As predicted, no loosening of the reins . . .

by AuldSoul 10 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  AuldSoul

  Well, the new Governing Body is circling the doctrinal wagons and funneling information through fewer and fewer access points. There is no loosening of the reins. I believe those who are awaiting mainstreaming from the organization are waiting in vain. This recent meeting shuffle is NOT an indication of less rigid structure, it is a direct effort to bring under closer congregational scrutiny the comments and attitudes of attendees.

  Now the CO, who was only able to visit every six months or so, is being replaced by a local elder, possibly the nearest city overseer, who will likely be able to make more frequent visits and will be local for judicial committee or investigative committee inquiries. I'd hate to be the poor brother dangling from that particular lawsuit-waiting-to-happen.

  The changes are not more mainstream, they are all geared toward making closer inspection easier and toward more careful control of information flow/content.

  Jaracz has his boys trained well. Like Renfield to Count Dracula, they all nod and say, "Yesssss, Maahster."

  Respectfully,
  AuldSoul
• 

  OnTheWayOut

  I suppose this comment is along the lines of what the thread is saying.

  Before I stopped going, they said the C.O. was going to visit every 6 months,
  and they would send a substitute if necessary to keep that type of schedule
  possible.

  Prior to their saying that, our foreign lang. cong. went more than a year without
  any C.O. visit. Since then, they have had them every 6 months like clockwork,
  but they are substitutes virtually every other time. This does make it easier to
  have someone look over the books, trains regular elders to do the job, even
  provides for totally unpaid men who don't get the company car to do the job.
• 

  momzcrazy

  So, who's going to live in all those CO apartments?

  They are circling the wagons.

  momz
• 

  yknot

  The comments about mainstreaming are usually about doctrinal shifts to survive and appearances only. Nothing is done for the benefit of the R&F unless it hughly benefits "mother'. Christian freedom has not been speculated and I doubt it would in the next 100 years.

  The restructuring of the weekday meetings improves appearances because it mimics the traditional Wed night/Sun. Service schedule found in many churches (at least on calendar). It definitely discourages "speaking openly" or "going further in the discussion" because most of us are conditioned to behave a certain way at the KH versus someones home. The same letter telling the WT conductor to keep to the script will be implied to this meeting. The focus of course is clear by the amount of allotted time for each meeting (25-BS, 30TMS...35 service meeting). Finally the restructuring is sold as a benefit to the R&F in this time of rising fuel costs and many lap it up (or at least the profess too).
• 

  darth frosty

  I love the fact that all of the built up safe guards for armegedon have been striped away.

  They used to say that the Book Study was so the R&F could be use to serving Jah! in small groups if the work was ever to be banned. Thats gone.

  The C.O. visit was supposed to be so the R&F, could get needed info and instruction to the sheeple precisely without any embelishment. Thats gone.

  Maybe we need a thread about the next of their made up armegedon safe guard to be done away with.
• 

  StAnn

  Two things: anybody have anything they can scan that DEFINITELY says the COs are being downsized or is this just speculation?

  Also, my happy memories of being a JW all come from the BS. We lived in a rural area and met at someone's farm. After the meeting, we'd go swimming in their pond or ride dirt bikes through the fields. Seems like they should realize that, if you take away all of their joy, people will give up and walk away at some point. My family goes to a KH with two congs. The "south" cong. has a tyrannical PO who won't let them do anything. That cong. has almost disbanded, as people have left because the PO is so controlling. The mass defection started after he banned "goodie night" because it was the most heavily attended meeting of the month, which he said showed that people were coming to the meeting for the "wrong reasons."
• 

  WTWizard

  This is precisely what I have seen. The Washtowel Slaveholdery has been making changes to tighten things up, eliminating fun and entertainment bit by bit, and create more opportunities for people to do field circus when people are more likely to be at home. However, they are presenting it as to appear to be going more mainstream--another fake.

  And they put out the Showcase Washtowel to create the illusion of becoming mainstream to the public. They are getting things out of context with reality, and only what the Slaveholdery wants them to see. The real doctrines are in the Kool-Aid washtowels, and are usually presented in such a disjointed fashion that most will not see anything wrong. And these changes are presented to look good, but the mandatory Tuesday evening field circus will not come out for some time after (so people can forget all about the "saving gas and allowing family time" excuse presented upon the reading of the initial announcement). Secret letters that get verbally passed down from the Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger to the hounder-hounders and then verbally to congregations will also ensure stricter interpretation plus no chance to verify anything.

