Snake Oil and Religion

Occasionally, I try to reach out to people who are still active Witnesses and pique their interest in critical examination of their faith. Perhaps it's overly optimistic to hope for a reaction, but you fail 100% of the times you don't try. So far, I'm batting 1.000. I'm not so disheartened that I'll quit, but I certainly don't expect to convert many. Sometimes the seed, however, will lay in wait until the soil is rich enough to let it sprout.

In having one of these conversations recently, I started to understand what one of the biggest road blocks is. It's the belief in the promises being sold by the society which can't be validated. It doesn't even have the dignity of a pyramid scheme in which the higher levels succeed by recruiting new subordinates. When you commit to being a Witness, you don't even have the Cinderella story of your forebears to look upon as a template. Their only claim to fame is that they've been waiting on the payout longer than the new ones. Success and perseverance are not the same thing. 

Back in the old days, shysters and flim-flam men traveled from place to place offering miracle cure tinctures for a nickle a bottle. By the time anyone realized that his promises were bogus, he was in another town selling to the next bunch of rubes. And this is how they made their fortunes, off the hopes of the desperate and indigent.

It's not that religion appeals to the gullible that makes it so detestable. In fact, some of the most faithful people I've ever known were also some of the most intelligent. The real rub is that it's so easily accessible to people who have reached the end of their rope. Witnesses, like many other evangelicals, often claim to have met someone who had "just been praying to God for help". Humans are generally self-serving and don't turn to the almighty until all other avenues are exhausted. A promise, any promise, of relief from a grievous imposition is often enough to elicit a commitment from the afflicted person.

Often, these people have endured incessant pain. They have sought relief from every source they can find, even trying things that are unconventional and no less hokey than a deity. The stock and trade of the Witness movement is not that they have a special God. It's that their God is offering relief within the lifetimes of His followers. Every other religion brings a promise of eternity to the table, redeemable upon one's passing. To most people, that's just way too long to suffer. So finding a faith that promises a reward years, or even decades, sooner than any other belief systems makes it very appealing indeed.

That zeal produces its own placebo effect. The promise itself is so absolute that every minor taxation of time and effort seems like an infinitely appreciable investment. Nickle by nickle, the confidence-man extends the engagement of the audience while producing no tangible return. However, the people buying in feel better because of the assurances that the temporary measure offers as proof of God's love.

The conversation that led me to this realization is one that we've overheard numerous times. The conventions and assemblies always include the story of a person who wandered away and spent years in a miserable condition. This one was no different. After eight years as a disfellowshipped person, my friend from days gone by returned to the congregation; realizing only after a long isolation from her family just how "loving" the provision of disfellowshipping is. She called it a "protection for both sides". This is one of those catch phrases that the flim-flam man uses to convince people that it's the best course of action without any evidence to the same.

The reality is that the loving provision is a smoke screen that obscures the ineffectiveness of the treatment offered. It manufactures its own desperation as a result of the withdrawal. Back in those same good old days, the very tinctures that were offered were compounds that included powerful and addictive analgesics. Cocaine and heroin were often a mainstay in the one formula to the next. Indeed, it offered comfort, but no cure. But it also brought with it dependence. Taking away the customary therapy magnified the belief that it was effective, as my friend above experienced. Thus, the association, while bringing no actual remedy to the person in need, became a new and more powerful disease. There is only one cure for that.

The loneliness and isolation that we all experienced when we stepped away from the Society was a temporary but intense burden. There were times when it was nigh unbearable. But we made it through. Now, with the clarity of an unencumbered spirit, we can see the cure for what it is. An anesthetic that slows the senses and self-awareness of people who are being manipulated. The pain assuaged by the concoction just brings a new pain when taken away.

Sadly, its enough to keep too many going back for more.