No beards...even Jesus! Strange Watchower rule for brothers!

by Witness 007 35 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Phizzy

  I wrote to the WT HQ about wearing of beards, in about 1974, they sent a reply which was full of the usual crap about why I shouldn't , but said they could not make a Rule for the whole WW brotherhood, it depended upon the attitude to beards in the country in which you lived.

  I promptly grew a big one, and wore it for well over a decade, all that while I was a M.S and giving P.T's, even in neighbouring Congregations.

  I was eventually told I could not be used on a Circuit Assy if I had one, so as I wanted to have my say in the bit I was assigned, I shaved it off. A sis. came up to me afterwards and said "You certainly tell it like it is !" , so I suppose it was worth it.

  An Elder later said to me: " I hate what they made you do ". A few years later they used a bro with a beard at our circuit assembly in a similar item to mine. ???

  But after that they still told guys with a beard, though an Elder, they could not be a head of a department at Conventions. They are seriously messed up.
• 

  punkofnice

  It's probably a metric to see who's loyal to the drunken paedo lovers AKA Governing Body(TM).
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  jojorabbit

  Blondi is spot on. The no beard rule comes from the split with Russell and Rutherford. Rutherford was quite the dictator.
  
• 

  St George of England

  Yearbook 1974 pp 97-8:-

  But more equipment was needed. For that reason Brother Balzereit asked Brother Rutherford for permission to buy a rotary press. Brother Rutherford saw the necessity and agreed, but on one condition. He had noticed that over the years Brother Balzereit had grown a beard very similar to the one that had been worn by Brother Russell. His example soon caught on, for there were others who also wanted to look like Brother Russell. This could give rise to a tendency toward creature worship, and Brother Rutherford wanted to prevent this. So during his next visit, within hearing of all the Bible House family, he told Brother Balzereit that he could buy the rotary press but only on the condition that he shave off his beard. Brother Balzereit sadly agreed and afterward went to the barber. During the next few days there were several cases of mistaken identity and some funny situations because of the “stranger” who was sometimes not recognized by his fellow workers.

  George

  
  
• 

  joao

  Even though I don't like to wear a beard, I've always thought that this rule is absolutely silly! Beard grows. Good made men with beard. It's another example of humans wanting to play God!
  
• 

  Terry

  UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN (Hulu tv series from the Krakauer true crime novel) opened my eyes
  to the parallel problems both Mormons and JW's have faced historically.
  (What took down Joseph Smith was the plural wives doctrine and his flagrant flouting of Victorian Era norms.
  He was murdered by a mob.)
  Now here is where the parallel begins ...
  The successor of Joseph Smith was Brigham Young and he had a healthy face full of weird beard!
  Brigham Young surrounded himself with vigilantes (more weird beards) who - at his behest - would murder
  folks who opposed him. So outrageous were his exploits that the U.S. Army faced off against him and his cadre.
  Let us fast forward at this point...
  What saved the Mormon Church (i.e. Latter-Day Saints) was more reasonable people who did everything they could to tame plural marriage and expunge radicals. How does this parallel JW's you ask?
  BEARDS!
  Radicals inside the church were the equivalent of Apostates who split off and continued to practice "the old ways."
  If you got in their way - the doctrine of Blood Atonement was invoked and those buggers would murder you!
  Where is the parallel?
  Russell's faithful followers were Bible Student factions and they sported Taze whiskers. These folks opposed the Rutherford regime. He viewed "Russellites" the same way the GB views ex JW apostates: public enemy #1.
  Rutherford was very much like Brigham Young in temperament but the opposite when it came to extra wives. Heck, he and Berta didn't travel or sleep together.
  My point?
  To this day - the sensitivity toward a very cringe-worthy past history exists in BOTH Mormon and JW leaders' knee-jerk intolerance of "the Old Ways in the Old Days" and that means particularly: BEARDS.
  WATCH that short TV series about the True Crime in Utah when radical beard-wearing apostate Mormons took it upon themselves to quote and practice authentic early advent Mormon teachings, doctrines, and covenants.
  It is fantastic!