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In Reply to: Interesting article on JWs disfellowshipping posted by Acheick on July 22, 2002 at 10:00:17:
The "problem" with the Jehovah's Witnesses ( I know, as many, many of my closest friends were JWs, and I spent 10 years in a religious system very close, and even stricter than them) is that JWs are into "appearences" more than true "conversion." In other words, the whole religious of the JWs is wound up in "what looks good." Ture inner change is not necessary. As long as one looks, acts and pushes a certain "life-style", everything is OK. One doesn't have to necessarily believe in what they are living. But as long as you "conform" to what is dictated by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, you are "OK."
Most people in the Jehovah's Witnesses (as in any cult) stay there because their family and friends are also in the cult. They don't necessarily believe every aspect of the doctrine. They don't necessarily believe every practice the group pushes.
What it comes down to is this: intimidation. The JWs (and the Family, and the Hare Krishnas, etc.) play upon our COMMUNITY relationships to get us to conform. In other words, they say "Miss so-and-so, look at your fellow Christians. They don't do this and that, so why do you? If you were a good JW you wouldn't do this and that. Don't you wish to fit perfectly into our little sectarian community? If you don't do this-and-that, we will shun you, and you wont have sicum to confide in. You wont have anything or anyone anymore. You will be an OUTSIDER! You will be the scum of the earth."
So, people CONFORM out of fear.
That is what the Jehovah's Witnesses and other are doing.
It's a shame, becuase the human experience is bigger that the Jehovah's Witnesses. It's bigger than the Family (the so-called Children of God.) It's bigger than the Hare Krishnas. The human experience should be a growing, blooming, beautiful flower in a well-watered field, and not a hybrid plant in a terrarium (sp.?)
