Blanket Judgements and other JW phenomenon

by LDH 12 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  LDH

  My mind was wandering last night and I started thinking about the way 'faithful' JWs issue blanket condemnations. I wondered if it's a personality thing that is just reinforced by the JW mantra of "We're always right and we're the only true religion etc." or if it's a JW or other fundy religious phenomenon.

  Here's two examples, feel free to add your own.

  When I was about 17, I started visiting NYC regularly, and attending different congregations (wow! what a wild and crazy girl!). One cong I attended was in New Jersey, and since it was urban, the congregation reflected that. (This was in the late 80's). Many of the young black brothers were wearing hairstyles such as "The City" and the "High top Fade" (ha ha JT will know what this is) and many of the young sisters were wearing skirts (SHOCKINGLY) that came above the knee! (Oh how my sister and I lusted after these skirts!)

  Upon arriving home, we mentioned this to my parents, and my mother feigned being appalled (those of you with overly dramatic mothers know what I mean!). I tried to defend their freedom of choice, but my mother stated, "Jehovah's standard does not change from one congregation to the next!"

  Being the smart ass, I reminded her of the scripture where Paul said we 'Had to become all things to all people,' for which I was rewarded with a slap, ha ha. Needless to say, my sister and I still had to wear our 'Laura Ingalls' skirts, ha ha.

  2nd example, just to prove it's not always about religion. About 2 years ago, my parents were visiting. We turned on the football game, and my mother loudly pronounced, "Football is a stupid sport and all of the men who play it are also stupid!"

  Well that just about caused WWIII, lemme tell you. No matter how ALL of us including my dad tried to 'reason' with her that just because she didn't like it, didn't make it stupid. Might as well have been talking Greek, cause she just kept saying things like, "There's no strategy involved. It's a stupid game with stupid men who chase a piece of pigskin around."

  Now I KNOW I'm not the only one!
• 

  outnfree

  Sisters should not wear open-toed shoes in service. Only women of ill repute do this. -- Related to me by an opinionated older sister who said it's what a CO told her years ago.

  And PAINTING those toenails peeping out of those shoes??!! Forget about it!

  LOL
  outnfree
• 

  openminded

  LDH,
  A lot of research is being done lately, in the wake of the fall of communism and other high control "states". The bottom line is that blanket judgements are an easy tool, for any group or person with an agenda or who wants to control you for whatever arbitrary reason. Its an easy way to pigeon hole you into an "less than perfect" category and thus easier to "deal" with you or isolate you. Most of the Western world figued this out long ago but if you were raised in a JW home, it may be all you know. The bottom line is that YOU can break the cycle by ignoring it as best you can. I bet you look really nice in open toe shoes. So if your ever in N.D. stop over. I have a real eye for fashion.
• 

  nojw86

  Hi LDH, yep my little one had to wear little Laura Ingalls dresses also much to to her dismay. Thats the mind set when your are a Jughead Weirdo...oops I meant a Jehovah Witness. When we were in the cult, we very good friends with this sister, she was so proud and invited us to hear her son deliver one of the talks on the Thrusday night meeting. When we arrived we were told he was not allowed to give the talk because he has shaved the back of his head......nojw
• 

  LDH

  HA HA HA openminded good post.

  For some reason, my husband seems to NEVER bitch about me spending money on pedicures (I think he's got a secret foot fetish---he once told me when we first started dating that I had the prettiest feet he'd ever seen...LOL)

  And he likes those open toe-d summer shoes too. Especially those really high 6+". Which I wear when I want something. ha ha ha.
• 

  digderidoo

  Here's one - sisters in my old cong were not allowed to wear leggings.

  Another - a brother in a neighbouring cong was not allowed to become a mini-man, due to the fact that he insisted on wearing a blue shirt to meetings, not a white one.

  Yours dig

  Ordinary people just like you and me...
  We're the keepers of our destiny...
• 

  tergiversator

  Heh. My brother was passed up for MS because he always looked "rumpled". Never mind that our congregations had a shortage of young brothers...

  -T
• 

  Mulan

  I grew up a JW, and had an extremely close family, all JW's, grandparent's, aunt, cousins, etc. In my grandparent's cong., the Theocratic School servant (overseer) was an older man from Scotland, and very old fashioned. His rules of dress, for the school, were: No sleeveless blouses for the sisters, fuller skirts only (they covered the knees when you sat), the sisters couldn't use microphones because they had to be counseled on volume (if you had a mike, why need that counsel?), etc. The brothers had the same counsel, but they got to use the microphone. ??? Seems like there were more, but I can't remember. My cousin was in that congregation, and we argued all the time about that being his opinion, or right from New York. We went to the same KH, different congregation. She was appalled at the way I dressed for my talks. My grandmother would sit and chuckle. She was really old fashioned too, but she knew the score, all right.

  It's funny too, that back in the 50's and early 60's we NEVER had morning meetings on Sundays, because that was what the churches did. Then one congregation dared to do it, and lightning didn't strike them or anything else terrible, so suddenly everyone had at least one morning meeting per KH. Before that, we had 3 congregations at our KH, and the Sunday meetings were at 1:30. 4:30 and 7:30, and they never rotated. OURS WAS THE 7:30 PM meeting on SUNDAY NIGHT!!!!
• 

  zev

  as recently as THIS YEAR, a c.o. visited a nieghboring congregation, and due to a snow storm, the bro's were calling to ask if they should cancel the meeting. {they should have, it was bad enough}, but when visiting our congregation the very next week, this c.o. said, and i quote "I don't cancel meetings, Jehovah does."

  Needless to say, I was not impressed.

  Jehovah never called me to tell me the meeting was cancelled.

  I wonder if he has my number?

  __
  zev
  Sitting on the Wrong Side of the Fence Class
• 

  Prisca

  Zev,
  Maybe the snow storm WAS Jehovah's way of cancelling the meeting.

  I always thought blanket statements were part-and-parcel of being a JW. Without them, the hold on the R&F would not be as great, as openminded brought out.

  Speaking of fashion, I noticed that congs from the urban areas (ie close to the city) were very hip, and more daring (bigger splits, tighter clothes, more skin exposed) than the more suburban or country congs. But doesn't Jehovah have the same standards everywhere?