The Gradual Change From Worshiping Jehovah To The Worship Of the Governing Body

I first began my misadventures with Jehovah's Witnesses in 1972 as a youth(18 years old) and was baptised in that same year. I was young inexperienced and they caught me at a low point when I was weak and looking for God to solve problems. Being raised as a Catholic and going to all the religious indoctrination up to the point of confirmation, I guess you could say I was indoctrinated from birth to believe a certain way which left me vulnerable to the JW propaganda.

Fast foreword to the time of my departure in 2001 february.

For a couple of years (late 90s) before I left I started noticing out right lies in the WT publications about their history and the luster that these magazines used to have started to fade rapidly also around that time I really began to notice the gobs and gobs of praise they were bestowing on the Organization and the representative members of the so called Faithful & Discrete Slave(GB). I was slowly getting sick of it as I was starting to find all kinds of things wrong from that point on. My personal reading of WT publications in turn fell to new lows every year as I found such dribble hard to digest.

What really used to bug me was how the friends were just soaking it up, with words to the effect:"The faithful slave this" and "the faithful slave that" and calling the organization "mother" and be obedient to "mother" they even used to use some scripture in proverbs somewhere where it says to be obedient to "mother" and applying it to the organization it was really starting to bug me as I never really was all that impressed with those at the top.

I even recall brothers after a stern tongue lashing from the WT at the conventions saying they were beat black and blue by the rebukes and how they really needed it. To me it was disgusting as the reasonings no longer were making sense and were never really practical, but I knew how to speak JW speak and so I either just listen or found myself agreeing with them in order not to arouse suspision of my growing discontent or loyalty to the Organiztion. Influence of being in groups surely has its place in getting one to accept things that one might question and to conform to the crowds mentality.

What have been your experiences in this regard, were you turned off by all that too, did it have similar reactions?

Did you start to notice how the GB was getting more worship than even the God they claim to serve?

I think somewhere in the 80s after the big thing with Ray Franz and Dunlap that the organization really started to hammer away at the need to let "mother do your thinking for you and everybody wanted to appear obedient to "mother" or the GB so it seems everybody wanted to speak JW speak was jumping on the band wagon and they always had to include some praise for "mother" in their everyday conversation. This is what made me start feeling like everybody was brain dead.

Today after years and years of WT propaganda the freinds have clearly turned into a bunch of Faithful & Discrete Slave worshipers. Look at their new song books and the wording changes and new songs they can hardly sing 2 verses before GB worship is expressed in some form. 

Spot on Frankie,

As I said on a related thread, this was the trigger for me to leave, I was sickened by the blasphemous claims of the GB/FDS and by the idolatrous worship demanded by it ,and offered to it by the R&F.

I am not so sure that there was a "gradual " change, I think even Russell and of course Rutherford expected adoration or worship.

I think they have just got more overt, and more brash about their  "position and their place"

Frankly they sicken me.

Love

Wobble

I had a close friend, another JW elder when I was serving, who complained about this same sort of thing 15 years ago - all the emphasis on the GB - which is really what the FDS is.

Yet, he's still in and shuns me, while I left a decade or more ago, fed up with the worship given to the organization. Early on in its history, what happened to Jehovah's Witnesses is what happens to all similar groups - the organization itself becomes more important than the reason the organization was created.

S4

Nice observations frankie. The emphasis on the FDS and it representatives the GB is far more overt now than it was few years ago. The worrying thing is the R&F are being asked to obey even if they can't understand why. This blind obedience is potentially a very dangerous behaviour. I worry for my friends who are still in.

                                    WBT$ GB Worship has become Incredibly Brazen..

                                      With the release of the new WBT$ Song Book..

                                           It won`t get any Better in the Future..

            Eventually you`ll be able to get WBT$ GB group pictures to hang on your wall..

                                                      WBT$ GB Calenders..

                                                    WBT$ GB Baseball Caps..

                Collectable WBT$ coffee mugs..With individual GB members on every cup..

                     No one will want to go to a Quick Build,without a WBT$ GB T-shirt..

                                             Nothing gets better with the WBT$..

                                                        It only gets Worse..

                                                                           ........................ ...OUTLAW

Outlaw you are so right.  They'll probably change the name too. After all the R&F stopped being witnesses for God a long time ago.

Well, I never paid attention to it before, but every meeting someone is always using the term "faithful slave" and "the society".  I don't know if anyone else heard about this or not, but about a year ago our congregation got a letter about turning congregation funds/savings over to the society.  It said that they could collect the interest and whenever the congregation needed the funds , they would get the money back. This made me have an icky feeling , even though, I kind of blank out with stuff like that.  I really didn't understand how it all worked , but thought it strange. Anyone else's congregation get a letter like that?

GB=FDS=Jehovah.......it's that simple. I am an apostate of a false prophet, that actually make me the good guy.

Since I started with the JWs in 1972, it was 1975 that seemed to get the focus and not too much was heard about the F&DS. After the usurpation of rulership of Knorr and Freddy and transfer of power to Governing Body giving them joint rulership of the Organization  instead of the President things were a little less intense as far as worship of the GB goes, it seems GB worship really got in high gear after the dismissal of Raymond Franz and Dulap.

They were apparently worried about the fall out that would occur once information got out about what really happened at bethel during that time that they started an all out champagne to promote GB worship as they were no doubt worried about their position of authority and the very real possibility of a schism..

