Comments from the Friends - Online Edition - January-March 1998

NEW BOOK

[JEHOVAH-TALK The Mind-Control Language of Jehovah's Witensses, book cover]

JEHOVAH-TALK
The Mind-Control Language
of Jehovah's Witnesses
by David A. Reed (1997, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan) 157 pages

WOULD YOU train missionaries in the Scriptures and then send them to China—without also teaching them the Chinese language? Of course not! By the same token you should not expect success if you try to take the Gospel to Jehovah’s Witnesses without first studying the “J.W.ese” language. This volume will give you the basic information you need.

Some of the unique JW vocabulary sprang up spontaneously — and innocently — to describe unique aspects of JW life: "field service," "back call book," "the offer." (See Jehovah-Talk for definitions.) But other expressions were carefully crafted to program members' thinking: "new light," "move ahead," "progressive understanding."

Like loaded dice weighted to roll a predetermined number, such “loaded language” exerts subtle pressure to induce a predetermined line of thought.
In some ways this is similar to commercial media advertising "hype" that seeks to influence consumers with expressions like "our low-low prices." Most of us learn to let it go in one ear and out the other, rather than be swayed to purchase all the "must have" products.

A Language That Changes
on Command

When Brooklyn HQ redefines words, loyal JWs immediately adopt the new usage.
For example, in 1970 the official word went out to begin calling the bulletin board at Kingdom Hall an information board—supposedly in order to avoid using a word derived from the papal bull. This gave Witnesses one more reason to feel smug superiority over "worldly" people.
Any JW who slipped back into the old habit and said “bulletin board” received either a verbal rebuke or a stern gaze of disapproval from more alert associates.
See the chapter "A Language That Changes on Command" in JEHOVAH-TALK.

But to the targets of a concentrated mind control program—people immersed in one-sided propaganda twenty-four hours a day and cut off from outside influences—the effect can be overwhelming. (Citizens of China, for example, may truly believe that they enjoy "freedom" in a "democratic people's republic.")

Deception at the Doors

Witnesses are also trained to use language differences to "overcome objections" at the door. I recall a District Overseer instructing a group of us how to deal with a householder who asks, "Have you been born again?" He told us to respond that we had indeed accepted Jesus Christ personally as Lord and Savior—leaving the householder thinking that our beliefs were similar, not knowing we used all those words differently.

"grace" or "undeserved kindness"?

It is not simply the word grace that is missing from the vocabulary of Jehovah’s Witnesses; the concept of God’s free gift is missing, too. In fact, JWs are so accustomed to earning God’s alleged favor though obedience to the sect’s works program that hardly an eyebrow was raised when their internal publication Our Kingdom Ministry declared:

“We want to give deserving ones the opportunity to learn of Jehovah’s undeserved kindness and the Kingdom hope.” (December 1993, page 7, emphasis added)

—from JEHOVAH-TALK, pages 78-79

Failure to take language differences into account would be a serious mistake for any Christian reaching out to Jehovah's Witnesses. Why doesn't Mrs. Joan Witness grasp and accept your clear presentation of the Gospel? Does she have an unreceptive heart? Or did an enemy prevent her from hearing your message by re-defining the words you used?

Consider the actual case of a Witness woman who was asked to open her own New World Translation Bible to Revelation 19:1 to determine whether that verse placed the “great crowd” on earth or in heaven. She read “…great crowd in heaven…” and concluded it said they are on earth. The preconditioning loaded language of mind control forced her to see the opposite of what actually appeared on the page.

This is what Christians are up against when they go to Jehovah’s Witnesses with the Bible but without an understanding of the mind control language that distorts the Witnesses’ thinking.

Jehovah-Talk is available at Christian bookstores. See also the Comments Online Bookstore and our current order form.

Mind-Control OR
Personal Responsibility?

"The Watchtower made me do it!"
—a valid excuse?

Is there really such a thing as mind control? Or is the concept of "brainwashed cultists" a cop-out — a denial of personal responsibility before God?

This is a "hot" subject these days, with countercult workers separating into hostile camps on each side of the issue. At one extreme we find ex-members blaming all of their past, present, and future sins on a controlling sect. And at the other extreme we find Christian authorities rejecting the concept of mind control altogether and placing the blame squarely on individuals who chose error rather than truth.

At the risk of drawing fire from both sides, I would suggest that a true picture of cult dynamics lies somewhere between the two extreme viewpoints.

Controlling sects have indeed developed verbal and organizational techniques to manipulate the thoughts and actions of their followers. ("The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."—2 Corinthians 4:4 NIV).

Yet Scripture warns repeatedly, "Watch out that you are not deceived." "Do not be deceived." (Luke 21:8; 1 Cor. 6:9; Gal. 6:7; Jas. 1:16) And adds, "evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived." (2 Tim. 3:13)

Deception, including mind control, is clearly real—and we have a personal responsibility not to be deceived by it. Happily it is God and not us who must judge in each case.

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