Who Pays The Ferryman....?

French philosopher Blaise Pascal once noted, "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." A case study for this statement can clearly be evidenced by the Governing Body Of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The GB present themselves as ‘lovers of Truth and righteousness’ who are the only persons on this planet who speak for God. This doctrine is at the very core of the beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses and is one of the few that cannot be rationalized away by WTS apologists. One either accepts that Christ is exclusively using the ‘Faithful Slave’ ( in actuality the GB ) or one should not even refer to themselves as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses .

Apparently God informs the GB exclusively what the inhabitants of this planet need in the way of spiritual direction, and he does this a little at a time primarily through a magazine that they publish bi-monthly.

The problem with an outsider looking at these claims, is that it then becomes difficult to identify who to accuse of the genocide perpetrated on the basis of this belief - a group of men whose ever shifting policies result in the injury and death of hundreds of innocent people, or the God who they claim instructed them to tinker with these important doctrines. The GB seem quite content to blame God for these deaths, but their collective consciences seem unable to grasp the realties of what has really happened here, that is - that they have consistently enforced policies that have killed people and then absolve their own part in these deaths, by passing on the blame to God for instructing them to do it. The specter of Nuremberg rises to haunt them.

The GB have played Russian Roulette with lives and then passed the responsibility for their failures onto a God, who if the Bible is to be believed, despises their very existence for the way that they have treated the ‘lowly ones’.

For example:

Death by ‘Shifting Policy’. The reality is that many hundreds of people have died or been seriously injured needlessly due entirely to their lack of understanding of the very Book of which they claim to have sole representation. The shifting Factor VIII policy, the shifting organ transplant policy, the ‘adjustment’ in neutrality issues, and now the shot-in-the dark attempts at understanding what constitutes so-called ‘major’ and ‘minor’ blood fractions, have stripped families of their loved ones. Like the incompetent British Generals at the Battle Of Passiondale’ in WWI, they have described their victims are heroes, and while these fallen innocents lie forgotten in shady corners of their theological graveyards or washed down the lonely gutters of the passing decades, it is their offspring, not the self-styled 'Glorious Ones’, who learn to live with their grief.

I well remember the unfortunate JW whom I met in a non-US country, imprisoned for years for refusing his daughter a blood transfusion. His life became a long litany of homosexual rape and brutality. He now exists a broken man. His ordeal may never have had to be endured, given the recent shifts is what was once considered an immovable scriptural edict.

Many have lost their lives or spent years behind bars for a refusing to engage in non-combatant activities offered to them by their Government rather than enter the military services. Again shifting policy at the hands of God / GB has changed that scenario, so now persons can avoid being sent to jail and exercise their conscience over non-combatant duties. Yet innocent blood has already been spilt and somebody is responsible.

Another example :

Death by Disfellowshipping - Let me offer the GB a challenge, especially given that they herald themselves self-confessed ‘lovers of Truth’?. Why not publish in the Yearbook for 2003, the statistical figures for those who have killed themselves due to having been disfellowshipped. A disciplinary procedure that is so open to interpretation that each decade the WTS changes its policy on how to treat such persons. They have used as an offensive weapon the most natural right that belongs to people, that of the expecting the love and loyalty of a family.

Many years ago I fished out of the river the body of a kind-hearted JW who had been disfellowshipped for smoking. He struggled with this addiction, and was also one of the most gentle people that I have met. He could not bear to live with his ‘failures’ and the prospects of being shunned by those whom he had come to respect. He left behind a wife and two small children. Did the GB offer to feed this fatherless family, or clothe them? Hardly. When in a hardly controlled anger I spoke with a Branch Overseer in the land I was serving in about the matter, the best he could offer, was ‘Step, these things happen’. Think about the implications of this statement. ‘These things happen……My question is, ’ How often?

Had this poor man committed this ‘sin’ prior to the change of policy towards smokers in 1972, when smoking was still a matter of conscience and not a dictate, he would not have been ‘shunned’. He is one of hundreds whose lives have been bought to an early end by their attachment to flawed theological policies. The GB well knows that my figure of ‘hundreds’ of suicides over the past few decades is a conservative one.

A more subtle, but equally dangerous reaction to WTS thinking is :

Death by Non-Life. Mircea Eliade once stated. "A person who steals the vision of another has murdered his soul". These dramatic words capture, I believe, the essence of one of the WTS most collectively damaging concepts. In order to separate its adherents from the rest of humanity and subsequently control their lives, the WTS has with determination and singularity of purpose, severed individuals from the creative urges that are so important to mankind and his progress. Potential Doctors, researchers, ecologists, artists, poets, musicians, intellectuals have been stirred into the melting pot of WTS life in an attempt to stifle the unique voice that cries out within each of our hearts.

