Journeyman - “… if the R&F had been given a more ‘balanced’ view…”
That would have run too much risk of diminishing the sense of End-Times urgency.
Few JW leader have children
by slimboyfat 31 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
-
Vidiot
-
Journeyman
To be sure, elders must ‘pay attention to themselves and to all the flock. (Acts 20:28)) If they are married, this includes their wives. (notice how many times the WTS says balanced, without giving any examples and specific ways to do things differently).
Yes, blondie, that was a shockingly direct article for the GB, and although it's true they (or their predecessors) caused the problem in the first place, it was a surprise they even bothered to address it so specifically. It's an indication of just how bad the neglect of wives and families must have become, if they even felt the need to tackle it so openly.That would have run too much risk of diminishing the sense of End-Times urgency.
However, and linked to Vidiot's point there, they now find themselves in a bind. By admitting that many serving men were neglecting their husbandly duties and need to "adjust" themselves to find a better "balance", they are at the same time effectively saying that many serving men need to do less in "theocratic" and congregation activity and concentrate on spending more time and attention on their wife and/or family.This is of course entirely morally and scripturally right, but it creates a problem for the Org (one of many of their own making), because it gives elders (and even MS to some extent) a valid reason to step back from doing so much (as mentioned in the other thread "JW light Elders?")
That's of course why the Org is not keen to give specific examples, because anything they do say can be used by brothers to their local body of elders to say: "Well the WT of xx/xx/xx says..." and to "beg off" any assignments they do not want to do. As a result, the only examples they are likely to give are the most extreme or obvious ones, perhaps - rather like they do when giving examples of say, an elder who is burned out. They will always give an example of a brother who had his OWN balance out of kilter, rather than one who was overwhelmed by demands of others (including their own coordinator or CO). Then they can sort of "blame" the brother and say something like "he had to pray to Jehovah, talk with his wife, rearrange his schedule and find his own better balance - now he's happy".
Never will they be candid and simply say something like: "the local coordinator or CO was demanding too much of the brother and had to back off", or something like that, because that will imply there is something wrong with the way the Org itself operates!