I may have been exposed earlier in life than most people to one of the liar’s most effective go-to tactics of all time and that is isolation. Raised as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses until the age of seventeen, I was in a unique position to witness how this tactic is deployed against the people the liar wishes to deceive. Surely, what I experienced as a JW was not as severe as many others have had to endure, but looking back on those years really made these tactics stand out to me and realize just how well they work.
If you seal someone away in a cave for years it is a lot easier to convince them that the sun no longer rises and sets outside. Especially if you are the only one that is feeding them information from the outside world. They have no way of verifying what you tell them about what is happening outside and are therefore much more likely to take your word for it.
The JWs are not the only group that uses this tactic and as I alluded to above, they are not as bad as some of the other more extreme religious groups that exist today and have existed in the past. It would not be fair to compare the JWs to groups like Jim Jones’ People’s Temple but they aren’t amateurs when it comes to keeping the flock in line. And in the dark.
When you are feeding people a steady diet of lies you do not want them being exposed to other people who might refute those lies. Waking up to the truth could cause some serious declines in the follower count in organizations like the Jehovah’s Witnesses. That’s the opposite of what they are trying to accomplish by “witnessing” to others in a seemingly endless effort to bring more into the fold.
Therefore, one of the rules that was a constant for JWs was that we were not supposed to associate with people “of the world.” That was the way they usually referred to people who were not members of the organization. If you were not one of us, you were of “the world.”
It was OK, of course, to be around “worldly” people while in school or at work since there really was no way they could tell us that we were not allowed to get an education or earn a living. People with no money are not able to make weekly contributions, after all. If they had the resources to establish schools for all the children in the organization they probably would have but the JWs are a pretty small and obscure group compared to the world’s major religions. They did not have the financial resources required to set up schools all over the country or the world. I guess they just had to hope that most of us could resist the temptations of the world that we would inevitably encounter.
Looking back, it is very obvious why they discouraged us from voluntary association with those on the outside of the organization. They did not want us to be exposed to others who might challenge the beliefs that had been instilled in us. They wanted to keep us sealed up inside that world of illusion they pushed on us regularly and for a JW, that is more often than you might think.
We were expected to attend a bible study gathering on Tuesday evenings that lasted an hour. Those were small gatherings that were held in the homes of members who volunteered to host them. Those meetings usually involved of a total of a dozen or perhaps 15 participants depending on the space that was available.
On Thursday evening a two-hour meeting was held at the local church but the JWs do not use the word “church” and instead call their house of worship a “kingdom hall.” The meeting started at 7:30 and we often did not get home until after 10:00, which seems like a bit much for families with small children but as we all knew, God came first and everything else was secondary.
On Sunday morning at 9:30 there was another two-hour meeting that was considered the most important one of the week. I can remember well sitting in those meetings at about 11:00 feeling like I was starving to death. I could not wait to get out of there and go home and eat something. Not because we did not have breakfast. We always did, but for some reason sitting in that chair for two hours listening to some blow-hard drone on about the same things I had heard a thousand times really stimulated my appetite. I was probably just bored to death and more aware of my hunger as a result.
Technically, we were also expected to go out preaching for a couple of hours at some point during our “free time” every week. At the time at least, the leadership of the organization didn’t seem to encourage us to do that as vigorously as they encouraged us to attend the meetings. Fortunately for my brother and I, my parents did not take us out to do that very often but when they did it was a pretty nerve-wracking experience. Once we reached a certain age we were expected to knock on doors like the adults did. Being as young as we were, one of my parents stayed with us at all times.
I so clearly remember the fear I had as a child of perhaps 10 or 12 years old who had to memorize my little speech and then go knocking on doors in some random neighborhood trying to convince people to buy our magazines for a 25-cent “donation.” Few of them did and some were downright mean. We had doors slammed in our faces a few times. Of all the things we had to deal with as members of that organization, going out and knocking on doors trying to “convert” others was unquestionably the worst of it for me.
In other ways, however, my brother and I were lucky that my parents did not strictly adhere to the rule that would have limited us to associating only with other JW kids. We really did not have any others that lived within walking distance so my parents let us make friends and hang out with the neighborhood kids and we took full advantage of that opportunity. Looking back on it now, it seems a ridiculous restriction. We were kids! We never went out to play with our friends and ended up talking about religion. That was probably the last thing on our minds so it seems like the danger of us being influenced to leave the organization by other children seems ludicrous. I am sure the leaders of the organization would have been more lenient if they were convinced that we would try to preach to the other kids and try to bring them into the organization.
But the leaders of the organization wanted to take no chances. Their lust for power and control over others influenced them to enact as many restrictions as they could if they thought it meant members were less likely to stray. It must be a difficult balancing act deciding how far to push their followers. If they don’t push hard enough some will stray but if they push too hard that could also cause people to leave. Without members making donations the organization would be unable to continue operating and that is the last thing the leadership wants
My experience as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses as a child probably taught me more about human nature than the organization’s leaders ever intended. Their lies and the tactics they used to keep believers believing are very obvious to me now as I look back on those days. Ultimately, their efforts failed to keep my family in the organization and we left sometime around 1975 after the leadership made a grave mistake. I guess you might say they over-played their hand somewhat.
The incentive to continue on as a Jehovah’s Witness is the promise of eternal life in paradise. A pretty common promise that many religions promote in various forms. As JW’s it was constantly drummed into our heads that we would all enjoy that reward as long as we stayed the course. “Keep your eyes on the prize,” they would tell us. The great “Armageddon” would soon come and destroy all the wicked people of the world, leaving the JWs to live forever on a planet Earth that has been transformed into a paradise that is perfect in every way.