In doing this, the WTS approach a Hitlerian mentality in trying to extinguish all those within its system, those it sorely needs to survive, who have any ability to think for themselves and work by initiative and creativity, rather than edict and fear. Hitler in killing the Jews, also killed the heart and brain of Germany, exactly what it needed to survive.

Any loyal Jehovah’s Witness who strays onto this Board and reads this message would need to determine in the own hearts where the blame for these deaths lies, somebody has caused them. The GB claim that each JW makes their own decisions, based on the individual ‘Bible trained’ conscience. This is scurrilous nonsense crafted to allow them to sleep at night. People have been coerced into making decisions that have endangered the safety of themselves and their families and in many cases resulted in death. Somebody will need to pay the ferryman.

As for me, as far as I am concerned, any person who behaved in such an irresponsible and precarious fashion, killing people by policy changes voted around polished tables, is in my opinion worthless as a human being. Any man who did so should be languishing in jail with any other common criminal.

The WTS draws attention to Jesus Christ’s view of the Pharisees by making the following comment:

Part of a ‘perplexed public’ is now asking you whether you are willing to accept that by inciting people to die for your cause, you are in fact guilty of exactly the same attitude you decry in others, and in fact are equally as guilty of the murder of the innocents, as they are.

HS

Hey hillary_step,that is quite a post.A buddy of mine just fished a body out of the river while fishing.He found it quite tramatic.You knew the guy you fished out,I can`t imagine what that felt like.The rest of your post as to the policies of WBTS that have killed people,or destroyed thier lives.Many of us have seen these things with our own eye`s.There are many supporters of the WBTS who should be tried for murder...OUTLAW

My personal hope is that JW lurkers read and reread what Hillary has written.

This is not a rash statement made impetuously by a recently disenchanted individual. This synopsis has been carefully distilled over decades of service with and observation of the hierarchy of Jehovah's Witnesses.

It is written with the grace and characteristic understatement of a person who would not intentionally defame without cause.

TMS

Hands down, the best post I've ever read on this board.

I know that's not why you wrote it Hillary, but I think even a humble man like you should be able to accept a little heartfelt praise.

I'm printing this out to save for if and when I ever get an opportunity to rationally discuss this with any still JW family.

Thank you for your time and effort.

think41self

This side of Eden, whether we realize it or not, we feel the stain on our souls, and at every opportunity, we try to scrub it away with steel-wool guilt.

I have to echo think's sentiment here. I wish I could add more.

bttt, hopefully to stay for awhile.

ONE.....

bigboi

Howdy Step,

Quote: The GB have played Russian Roulette with lives and then passed the responsibility for their failures onto a God, who if the Bible is to be believed, despises their very existence for the way that they have treated the ‘lowly ones’.

Indeed, on a private scale, lives have been lost - many through suicide because people tried so hard to live up to the merciless expectations put before them by the GB.

On a large scale - as you've so honestly shown.
On a country scale - Malawi/Mexico sham takes a big bow. So many families destroyed for a quarter in Malawi - while the Mexican brothers paid off government officials - all with GB full knowledge and agreement.

Terrific post, Step. Glad you're back.

waiting

Thank you for writing this, Hillary.

I have a few family members I would love to show this too. Unfortunately, because of shunning, I hold little hope of that ever becoming reality.

I paused on your reference to Hitler killing the Jews. Perhaps, without us being able to see it, because it happens too slowly for the naked eye, the Org is imploding. The best and the brightest, unable to close their eyes, leave, or are expelled. Indeed, the Org seem to excel at shooting itself in the foot.

On a more personal note. I have a cousin that I was very close to when I was a child. I spent a lot of time with his family. He was one year younger than me. A fun and very sweet kid. Because of some disagreement between our families, I didn't see him for nearly 10 years. Went we did meet up, I was 18. I had just gotten a new Camaro Z28 and thought I was...well, I was 18 and had a hotrod...I was tres cool!

When I finally got to see this cousin after so many years at a family gathering, of course, being a guy, he wanted a ride in my car. And did I ever take him for a ride! He was still the sweet, bright, funny kid I remembered. We joked and laughed the entire time I zipped around rural areas outside the city he lived in. It was if the 10 years never went by. Of course, we parted with promises of keeping in touch.

Then a short time later, the WTS cracked down on associating with former members, and his mother being PioneerSuperWitness, my family was cut off again. This was 1981.

Until about 18 months ago when his younger sister made contact with me, I had no idea of his whereabouts or what he was doing. I find out after serving at Bethel for many years he is a CO somewhere in the southwest.

