u/Berean144

I never understood POMIs. You believe it, but you don't practice it?

My sister in law and her siblings (5) of them were all POMIs. They smoked, drank, did drugs, slept around. One sister had 4 kids all different baby daddies. My sister in law married my brother because she got pregnant.

When I walked away, they refused to talk to me, it's been over 40 years. I'm like, what the hell ... they're not even baptized or practicing publishers. Don't go to meetings and have the nerve to call me "bad association"???

Yet with all that, they still believe it's the truth. Go figure!

Back in the early '80s, there was this phrase, “Avoid Independent Thinking,” that popped up in the January 15, 1983 issue of “The Watchtower.” It was a heads-up for Jehovah’s Witnesses about the dangers of thinking for themselves. What's interesting is that in the August 1, 1957 issue, the Society was actually all for independent thought, pointing out the downsides of feeling uncomfortable with your own beliefs. That earlier view shows a much more open vibe towards personal reflection, which is a stark contrast to the recent warnings against it.

>7 Though not sought by crowds as Jesus was, his followers today are hard-pressed by modern living to find solitude for meditation. In many places in the world simplicity of living has been replaced by a life of complexity, with waking hours crammed with both important and trivial matters. Moreover, people today are developing an aversion to thinking. They fear being alone with their own thoughts. If other people are not around, they fill the void with television, movies, light reading matter, or if they go to the beach or park the portable radio goes too so they will not have to be with their own thoughts. Their thinking must be channeled for them, ready-made by propagandists. This suits Satan’s purpose. He deluges the mass mind with anything and everything but God’s truth. To keep minds from doing godly thinking Satan keeps them busy with thoughts that are either trivial or ungodly. It is tailor-made thinking, and the tailor of it is the Devil. Minds work, but in the way that a horse is led. Independent thinking is difficult, unpopular and even suspect. Thought conformity is the order of our day. To seek solitude for meditation is frowned upon as antisocial and neurotic.-Rev. 16:13, 14. – The Watchtower, 8/1/1957, page 469, para 7, “Will You Get to Live on Earth Forever?”

They discussed how the world bombards us with thoughts and ideas manipulated by Satan to prevent independent thinking. However, three years later, the Watchtower presented a different perspective:

>"Today the trend of this world is to seek independent thinking as the ideal goal, but even as the unrealistic thinking of a scientist who tries to ignore the law of gravity is doomed to failure, so also is the unrealistic thinking of those who try to ignore the fact of man’s dependence on God."
The Watchtower, 2/15/1960, page 106-7, para 5, “Safeguard Your Thinking Ability”

It's remarkable how much has changed recently. The Society's current interpretation of the term is clear, but it would be better if they used it to discuss thoughts not linked to Jehovah. Unfortunately, that's not happening.

>“Today, too, there are those who, by their independent thinking, question Christ’s ability to have and use on the earth a specially appointed governing body of imperfect humans, to whom he has entrusted all the Kingdom interests or “belongings” on earth." The Watchtower, 6/1/1966, page 324, “Intellectual Freedom or Captivity to the Christ?”

Then we come to the classic 1983 issue

>How is such independent thinking manifested? A common way is by questioning the counsel that is provided by God’s visible organization. – The Watchtower, 1/15/1983, page 22, para 21, “Exposing the Devil’s Subtle Designs”

>20 Such thinking is an evidence of pride. And the Bible says: “Pride is before a crash, and a haughty spirit before stumbling.” (Proverbs 16:18) If we get to thinking that we know better than the organization, we should ask ourselves: “Where did we learn Bible truth in the first place? Would we know the way of the truth if it had not been for guidance from the organization? Really, can we get along without the direction of God’s organization?” No, we cannot! -Compare Acts 15:2, 28, 29; 16:4, 5. – The Watchtower, 1/15/1983, page 27, “Armed for the Fight Against Wicked Spirits”

>But a spirit of independent thinking does not prevail in God’s organization, and we have sound reasons for confidence in the men taking the lead among us. – The Watchtower, 9/15/1989, Page 23, para 13, “Be Obedient to Those Taking the Lead”

Things haven't changed since 1989. In recent years, they continue to promote against independent thinking. For example on the “Morning Devotion” segment on JW org, Ralph Walls on his segment “Protect Your Thinking Ability”, he says:

>“Thinking ability is not to be confused with independent thinking, which Satan promotes.”  

>Gage Fleegle on his part “Jehovah unifies his people” says: “…pride, stubbornness, independent thinking, they don’t exist in the spiritual paradise.”

Since 1957, the Society has shifted from encouraging independent thinking about God to promoting independence from the Watchtower organization.