by mavie 18 Replies latest jw friends
I remember the Bulletin Board term and also the rendezvous.
I was never given that explanation about the bulletin board. We were told cause it had the "word" bull in it as in "bull****". Then it was called "information board". You'd get a glare if you slipped and called it the other word. How pathetic!
Rendezvous always sounded so mysterious and secretive.........then they changed it to "book study". How unexciting! lol
Sister Mama1119 are you murmering and becoming a complainer??? lol
mama, I hope your son is feeling better!
What ridiculous, time wasting, crap that is.
Ya know, in a way it is, and in a way it isn't. The use of particular phraseologies is a technique of differentiation and conditioning that, however subtle and stupid it might seem in retrospect, do have meaning to those of us who were deeply involved in such ideologies (and I don't by any means limit that to JW's...I'm reasonably sure that the same characterization could be made about Mormons, or Bible Students, etc.).
As a little memory: I was on the 'security force' at the Vancouver BC international assembly (geez, back in the late 60s??...anyway, one of the last 8-dayers), and I encountered a person who struck me as a possible misfit. As I accompanied him along his route through the grounds, I asked him a couple of questions that I knew he couldn't answer, unless he was a JW. He didn't say the words "just right," and so I knew then that he was, well, shall we say, an "univited one."
These nuances, and changes thereto, tell much about the type of "society" we were in. I recall a remark along the lines that "if you haven't been an active JW for the last 6 months, your language will give you right away."
The WTS is always fighting semantics. Bulletin is a perfectly fine word, yet as has been said, the branch came down with a directive with the reasoning Blondie has
already posted and turned the use of the word BULLETIN synonymous to idolatry. Remember back a few years where they changed the
term MEMORIAL for the Lord's evening meal, to the term COMMEMORATION. And if you said Memorial, you were corrected like you had committed some
kind of sin. What's the big deal, I thought? The big deal, I found out, is that the men who run " ALL OF GOD"S INTEREST ON EARTH" are morons. A few years
later and the term was MEMORIAL again. Great NEW LIGHT, huh?
Bulletin Board has to be called an Information Board.
The building is a Kingdom Hall, I don't go to a church.
Jesus died on an upright stake, yes it matters.
If you mean by "Am I saved?" do I accept that Jesus died for my sins...
A Kingdom Hall service for the dead is not a "wake" and funeral. It is
a memorial.
We are all "brother" and "sister" with no titles (well- sort of no titles)
It's all part of their "We gotta stand out" campaign. It makes the rank and file
feel so special. Like avoiding blood, voting, military, holidays.
I called it a BB once from the platform and was corrected. I've also heard the same from others.
The same happened to me. They said a BB is something where you can advertise your used car.
I remember when the change from "bulletin" to information board was made. It was probably sometime in the late 1960s to early 1970s. I thought it was a lot of "bull" back then.
aarque, that sounds about right. I searched the WTCD, and couldn't find anything about "bulletin board," but since the KM's on the CD only go back to 1970, that sets a bit of a time frame. Perhaps you might be recalling this little ditty (bold added):
*** km 5/70 p. 8 Question Box ***
Question Box
• What should be posted on the congregation’s information board?
The information board makes it possible for publishers to acquaint themselves fully with details in letters, schedules and general communications regarding activities within or pertaining to the congregation, though some of these may be read to the congregation before posting.
Some of the things that may be posted on the information board are: service meeting program, ministry school schedule and assignments, schedule for cleaning the Kingdom Hall, letters from the Society that direct that they be posted, notice of the circuit servant’s visit and the schedule for publishers to work with the circuit servant, letters regarding the coming circuit assembly, monthly congregation field service report, schedules showing the public talks and the speakers for the coming months, assignments for those who will serve as chairman of the public lectures and the readers of "The Watchtower," the congregation book studies in the congregation’s territory and the addresses and time of meetings, and so forth.
The information board is not to be used for personal items such as "shower" announcements. Clippings should not be indiscriminately posted, but from time to time some selected ones may be deemed by the overseer to be appropriate to be put on the board for a few days. The information board should be neat and attractive. The overseer has supervision of the information board, and he should see that it is kept up-to-date.
*** km 5/70 p. 8 Question Box ***
The information board is not to be used for personal items such as "shower" announcements.
This one is obeyed at my current hall, but this way-
The information board is on the wall just above a counter where field service slips are at. Since
showers and funerals and the like cannot be posted on the board, they are set on the counter.
They actually become more prominent because they are "in front of" the information board.
This really shows how silly the rules are. At least the congregation found the way to
be disobedient, yet not.
About thirty years ago, in Jacksonville Florida, a speaker came from Bethel with a special program. He was an "expert" in the history of Babylon, and he said, among many other things, that the origin of the term bulletin came from ancient Babylon. The official word from the ruler was as if from the god Baal, or Bel, represented by a statue of a bull. Then he went on to explain that the Catholics got the term, from the papal bull. It was all ancient and pagan. He also explained that the bell in a church tower came from the clanging of gongs to get the attention of Bel in Babylon, hence the name bellfry.
