JW.org’s latest activity for young Witness children is to reconstruct the death of the biblical character Lot’s wife

It was the stuff of nightmares for many Witness children over the decades – the Genesis account of Lot’s wife. In the story, related in Genesis chapter 19, Lot and his family flee the doomed city of Sodom and Gomorrah under strict instructions from their angelic messengers to not “look behind” while escaping to the mountains.

As the fireballs of sulphur begin to rain down on the stricken city, Lot’s wife glances back to view the destruction and is turned into a pillar of salt. – Genesis 19:26

It seems an astonishingly heavy-handed punishment by anyone’s standards, but evidently the intended message from the passage is that absolute obedience must be observed when one is given instructions from God or his messengers.

A morbid task

Few would blame the Society for wanting to gloss over this story, particularly given other extremely unsavory details contained in the biblical account. At one point in the narrative, Lot shows an apparent willingness to allow the men of Sodom to gang rape his two daughters if they agree to leave his angelic messengers alone. (Genesis 19:6-11) Later on in the account, after fleeing Sodom, Lot’s daughters have incestuous relations with their father while he is drunk. (Genesis 19:32-36) This is clearly not a Bible account deserving of close scrutiny as far as morals are concerned. Even so, JW.org has astonishingly challenged young visitors to its official website to help recreate the moment of Lot’s wife’s demise in this story. (To see this for yourself, please click here.)

In a downloadable PDF, Witness youngsters are given the morbid task of joining the dots to finish a depiction of Lot’s wife with a look of anguish on her face as her body turns to salt. Apparently the Society feels there is nothing inappropriate in revelling in the death of a person who has been killed by God by making her agonizing execution the subject of a coloring-in exercise.

The death of Lot’s wife as depicted in the Society’s children’s book “My Book of Bible Stories”

Witness parents should be seriously concerned about material such as this, which carries the potential to desensitize children to cruel violence and retribution.

As another example, on the same page on JW.org a comic-book version of the story of Lot’s family is published. The turning of Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt is portrayed in a shockingly graphic way, with her leg first becoming trapped, and then her arm becoming encrusted with salt. All the while there is an expression of horror on her face, and a tear rolls down her cheek as the salt consumes her body. The clear impression is that, rather than dying instantly, Lot’s wife is dying in great pain and trauma – and that this pain is deserved.

A graphic depiction on the JW.org website shows the trauma and agony experienced by Lot’s wife as she turns into a pillar of salt

All of the above only serves to stigmatize disobedient people as being worthy of a cruel and painful death in the minds of loyal worshippers. No mercy should be shown toward those who dare to “disobey.” Witness parents need to ask, do they want their children to grow up as cruel and vindictive people who revel in the suffering of others?

The Society has already ramped up its hate speech towards so-called “apostates” in recent magazine articles, labelling such ones “mentally diseased” (w11 7/15 p.16) and “gangrenous” (w13 4/15 p.11). It would not be a huge stretch to suggest that this new material on JW.org is aimed at portraying precisely the sort of fate it has in mind for those who dare to challenge the directives of the Governing Body, or fail to render it unquestioned obedience.

Out of touch

Amazingly, this is not the only questionable material for children to be found on the new JW.org. Elsewhere on the website, there is another gruesome “connect the dots” challenge featuring the Bible account where King Solomon demonstrates his “wisdom” by ordering a baby to be cut in two to resolve an argument between two women both claiming to be the baby’s mother. Here is the image (to download the PDF, click here)…

Supporters of the Society would argue that the baby wasn’t actually cut in two in this account, because the whole thing was a test to prove the identity of the baby’s true mother. Nonetheless, it was an extremely reckless way to resolve a custody dispute, showing a shocking disregard for human life. Few would disagree that the graphic portrayal of a baby about to be butchered with a knife by a soldier is wholly inappropriate imagery for young children to be exposed to.

Just because an account is mentioned in the Bible, does not necessarily make it appropriate educational material for children. For example, the Bible also mentions David’s adulterous sexual relations with Bathsheba, but this is not depicted in “connect the dot” exercises for children to recreate with their crayons. Despite this, the Society evidently feels there is nothing wrong with graphically exposing young minds to the agonizing death of a women simply for looking in the wrong direction, or the violent threats made toward a defenceless infant.

The portrayal of sex is rightly deemed off limits, but it seems violence is perfectly fine if a point needs to be made. It is almost as though the brothers responsible for producing this material are completely out of touch, or have no parental experience or instincts to tell them what is appropriate for children and what isn’t.

Indoctrinating a new generation

All of this comes less than nine months after the Society released its notorious children’s DVD “Become Jehovah’s Friend: Listen, Obey and Be Blessed,” which featured the exploits of young Caleb and his ill-fated Sparlock wizard toy. The DVD met with widespread condemnation towards the Society’s blatant attempt at controlling the minds of young ones by compromising their logical reasoning ability and stigmatizing such harmless items as magical toys.

These latest apparent attempts at moulding young minds by desensitizing Witness children to brutal justice and the death of disobedient people are just as appalling. It all represents further evidence that there are no depths the Society will not sink to in their efforts to draw total obedience from future generations.

 

 

 

 

 

A related Youtube video…

50 thoughts on “Connect the dots of terror: JW.org releases gruesome image for kids to color in

  • October 13, 2014 at 2:45 am
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    dare tick,

    Sorry, but you have misunderstood the posting guidelines. You can offer an opinion, an alternative view, if you want to. You can defend the WTBTS if you so wish. There are no posting rules as you describe in your opening statement.

    The belief in God is not what is at issue here. John has at no time either confirmed or denied that God exists.

    This site is about a HUMAN ORGANISATION. This site is about the practices of Jehovah’s Witnesses. It does not support any denomination.

    We do not dispute the physical reality of anyone. Your comment does not make sense, I’m afraid.

    We do offer advice to the WTBTS! Candace Conti has offered to advise on the child protection policy, for example.

    We do not preach, we have no religious message. We simply discuss and expose the teachings and practices of JWs. Why should we have to offer an alternative truth? You have the bible, do you not?

    “Without charge or tithes”? Have you read the articles on this topic? You do have tithes, in a sneaky way. Please do your research.

    Do you have evidence that the gb clean at bethel? Do you have evidence that they go door to door?

    Boasting about the Watchtower and Awake is rather poor taste. It’s not the number of copies, it’s about what’s in them, surely?

    I would humbly suggest that YOU DO YOUR RESEARCH.

    Peace be with you

    Excelsior!

  • October 13, 2014 at 6:27 am
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    Daretick, I wanted to add to my last comment. If you examine the literature that was being printed after 1919, you might be interested in a book by Joseph Rutherford called Creation printed in 1927. On page 267, there is a color painting depicting the crucifixion of Jesus on a cross and directly behind him are 2 naked men having anal sex. Do you really believe that Jesus would have chosen this organization is his one and only true spokesman to man on earth????? Check it out for yourself. These books are available on Ebay……

  • February 20, 2015 at 6:27 pm
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    Could you please send me some DVD for kids 3 and 5 years old, I Whant children bible history too for my 2 girls . My adress is 3986 Orkney av, Orlando FLorida 32809 . Thank a lot

  • May 29, 2015 at 4:11 pm
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    What an absolutely sick way of indoctrinating children! Whatever about making them read something they may not hopefully understand, but making them picture and visualise someone’s agonising (and completely unsupported by the bible) death… beyond words, would bring tears to your eyes. just sick…

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