People 
| Scare Tactics and Misplaced Loyalty Used by the Watchtower |
| Written by Christy Darlington |
| Tuesday, 26 May 2009 15:14 |
 A common characteristic of a “spiritually abusive system is that a misplaced sense of loyalty is fostered and even demanded.” “A common way this is accomplished is by setting up a system where disloyalty to or disagreement with the leadership is construed as the same thing as disobeying God. …Once again, this makes the wall around the system thicker and makes it more difficult to leave." Authors David Johnson & Jeff VanVonderen go on to explain in their book, The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse:
“First, leadership projects a ‘we alone are right’ mentality, which permeates the system. Members must remain in the system if they want to be ‘safe,’ or to stay ‘on good terms’ with God, or not to be viewed as wrong or ‘backslidden.’ …The second factor that brings about misplaced loyalty is the use of ‘scare tactics.’ …We have counseled many Christians who, after deciding to leave their church, were told horrifying things. …‘God will destroy your business.’ ‘Without our protection, Satan will get your children.’ … This is spiritual blackmail and it’s abuse. And it does cause people to stay in abusive places.” --The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse, by David Johnson & Jeff VanVonderen, p. 76-77 I can definitely identify with the “scare tactics” and “misplaced loyalty” I saw being used during my time in the Jehovah’s Witnesses. I remember how they would constantly talk about the organization being the “ark” of God and that there was literally no other place to go for “safety.” I remember one Sunday afternoon when I sat face to face across the dinner table with the book study elder and his wife in their home. I had spent an entire summer researching the 1914 Watchtower chronology and how it is based upon a false date for the fall of Jerusalem (607 B.C. instead of 587). I had obtained photocopied documentation of the translations of Neo-Babylonian business tablets that were based upon the king’s reigning years. I had tablets that showed transactions that took place over the entire period of Babylonian history that covered the questionable years in the Watchtower chronology, each tablet falling between the last year of the previous king’s reign and the first year of next king’s reign. This showed that there is absolutely no way one can add 20 years to the Babylonian period without messing up the physical business contracts recorded on these tablets because one could not add a king to the list of kings, nor could one add years to any of the kings’ reigns during this period. It was a foolproof argument because the Watchtower had no way to get around the evidence from business tablets. The only response that I could find in any Watchtower literature that went into detail was in the Appendix pages 186-189 in the Watchtower 1981 book: “Let Your Kingdom Come” The main point of their arguments centered on two lines of alleged proof against the historian’s dates. First, the Watchtower does their best to place doubt upon the Babylonian records that historians used for their dates. Since many rely on the “King’s List” given in the Babylonian Cuneiform Tablets, they argue that these may have errors and that the years listed for each king may have been tampered with or doctored up to be shorter than they really were or they may have been in error by not reporting a particular king’s reign. It is in this way the Society tries to stretch the period to add an additional 20 years from the fall of Jerusalem that historians say was in 587 to come up with the Society’s date of 607 B.C. to the fall of Babylon in 539 B.C. I quickly pointed out that this is impossible as the business tablets I presented were contemporary with the time period of Babylon (not written by scribes years later as the King’s List was). Plus, to tamper with the king’s reign on a business tablet would have completely messed up the business contracts of that era as one could not add 20 years for example to a tablet that said that this transaction only took 3 years from the 43rd reign of Nebuchadnezzar to the 2nd year of Evil Meridok. Secondly, they argue that since the Bible says that Judah would serve the King of Babylon for 70 years, they claim that the current date of 587 would not give 70 years to the fall of Babylon for Judah to serve Babylon. But I showed the elder and his wife how one could easily get the 70 years when one counts the first year that the King of Babylon began to reign over Judah in 609 B.C. until Babylon fell in 539. This easily accounts for the 70 years mentioned in the Bible, without messing up any historian’s chronological tablets. The Watchtower instead points to the fall of Jerusalem and tries to argue the 70 years started