Q9.0    Are JWs Un-American and Un-Patriotic?

JWs will point to their taxpaying and law-abiding nature, of which they
are (to some extent justifiably) proud, and at one time (Qualified to be
Ministers book) it was the done thing to accuse hecklers at JW meetings
of being `Un-American' (this was of course in the MacArthian days). In
earlier days, the USA was presented in glowing terms (to justify the
WTS encouragement for it's followers to buy war bonds):

"In accordance with the resolution of Congress of April 2nd, and with the
proclamation of the President of the United States of May 11, it is
suggested that the Lord's people everywhere make May 30th a day of prayer
and supplication. God was graciously pleased to cause this nation to be
formed and to grow under the most favorable conditions in the world for
the preservation of liberty, civil and religious. This is the land
divinely `shadowed with wings' - overshadowed by the providential
watchcare of God's Word - where God has lifted up an ensign on the
mountain (kingdom), and where he has blown the trumpet message of the
truth."  WT June 1, 1918, p168, 174 ; WT 5/15/1918, p152; 3/1/1919, p67

It is true that in June 1933, the WTS in Germany produced a 'Declaration
of Facts' in which "the greatest and the most oppressive empire on earth
is the Anglo-American empire" and that "it has been the commercial Jews
of the British-American empire that have built up and carried on Big
Business as a means of exploiting and oppressing the peoples of many
nations" and located the center of the evil Jewish menace in London
and New York. However, this volte face, in which they declared their
position as 'exactly the same' and 'squarely behind' the National
Socialist party of Germany, had more to do with persuading Adolf Hitler
to give them their property back, assure him of their loyalty and focus
his attention on the 'real' menace to world peace (yb34, p130; yb74) The
situation changed again to the Nazis, who rebuffed this hand of friend-
ship, being 'the oppressive empire' and the USA being used again by God,
this time to rescue JWs from fascism (this event is more widely known as
W.W.II). The scanned letter to Hitler is on a German WWW site (Q99.1). It
has been reported that older Golden Age (predecssor of Awake) also used
similar methods to ingratiate the WTS with Stalin - references and scans
are not yet available, but will be added to the FAQ when possible.


But there's something much more fundamental to it than matters of tax
and law - take a look at the artists impressions of Paradise, of the
photographs of `standard JW families', and more powerfully, at the
JW-effect on 3rd world converts. The Paradise Image is an extension of
the American  Dream, sometimes recognizably in New England farmland,
but never some Rousseauvian back-to-nature scenario - there's the out
of place detached suburban house, Standard American Family, and usually
a rustic bridge worked in somewhere. Likewise, the world mission -
whatever its doctrinal content - is arguably in effect an
embourgeoisification of the rest of the world - spreading American,
East-Coast, small-town middle-class values (the original WTS
socioeconomic group); this has especial appeal in Central America,
where the Mormons also have become a major avenue of class mobility.

This will attract obvious criticisms of Cultural Imperialism, and
'bourgeois' is one of these terms that sharply polarizes people; there
is good reason to be so disturbed, but it also must be admitted that
there is quite a lot to be said for those middle-class values and
Protestant work ethic -  it means for many people, not just in the
third world, the encouragement to keep personal and domestic hygiene,
gain literacy, wear a suit and tie, carry a briefcase, engage in
'study', become a self-employed entrepreneur, gain the rank of elder or
deacon, meet people of other classes and nations. People can gain
self-respect through the Mormon or JW sects who'd never make it by the
college route; although it's equally legitimate to worry about the loss
of indigenous cultural values and social structures.

