by flag 16 Replies latest jw friends
One elder in my (or ex) cong. is always correcting himself every time he says "society".
He always goes "upps, excuse me the branch says this and that bla bla bla bla"
He once said that they don't want to be call "society" any more that everybody should refer to them as "the branch"
But he did not gave any explanation on WHY
Are this happening on your cong. as well?
A few years ago there was a WT that mentioned how JWs would say in conversation "the Society says this" or "the Society says that". I'm not sure what issue, but I'm sure somebody here knows.
That same WT went on to suggest what a "better" alternative might be as far as how the WTBS might be referred to as. They never made a hard rule, and I doubt it would make much of a difference as the phrase "the Society says..." is deeply ingrained as JW-speak with a lot of JWs.
I believe they were worried about the public persona, as "The Society" sounds a little cultic to most people on the outside.
Axel
At one time there was a World Headquarters of JWs. Under that situation "the Society says" works. This is no longer the case. The US branch is supposedly no different than the British branch. They want to give an illusion of autonomy of branches in the Branch system.
Supposedly the US branch has it's own way of handling things in the US and the other branches do the same in their own jurisdictions. So to say "the Society says" is not accurate, under their interpretation of the way things supposedly work.
Thanks IP....I was just about to comment that in hindsight I also think it has to do with the illusion of decentralized power.
Axel
illusion of decentralized power.
Much more succinct than my hot air description
lol...but at least you don't sound like a WT study attendee. How JW does this sound?
I was just about to comment ...
Will I ever get it out of my system?
Axel
Will I ever get it out of my system?
HA! My long drawn out blow hard can be traced to my WT conductor days. Perhaps I should edit my comments on Jeff's thread about how much influence the WTS has on me now.
Yes the US is now like all other branches in that the Branch oversees all activities. The GB/WTS oversees all branches. ALL on the US branch are NON ANOINTED
Axelspeed what article are you referring to?
drew
I don't have access right now to the wt cd, but I'll try to look for it this evening and post it...if nobody finds and post it first.
Axel
