So, why did they do it? You would just get comfortable and they would tear them apart, the pricks. And give you like one meeting's notice too boot.
Okay, ex=elders, why oh why did you do it?
Why Did Elders Split Book Study's?
by shamus 18 Replies latest jw friends
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twinkletoes
Probably to enforce that they were/are the "glorious ones" and weilded their power accordingly.
Twink
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shotgun
The Debil made them do it.
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twinkletoes
This change of format used to always puzzle me, causing great problems with Bros. and Sisters, zigzagging all over the city.
Why oh why did they not consult with the bros and sisters to ask them where would like to go.
Thus cutting out all the aggravation that this ridiculous change of policy brought about.
Power as usual had gone to their heads - and assuming that it is still the same today.
Kaytee
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blondie
Some conductors were more skilled or popular and people would go to the book study, unassigned, and swell the ranks. I saw one that had 45 people while another had only 15. Supposedly, they try and keep them around 15 people.
In last congregation I attended they tended to switch people around rather than forming a new book study group. They tried to balance those who answered and went out in field service with those who did not as regularly. Making up book study groups and keeping people happy so they would attend where assigned was a difficult juggling act.
I do belive that on several occasions they moved around people who were getting too close. I saw them punish families by putting adult children with young children in a different one than the grandparents. In this area, the rank and file are pretty feisty and disobedient when it comes to which book study they go to.
Blondie
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Loris
I know of one instance where a child used the fancy soap in the bathroom and the book study was sent to the KH. That made two book studies at the hall until everybody was reassigned among the remaining book study groups.
Loris
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willyloman
Blondie's "take" is close to the mark (as usual). The elders are counseled by the WTS, often via the CO, to review the book study groups often to make sure they are "balanced." The theory is that this puts "strong" families with "weak" ones so the strong can help the weak in FS. Of course, it rarely works out this way.
Left to their own devices, publishers will often shift over to another book study for reasons that range from "it's closer to my home" to the fact they have relatives or good friends there. Sometimes elders "recruit" book study members and if they are influential or "prominent" elders, they're good at resisting efforts (by the other elders) to dismantle their little group. In every congo I've ever attended, there was usually one enviable book study with a popular, competent teacher. The "cool" people went there. At the same time, there was always at least one that was for "losers." It was kind of the catch-all book study, where the ones nobody wanted were assigned. Of course, you could never get any elder to admit this, but that's how it usually worked out.
Depending on the PO in a given congo, book studies are "shuffled" often or almost never. When they are shuffled, people are generally pissed if they are "exiled" to group containing a number of people they can't stand. Despite all the protests about "love" and the "identifying mark of true Christianity," JW's are often thrown together with people they don't like. One sister, looking around her newly formed book study, said privately, "There's no one here I would want to invite home for dinner."
The book study arrangement is so obviously a "control" issue that even the most ardent JW rebels against efforts to change it, once they find themselves in a socially compatible group. And the elders pretty much know who they can push around and who they can't.
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jws
I don't really remember book study groups changing that often and we used to host one. As far as I can remember, it was pretty much split up by who lived the closest to the book study. Every once in a while, somebody might quit hosting and the groups would have to be shuffled.
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Eyebrow2
my mother was going to one that was directly across the street. then they changed it, she had no car, and when asked if she could stay, they told her she was not cooperating with the arrangements...unbelievable. Finally, the elder that lived across the street convinced the others that it would be kinder to let her stay.
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Nathan Natas
Recall how in the days of Russell's bible Students the congregations were autonomous units, not controlled by Bethel. Each congregation ELECTED their servants. Well, Smokin' Joe put an end to THAT nonsense real quick, didn't he?
I think the reasons for the juggling are based on a rudimentary knowledge of social psychology and a fear of the possible outcome - that some stduy groups might become more "independant minded," with the developing of sects or "following a man" a possibility.
Cults need to keep their host organisms distracted and off-balance.