All in all, if the CIA are not shoving the occasional large wad of money
under the Brooklyn Bethel door: more fool them! - it's a cheap way
of spreading American values and influence around the world and
promoting political quietism and small business values. As a side note,
the yearbook which covered the CIA coup which overthrew the democratic
government in Chile and put in the fascist dictator Pinochet, hints that
the action was divinely inspired for a) it permitted a convention to
take place that the liberal regime (or according to the WTS, the
'Marxists', 'leftists' and 'extremists') was `threatening'; b) it
`ended years of hate and strife between Chileans' and c) lots of JWs got
the vacated jobs of the arrested suspected `communist infiltrators', and
d) the yb explicitly admits that the poor lost their hopes of betterment
and were more amenable to preaching, whereas during the previous years
JWs had concentrated on the upper classes who feared the loss of
privilege and imposition of higher taxes to feed and educate the poor.
Further, amidst much disinformation spread at the time to justify the
coup, were 'hit-lists' of supposed enemies of the previous government,
American WatchTower personnel and missionaries included. The yb82 p86
claims that the previous government had planned to liquidate all JWs.


Q10.0    Why do ex-JWs go to such trouble to fight their old religion?

JWs are taught to fight for Truth, to maintain personal integrity, to
help rescue others out of their misled state. Naturally, therefore when
a JW reluctantly has to admit that he does not have the Truth(tm) and
that personal integrity demands that he not just hang around to keep
face, helping to mislead others, he inevitably is faced with hard
decisions and the desire to help others who've been similarly misled.

It's ironic that ex-JWs can be so effective at doing so, because of the
very training and indoctrination they received as JWs: an experienced JW
has a wide knowledge of ways of taking other religions apart, viewing
them *all* as he does as agents of Satan and part of the collective
prostitute of the Apocalypse - the language used to describe other
religions would shock people used to the smiling face on the doorstop.
The basic preaching approach relies on painting a depressing picture of
the entire world, the corruptness of church and state, and the bleak
prospects for the future - the WTS is then introduced as a white knight
to rescue the recruit from this doom-laden world.

Quite apart from the doctrinal errors, a short trawl of the networks
will turn up many testimonies of people who've had major personal and
family trauma because of involvement with the cult - if you'd had your
family divided and embittered, if your wife was still terrified of
demons years after leaving, if your child's health had been endangered
by medical taboos against blood or vaccinations, you'd feel strongly
about it and your better nature would goad you to prevent others from
similar unhappy experiences. Support groups also report many cases of
child and wife abuse, with the particular twist that often it is the
wife or child who is blamed and disciplined by the elders rather than
the perpetrator - the patriarchal nature of power, plus the powerful
desire to avoid bad publicity lead to such further abuse of abusees.

Here are some quotes from WT publications, which may help non-JWs to
understand the way JWs and ex-JWs feel about misleading religions:

"It is not a form of religious persecution to say and to show that
another religion is false... for an informed person to expose publicly a
certain religion on being false, thus allowing persons to see the
difference between false religion and true religion" (WT 11/15/63,p688).

"Then, too, as Jesus showed his hatred for lawlessness by exposing
hypocritical religionists, so today Jehovah's Witnesses are showing
their hatred for all hypocritical religious lawlessness. How? By
distributing Bible literature that lays bare Babylon the Great for what
she really is, a religious harlot. If we truly hate lawless religious
hypocrisy, we will be forthright in exposing Babylon the Great, the
world empire of false religion. We will do so for the sake of honest
hearted people whom she has blinded and held in spiritual bondage."
(WatchTower July 15, 1992, p12)

Of course, it's also fair to say that a good many leave because they
can't abide by the moral laws, but usually such expulsions are a symptom
of a credulity-deficit (a.k.a. `lack of faith'); JWs aren't keen to lose
members and an adulterer need only convince the ecclesiastical tribunal
(this is the legal term used by the WT society itself) that he's sorry
and won't do it again and he's still in - disagree about doctrine and
refuse to shut up and you're out; the %crucial% question is `do you
accept the authority of the WTS?'. However, for whatever reason people
leave the WT, whether jumping or pushed, for ethical or immoral grounds,
they'll be tarred with the same brush - a subtle palette of innuendo,
slander, rumor and evasion (this process is known in Scientologist
jargon as *dead agenting*) and have a social *fatwah* pronounced upon
them. It is also significant that a large proportion of ex-JWs become
agnostic or atheistic, after this unhappy experience of religion.

Q10.1   Who's this Raymond Franz fellow?

