Review
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Title: Captives of a Concept: Understanding the Illusionary Concept that Holds Jehovah’s Witnesses Captive
Author: Don Cameron
Publisher: Self-published through Lulu, Inc. of Morrisville, NC
Genre: Nonfiction
Year Published: 2007
Number of Pages: 151
Binding: Softcover, wirebound with plastic clad metal spiral
ISBN: 978411622104 (Note that this ISBN, published on the book’s copyright page, is incorrect. It has only 12 digits, not the 13 digits currently being issued.)
Price: $18.50
Reviewed by Marshall Hamilton
Rare indeed is the Mormon missionary whose journal doesn’t include some reference to the Watchtower organization of Brooklyn, NY, or to the members of Watchtower, the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
This book, written by a former Witness, attempts to use Watchtower logic, Watchtower arguments, even the graphic techniques used for generations in Watchtower publications, to debunk modern Watchtower theology. The author hopes to free Witnesses from the tenets of their religion that he has concluded are false.
Don Cameron describes a religion run by a faceless group of elderly men whose main goal is to retain the power they have accumulated. To do so, they obscure the truth about their organization’s history, and impose draconian punishments on any members of their group who consort with apostates or in other ways stray from perfect orthodoxy.
So, what does this book have to do with the LDS Church?
More on that in a moment. For now, let me briefly describe this book and its arguments.
Cameron’s basic argument revolves around the text of Matthew 24.45-47, rendered in the King James Version this way:
"Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods."
Modern New Testament scholars consider this a brief parable, the parable of the ready and the unready servants. (To read it as a parable, it’s best to include verses 47-51 which contrast the reward of the ready servant with the condemnation of the unready.) But the passage is more than a parable for the Watchtower Bible student: it’s a prediction of what happened, in Witness theology, during the decade of the 1910s. Watchtower teaching is that Jesus returned to the earth in 1914. This event is called the Second Coming by most Christians; Witnesses prefer the term “invisible presence.”
In the early years of the invisible presence, Jesus found that the Watchtower Society had been formed by Charles Taze Russell, who was succeeded by Joseph Rutherford upon his (Russell's) death in 1916.
Jesus apparently spent some time absorbing what the Society was achieving, and in the spring of 1919 the society passed the inspection, and was acknowledged as His “faithful and discreet slave,” worthy to be His true religion. At that time the Society was appointed over all the earthly interests of Jesus.
Cameron’s thesis is that the teachings of the 1914-1919 period vary dramatically from earlier teachings of Russell and Rutherford, and from Watchtower teachings today. Thus, the “meat” [“spiritual food” in Witness parlance] being provided during the inspection period either was perfect and the current “meat” is not as wholesome, or the “meat” of 90 years ago was corrupt, which means it is inconceivable that Jesus would have made the dramatic appointment at that time. Either way, the Watchtower religion cannot be the “faithful and discreet slave,” and Witnesses should leave the faith.
This is further complicated by the fact that none of these facts (the invisible presence, the appointment of the society) was proclaimed at the time it occurred. Russell had taught that the presence began in 1874. The 1919 appointment was first taught in 1927. Not only were events recognized only years after the purported dates, there have been many other events predicted to begin at a certain time that did not occur at all, for example the complete establishment of God’s kingdom near the end of 1915 and the destruction of all churches which were not the faithful and discreet slave in 1918.
The book is replete with the graphic techniques often used in Witness magazines, including the liberal use of drawings, boxes, callouts, tables and charts. Dozens of Watchtower teachings are charted, each one assessed as being the right teaching, taught at the right time, derived from scripture, and rejected by human wisdom. Each of the teachings is found wanting in each of those four important categories, so they are rejected by Cameron as being the “wrong food,” clearly not worthy of the faithful and discreet slave.
Cameron also accuses the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses [a committee that has been the chief executive of Watchtower since 1976] of systematic dishonesty in presenting Watchtower history and prophecies. He provides illustrations of a magazine reprint where the Watchtower cut off the main headline because it no longer jives with the teachings of the organization.
The book suffers overall from a lack of good editing, a lack quite common in self-published books. And to me, a person who has never found Jehovah’s Witness literature to be appealing or interesting, there’s just way too much going on. Cameron clearly believes the adage that you should tell the people what you’re going to say, then say it, then tell the people what you have said. Since many of those tidbits are given in boldface italics in the margins of the book, each page is a riot of text, all of which seems distracting to me.
I can’t say how effective this book would be for encouraging Witnesses to leave the faith. Cameron himself describes the disfellowship of doubters and the shunning of apostates. These punishments are meted out at trials of wrongdoers (called “committee meetings” in Watchtower lingo), a “very painful, life-altering process,” according to Cameron. Apostasy is defined very broadly. Even attending a single service in the meeting house of another faith might be punished by disfellowship. A Witness co-worker of mine in the DC area traveled to Philadelphia to the funeral of a colleague, and while she paid her respects at the funeral home, she sat in the car by herself during the actual service.
So, what does this book about Watchtower have to do with Mormonism? Cameron himself requested that his book be reviewed for a Mormon audience.
Clearly, there are some similarities between the two faiths. Both are led by elderly men. Both employ a draconian excommunication structure to rid the faith of apostates. In the public mind, the two faiths are inextricably linked as the groups that proselyte door-to-door. Both seem to have an unusually strong desire to point out celebrities from among the faithful. Both are quick to downplay, if not deny, elements of their history that seem embarrassing. Both seem eager to embrace supernatural events in their history, events that were given detail and context only years after they were said to occur. Both build meeting houses that are more or less carbon copies of dozens of other meeting houses. Both have unusual, restrictive teachings: non-observance of Christmas and birthdays, refusal to salute the flag, and others on behalf of the Witnesses; abstention from alcohol and tobacco, the temple ritual, and some others on behalf of the Mormons. It’s certain that evangelical Christians would strike both faiths from the rolls of Christianity.
The differences are also easy to list.
While Watchtower discovers their teachings through assiduous Bible study, Mormonism is much less fond of proof texting from scripture. Mormonism was in many respects founded on the basis of a book, one that is still revered today. Watchtower books and magazines have a much shorter shelf life (a fact that makes covering up the existence of former teachings much more convenient). Mormons are very interested in authority: who has it, who is presiding, how it was delegated to current leaders. It seems that authority in the Watchtower is much more informal; lines of authority are not important. Although both groups are led by elderly men, Witnesses do not revere any of them as “prophets”; no recent Watchtower leader has had the kind of popularity enjoyed by President Gordon B. Hinckley, for example.
Cameron describes the internet as “the Watchtower’s worst nightmare.” Mormonism has historically been willing to use technology to advance the faith; not many Kingdom Halls have sprouted a satellite dish in the parking lot. Of course, it remains to be seen how willing the LDS church organization will be to embrace some technology: DNA testing, for example.
Watchtower has long discouraged higher education, a policy deemed by outsiders as a way to keep Witnesses from asking the tough questions. Mormonism has long advocated college for all, and members with advanced degrees have played a role in the church for 150 years.
Mormonism, from time to time, has moved in the direction of repression and suppression, but those moves have been countered by others leading toward openness and freedom. The future can only be guessed at, but so far, Mormonism has not moved to occupy the ground occupied by the Witnesses.
I’d recommend this book to readers who are interested in a detailed, if somewhat biased, description of the Watchtower faith. It could be useful as a gift to a Witness acquaintance, although it’s hard to say how well it would be received. And it can serve as a cautionary tale of where repressive moves against apostasy might lead.
Marshall Hamilton
Harpers Ferry Books
www.harpersferrybooks.com 304-535-1862
