I am going to comment according to the warped standards of WTS.
A conscience matter, that means the WTS doesn't want to tell you what to do,
but wants to lead you to their feelings on the matter.
They say that it is a conscience matter when the Bible is silent on something,
but they are constantly saying things that are beyond what the Bible says.
There are virtually unlimited things that are a conscience matter, but let's plug
some in here to address #3 (If during your life you were faced with 100 Conscience
matter, and you always choose the "liberial" side of the issue, and the elders were
aware of this, would you ever be appointed as a MS or elder? )
We won't even make it a liberal/conservative thing.
A young guy decides to go to college and get a degree in philosophy. He decides
to buy a sportscar after he lands an excellent job. He works less than 40 hours a
week so he can attend all meetings and get out in the ministry. He can do that
because his degree allows him to earn enough money.
He marries a regular publisher who gets over 10 hours a month. Instead of pioneering,
she gets a part-time job, quits that to raise 5 children. They study with all 5 children.
He keeps buying sportscars. He doesn't need a big car for the family because they walk
to the KH with the strollers. Even though he makes time for field service, he puts in
11 hours a month, never takes an additional day off from work to preach with the circuit
overseer during his visit, just gets out on the weekend. He vacations every year during the
District Convention to attend where his sickly grandparents live in Florida. He goes to
the DC with them, never to his own.
He takes turns missing meetings when the kids are sick. That doesn't happen that
often, but he will send the wife with the other kids just as often as she will send him
when she stays home with the sick one. He doesn't spank his kids but they are fairly
well behaved. He doesn't have them become regular publishers unless they want to,
and none of them do, but they come along in service semi-regularly. They are not on
the school, as they are struggling with secular school and homework, so he doesn't want
to add pressure to them.
I could go on and on. He's a great guy. Will he ever be appointed an elder or MS? It
depends. Most BOE will say "All you gotta do is get a minivan or at least a 4-door car."
Some will overlook the car because he writes a check for $300 every month and puts it
in the contribution box.
No BOE would say that he is a great example, but they just look at the field service being
above the national average and the contributions he makes. Some BOE would never even
consider him because his kids are not on the TMS or reg. publishers. Some would prefer
to see him at every meeting and not the wife when the kids are sick. It's not really about
her needs, it's about being available to give talks.
Here's how the discussion of this brother would go:
"Well, he went to college when the clear message had changed that this could drag him
away from the truth. He didn't marry an extremely spiritual woman. They have the means
to support her pioneering, yet she doesn't do it. Still, they are doing better at getting out
than many others. We never see him at the conventions, so he never volunteers there."
There would be more, but you get the idea. He's done nothing wrong. All conscience
matters on what he should do or did. Do you realize that the rest of the decision is based
mostly on whether the brothers like him? Not on any of this? He gets the national average
and contributes money at the Hall. The rest is swayed by whether he is well-liked.
Forget the rest.
If they don't like him, the sportscar or the kids not being publishers or the wife not
pioneering or visibility at the hall or at DC will be issues. He's doing better than most elders
already, but they will focus on shortcomings because he never buys them lunch at the end of
a fruitful Saturday in the field, or he never invites the elders to play golf with him.
If he is regularly generous to the elders, gives the C.O. a green handshake as he treats to
dinner every other visit, and never lets the sportscar be seen, but keeps it in the garage,
and is well-liked, HE IS IN. WTS doesn't really believe in conscience matters on that.
Likewise on everything else. They want you to take blood fractions, but they cannot tell you
to. Just don't take whole blood. They want you to totally shun DF'ed ones, but let it be your
idea. Don't go to R-rated movies or rock concerts. Don't learn things that come from
scholarly ones who doubt the validity of anything WTS teaches, at least don't admit you
learned them.
