Unwritten, congregational 'rules'

by Thetruthhurts 68 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • HiddenPimo
    HiddenPimo

    1. No patterned stockings for sisters

    2. Must be clean shaven at all times not just for meetings

    3. Elders and Servants must be at the KH 20 minutes before the meeting started

    4. Jacket must be buttoned when on the stage

    5. No holding hands during song and prayer (even if married)

    6. No fist bumping instead of shaking hands

    7. No one can sit it the back room (elders room) during meetings

    8. No one allowed in the lobby unless you were nursing a child or an attendant

    9. No outlandish hairstyles

    10. No comments longer than 30 seconds

    11. No gas station witnessing unless out with the early morning group

    12. No magazines in early morning witnessing just tracts and no memorial or convention invitations until the last week of campaign

    13. No addressing Brother and Sisters with out using Brother or Sister, no first names at the hall

    14. No Blue Jeans/Denim at conventions

    15. No shorts on work days

    16. No denim dresses for sisters

    Most of these were actually in letters and kingdom ministries

  • road to nowhere
    road to nowhere

    Sister old homely cant be alone with(take your choice) a 17 yo male or brother old no sex drive( I know because i never in my whole life saw anyone who couldnt notice a flirt in a worldly situation, I did)

    The nylons relate to the suits for women, I never took that as manly garb.

    Back when there were comments about his or HER hair being too long-- no scripture there

  • tiki
    tiki

    Omg.......

    No two door cars....

    They tried to ban gum chewing in the kh......

    The man husband aisle seat one previously mentioned....

    Alas...not having set foot in one of their "temples" unfamiliar with current unwritten rules......do females always have to be in skirts or dresses still or do they let people dress as they like? Men still have to do the suit thing, jacket and all?

  • Doctor Who
    Doctor Who

    No bubble gum! Yep! I remember a brother giving a local needs part about that as I sat chewing my gum like a cow only 3 rows from the front. His face was soooooo red it was hilarious!

  • Anna Marina
    Anna Marina

    A recent one - they sussed out that people turn up late for the meetings. Soooo.... they took away the chairs. At one point it was like musical chairs, if you didn't get there early enough, you didn't get a chair.

    They kept just enough chairs in the main hall based on regular attendance numbers. You turn up late, you go into the back room and watch it all on telly.

    They muffed it as usual, even fewer people came. Imagine it, one vast hall with one tiny row of chairs. Ok I exaggerate but it did backfire.

  • Thetruthhurts
    Thetruthhurts

    They took away the chairs?! I do remember them closing off the last three rows so people would sit toward the front.

    @tiki yes they still enforce suits on the platform and dressy skirts and dresses for the women - no jean skirts.

    This thread is starting to give me flashbacks. ugh lol when you put them all in one place it makes it so ridiculous sounding and obvious and yet I went along with so many of these :(

  • Spiral
    Spiral

    All these rules! Most are so familiar. And yes, the flashbacks!

    One KH we went to when my son was little, the elder usually doing the meeting for service on Saturday was such a jerk. His wife (elderette pioneer with no studies) wouldn't come to the service meeting at all (they lived a bit far away) but would call the KH at 9:25 to ask where to meet the group. It was ridiculous.

    So, his wife won't drive in, but he'd call out anyone who was late (even just a minute or two) from the front while doing the day's text when they walked in.

    One time I was a couple of minutes late, and he called me out from the front making a snide comment about people coming late. Everyone turned around and looked at me.

    I picked my son up and walked right back out of the KH and went home. I thought, forget this!

    Later he sorta kinda tried to talk to me about it but never apologized. I never went to service again when he was in charge.

    I guess that experience was the beginning of my waking up!

  • LongHairGal
    LongHairGal

    HIDDEN PIMO:

    In the early days of my ‘fade’ I showed up at the district assembly grounds to say a ‘hello’ to some people at lunchtime.

    I still wore denim at the time, so I wore a nice denim outfit since I wanted a casual feel. Well...some schmuck brother made it his business to follow me all around the grounds until I left.

    The JW religion hates denim and wants JWs to dress ‘business like’...They want to give the public the impression that they are intelligent or ‘businesslike’..This is mostly false since they are STILL knocking college and careers.

  • DATA-DOG
    DATA-DOG

    In my congregation we kept a strict watch on any sister who seemed unduly interested in grabbing a microphone while commenting...😛

    A big “guideline” that had to be followed, making it a rule.. ( Omg, I went around and around on this with idiot Eldubs.. ) was getting 10hrs a month in field circus, every month for 6 months to a year to be considered exemplary. No averages allowed.. you couldn’t get 20, then 5, then 8, then 12, ect.. you had to be “visible” in field circus.

    We has a lot of older brothers who couldn’t always do that, and some with depression or wives with depression, but guess what they could do?? Mow the lawn, cleaning the lawn, clean the bathrooms, pick up literature, work the literature counter, give talks last minute, vacuum the KH, organize territories, run microphones, ect.

    ALL the shit jobs month after month after month after year after year, only to hear, NOPE... not exemplary.. Yet an old-old ex-MS was reappointed because he was old and it encouraged him even though he couldn’t do anything..

    So why not appoint those “lesser” ones and encourage them. Maybe they are never Eldubs, or never even give a public talk..So what?? Maybe their roles never change, just the title?? So what?? Maybe they’re never going to be Eldubs?? Who cares??

    It never made sense and I started to wonder if maybe, just maybe...the field service/hourly requirement was just another method of controlling people and making them feel terrible so that they would continually chase the carrot of spiritually the GB dangles in front of them.

    DD 🤔

  • hoser
    hoser

    If you are a nobody and you have a progressive bible study, you are “encouraged” to hand your study over to a pioneer so they can show the study off next circuit assembly.

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