Beautiful Assembly Halls and Paperback Bibles

believingxjw

In the U.S. most Kingdom Halls and Assembly Halls are not only very comfortable places to meet but also built to please the eye. The seating, carpeting, sound systems, entrance floorings, murals and wall decorations, dining areas and even apartments in those buildings for the visiting overseers are not only the best available but also very well cared for. All of this of course is for the glory of Jehovah. Every fine looking Kingdom Hall and Assembly Hall is not for man but for the glory of God or so the Governing Body teaches its members. Everything is for Jehovah!

Everything is for Jehovah but God's scriptures are relegated to disposable paperback form. Paperback Bibles. Comfortable seating and paperback Bibles. Baby rooms (bottle feeding in the main seating area is discouraged lest some formula soil the seats!) and paperback Bibles. Beautiful landscaping and paperback Bibles. To be fair the Governing Body is producing just about everything in paperback. Their new songbook is paperback, the new books are paperback as well. So apparently the Governing Body feels that what is good for their own writings is also good enough for God's.

Don't people usually spend the most on those things most important to them? Most valuable? Paperback Bibles reflect the low priority the Governing Body places on the Bible itself. It holds no more of a special place than the Insight volumes or the other publications the Governing Body produces.

In practice this is very true!

jamiebowers

Well, what do you expect from a business? More money is always poured into what makes the most profit.

blondie

It was mentioned on JWN that the WTS has gone back to hardbound bibles.

journey-on

Value of the real estate holdings seems to be their main priority.

OnTheWayOut

Whether Kingdom Halls are built and decorated to "please the eyes" is not only up for debate but is irrelevant. There are beautiful places of worship in many different beliefs. It is not what the place looks like that matters. But they are not the "best available."

The members tend to want to care for them to glorify Jehovah, but they wind up doing it to keep Watchtower Organization in the money. The builders and caretakers do all the work at their own expenses and WTS can sell it whenever they decide to do so. They can announce that those who paid for and built an Assembly Hall will have to meet at another place that needs their money. WTS can strong-armedly recommend remodels when the C.O. discovers enough money in the operating funds of a Kingdom Hall or the WTS can force them to sell a property and meet elsewhere.

Good thoughts on the paperback Bible.

believingxjw

Hi Blondie,

At the local Kingdom Halls in my area the only Bibles available at the literature counter are the paperback ones.

CuriousButterfly

The WTS is going back to hardbound bibles.

believingxjw

CuriousButterfly,

If they're going back to hardbound Bibles it's probably only because the cry of complaint has reached the Governing Body's ears not because they have suddenly developed some new respect for the Bible. Torn Bibles in field service do not make for good recruiting!

sweet

i think the reason why they did do the paperbacks is so they can get more money from the binding.... you know there that are companies out there that bind the books?? whether it's leatherette..leather....tool.....gold lined pages...speckled pages....put your name on the bible...etc....etc....than there's the plastic book covers to protect the paperbacks too

zoiks

JW meeting places are to architecture what JW teachings are to theology and philosophy. Cheap, tacky, and superficially pleasing to the uneducated eye.

Beautiful Assembly Halls and Paperback Bibles

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