Female Watchtower Lawyers and submission

by Lady Lee 24 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Band on the Run

  I am a lawyer and love it. It matches my spirit. My specialty is civil rights, particularly the Establishment Clause. The Witness battles led to my interest. Once I was doing some research for my writing sample on faith-based social organizations and federal funding. As I scrolled down Lexis, I found a law review article about Jehovah's Witnesses in Japan both before and during WWII. My eyeballs popped out. When I saw the author was a woman, they almost needed to call 911 for me. I dropped my research immediately and started to read.

  The ordeals Witnesses faced could make very moving stories, underlying eternal legal truths. The article did not reference a single person! It was a tribute to the Society. The Society was not tortured, lost income, imprisoned and murdered! I wanted to vomit. Next, the female part. My JW father tried to pull me out of high school so he could watch me bag groceries. It was JW, plus punitive with his own craziness. Not even my strong ties to my mother, brother and sister, would make me submit. I spoke to the principal in vague terms, knowing I would move to a foster home. It was clear that I would graduate and go to college. The price would be very, very high. Fortunately, he died first. My mother not stopping him would have killed my soul.

  College was sheer hell. Swirling messages of assertion from Columbia and submission from the Witnesses cluttered my mind. Try as hard as I could I could not submit. My family thought I did outrageous things. I was sorely confused. The filter of time reveals I did some such itsy bitsy, inconsequential adolescent behavior. Yet I was labelled. Education was my ticket out from this life style. I studied with a passion even my most Harvard bound classmates could not match. A very elite school in NY gave me a full merit scholarship to study law. Upon graduation, I worked for a massive Wall St. law firm and the U.S. Senate Subcommitte on the Constitution. Minding my own business, I entered the firm's spacious library to do research. Glass walls had a spectular view of lower Manhattan, the Statute of Liberty and Brooklyn. As I sat with coffee cup in hand, I was eerily shocked. I was looking down on the Bethel building with the time and temp flashing. Sweet, sweet revenge.

  I wrote a note to the author, one female lawyer to another. Knowing she would not respond, I told her of my shock and briefly outlined my journey. If I submitted, I would bag groceries or clean homes all day. Maybe a lawyer converted. Highly unlikely. The dissonance between legal work and Witness cult thinking is enormous. Perhaps I acquired a certain je ne sais quo living in the NY area. Very few people could segment their minds with Chinese walls. If you think critically about cases (could not practice law without this skill), how do you not employ those skills to the Witnesses? I am bitter. Are these female lawyers trust fund babies. Imagine the power such a person can wield in the Witnesses! A mediocre person in normal life could reach the pinnacle of WT power. Heady stuff. I am outraged.
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  DagothUr

  In my ex-congo, back in 2008, we had 2 study-groups. We studied the red Apocalypse book. Sometimes, it was the turn of an older brother to read. These old brothers were fair readers, but had some difficulties. They often misspelled words. And some of the old sisters could be heard mumbling the correct pronounciation of the word, thus correcting the reader. In that winter, we had a local-needs speech at the Ministry school in which the sisters were told it was highly inappropriate to correct the reader at the meeting, because he was a man. They underlined the fact that if a male made the correction, it was also wrong, but it was not a sin. If a woman gave reading corrections to the reader, that was a sin. If someone knew the right pronounciation of a word, he/she should just keep it to himself/herself and allow the reading to go on.
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  Band on the Run

  Our KH encompassed a ghetto. The few brothers were not functionally literate. I read the WT is on a fifth grade level. As they read and answered questions, I noticed they had little to none reading comprehension. Since I was in fourth grade, I wanted to please my family and be loved by God. I never understood Peter summoning the HOly Spirit to kill the couple at the start of Acts. I still think it is way, way over the top. Jesus would not kill. Reprove, yes. Murder, no. The Witnesses emphasized they were the Holy Spirit and sinning against it was unforgivable. Yet my noticing the reading comprehension was so accidental. I never discussed it with my parents b/c I knew to be ashamed that I noticed the brother's mistake. God condemned me so readily. It truly traumatized me.

  Another think was when I was a young child and there was an assembly in NYC. One speaker announced that Jehovah was present. I was about four. Again, I did not know what to do. Did I recall the moses' story about not living if you see the face of God. Craning my neck, I spied out every ventiliation hole. I wanted to see Jehovah but then Jehovah killed readily.

  I was sorely oppressed by this male worship of the penis. Penis worship is it. Women need to stop worshipping penises and start worshipping vaginas. What is inherently godly about the distinction between a penis and vagina. I feel men are very put out that they will never give birth, the wonder of all wonders. Procreation in the highest. I cried and cried. Now I would have some choice words about emasculated, nonmanly men trying to compensate for their smallness and effeminatity by emasculating the clitoris. A knife can easily cure their affliction. I am a nice girl but the Witness men tread too far. It is revolting to see women adopt their view. The women;s movement and modern birth control have brought change.
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  blondie

  What about Deborah who was a prophetess, a judge, and a military commander along with Barak? A song she composed is recorded in the Bible making her writer of part of the Bible (see also Miriam's song).

  http://www.watchtower.org/e/my/article_50.htm
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  finallyfree!

  i remember at the age of 13 getting baptized and all of a sudden i found myself in situations where i was the only baptized brother with a bunch of mature sister. it was actually amusing seeing them all amongst themselves submitting so to speak to a 13 year old boy direct the service meeting and end in prayer. needless to say i was seriously put in a very embarrasing situation. but yep, basically if ur a sister who is waaaay more qualified, you basically have to "know your place " so to speak and concede to a kid with zero experience because its jehovahs arrangement. yah right.
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  skeeter1

  Female attorneys have an inner bitch personality, developed after practicing law which is still a man's world. I lovingly use "bitch" because it is like a callous, born because you've walked a hard life. I suspect they hide it wiith their own bosses and firm, else be fired (or disfellowshipped) for insubordination. I suspect they learn how to say things nicely, but still get their point across. I suspect they can be nice as pie to some, then turn on a dime when needed. Acting is important for attorneys. Just saying.

