a witness busy and distracted).
+====== Ideology conflicts with Reality ======
+===== 1: We respect secular authorities =====
+Witnesses claim that doctrine is to respect secular authorities - provided the  <del>governing body</del> biblical teachings agrees with the authorities. It's a euphemism banking on the fact that //most// people recognize Christianity/The Bible as a message of good and peace and therefore don't think about this too much. The truth is, however, that a words-based, **literal** reading of the bible disagrees with effectively every single aspect of modern law and society and - unfortunately for the witnesses - since Jehovah's Witnesses are a cult with the [[Biblical Literalism]] doctrine, this means they follow they bible not //as it means//, but //as it says// and, oh boy, the bible says a lot of things.
+There are a lot of specifics to unpack here, but the TL;DR is that witnesses "respect" secular authorities in nothing but conclusion. They will attack every aspect of a secular authority, will call them institutionalizations of [[Satan]] (!), they say we will all eventually rise up, turn against witnesses and attempt to eradicate them, they say that we will all die a horrendous death, that we are a disgrace and that our minds are poisoned and that we need **them** to be saved from eternal damnation (by converting us into their "flock", they are so nice to us).\\
+Obviously, a cult that respected secular authorities as much as the Bible told them to (by the strict meaning of its words) would be a militant terrorist organization with much fewer adherents than they currently have, so what they do is to //cherry pick//. Of course they are a biblical literalist cult, but because witnesses all agree that they are all unable to actually interpret the bible correctly, they have the governing body (the WTBTS) who tell them how to interpret what, which passages to ignore, and occasionally drop in with what they call "new light" - insight they take from outside the bible; because obviously nothing is better than a biblical literalist cult that then goes on to agree to disagree with the bible. Those new lights usually tend to be ideas some governing body member pulled out of his ass, presented as a message from god himself((Unfortunately, according to the governing body, god only talks to //members of the governing body//. If you're a normie witness and think he has been talking to you, you are the victim of [[moving the goalpost]].)), and then accepted as true and override any and all the bible says. They are usually introduced as damage limitation. For example, once defending flat earth made witlesses look //too// stupid and lost them too many members, the governing body eventually decided that god told them that what the bible says is actually //too vague// and that it leaves room for so much interpretation that the world could actually also be near-spherical.
+===== 2: We agree with science =====
+===== 3: The world is spherical =====
+===== 4: We believe in evolution =====