Hi ozzie, amazing, alan, et al.,
Actually secrecy and paranoia are pandemic in the WT organization. It begins with the antagonism and mistrust of the rank and file towards anyone who is not of their ilk (and in too many cases, they look askance at their supposed ``brothers and sisters;'' how often have we been warned to ``watch our associations even inside the Kingdom Hall? -- i.e. ``who among us are living `double lives?''').
In turn, the Society really doesn't trust the rank and file; in their communications, they either disclose the absolute minimum necessary to achieve their ends, or cynically distort the facts (the Jimmy Swaggart tax issue is but one example, the reasons given for public consuption on the 1985 change in baptism vows is another), knowing they can count on the gullibility of the flock to swallow any of their pronouncements uncritically.
The naive who elders who are encourtaged to consider themselvs a highly respected club are flattered to be considered ``on the inside'' enough to be called to ``special'' exclusive meetings and classes play into their hands. Of course, on truly sensitive matters, instructions are passed on verbally, congregational records are to be guarded scrupulously from the prying eyes of subpoena-seeking courts and dubs alike.
Call Bethel with a question and the apparatchik that answers the phone seeks your name and congrgation while declining to tell you who he is... and what should eb a frank conversation among two Christians becomes a thrust-and-parry, cat-and-mouse game.
An ``honor system'' that urges the JWs to share as much as possible and with regularity in the service, but leaves the quantity and quality of the time spent between the JW and his Creator? No way! We need those slips by the fifth of the month, come hell or high water!
Then of course, financial disclosure. Are the 6 million or so JWs entitled to an annual statement? Of course not!! Just keep rewriting those wills and estates!!
Ah, the Spiritual Paradise! Ad infitum, ad nauseum.