then, but when they do this, they actually push the years of servitude for Judah from 70 years to 90 years as they have to push back the date that the first King of Babylon began to reign over Judah in 609 to 629 to come up with 607 for the fall of Jerusalem. In doing this, I showed the elder how it is impossible for the Watchtower chronology to even fit with the Bible! After I finished, the elder looked to his wife and shrugged his shoulders saying: "I don’t know what to tell you. We have no answer for this information." Then he quickly added: "Are you questioning the Watchtower Governing Body? They are twice your age! No, they are three times your age!" I just looked back at him with a confused look and said, "So what? If they’re wrong, they’re wrong! What am I supposed to do with this information? If I become a Jehovah’s Witness, will I be required to teach something I KNOW is wrong?" The elder was quiet for a moment and then said, "Yes, You would have to teach this if you become a Jehovah’s Witness." I then asked, "How can I do that when I know I am teaching something that is WRONG?" He had no answer. Two weeks after this incident, after the meeting one night, the elder came up to me and told me that he found a verse in the Bible that answers my question. Do want to guess what the verse was? Yes, you guess it! 1 Timothy 1:3-4: "…do now, that you might command certain ones not to teach different doctrine, nor to pay attention to false stories and to genealogies, which end up in nothing, but which furnish questions for research rather than a dispensing of anything by God in connection with faith." Can you believe it? This verse was supposed to "answer" my questions because it tells us not to pay attention to "genealogies"! I just shook my head in shock and disbelief when he showed me that. It wasn’t long after this that the elder asked me to leave the Kingdom Hall and not to come back "unless" I was willing to "believe everything without question.” He said, "Where did you learn the truth in the first place?" Of course, I never fully accepted "the truth" because I wasn’t baptized, so he couldn’t push the issue with me, but I sure went away thinking, "If that isn’t an example of the 'we alone are right' and 'do not question the Governing Body leadership of Jehovah’s Witnesses,' misplaced loyalty and scare tactic of the Watchtower organization, I don’t know what else it is!" Thankfully, I was never baptized so my leaving was without as many threats as many of my friends have been through. I know one poor fellow who was told so many times: "You will die if you leave!" he began to dread the next phone call from a JW relative or friend. It was absolutely horrible for him as they did all they could to lay the guilt complex on him for leaving, claiming that he was ruining his JW family and would 'die at Armageddon' for questioning the organization and walking away. Even though he turned in his DA letter, they still called him in for a disfellowshipping meeting on the grounds of "apostasy." Talk about scare tactics! Thank God for His Grace and Mercy and that true Christianity is about the love of Christ who died to make us acceptable to God--without any "approval" needed from some man or man-made organization! If you recently left Jehovah’s Witnesses or are thinking about leaving, I recommend these articles from our www.4jehovah.org website:
I’M THINKING ABOUT LEAVING, BUT I’M CONFUSED! DOES ANYONE HAVE THE TRUTH?
OUT OF THE WATCHTOWER—INTO WHAT?
WHAT IS “THE TRUTH”?
IS THE WATCHTOWER SOCIETY “FAITHFUL AND DISCREET”?
I’M AFRAID OF BEING DESTROYED AT ARMAGEDDON. What If Jehovah’s Witnesses Are Right After All?
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Comments (3)
  written by Gina , May 29, 2009 I've had the "You're going to die" conversation with all my JW friends and relatives. I finally started saying, "Aren't we all, someday?" It's odd that I'm not nearly as afraid of death as I was when I was a Witness. Their Nihilism is more frightening than many things I can think of. report abuse
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 written by Blueeyes54 , May 30, 2009  smile report abuse
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 written by C Buckholtz , August 11, 2009 Excellent article. The members in the organization suffer from a mass form of spiritual abuse that is perpetuated by the governing body. Not unlike Stockholm's Syndrome. Individuals that break free are nevertheless treated scornfully by other members because the members are disillusioned by the treatment of the governing body. 5 Symptoms of spiritual abuse are 1. Spiritual guilt, 2. Low spiritual self confidence, 3. Loss of individuality, 4. strict adherence to spiritual hierarchy, 5. Loss of beneficial Jesus speech. report abuse
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