Some JWs are dimly aware that the nephew of the President was expelled,
but such was only indirectly alluded to in official literature. Most
assume, for such was the indirection, that Franz was a dangerous apostate
who wished to glorify himself and found the door-to-door ministry
degrading. More recent rumors (for in any system where information is
strictly controlled, news & gossip finds its way in the grapevine
somehow) are that he's recanted and become a JW again, that he was
homosexual (no, but there were two gay GB members removed) or that he's
dead (he's alive as of Jul 95), or even (so one net.JW claimed) that such
a person never existed. 

Whatever the current facts are, Franz jr. spent nine years on the world
governing body of JWs, and both before and during that time been a
principal writer of WTS material, including personally editing & writing
much of the (recently disposed) _Aid to Understanding the Scriptures_
Bible encyclopedia, and many of the WT articles & books written during
the 1970s. It was in his editorial position re the _Aid_ book that the
large volume of non-JW information collated by the team threw up some
unpleasant contradictions with Uncle Fred's theology, especially the
date of 607 BCE which is crucial in JW chronology and which is accepted
by *no* other religion or scholar. [See also awaken31.txt in prophecy
archive.] His first book is entitled, _Crisis of Conscience_, for that
was what followed, and which he was no longer able to endure, requested
leave and returned to find the other directors were voting for his
removal. A majority for his instant disfellowshipment was unable to be
attained, he and his wife were ejected from their lifelong %Bethel%
accommodation and given a $10000 payoff. Later he was disfellowshipped
for eating a meal with his ex-JW boss in a small congregation in Alabama
after some dodgy retrospective WT legislation - shunned by all their
friends & family, all of them JWs. At present he is working on a
revision of _Crisis_ and overseeing the translation of both books -
_Crisis_ was published in Spanish in 1994, and speaks at annual
conferences of a non-demoniational group of ex-JWs known as the BRCI.

His readers may be struck by his resemblance to some of the old
dissidents in Communist days - the ones who didn't flee to the West,
embrace capitalism and struggle for the destruction of the Soviet
empire, but rather the ones who remained Communists, and believed in
reform that would bring it back to the principles of the true believers.
Franz makes clear that he wants the WT society to reform some practices,
honestly admit their errors; he's not on a bitter mission of revenge,
but driven by love - of truth and all the people he shared his life
with. His books give a fascinating insight into the management
structures of the WatchTower organization, and some of the chicanery
that's been practiced over the decades (esp. in Mexico, re the approval
of the widespread practice of bribing army officers for a military
service certificate, which meant that the bulk of male JWs were
technically members of the military First Reserves, and where for years
JWs claimed to be a social rather than religious body - there was no ban
on religions, simply restrictions on church assets: the WTS had a choice
of using the Bible and prayer in public meetings and preaching or owning
property - they chose the latter, see the WT 11/1/1975 for a description
of "the cultural benefits" and "Study Halls" of this "humanitarian
work".). The books may be obtained from the Commentary Press [See Q99].
JWs usually have a few harsh words to say about the book, but are
curiously able to judge the book without reading it - it being like the
work of any ex-JW, according to the WT, `spiritual pornography', and in
the words of one net.JW an `act of treason against Jehovah & Christ',
and the classic `from what I've heard it's mostly hearsay'.

[For some of the repercussions of the Franz affair, see file jw#59.txt
in the organization archive.]

Q10.2    Someone I love is studying with JWs, what should I do?

Treat him as a rational, mature human being able to make his mind up
about his own life in an informed manner - however, this puts the
burden upon you to make sure that he *can* make an informed decision
and is not led along by emotion, rhetoric or selectively written
histories; his JW tutors will only give the sunny side of the WTS and
the cloudy side of everybody else, and plenty of plausible sounding
reasons. Love and genuine warmth, as ever, are required - if he
continues in his studies then his relationships with non-JWs will begin
to wither - but make sure that it is *he* that cuts off the
relationship and not you, and don't take it personally when it happens.
The support groups, both on and off the internet, listed in Q99 can
provide support and information for you and your friend. It's often
useful to expose WTS practices by giving examples from other cults.

