Hate

Hatred Breeds Hatred—A Response to the Hamburg Shootings

   Articles

HATRED BREEDS HATRED. Jehovah’s Witnesses say they are a peace-loving people, but I have to wonder if this is true when they look forward to 99.9% of earth’s 8 billion people including innocent children being killed by Jesus at Armageddon, just because they’re not JWs. Is this not hate speech of the highest order?

The artwork Jehovah’s Witnesses use to depict the demise of their “enemies” is horrifying and inhumane, with people being swallowed up by the ground and burned alive by fire from heaven. Their “peace”, it seems, only extends to those who want to be in their club, and even that’s not necessarily true.

I’ve been in congregations that are rife with personality conflicts, gossip, slander, members who quite frankly hate each other, and elders who bully the flock, destroying lives by upholding the letter of the Law rather than the spirit of Love. Yet they still gloat that they are the only religion on earth that has “love among themselves”.—John 13:35.

Jehovah’s Witnesses hate “apostates”, those whose only “crime” is to have outspokenly said the religion is not “the truth”. They call us “mentally diseased”, “gangrenous”, and “Satanic” simply because we disagree with their silly doctrines and harmful policies. They paint us all with the same brush, one that says we are angry and violent when for the most part we are just hurt and frustrated. Our families and friends cut us off as if we were dead so they don’t lose out on paradise. Is this not hatred too?

Jehovah’s Witnesses say they’re not homophobic, but the vile rhetoric that spews from the governing body in its TV broadcasts is nothing short of hate speech. They even call babies “little enemies of God.” Everyone, they believe, who is not one of them is against them and deserves to die.

Jehovah’s Witnesses is an organisation that is hateful at its core, and most of its members continue to propagate the hatred by upholding the barbaric practice of shunning former members, even if they left voluntarily because they could no longer conscientiously support an organisation that teaches lies and mistreats victims of child abuse.

Jehovah’s Witnesses should be thankful that the overwhelming majority of former JWs are decent, kind, law-abiding citizens. Yes, we have been hurt by Watchtower, and some of us may be frustrated, angry even, at what the cult has done to us, but by far the majority of us only express ourselves with words. Imagine if ex-JWs were to retaliate em-mass by lashing out at Watchtower using violence!

Hatred breeds hatred and it’s a bloody good thing that at least one side of this so-called “theocratic war” still has some semblance of decency about it. When a hurt, frustrated, angry, mentally unstable person attacks you using violence that is a crime. Ex-Witnesses the world over condemn such behaviour as morally objectionable. We do not revel in your pain, but I for one am not surprised when it happens, and sadly, I think we will see more of this.

Jehovah’s Witnesses is a cult. It takes people into its fold and teaches them to think in terms of “us and them.” It teaches that everyone outside of its walls is an enemy of God and deserving of death. It tells you that you’re an unworthy sinner who will die at Armageddon unless you do enough to please Jehovah. But you can never do enough. It causes anxiety, depression, and mental health issues, and when you leave or get kicked out they take your family away from you. All these things are designed to control you, and if that doesn’t work, to break you.

So many former JWs are broken, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. For some, this has led to taking their own lives. For an extremely small minority, it might cause them to project their anger outward, but thankfully most of us learn to adjust and live with a sense of humanity. Most of us don’t hate Jehovah’s Witnesses. So, please don’t paint us all with the same brush when something like the Hamburg shootings happens and remember…

Hatred breeds hatred.

Further reading