WT Society has ALWAYS gone beyond " the things written " in the book they claim to follow- the Bible. When I used to be in the Witnesses - I even saw elders go beyond what even the WT Society printed as instructions on how to counsel JW's within the congregation. I could count hundreds of times I witnessed personally elders giving their own personal opinions as counsel to rank & file JW's and it caused these JW's MUCH grief. Because the counsel was idiotic !
And here's where the hypocrisy comes in - if elders gave out faulty counsel or wrong counsel to JW's - the WT Society would make excuses for these elders saying " they're just imperfect men " and instruct rank & file JW's not to " speak injuriously of these " glorious ones " (elders ) " - yet on the other side of the coin if a rank & file JW doesn't follow the WT Society's guidelines or " disobeys " they get jumped on and are considered " weak " in the faith. But what about the stupid elder that didn't follow proper procedures ? They are not even counseled. This is one of the main reasons I left this JW organization- there are different rules for those in power than the normal rank & file JW . I left cold turkey and never went back when I was treated in an unjust manner