  I think all professional women have the problem of dealing in a man's world, whether a female Watch Tower attorney or not. Clients want "tough" attorneys, tough at negotiation and at fighting. Be a pansy, and get a reputation for being "easy" to bulldoze over.

  Given, female WT attorneys have it harder, but most women have it hard. I've seen places of work where all the men go on a yearly ski trip vacation, with NO WOMEN invited. I've seen places of work where the CEO sent out a letter blaming the problems of society of women not caring for their young....completely ignoring the real problems caused by deadbeat dads (poverty for the left behind family & most prisoners in the US have one thing in common...no father figure in their lives).

  Women just get crapped on. Worse in the Watch Tower and other fundamental "religions" that supposedly worship a forgiving god.

  If there is a God, thanfully, he gave women intuition.

  Skeeter
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  Mad Sweeney

  I am a lawyer and love it. It matches my spirit. My specialty is civil rights, particularly the Establishment Clause. The Witness battles led to my interest.

  Do you happen to know if any work is being done to separate the rights/freedoms of individual worshippers from the rights of organized religions to function relatively unchecked by the government?
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  dgp

  Mad Sweeney, I would add one point to your post: Does Band know whether any work is being done to prevent religious groups from oppressing their own?
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  Band on the Run

  Never in the United States. The colonies were established, in large part, by religious dissidents eager to leave the oppression of the Church of England. They did not come here to practice individual religion but to start their own established religion. Freedom of religion as in the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause was a long way in the future. I imagine the Free Exercise Clause became necessary in large measure b/c other religions did not want a federal religion b/c they would not be chosen. Jews and Catholics were considered outside civilization. Records reveal no one thought they should vote or hold public office under any circumstances. The Const'n did not contain the Bill of Rights. Many patriots saw it as limiting liberty and inviting the tyranny of a central government removed from local influence. James Madison, one of the leaders of the federalist with Alexander Hamilton (The Federalist Papers) drafted the Bill of Rights in a last ditch effort to have the document ratified by the states. The people demanded such a Bill. Madison thought it a superflous, waste of time. The people won.

  This is the DNA of American history. I know European law is different. European Law, the Napoleon Code and civil code, have different bases. Our revolution was more of a gentlemany dispute between ogligarchies than the very brutal French Revolution. Antireligious sentiment was one of the hallmarks of the French Revolution. Priests were mocked and tortured. Churches destroyed. There is a clear, bright line in most European countries that truly separates church from state. Bush's prayers to God after 9/11 would not be tolerated by these cultures. France has a controversy about Muslim girls not wearing headscarves. Social cohesion is treasured in Europe. America goes in the other direction.

  Individuals have the Free Exercise Clause. American courts will not direct internal religious affairs. It is completely condemned. Also, it strikes me that it is driven beyond any text in our Cost'n. It is a value that defines America. No one is forced by the govt to join or leave any religion. I know this is cold comfort when someone is facing lose all familial and friends contacts. Courts could not administer these disputes even if there were no taboos against it. Again, I truly want to know the European experience to contrast it with America. Americans are very myopic. When I grew up, one would think that the United States was the only free country and Europe was still dominated by the culture of the 1500s.

  If any Europeans see this, could you give me ideas where to look for a brief discussion or actual documents marking the Civil Code experience.Thank you.
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  blondie

  Original Ten Amendments: The Bill of Rights

  Passed by Congress September 25, 1789.
  Ratified December 15, 1791.

  Index to this page

  Bill of Rights Amendment 1 Freedoms, Petitions, Assembly Amendment 2 Right to bear arms Amendment 3 Quartering of soldiers Amendment 4 Search and arrest Amendment 5 Rights in criminal cases Amendment 6 Right to a fair trial Amendment 7 Rights in civil cases Amendment 8 Bail, fines, punishment Amendment 9 Rights retained by the People Amendment 10 States' rights

  Later Amendments Amendment 11 Lawsuits against states Amendment 12 Presidential elections Amendment 13 Abolition of slavery Amendment 14 Civil rights Amendment 15 Black suffrage Amendment 16 Income taxes Amendment 17 Senatorial elections Amendment 18 Prohibition of liquor Amendment 19 Women's suffrage Amendment 20 Terms of office Amendment 21 Repeal of Prohibition Amendment 22 Term Limits for the Presidency Amendment 23 Washington, D.C., suffrage Amendment 24 Abolition of poll taxes Amendment 25 Presidential succession Amendment 26 18-year-old suffrage Amendment 27 Congressional pay raises

  http://www.ushistory.org/documents/amendments.htm

  Amendment I

  Freedoms, Petitions, Assembly

  Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.