  Doing away with hounder-hounders as we know it will do precisely nothing. All they are doing is changing the structure so there will be more local hounders acting as hounder-hounders. And they will be able to stop by every few weeks, so people will have the Hounder-Hounder Effect (more people attending the boasting sessions during his visit and more field circus activity). And they will be able to take care of matters (like hounders that are not doing their job) more quickly--that new CD will last only a few weeks before being tossed instead of a few months.

  Plus, they are planning the Great Recapture of All Faders in 2009. This has been discussed on a couple of threads, where they are going after all inactive witlesses to get them into the Kingdumb Hells. To me, that is not more mainstream. With the more frequent, local hounder-hounders, they will make sure that this time, the project gets finished, not left 85% unfinished like the Great Waste of Paper Distribution Campaign did. And once they are back in, they will be hounded that much more to comply with the Washtowel Slaveholdery directives to go out in field circus (and field circus means preaching, not going to Starbucks). We are now seeing what is going to be forced compliance.

  And, next time the Great Waste of Paper Distribution Campain of 2009 is going to be finished well ahead of time, since the more local hounder-hounder visits will push the hounders to push the flock to go out in field circus all month, and push everyone to pioneer during the campaign.
• 

  TheListener

  If the COs are truly being phased out....

  At first I thought that it would send shockwaves through the congregation, certainly the body of elders. Can you imagine? No more CO visits? Picture yourself sitting on a body of elders; all the preparation that goes into getting ready for the CO visit.

  Making sure the territory book is up to date and that there aren't too many unworked territories or too many territories that have been out over 6 months - if there are to many unworked territories they must be checked out to someone quickly. If there are territories out over 6 months you must check them in and re-check them out again. Doing these things keeps the records safe for review.

  What about the literature counter? Don't want to have too much overstock on hand. Yikes. Magazine guys have to watch out too. How many magazines do we order for our congregation? How many publishers do we have? How many magazines are placed each month? Doing this kind of math could end up showing the true waste. The magazine brother better watch out.

  What about finances? Better have everything in order and neat.

  This is only a small amount of the buid up to a CO visit. The actual visit can be a real pain in the keyster. Especially if it's a new CO to the area. He won't know who's who. Yes, he received a rundown from the previous CO but that doesn't always translate well. He'll try to change things in the congregation too. Each CO has their pet peeve and you just have to deal with it until they get reassigned. Some COs want to appoint everyone, some want to appoint no one. Some COs focus only on preaching and the territory cards, others barely care about that because they're concerned with the kingdom hall funds and how much excess or lack there may be.

  Basically, you can tell from each COs talks what their focus is. Regardless of whether the WTS gives them the outlines or not they fit their own twist into things.

  My guess is that is one of the things the WTS doesn't like. Plus the personal loyalty that COs often receive from specific bodies of elders. The CO is kind of a superstar in the dub religion.

  _____________

  However, given what I said above, I don't think the congregations will notice the change much. Whether a specific CO visits or a regular specially appointed elder visits and accomplishes the same things will not much matter to the rank and file. The elder body will notice; they'll have less respect. But the rank and file will go about their business and just schluff it off as a minor adjustment. After all, it's the same thing, the only difference is that the WTS has wisely chosen to use the funds we provide them in a more efficient manner.
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  yadda yadda 2

  I heard a rumour they were going to remove the position of PO, not CO.

  CO's are an important and powerful control mechanism of the Society to keep bodies of elders in line. They have the power to have (apostate) elders remove and to even recommend that a whole body of elders be removed, if needed. The local Branch needs someone to go around periodically and keep elders in line. Taking that centralised control away seems counter-intuitive to the idea that the Society want to exert more control, not less. Removing CO's would be a decentralisation of control and power to more local Watchtower representatives of a type - a risky ploy if you want to eliminate potential for local dissension and apostasy.
• 

  yknot

  I think slimboyfat has got it right on the COs

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/156897/1.ashx

  Also another thought was to use several volunteer Elders to check up on each other's congregations. This of course would continue with the tattle tale mentality that exists in most KHs.

  Just like the BS didn't completely go away neither will the CO but it is changing.

  I remember seeing the prediction about POs being a legal liability and I agree that there are probably changes on the way too.

  Perhaps they could use the money from the Bossert to implement a video conferencing system between branch and KH. They could make the arguement for it increasing unity.