All you have to do is just listen to their prayers from the platform===bow your heads to the GB.Iam sick of hearing all the praises to the GB.

Bob

I need to create a cult

You know…I’m glad that the GB is polluting almost all aspect of the JW programs and activities with their repeated call for obedience. Also, that the conventions (assemblies) and meetings are becoming more dull and lifeless.

I’ve developed a mental taste aversion towards the words “faithful slave”, “the mother organization”, “GB”, “the truth”. A brother was giving a part in the service meeting about two or three weeks ago, he repeatedly used the words “the slave says”, “the slave has instructs us”, and then “we should keep following the guidance of the FDS”....I know this bro very well, so I know that he was not doing this on purpose, it was just a reflection of how deep the indoctrination sinks in a person’s mind. The disgust I was feeling was so evident that my wife asked me “honey, are you ok?” after the meeting some well intended bro and sis approached me asking if I was ok. I’m convinced that one of the major contributing factors to my disillusion with this religion is the GB constant emphasis and outright demand for worship.

Them fools are becoming bolder and bolder.

Hey, this is funny from the Daily Show with John Stewart….

http://www.hulu.com/watch/118600/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-the-best-fking-news-team-ever-tiger-woods-faith?c=135:207

Look at min 2:25 reference to the 144k & JW… LOL

Actually, frankie, organization worship goes back to the days of Russell, though perhaps it was more subtle then. It is also present in the book The Finished Mystery, which is nine parts Russell worship to one part organization worship. Since then it seems to have been on a rollercoaster ride with more emphasis at certain times and less at others. It seems to have been present in its grossest form during Rutherford's and the present (Sorry I can't document, I have no library). It seems to have chilled out during Knorrs administration. It's true that organization worship got into high(er) gear during and after the witch hunt trial of Ray Franz and others (Disfellowshipping rates, which are usually 1% per year went up to 2% for a year or two during the 1980s witch hunts) but as Franz brought out in either Crisis of Conscience or In Search of Christian Freedom there was a continous hammering through the Watchtowers, during the Rutherfordian era, about following the orders of the organization. So much so, that a person who donated those old Rutherfordian era watchtowers to Ray scrawled in one of them "Organization = God". Also to be noted about Rutherford he was responsible for purging nearly 75% of the "Bible Students" for not bowing down to him and the organization he was transforming into his image.

villabolo

The baptism oath, or the new one, just sums where a follower's heart must be - THE ORGANIZATION.

All you have to do is just listen to their prayers from the platform===bow your heads to the GB.Iam sick of hearing all the praises to the GB.

You're so right Bob. If I hear a brother pray thanking the FDS this or that and GB this or that I just don't even say Amen. During a recent CO visit I didn't even clap for the hard nose traveling servant and his snappy talks. When you're trapped, even a little resistance of this sort brings a good feeling int the heart. Oh, I know the heart is treacherous but more so are the minds of these Governing Body members.

  CATTAILS- You are SO correct when you said " I know the heart is treacherous but MORE SO are the minds of these governing body members. "  They have ulterior motives for keeping the scam of the WT society going - and it ain't to please Jehovah or help people survive into a paradise !  It's basically to try keeping control and power over their JW members by instilling fear and guilt into them . In that way the WT society can keep printing their yearly WT articles about donating to the alleged " kingdom witnessing " work by getting older JW members to donate inheritances, estates, wills, jewelry, automobiles, life insurance policies , and much $$$$$$ so Teddy Jaracz , the GB, and the WT corporate attorneys can have a lot better retirement than the peon rank and file Jehovah's Witnesses who are encouraged not to be " materialistic " - even encouraged to downscale their employment to pioneer for what ? Not Jehovah, for the LEADERS of the WT cult. It is definitely a dangerous mind control cult which will suck anybody's life away from them that they can. Peace out, Mr. Flipper

I have noticed the washtowel study articles are mentioning more the Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger these days.  Before, say in the 1980s, they would mention obeying Jehovah (which, for me, was bad enough).  Even back then, you were obeying Jehovah by doing what was in that washtowel.

These days, you are being more directly instructed to obey the Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger itself.  That is blatant idolatry--before, it was hidden (you were worshiping the Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger, but they hid behind Jehovah's name).  All the while, they are leaving Jesus out more and more (which is very odd for a so-called Christian religion, let alone the only true Christian religion).  Since when did Jesus tell us that the "Slave" is more important than Jesus himself?  If they are going to continue calling themselves a Christian religion, they had better get this straightened out--Christians are supposed to obey Jesus, not Jehovah and for sure not the Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger.

If you examine Watchtowr history, you will discover that as long ago as 1928 there were "apostates" who warned that this was exacctly what Judge Rutherford was doing. Unfortunately, there was no internet back then, and the dissent did not spread as far as it might have.

That's going to change.

I grew up a JW and in all my 35 years in the religion I never ONCE heard a single brother or sister refer to the organisation as their "mother."

WT Wizard, give it a rest with the "filthful and disgraceful slavebugger" said about 10 times in every one of your posts will ya. You sound like a broken record.

I totally agree with you yadda about WTWizard's 'choice' & derogatory language.

So often I want to print off threads like this one for my long time JW parents to read to help them see they are not the only ones to feel at odds with the present day WBTS & WTWizard's obscenities means I cannot do this.

Can't he be asked to stop??

Ed