Many, many, many posters here have wondered what happened to the religion that they were raised in or baptized into 20 or more years ago. I just got the shock of my life on JW(dot) Org.TV! There is a video testimonial of an American Indian Witness that was inactive for many years and has now begun to preach again. The video is: Forest James-A Medicine Man Encouraged Me To Read The Bible. He goes out in service wearing TIGHT black jeans and his Native American beads around his neck! Where will all this rebranding end?
Beads and Tight Jeans APPROVED Service Attire For a Brother?
by sparky1 13 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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millie210
What???
But what about unity? What about everyone looking alike?
Whats next?
Beards? (gasp)
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HowTheBibleWasCreated
People of different cultures wear what is normal for them. This is not rebranding. In Africa the men witness and give talks in what looks like dresses to westerners. In the Philippines men wear silk shirts and no tie. In Nordic countries of Europe beards are common with elders.
Its not really rebranding just culture.
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InquiryMan
But not in all Nordic countries. I think it is only accepted in Denmark. I have also heard that the Netherlands accept beards as well as Ireland... But I know for sure Denmark does. It not acceptable for elders in Norway to have beards and even moustache. -
Splash
No, beards are still bad.
In this weeks WT study there's a cartoon style picture with a brother being tempted out for an after-work drink.
You guessed it, one of his tempting colleagues had a beard.
Beard = Bad.
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sparky1
Thanks for your input HowTheBibleWasCreated. I am a long time born-in and ex-Bethelite. You are quite correct in saying that in other countries the Witnesses dress similar to other members of their culture. If you were to watch the video, the Witness is a Native American Indian that lives in the United States in Oregon. You don't see any Native American Indians that have moved to other areas dressing this way, do you? If he wants to keep his beads that is his business but the tight jeans just seem not to be exclusive to Native Americans. Try going out in service yourself in black jeans and see how far it gets you! Do you suppose that he would be allowed to give the public talk at a convention in Portland, Oregon dressed like this? -
millie210
Dressing in tight black jeans and a string of beads is not the native dress of American Indians.
It is a hybridized knock off of western wear with a nod towards his culture with the beads added.
Dressing like you walked off the set of the movie "Billy Jack" is not cultural attire and promoting it as such (if that was the intent) on a video is incredibly naive and lax for a group who want to hyper manage grooming to the point that the hair your body naturally grows (beard) is unacceptable.
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millie210
And one more thing....
Promoting a guy on the Org video "witnessing" in tight black jeans is really designed to make the richer white counterparts feel this is such a diverse group.
AND maybe make other Native Americans feel appeased. (They have felt ignored by the Society for a long time and the Org knows this)
So what is that if you look hard at it?
Branding.
The selling of an idea in order to promote a product.
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OnTheWayOut
How in the world do they put such a video on the same website that Tight Pants Tony contributes to?
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Vidiot
Skinny jeans are cultural?