by daringhart13 28 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Hey gang,.....I continue to write as thoughts come to me. I would love to hear how the ladies here feel about my observations on how the WTBS views/treats women.
New article here: http://darrinhart.hubpages.com/hub/Gods-View-of-Women-According-to-the-Watchtower-Bible-Tract-Society
I noticed an error that you would want to correct. Near the end of the article - the 3rd sentence of the 1st paragraph under the heading "Consider God's View of Women" - you wrote:
Psalms Chapter 31 is in fact a chapter devoted to the amazing character of a good woman.
Somehow I think you meant to say Proverbs chapter 31 and not Psalms chapter 31.
Sounds spot-on to me. There are lots of things you can add - wasn't there a WatchTower that compared women to cows?
There were 'deaconesses' in the NT also, which wt denies.
I am impressed with your article. It is fair in tone. Let me commend you for addressing the fact that sisters have few marriage options. As a child I was very aware of it. Lonely sister so and so. They were so faithful. The chances for marriage were so slim. Let us face it. There was competition. Privately, I heard many a sister pray or wish for a brother.
I don't know whether you are aware of this fact but when my parents married in the 1940s they were ostracized by the congregation. My father was a Bethelite. Until Bro. Knorr decided to marry, there was great shame in leaving Bethel for a wife. My mom had to buy her own wedding ring. The time was considered short - when has it been long? -- and marriage and possible children kept you from pioneering as fully as possible. I believe that in Russell's days many marriages were in name only. Sex was considered a wrong.
Rutherford had very sick ideas of women. My father and many others shared the view. When I was a young girl, my mom pulled me aside while my father worked and told me of all the good women in the Bible. She was very worried that I would be exposed to the notion that girls were wanton sexual beings. Where the idea started that men have no sex drive unless ignited by an evil woman is beyond me.
I have a question. Paul expressly commends many women in prominent positions in the congregations he founded. He names them as important to his work. I don't have references now. Does the NWT include this information? Reading Paul as a Witness, I found him to be disgusting. Later, I read his genuine letters and was shocked on how supportive of women he was. The same is true for the gospel accounts of Mary Magdalene. She was a prostitute when I was young. A few years passed and feminists pointed out there is not a single reference to prostitution. Indeed, she was independently wealthy and a financial supporter of Jesus. She is the first to interact with the Risen Christ. The men say she is crazy but the story prove that she was right.
Freddy Franz didn't like women so that's why dubs have the attitude they have toward women. To be seen but not heard. Do all the crap work so the men can shine. Yep it's the JW way. Sad but true.
eyeuse2badub
Thank each of you for the feedback! Much appreciated!
Island man....thank you....you're right!!!
" Let me commend you for addressing the fact that sisters have few marriage options."
Yes, this is obvious by the way I'm treated every time I visit the hall (which is only at the Memorial, every year). I bring my parents, but I do not bring my wife (or children) to the hall. She/they has/have no JW history prior to me, and find(s) the entire thing to be a freak show that she/they refuse(s) to have anything to do with. When I do take my parents to the Hall, the "sisters" are on me like flies on a fresh doberman steamer.
In my younger years, I was flattered by this treatment. Now, when it occurs, I am sad for the "sisters" who are so desperate for a man that they throw themselves at the first new guy they see in their hall.
Last year, I was told by one of them, "we'd really like to see you again at the Hall soon." My response, which was stated as I was about to drive away, was: "I'm looking forward to seeing you again soon as well, and can't wait to do that, next year, at about this time."
144001,
I experienced the same thing. I was a 36 year old bachelor elder. The things that went on were so tragic!! My heart is literally broken for so many women who would like to just have a great companion. They aren't going to find one in JW's.......
Thanks
What always struck me was how until the last few years jw women weren't even supposed to have a job. They were supposed to be housewives or something while the jw man was supposed to have a job. That never sat right with me because I was raised by my non jw parents to get educated and financially independent, and mum was always the main earner with the education and career for most of my life while dad took care of most of the domestic things. This expectation that as a jw woman you were not supposed to work once married because that would be materialistic struck me as sexist n stupid, and I never wanted my non jw parents to visit a meeting because I knew they'd be appalled at the 1940's attitude. My father's respect for women was not to be found among most of the jw men, especially the born ins.
It always used to pip me when during some co visit or public talk when the speaker was praising the cong how he would talk about how clever the men are with their work and speaking abilities and the sisters...how good they are at making cakes. That's all women were to many of these guys, someone to cook and keep the house clean and their suits dry cleaned.
As for marriage, most of the young sisters who got married got their men by being outright skanky. And I found the born in men so shallow and only go for the airhead good looking girls. Plain ones with talents and education like me never got looked at. An ms even told me I'd find it hard to get married because I am educated, intelligent, strong willed and open with my strong opinions. He was right, jw men were losers, and the ones who did look at me were my father's age.
