You can take away the part of being alone in a house and substitute it with being alone with a co-worker. If you work in an office, is it permissable for 2 people to go together and bring back lunch? After all, you could touch each other "inappropriately" or suddenly sexual desires might manifest themselves. I mean, it is POSSIBLE. Would it be wise for a Christian woman to go to her worldly mechanic for repairs if others were not in the place of business? If a woman wanted to contract her gardening or snow plowing and a man or even 2 men came to give an estimate, couldn't a sin occur? Might there not be a temptation for 3 way sex? If a woman came to your home to do house cleaning and you were alone, might there not be a temptation to have sex with the worker? What might the neighbors think if a person came to your home and was in there for many minutes????
QFR..Feb 15 2010. RE Shared Living Accommodation??
by BluesBrother 59 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Mary
Um.....what about Bethelites? Don't guys and gals all live under the same roof?
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mrsjones5
"What might the neighbors think if a person came to your home and was in there for many minutes????"
Hm, the cable guy, an electrician, the phone guy, the sears repair guy, the plumber (yeah that buttcrack is so sexy), the geek squad guy, the Schwan's food guy, all those guys were in my house from more than a few minutes. Hubby was at work, the kids were in school and I was at the house alone. Jumping those guys never crossed my mind and I'm quite sure the neighbors didn't care.
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BluesBrother
Brilliant comments all...
It is not easy to determine what parts of it are just "counsel" or advice and what parts are new rules. If they say "It would be wise to avoid...." then I take it as a non binding piece of counsel, but something deemed "inappropriate, I take as a rule.
The first thing I noticed was the divorced couples comment. Over the years I have known more than one divorced couple in the congregations that were unable to sell their house and shared it, with working arrangements for the kitchen and bathroom etc ..What do they do now? As for the temptation to sex? The ones I knew were at the end of their tether with each other and , as Sister Blues said, "It would be more like a temptation to commit murder, than sex !"
What about the time honoured relationship of the "pioneer partner"? This has been lauded in the past. Often two girls or two lads would share a flat so they could afford to Pioneer. In large towns these days neighbours may well wrongly assume that they are gay. I take it that from now on such arrangements are unacceptable and they will have to give up pioneering??? (Oh what a pity)
In reality, I suppose that it will be down to the individual B of E's to interpret this as they see fit....
It has been said better by others , but what right have the old boys in Brooklyn got to interfere in the lives of a divorced couple? Or to stipulate what is acceptable in ones living accommodation, if no Bible law is broken??
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minimus
MrsJ, you mention how many situations one could find themselves to be alone with someone not your mate. The whole concept is Pharasaically (sp) stoopid.
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undercover
You can take away the part of being alone in a house and substitute it with being alone with a co-worker.
Not to digress too far but I used to go to lunch with a female coworker. Other dubs at the workplace started to question it and I ended up being counseled for it. The elder that spoke to me mentioned the amount of time that we were alone and what could be accomplished in that amount of time (wink wink, nudge nudge), as if people actually thought we were "doing it" at the diner were we ate lunch. What stands out was that none of the non-JW coworkers thought anything of it...only JWs with their screwed up worldview came up with scenerios of us doing the nasty in the back of a car somewhere. Similarly these type of articles keep that screwed up perception alive in the dubs minds. They see two people alone and they have to assume the worst.
Another thought I had was that sometimes I think the Society has become so paranoid of not being able to control every thinking moment and one's activities that they resort to these tactics to discourage people from creating situations where a small group of people could share extended time together. Can't have them becoming so close with each other that maybe they start to voice some opinions or doubts, ya know...
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Jim_TX
Ummm... wouldn't this pretty much dissolve Bethel? I never went - but toured once... I realize that they may not actually share rooms - men and women - but they're somewhere under the 'same roof'. Right?
Wouldn't it be hilarious if someone brought this up - and said that it 'stumbled' them - because they did not feel that it was right that the fellas higher up were allowing men and women to stay together like this ... in Bethel? -- gasp!! --
Regards,
Jim TX (who thinks it's all rubbish anyway)
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creativhoney
and what if a christian runs a guest house? I know someone who does in spain. is that not inappropriate?
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AllTimeJeff
This is hillarious. The reason why people are now living in groups is because of the economy. But the borg continues to insist on their right to control people's living arrangements, under the guise of saving us from our selves.
The article is ridiculous. It's crap really. They start of by saying they don't want to make rules, then they make rules.
Missionary homes are setup exactly like this. There are days where either spouse may be sick on a day when its dish duty for another couple. Different meeting nights could mean all kinds of sex, if that's what they wanted to do.
What is interesting to me is the idea that they can somehow stop fornication and sex. If 2 JW's want to hook up, they will do it. They act like all JW's walk around in a constant state of arousal, and that only the laws of the WT stop people from humping like bunnies.....
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Bonnie_Clyde
I mentioned this in another column. Apparently, even the Mormons have their own silly rules. We were being visited (summertime) by 2 Mormon lads and Clyde and I sat on the front porch conversing with them. One of them asked if he could use our bathroom. I immediately opened the front door to usher him in and show him the bathroom, but he stepped back and asked that Clyde take him in because he wasn't supposed to be alone in the house with a woman.