One caveat must be given to anyone who has read this FAQ, or similar
documents, and is aware of some of the problematic issues surrounding
the WatchTower church: if your friend's new acquaintances learn that you
know such things, then it is very probable that he will be expressly
warned to avoid you as an %opposer% and any information you have will
be labeled as the demonic work of %apostates%. It's best to use such
information as is presented here as a *seed* to stimulate your own
thinking, and to reason with your friend in your own terms. Be aware
that his view of you will change, as the them-and-us mentality begins
to take effect - hence it's vital to remain warm, open and friendly
despite provocation or cold-shouldering. It'll be much more difficult
for him to come to terms with a kind, gentle person being destroyed
any minute by God, simply for not becoming a JW. Persevere!

Q11.0   I'd like to find out for myself if JWs are what they say they
             are. After all, they laughed at Galileo & Columbus!

Leaving aside the fact that they also laughed at Bozo the Clown this is
a valid suggestion. After all, there *could* be a great conspiracy or
demon-inspired plan to veil The Truth from humble seekers; it's not
very likely, but it is a possibility. There's also nothing quite like
finding things out for ourselves - but if you do, *please* heed the
following advice, it's directed at the London Church of Christ, but
applies to any such group:-

Don't talk with strangers about your spiritual life.

   Many a young fresher has been sucked into authoritarian groups by
   opening up about the state of their spiritual life with some fresh
   faced proselytizer. You should no more discuss your spiritual life
   with a stranger than you would discuss the balance in your bank
   account or your sex life.  Such questions should be greeted with a
   polite "I'm sorry I don't know you, and I don't discuss personal
   matters with strangers"

Don't go to meetings or Bible studies with strangers.

   Very often individuals have gone to a "bible study" where they get
   inundated with a lot of "sincere" interest and acceptance
   (love-bombing), and depleted by overly long meetings (the extended
   meeting technique).  Many have been taken over because they trusted
   someone they did not know.

"But they're such nice people!"

    This is a commonly made observation about people in the LCC. But
    nice people sometimes do terrible things. Often they are
    unwittingly part of an organization that is destructive as a whole.
    Civility and courtesy are not guarantees of truth, goodness, or
    spirituality.

Legitimate groups openly identify themselves and give references &
literature.

    Cultic groups try to cloak their practices and beliefs.  They
    push for commitment before they disclose their program and
    practices.

Legitimate groups give room for questions and reflection.

    Authority cults tend to "railroad" people into their program.

Find out what kind of control characterizes a group.

    Do members have to seek permission from their leaders in making
    minor and personal decision, do they occasionally seek advice when
    they need help with a difficult issue?
    What is the group's reaction to former members?

And remember, the theater is the place for suspension of disbelief!

Q12.0   I've engaged a JW in a discussion - but he never reads my posts
             and mails back the same old lines. Why is he so unreasonable?

This is a common syndrome on BBSes and UseNet - you make a carefully
detailed post, and it's all ignored, with the same assertions or quotes
coming back every time - don't take it personally, it happens to all.
Don't be harsh on the JW either! Put yourself in his shoes, and perhaps
your sense of what is reasonable - in practical if not in pure terms -
may change radically. You're challenging him to admit that his religion
is not the One Sole Truth, but consider the consequences of such:-

You've been preaching a message for years, you're well known in the
community for doing so, you have a family doing likewise, all your
friends (you gave up the others years ago) are the same, perhaps
your business is with fellow JWs. Your whole outlook on live revolves
around the WTS theology, believing that you'll live forever in paradise
and all your relatives resurrected; you've carved a life for yourself,
overcome many of the initial social difficulties, have settled into a
distinctive subculture and become quite comfortable in it.

