The Watchtower Society and Human Rights

The Watchtower Society prides itself on fighting for human rights. And indeed they have. They have courageously fought and many have gone to jail for their human rights. But how do they stack up when it comes providing rights to their own? Does the average Jehovah’s Witness have the same rights that the other people have? Below is a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. My comments are in red. I have omitted some Articles that do not apply. I have also split the Declaration into 2 parts with Part 2 appearing tomorrow.

One of the things the Watchtower Society rarely does is mention the Golden Rule – Love your neighbor as yourself.

The Watchtower Society is very good at making rules which they call “principles” by which all Jehovah’s Witnesses must live. Rules about the proper clothes to wear, the length of your hair, the kinds of movies you watch, whether you hold hands with your spouse while praying, how many meetings you must attend, who you can and cannot associate with, what kind of work you do and on and on.

The Watchtower Society says that those who leave are doomed to lives of misery and debauchery.  We become slaves of Satan wasting our lives in sinful activities.  But how true is that?

Of the hundreds of people I have met who are no longer Jehovah’s Witnesses very few fall into this category. I certainly know of some who have become so depressed that they resorted to alcohol, drugs and even prescription medication to deal with their depression. It isn’t easy losing everything you have in life. That doesn’t mean they are bad or wicked people. It means they are not doing well adjusting to life outside of the Watchtower Society. And to be honest they were doing worse adjusting to life as a Witness which is why they left.

Characteristics of Adulthood

I found an interesting article about what it means to be an adult the other day. I thought it might be interesting to look at it from a couple of perspectives. First from the perspective of where we are today. Then we might want to compare that to how we were as Jehovah’s Witnesses. Then the third perspective is of the Watchtower Society as an organization. Organizations, too, go through developmental stages, hopefully getting to the point of becoming a mature group that might meet some of the same criteria as adulthood instead of infancy or childhood. And since the Watchtower Society considers itself our “parent”, doling out instructions and punishment then it would make sense that they would inhibit the development of its “children”.  Substitute your responses for “self-then” and “self-now”.

Being shunned by Jehovah’s Witnesses might not be the worst thing.

Those of us who were baptized as Jehovah’s Witnesses and have left knew that we would be shunned especially if we had been baptized.  We may have hoped that our families would bend the rules and maintain some contact. But the Watchtower Society is very clear about the practice of shunning and that those who ignore this rule will be disciplined themselves. So out of fear or obligation or the absurd belief that shunning us will somehow teach us a lesson of love they turn their backs on good friends and worst of all family. And this is done at a time when a person most needs support if they are ever going to return to the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Do Jehovah’s Witnesses get their beliefs from the Watchtower Society?

I usually refer to the Watchtower Society as the source of the beliefs of all Jehovah’s Witnesses. Sometimes I shorten it to the “Society” or even use “organization”. But it seems that the Watchtower Society is trying to change this idea that Jehovah’s Witnesses get their beliefs from the Watchtower Society. Does this make sense? Am I behind the times and should I change how I refer to them?

In terms of speaking the truth I think this is important.  In holding the Watchtower Society responsible for its actions it is also important.

Back in 1998 the Society published the following:

Til death do us part

(NOTE: Although I speak about women here this can easily be reversed)

I worked with battered women who left their husbands and were ending their marriages. Over the years I have spoken with hundreds of women who have chosen to end their marriages for good reasons. Inevitably they feel they have broken the vows they took when they married. And they feel guilty as a result of breaking those vows.

How can I reduce my fears about sexuality now that I have left the Jehovah’s Witnesses?

A part of taking back our lives has to deal with the many fears that the Watchtower Society instilled in us. One of them was the fear of interactions with the opposite sex. We were taught that being alone with a person of the opposite sex meant that something sexual would happen.  It was inevitable. But that belief is also unreasonable. People do not engage in sex every time they are behind closed doors.