by enoughisenough 38 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I have been reading about Phoebe who Paul thinks very highly of. He describes her as a Deacon and in Romans 16 says that she has been helpful to him and to many
So Paul had no problem with a woman being a Deacon and in giving credit where it was due. It seems that she had been sent to the church in Rome as a messenger for Paul .
This adds weight to the argument that his negative comments about women are in response to a particular problem in that church.
Jan from Tam
A lot of folks tend to forget that virtually all the female heroes of the Bible were portrayed as brave, strong, and tough.
Absolutely Vidiot
Jan from Tam
Whoops, almost forgot… smart, too.
Having shown signs of some all-too-belated common sense in relaxing unwritten rules about beards for brothers and trousers for sisters, this about-face over using sisters on audio-visual assignments is disappointing, not to mention confusing (there being no obvious reason to change tack on this).
As has been previously mentioned, there are also risks with suggesting greater use of young boys for these assignments.
In my circuit there are actually not many such young unbaptised males they could use - although there are plenty of older, baptised ones who are just coasting, irregular at meetings and not participating (or as the saying goes "not reaching out"). It will be interesting to see what these congregations do about that - I can't imagine they'll find enough 'capable' males from that lot to replace the willing sisters they're currently using! 😅
There's absolutely no need to create this level of antagonism in the sisters who are actually bothering to help out, or this level of hassle for bodies of elders either, who having probably just sorted out their congregation assignments, have now got to try and go around and change them all up again, swapping out sisters and finding boys (or second-rate baptised brothers) to take their place. It's just the GB needlessly stirring the pot again.
This seems to be another indicator that just as the current GB takes one step forward in some things, it swiftly follows with two steps backwards in others.
a thought I had: a boy is chosen over the mother who raised him...if he has good conduct, wasn't that likely due to ( in case of a single mother) a woman's instruction? And how is this chosen boy to get to the meetings a bit earlier ( in some cases his mother ) And what sensible man is going to think his boy is more capable than his wife? If you really think about it, it is all horrid, but the sheeple will just be so proud to be the parent of a boy who may be selected. ( if they were smart, they wouldn't give permission, but then if they were smart, they would wake up to the nonsense spewed out by their 9 headed god.)
My wife and women in the congregation are quite relieved. It was frustrating to see my wife prance around the hall with the microphone during the 1-hr Watchtower study, while perfectly fit men were warming their seats. In fact, its demeaning to use women for these mundane tasks that can be easily done by men and boys.
Last year during a CSA case in my congregation, my wife was asked to be there with the victim lady during all the sessions that elders had. Now thats a good way to use a woman in the congregation.
Maybe this is why women in general are kept out of politics, both in the real world and in jw land, we are too peaceable (seen as a weakness) and it's much harder to convince peaceable people to do the dirty work for you. Children? Well, they can be groomed and brainwashed easily.