As you might expect, even JWs could get a little anxious about when exactly Armageddon would come. People were excited about living in paradise and never having to worry about sickness and death. Especially if you were someone who was living with a serious illness or some other circumstance that made life unpleasant. Most actually seemed to believe all of their problems would magically be resolved in the perfect paradise that awaited them.
As far back as 1918 the JW leadership was fond of a particular mantra that was worded thusly: “Millions now living will never die.” I suspect you would be hard-pressed to find “millions” who heard that message in 1918 who are still with us, but I digress. (To this day I have a few relatives that are still waiting for Armageddon to come and usher them into paradise to live forever.)
So when would it actually happen? Well, we were constantly promised that, yes, it was indeed coming. We just had to be patient. It would come at a time that only God could know. It would come “like a thief in the night” when everyone least expected it. I don’t remember specifically since that was a long time ago but I suspect that a significant portion of the flock was getting a bit frustrated with not being able to know when “the end” would come.
My suspicion is that the leadership in the 1970s decided that they had to throw a bone out to the flock in order to give them some much-needed hope regarding the arrival of Armageddon. Whether or not they actually came up with it after carefully studying scripture for clues or just picked it out of the air I do not know. But for whatever reason, they decided that 1975 would be the year.
However, they did not come right out and say that. Being young and not quite as interested in the whole thing at the time (I had my doubts about all of it at that time), I do not recall exactly what the leadership said but whatever it was, it was sufficient to convince a great many in the organization that Armageddon would indeed occur sometime in 1975. My parents were definitely part of that group. In fact, they allowed me to drop out of high school after I finished my sophomore year in the summer of 1974. The “new system” was coming, after all, and everything would be perfect for all of us. There was no need to continue on with a worldly education that would not serve me in paradise. I hated school and was just a dumb 16-year-old kid at the time so I jumped at the chance and did not return for my junior year.
Well, as we all know, 1975 came and went and nothing happened. Just as nothing had happened for countless other doomsday cults that had predicted that “the end” was coming. Many JWs shrugged their shoulders and carried on as they had before but many others were seriously disillusioned and left the organization. We were part of the latter group. I think it finally dawned on my parents that they had been misled for most of their lives. I was somewhat secretly drifting away even before that but not really saying much about it. I think the same was true for my mother but as far as I know, both my father and my brother were still true believers up until it was clear that Armageddon did not arrive when it was expected.
To this day I am not sure why I agreed to go back to school once my parents had freed themselves from the fantasy world of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and realized that finishing high school would be beneficial for me. I never liked school so I don’t know why I didn’t rebel against the idea of returning to school but I did not. I was happy to discover that I had accumulated a sufficient number of credits during my freshman and sophomore years to resume school with my class as a senior in the fall of 1975 and take an additional English class since that was one that could not be skipped. I cannot remember it all that well now, but there must have been a pretty specific time that my parents had in mind for the arrival of Armageddon since I had resumed my worldly schooling before the end of the year.
At first it was a little unsettling to be free from the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Perhaps it is a bit like people who spend many years in prison and find the prospect of re-joining the outside world is too intimidating. Some of them quickly commit more crimes and allow themselves to be easily captured and returned to the familiar routine of prison life. That feeling did not last too long, however, and it was kind of nice to start doing things we had never done before like celebrating holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas.
That experience demonstrated to me just how easily some people can be indoctrinated, manipulated and controlled. Since my mother’s family had joined the JW organization when she was quite young she grew up being indoctrinated just as I had been. Figuring out how my father had decided to become involved is a bit more challenging for me. I believe he was in his late teens or early twenties when a neighbor of his who was a JW started preaching to him. He was the only one in our family that decided on his own to become a JW. He was also the only one in his family to make that choice at that time.
To this day it is hard for me to understand why he decided to do that. My brother had theorized that his fear of death was the main reason and I am inclined to think he was right. Where my father was concerned, the JW’s message about the potential for eternal life was just what he needed to hear. I do not know how it is that people can be so easily convinced but he was and the rest is history.
I have been more of an agnostic than anything else for a good number of years now and so far, nothing I have seen or heard has convinced me to change my mind.
One thing is a abundantly clear to me, however, and that is that the right message for the right person can influence them to change their life dramatically. And once that message has taken hold of someone and is accepted, it surely does not hurt to make certain that people do not hear alternative viewpoints that are in conflict with their indoctrination. Both my father and mother had few, if any, real friends that they spent time with outside of family and other JWs.
It appears that it was only the mistake that the JW leadership made regarding 1975 that convinced my parents they had been spectacularly duped. I have to wonder if they would have remained with the organization to the very end if it were not for the organization’s Big Mistake during the 1970s. My father passed away in 2011 and both my brother and my mother in 2018.
I strongly suspect I would have eventually separated myself from that organization regardless of their decision but thankfully I did not have to depart alone. My parents would not have been the type of people that would have “shunned” their own children as many others do so I am confident I would have been able to maintain a good relationship with them even if they had decided to remain in the organization.
If it’s one thing liars fear it is competing ideas and the Jehovah’s Witnesses surely demonstrate that quite well. But small religious organizations like the JWs are not what I worry much about these days. Currently there are people with much more power encouraging cult-like behavior on a much larger scale and that worries me a great deal.