             "Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as though by
             instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It
             includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to
             perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest
             arguments if they are inimical to IngSoc, and of being bored
             or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of
             leading in an heretical direction." _1984_, Pt II, Chap IX

Now someone comes along and starts to point out some unpleasant facts -
doctrinal inconsistencies, shady practice, repressed history. Now even
if you were to listen to someone who is not a JW (and hence anti-JW)
and possibly part of the `Evil Slave Gnashing Their Teeth' you've been
continually warned about (told to treat their writings as pornography),
even despite all that, you listened and did reason, how easy do you
think it would be to lose face, family, friends, perhaps business,
become a social outcast in the only society you know? Do you think
you might be tempted to pretend it's not there and get on with life,
like a man who ignores the first symptoms of cancer because he hopes
it'll just go away? Do you begin to see his situation? Empathize?

Here's one apt warning from Sissela Bok's book,  "Lying: Moral Choice
in Public and Private Life":-

"Convinced that they know the truth - whether in religion or in
politics - enthusiasts often regard lies for the sake of this truth as
justifiable. They may perpetrate so-called pious frauds to convert the
unbelieving or strengthen the conviction of the faithful. They see
nothing wrong in telling untruths for what then regard as a much "
higher" truth."


Q12.1   Is it worth continuing the discussion?

Yes, apart from the fact that you may be able to get through and permit
the JW to make a truly informed decision about his faith (and if your
religious convictions are such, believe that you can save him), there
are often many more lurkers than posters in any conference - perhaps
someone who is thinking about joining, or someone who has lost a spouse
to the WTS, or just anybody with an interest in the subject, will be
listening - cast your bread upon the waters and in time it will return.

Q13.0   Who's this Johannes Greber fellow?

First of all, Greber was never a Jehovah's Witness; the connection
between the two has arisen for two reasons - for many years, Greber
was used as one of the few authorities for the NWT's controversial
translation of John 1:1, and secondly, the close resemblance between
Greber's Christology and the WatchTowers.

Here's how Greber describes himself in the in the introduction of his
translation of The New Testament (c)1937:

  "I myself was a Catholic priest, and until I was forty-eight years old
  had never as much as believed in the possibility of communicating with
  the world of God's spirits. The day came, however, when I
  involuntarily took my first step toward such communication, and
  experienced things that shook me to the depths of my soul... My
  experiences are related in a book that has appeared in both German and
  English and bears the title, Communication with the Spirit-World: Its
  Laws and Its Purpose."

The WatchTower Society used him as a reference in the following:

             WatchTower: 2/15/56,p111; 9/15/62 p554; 10/15/75; 4/15/76, p231
             Aid to Bible Understanding (1969): pp 1134, 1669
             Make Sure of All Things (1965)   : p 489
             The Word: p5

However, by the early 1980s, counter-cult groups were publicizing the
link and embarrassing the WTS. In the WatchTower of April 1, 1983 they
announced that they were "ceasing to use" his translation because they
had discovered in the 1980 edition that the foreword stated that his
wife, a medium of God's Spirit world was often instrumental" in its
translation. Was this an unfortunate usage which the WTS corrected
when brought to light, or were they being disingenuous, even dishonest?

Bearing in mind the 1983 "discovery" that Greber's %wife%, a "medium
of God's spirit world" had %often% helped him, examine again the 1937
quotation from Greber made above in the light of its being taken from
the April 15th, *1956* WatchTower. Now for some more curious relations
between Greber's theology, revealed through divination, and the WTS:-

CSW, p330: "Christ was therefore the Son of God, and claimed to be
nothing more.  He was not the Deity.  Not once did He say: `I am
God'."

CSW, p331, 333, 328, 302:  "I am Jehovah thy God.  Thou shalt
have no other gods besides me."

CSW, p301: "At that time you were told that Christ is the highest of
the spirits created by God and the sole one to be created directly."

CSW, p385: "Not even Christ's natural body was raised... The body of
Jesus similarly to the bodies of Enoch and Elijah have been dissolved".

CSW, p379:  "I hope I have convinced you with my explanations, that
there is no authority in the Bible to support your inhuman and untrue
doctrine of an everlasting Hell."

CSW, p414, p415: "Paul is not speaking here (Romans 13) of temporal
authorities but of the spiritual ones which God assigns over man...In the
case of temporal authorities, also, obedience is due them only to the
extent that their laws do not conflict with those of God."