I realize it's been over 20 years and people can change. Sometimes for the worst. I ask myself how he can support, and help run, such a organization that can be so devastating to so many people. He's not a rank and rile! He is privy to the behind-the-scenes shenaniganes that the average JW is not aware of. Has he been so assimilated into the Borg that he is more robot than human now? I don't know the answer. I do know that he is the darling of his JW Mother's eye.

Please allow me to apologize for my ramblings. Best and brightest just made me think of him.

Excellent post.

Andee

Hillary,

Excellent post. Well written. You captured so much in a sensible way.

You are someone I need to know.

Doug

FreePeace
"The World is my country, and to do good, my religion." --Thomas Paine
TruthQuest: http://beam.to/truthquest
Who Am I? -How to Reinvent Yourself After Leaving the WTS

Excellent post.

Path

Hillary, that was simply outstanding. I cannot imagine any one who ever was a JW not being moved at reading your post.

H_Step,

You have certainly seen many things. I can only imagine what others, still struggling with faith in JWdom, are living through right now.

Your title reminds me of a recent movie, From Hell, where the investigator puts pennies on the eyes of the victims of Jack the Ripper. Quite a startling imagery.

But another key feature of this movie is that responsibility for evil is pushed away by many guilty parties. The lengths to which people go 'wash the blood from their hands' is astounding.

Well I have seen a new meaning in the 'pennies for the ferryman' myth. Thanks for sharing,

cellomould

"You're crying 'why am I the victim?' when the culprit is YOU" Stevie Wonder

Excellent indeed.

I've never had to fish a friend's body out of the river, but once I was asked to give a funeral talk as none of the elders would do it.

The young man shot himself in the head with a high-powered rifle, because he found himself hooked on drugs and felt that he was a disgrace to Jehovah's name. He figured that he would be cured of it in the resurrection.

It astonishes me how completely the Organization ignores the parable of the wheat and the weeds.

LoneWolf

Thank you all so much for your kind words and encouragement, it is much appreciated.

TMS,, You are quite correct, I did think long and hard before I used such words as 'genocide', 'murder' and 'common criminal', but I honestly can see no other conclusions that could be drawn given the facts.

Nathan Knorr's infamous remark to my wife many years ago when she asked him how he could sleep at night being aware of the pitted trail that the WTS left behind it, is very telling, "I leave these things to Jehovah to deal with". It shows the ease with which people can come to terms with the foulest deeds if they can pass on the responsibility to others.

I suspect that this is where Ramond Franz and Nathan Knorr differed greatly in attitude from one another, I also suspect that the GB is even today made up of 'Knorrs' and Franz's'. The reality is that whatever their emotional make-up, they make the decisions, they discuss them in detail and then discuss how to implememt them, and as such they are all collectively guilty.

I find it difficult to judge the Captains and the Infantryman in this vast and macabre theological nightmare, despite those that can at times behave in such an appalling fashion. To what extent they have been victimised by the system, is difficult to say.

If the thinking of an elder, CO, DO, etc, is changed, it makes little difference to the WTS and normally results in their rapid expulsion from the WTS. Change the thinking of a member of the GB and doctrine changes with it. This clearly shows who bears the responsibility for the blood that now 'cries out' to be avenged.

Best regards to you all - HS

Well spoken Hillary! I have long thought that all the needless deaths are by far the most reprehensible aspect of the WT organization. Sure there are alot of other atrocities, but death has a finality that no other abuse can compete with.

When I asked my father one time who was responsible for all the deaths from the organ transplant ban, now allowable blood fractions, and selective service prohibitions, he claimed that no proof of that existed. I just stared at him in amazement that someone could share in the murder of so many innocent people and only be concerned with being caught.

I believe your post captures the paramount issue of what is wrong with the WTBS......murder

HS,

Good work man!

Thanks.

helluva post....going to show that one to my sister.

ash

Absolutely fascinating. When you hit the bottom line, this is why any outsider is crazy to get involved with a witness. It is a life and death matter. Thank you.

HS,

You have put the Watchtower on a scale and have shown them to be grossly wanting.

As "Spiritual Israel" they have claimed to drink the wine of God's blessings, perhaps it is now time for them to also drink the wine of God's maledictions.

Thank you for this excellent, though somewhat painful, summation of our once beloved "home" where the emperor truly has no clothes and all the king's horses and all the king's men cannot hide his nakedness anymore.

Take Care,
IW

excellent post, hillary_step.

if i had a dollar for every time i heard the phrase "it's in jehovah's hands," i would make bill gates look like a transient.

how convenient. leave it up to some invisible entity to handle the fallout. what a crock.

~riz

Hey hillary_step,that was a pretty nasty thing Norr said to your wife.The man sounds like he was a cold hearted prick.I guess you`d have to be,to watch people around you suffering and or dieing and do nothing about it.You bring so much interesting information to this board.Thank you...OUTLAW