Holden Reviews

From the beginning of Holden's study where he admits he did no preliminary research into the faith and progressing onward to the point he starts to throw the word "objective" into the mix Holden's study disintegrates into a manipulated, highly crafted mess.

If Holden had done research into the faith himself he would have found that paramount in importance to the religion's adherents is the stricture, oft repeated, that by word and deed Jehovah's Witnesses are not to bring "reproach upon Jehovah's name". In interviewing ONLY rank and file members and in the absence of critical analysis Holden presents ONE viewpoint of the faith to the reading public, a very sanitised version of what Jehovah's Witnesses WISH to present to the world at large.

It is one thing to use your research as an opportunity to give space to a group of people in order to voice their opinions an experiences. It is another to allow said group to present their version and then put it out as some kind of unvarnished "truth". Anyone who studies fundamentalist Christianity knows that the reality is a great deal more complicated than adherents would have you believe. Given Jehovah's Witnesses highly publicised battles with accusations of pedophilia and the blood transfusion issue it is careless in the extreme to allow one side of the story to be presented without exploring the complexities inherent in the narratives.

As a sociologist whose area of expertise happens to be fundamental christianity and who was a Jehovah's Witness myself for over 20 years I am appalled and dismayed that Holden's work is being held up a "major study". Holden obviously follows the old, old school of sociological research and thought where by he is the "objective" researcher through whom his "subjects" true meaning can be understood. Holden has illuminated nothing more than a maneuvered version of what Jehovah's Witnesses would LIKE us to believe.

Having read and written a number of ethnographies and also having been involved in the religion of Jehovah's Witneses both inside and outside of the group (I have served as a regular pioneer and I have also been disfellowshipped), I can say that this study does present many accurate highlights of Jehovah's Witnesses, their paradigm and what motivates them.

The other reviewer obviously didn't read the book carefully, because Holden does interview former members of the faith. He tries to be objective, claiming to use caution when listening to the stories told by the different people he talks to, but he chooses to believe (and makes the statement) that JW's quote scriptures out of context and misapply them. Apparently, the author doesn't realize that Jesus himself quoted scripture out of context, as seen by the Sermon on the Mount.

Curiously, he claims that JW's don't participate in juries and believe that the universe was created in seven days. I know that JW's can participate in juries if they so choose and also that they do not believe the seven creation days were seven literal days, but rather seven creative periods of time. One can't help but wonder how closely he was listening to the subjects of his ethnography. If he got these little details wrong, what else did he get wrong?

Holden attempts to make some original statements or insights about JW's but instead ends up quoting from other sociologists/ethnographers. I just finished reading the book last night and can't think of a single original thought he came up with.

The author recognizes that many JW's try to seperate themselves from the secular world by strictly limiting the kind and amount of worldly entertainment they watch. He comments that parents won't allow their children to read fairy tales or stories involving magic, but fails to explain what scriptures they base this on. It would have been more interesting if he had studied and questioned those JW's who do allow themselves to watch movies and TV shows that have magic as the subject matter. For instance, do they experience any cognitive dissonance (or, in JW terms, "does their conscience bother them?") when watching movies like, Shrek, or TV shows like the X-Files?

What about those witnesses who continue to watch PG-13 movies, all of which contain at least one profanity, something JW's are supposed to avoid?

I can't help but feel the other reviewer deliberately made false statements about the book in the hopes that Jehovah's Witnesses in good standing would read the book (and thereby the statements made by former members of the religion.)

Although Jehovah's Witnesses did have expectations and beliefs that didn't come true (for example, about certain years like 1914 and 1975) so did Jesus Christ's apostles (Luke 19:11, "they imagined the Kingdom was going to display itself instantly" and John 21:23, "In consequence, this saying went out among the brothers, that that disciple would not die. However, Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but: "If it is my will for him to remain until I come, of what concern is that to you?".") Jehovah's Witnesses have never claimed to be infallible, unlike the Pope.

Just because someone is anointed by holy spirit, doesn't mean that they will always get it right. The prophet Samuel, for instance, thought that David's brother would be the next king of Israel, but Jehovah God told him he was not the one. (1 Samuel 16:6, 7: And it came about that, as they came in and he caught sight of E·li'ab, he at once said: "Surely his anointed one is before Jehovah." But Jehovah said to Samuel: "Do not look at his appearance and at the height of his stature, for I have rejected him. For not the way man sees [is the way God sees], because mere man sees what appears to the eyes; but as for Jehovah, he sees what the heart is.)

If you choose to read this book, do so with a grain of salt and be aware that the author has his own beliefs and values. He is not free from ethnocentricity. I preferred an older sociological study, "The Trumpet of Prophecy: A Sociological Study of Jehovah's Witnesses" by James Beckford, which is the cumulative result of a group of people working together, unlike "Portrait", which is the work of one individual.

I give it 2 stars only because it does have some nice pictures that caught my daughter's attention. However, I don't think this sort of concept works with especially young children (18 months to 3 years). My daughter would point at objects that she already knows the word for (example clock, orange, etc.) and say the word, yet as I read the book I was pointing at them and saying 'circle.' Maybe some developmental expert would contradict me, but I don't know that kids that young are ready to make the association yet, and I felt like I was sending confusing messages to my child. After I told her 'circle' I made sure to follow-up by identifying the picture by its own description as she knows it.

DO NOT purchase this book if you are like me and looking for a honest and open step-by-step books to create or better understand components of an e-commerce site built using FP2002. As I look around my room I can see dozens (well over 100) computer books, many of which I received from Amazon because they are the best. Not one of them is anywhere as close to bad as this one is! It is COMPLETELY written for someone setting up a bCentral site (which is not for free and is EXTREMELY limited to say the least). I have other books from Microsoft Press but this one should of been for free because it is a sales promotion device, NOT a ecommerce instruction books as they suggest with their hype. For situations like this it would be nice if Amazon would look into outright con's such as this and stop it.

This book mostly deals with the different services offered through Microsoft's very own bCentral e-commerce solution web site. It is best used by die-hard Microsoft fans who intend on utilizing the bCentral system.