New Testament of JG, p15: "I availed myself of this contact with the
source of truth to seek enlightenment above all in regard to the text of
the Bible as we know it today; for on the occasion of my first
experience with the world of divine spirits my attention had been called
to the fact that the books of both the Old and the New Testament
contained a great deal of spurious matter which had given rise to many
erroneous ideas prevailing in the Christian churches of our day.
Subsequently I learned about these falsifications in detail...In the
rare instances in which a text pronounced correct by the divine spirits
can be found in none of the manuscripts available today, I have used the
text as it was given to me by those spirits."

CSW, p426: "The later Church which banished the Divine spirits became,
under the influence of the Powers of Evil, a church of spiritual slavery
in which the leaders arrogated to themselves an authority which clashed
with the will of God, and by virtue of this authority, barred the direct
path to God to the faithful."

Naturally, the coincidence (and divergence) of doctrine between the WTS
and Greber says little on its own, other than putting the WTS in some (to
its members) embarrassing company. It is, however, very useful to their
Trinitarian opponents, especially since the WTS use similar tactics to
damn their beliefs by association with pre-Christian and Pagan concepts -
every church but the WTS is damned by them in fiery rhetoric and pictured
as being `Babylonic', i.e. having the religious practices
of ancient Mesopotamia as their root. Their opponents counter with the
Pagan/Wiccan use of the Watchtower symbol, and the appearance on
Russell's final volume of _Studies in the Scriptures_ of the
spiritistic and Masonic Ra symbol of universal harmony, together with
his Pyramidology, and the Tarot like original WT cover of a lightning
bolt striking a tower. See also _The Watchtower and the Masons_. In
recent years, diabolic faces and astrological symbols have been spotted
directly or subliminally in various WT publications - Derek Barefoot's
_Hour of Darkness_ has information on this (to spot some yourself, try
the pe book - hexagram in p128, Aries in p244, misc. symbols in p19).

 "When Uranus and Jupiter meet in the humane sign of Aquarius in 1914, 
  the long-promised era will have made a fair start in the work of 
  setting man free to work out his own salvation, and will insure 
  the ultimate realization of dreams and ideals of all poets and sages 
  in history." [Watch Tower, May 1, 1903, pp 130-1; p3184 _Reprints_]

As a postscript to the Greber `affair', it may be of interest that,
Greber being dropped in 1983, the 1985 edition of the NWT Interlinear
(p 1139, 1140) had a new authority for the translation of John 1:1, one
John S Thompson of Baltimore, author of _The Monotessaron, or The Gospel
History, According to the Four Evangelists_ (1829), who in addition to
flitting between every faith he could, translated the Bible, like Greber,
with credit to the spirits who assisted him as a medium. The _American
Quarterly Review_, Sept 1830, Vol 8, p227 carries an article on Thompson's
life, many faiths and the spirit voices which bade him write and translate.
His company on the short-list of authorities are the liberal German
scholars, also authorities for the Technicolor (shades of authenticity)
Bible of the _Jesus Seminar_.

The WTS picked up another paranormalist as their principle authority for
their snappily titled _Life! How did it get here? By Evolution or
Creation?_. The writer, misleadingly described in the book as an
'evolutionist' is neither a scientist nor a Darwinian - his brand of
psychic evolution is part of a wide range of interests: his other books
are on such subjects as pyramidology, astrology, dowsing, ESP. His anti
Darwin books quote straight from creationist literature, rather than from
original sources - a useful habit the WTS share with this associate. In
1984, an old Pyramidologist - C. Piazzi Smyth, the original inspiration
for Russell's pyramid-chronology - turned up as a reference again; see
page 49 of the book _Survival_.


More info from Greber from:

                Johannes Greber Memorial Foundation
                139 Hillside Avenue
                Teaneck, N.J. 07666

[See also greber.txt, wtgreber.txt and jw-011.txt in the nwt archive.]

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file: /pub/resources/text/apl/jw/jwfaq.06.txt
(continued, see jwfaq.07.txt)