Expert: Andrew - 6/15/2006

Question
Thank you Andrew,
  You are obviousely fairly intelligent about psychology from a worldly standpoint. You actually answered my question, ("What can you offer"), even before you posted that particular Q&A , because the "help" you offer shares the same personality that the world has always been fond of since ancient times; it being that of self government, and individual thinking; all of which have resulted in more broken families, messed up youth, drug and alchohol addictions, unyielding violence, suicides, hatred, and bloody wars than any one person can even comprehend! You have every right to be against Jehovah's organization, but while you describe it as one that has mostly negative, harmful effects on it's members, you fail to make any mention of ACTUAL FACTS, such as how that organization has NEVER taken part in political affiars of nations or the world, and has NEVER sided in any of mankind's wars. As we all can see today, terrorizm and military justification is on the uprise, and all of the people taking part in it are of every kind of belief system (even yours), but Jehovah's Witnesses and it's organization have proven not to be of that type and it's a matter of HISTORICAL FACT!
   So, you can say anything you want about individual's experiences involved in ANY organized group, but you can't explain how the ENTIRE organization of (JW's) has REAL peace among them no matter what nationality or race or financial status any of them might happen to be, and that, Andrew, is something unparalelled in this critical, perilous world! The peaceful
existence of more than six million  Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide who all have a harmonious understaning of one of the most controversial, highly debated subjects, (that being religion), ever presented to mankind is evidence in itself that they are not under the control of "men".
  I do not even have to use the scriptures in the Bible to bring these matters to the fore, as they are evident for anyone to take note of and look into for themselves.
  By the way, thank you for posting my last question, as I did'nt think you would. It shows how you avoid the sciptures of the Bible completely. And lastly, referring to your comment about freedom of speech; It is not a freedom given or allowed by any constitution of man, because a knowledge of the Truth is not containable anyway; it will simply get spoken no matter where, no matter how, no matter what the price. And no, I'm not one of Jehovah's Witnesses.

                           Sincerely,
                                 Joshua  

Answer
Dear Joshua,

I have stated the nature of my interest in this subject. But I wonder, since you are not a Jehovah's Witness, what is the nature of your interest?

You defend the Jehovah's Witnesses passionately, yet if you are not one of them, I don't see where such passion comes from. It's a puzzle. Perhaps you are an unrecovered former Witness, who are known to doggedly defend the Witnesses even though the Witnesses themselves have turned against you.

I hope you are not such a person, because people like that are at the greatest risk of all; completely buying into Witness dogma, including the teaching that as a former Witness, you yourself are an enemy of God, and therefore without hope. Such an outlook causes many suicides, so I hope you do not find yourself in that situation.

I notice you use several tactics which Witnesses use, and this supports my speculation that you are an unrecovered former Witness. I will outline some of those tactics:

1) Labelling any thorough argument which does not support your conclusions as questionable "worldly education". In fact, as is typical of those who grew up Witnesses, I have no degree. Many times when I asked sincere questions of Witness elders during the years I was still trying to reconcile Witness beliefs, they replied that I was "too highly educated" and that God only uses simple men to do his work. This is a convenient way of avoiding the question, but is also misguided since I have no higher education.

2) The term "Independent Thinking" is used by Witnesses to describe dissenters, that is, people who do not completely conform in word and deed and even thought process with the man-made policies of the Witness organization. "Independent Thinking" is actually a natural and normal state of being, but Witnesses paint it as if it is rebellious to exercise this faculty, as all cults do. It is not rebellious against God to dissent with men. You are parrotting Witness teaching by suggesting that the alternative to "self government...individual thinking" is to embrace rule by God, and thinking God's thoughts. That's a beautiful ideal, but I have already illustrated in a past message that you do not have any direct access to God's thoughts because your organization and "God's heavenly organization" are two different organizations. So what Witnesses conform to completely is not God's thinking but rather Witness thinking. This is no special virtue.

3) As Witnesses always do, you have expressed pride in the religious unity of Jehovah's Witnesses, and claimed this is evidence that they are not under the control of men. This is a specious and unsubstantial argument. The fact that Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide all conform completely in even private personal lifestyle matters is a strong indicator of the kind of enforced totalitarian conformity that can only be engineered using cult mind control tactics, so your point of "unity" actually reinforces my argument. Your unity is actually conformity. The difference is that with unity, people with free minds actually support the united ideal; whereas with conformity people deprived of free minds follow without choice.

4) You have set up a straw man to support your argument. I admire your organization's neutrality in war and refusal to fight. However, this does not contradict anything I have said, as if you were citing actual facts where I was not. It is a dishonest straw man tactic because you have contrasted my argument with Witness neutrality in war (a completely unrelated logical point) and claimed to have struck down my argument in so doing.

Yes, I avoid Bible scriptures completely. As I said from the beginning, I do not discuss theology. I consider it a private personal matter for each person to decide for himself what to believe about spiritual matters, so it would be pointless for me to try to persuade anyone using the bible to support an argument.

I have not mentioned freedom of speech (rather I mentioned freedom of religion); yet I notice you claim freedom of speech is not a freedom given or allowed by any constitution of man. You are incorrect on this point. The US Constitution most definitely acknowledges freedom of speech as an inalienable right.

The Witness brand of "truth" on the other hand, gets spoken passionately by people who have a vested interest in promoting a religion that they believe in passionately and desperately. That passion and desperation arises from the effects of cult mind control, and has little to do with the "truth" content in their message.

Real truth is a resilient thing that can withstand the light of day, yet with the advent of the Internet, when light from all directions becomes more and more available, the success of cults such as the Jehovah's Witnesses is reduced. This illustrates how your message is dependent on half-truths. The Internet is a very dangerous place for Jehovah's Witnesses and members of other cults, because cults depend on milieu control and regulating the flow of information, which is no longer possible in the Internet age.

It does not matter to me what spiritual beliefs anyone holds. I'm sure all will find a spiritual path that they are inspired to find, when allowed to do so without mind games.

What matters to me is to help people free themselves from artificial and dishonest mind control environments so that they can discover spirituality for themselves; and to promote the integrity of family, since family ties are more important than any idealogy, and family gives people a stability that makes them hard to control.

The FACT is that Jehovah's Witnesses excommunicate on the order of 10,000 people each year for offenses as trivial as smoking tobacco. There are many superficial reasons, but ultimately, it always comes down to "independent thinking", that is, they expel members who refuse to completely capitulate in every way because thinking for oneself is a great protection to individuals and a great threat to cult organizations.

When those 10,000 people per year are expelled from among the Witnesses, they shunned by any members of their families who are still Witnesses, which is a tremendous impact against family integrity, and that is simply wrong. To anyone not stuck in cult mind control, that is self evident.

I do not expect you, Joshua, to be able to digest what I have said here, because recovery from cult mind control does not work in an adversarial engagement, and you have brought this to me as such. So my answer is provided for those other interested parties who are watching from the sidelines, and especially so that those former Witnesses who consider themselves alienated from God can see that they are only alienated from a deceptive organization of men; so their lives do in fact have value and meaning.

Best wishes,
Andrew