by Sour Grapes 27 Replies latest jw friends
Have you ever noticed that know one uses first names at the KH? It is how are you Brother Jones? How are you Sister Smith? Do you want to go in service Brother Clark? It is our turn to clean the Hall Sister Barber.
Why don't JW's use first names when greeting or talking to one another at the KH?
Sour Grapes
When you combine the formal use of Last names with "Brother" or "Sister" it's like a contradiction. I would have thought that a brother or sister would be somebody very close to me, not somebody in a stilted, stiff, held-a time-arms-length relationship.
it's like a bunch of oxymorons getting together.
The "rule" I saw in congregations was to say Brother Last Name or Sister Last Name and then use their first name.
*** w62 6/1 pp. 351-352 Questions From Readers ***
The use of a family name as well as a given name, which was not the practice in the first century, has also made it advantageous to use the expression “Brother” with the family name as is now done. It helps avoid both the extreme of undue familiarity and that of undue reserve. To address an adult by his given name today indicates a familiarity that may not always be fitting, especially not on the part of youth toward adults or on the part of strangers to one another. On the other hand, to use the formal term “Mister” would savor of a lack of friendliness, a reserve that does not prevail among the members of the dedicated Christian community. Therefore “Brother” and “Sister” appear to be the logical as well as Scriptural designations to use, since dedicated Christians view one another as members of a spiritual or religious family.
-------So why do jws make a big point to say it is better to call Jehovah, Jehovah, not God?
Funny, I never thought of this. This is not true for all languages. In my language they say "sister/brother last name" during the meeting but after an before the meeting they use the first names. Sometimes they say "sister/brother last name" jokingly because it sounds so "serious".
I believe it might have something to do with culture?
I remember a particularly pompous elder counselling us from the platform about this. He said we must use the title "Brother" or "Sister", instead of using just a first name, during congregation activities. The first century Christians didn't use those words like titles. ...."Brother John this", "Brother Peter that"! He must have been seething when I consistently used his first name at my judicial committee meeting!
I suppose that it's different for a "worldly" man who enters the Kingdom Hall and eventually becomes a brother. As a study, I called adults by their first name and it stuck with me after becoming a "brother." Oh, there were those elderly ones who got called Brother Smith or Sister Harris, but it never seemed right to me.
I would be at a door with a nervous sister who would say at a door, "Hello, my name is Sheila and this is Brother OTWO." It must have screamed "CULT" to the woman at the door.
