Please help with list of ways WTBTS has gone beyond scriptures...

by FlyingHighNow 36 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  iiz2cool

  Someone once told me that the main reason they needed service reports was to gauge the level of interest in different areas and so they'd know how much literature to print. Really, they could do the same thing if people submitted anonymous reports. They also could simply use the stats from the amount of literature the congregations order each month. I think the main purpose behind reporting is to exercise control over congregation members, and to intimidate them. They want to know who is "weak". I'm sure many lie on their service reports just to keep elders off their backs. I did, for a while. Once I stopped going out the elders were bugging me to turn in reports, so I just started giving them reports with all zeros written on them.

  In my last hall there were 14 regular pioneers?, yet over 30% of the territories were untouched in over 2 years. I'm sure they were not knocking on doors all that time, but I know the local Tim Hortons does a great business from the JW's here.
• 

  cyber-sista

  They were always putting down the Pharisees for all the burdens they put upon people in ancient days. But from the other side of their mouth they were micro-managing our lives to the extreme...There are long lists of articles warning us on the dangers of incense, windchimes, parades, fireworks, sending valentines, participating in after school activites and on and on and on--none of which were mentioned in the scriptures....

  Makes me think of Jesus when he called the Pharisees blind guides, who strain out the camel and gulf down the gnat and overlook the weightier matters of the law, namely justice, mercy, and faith... After that he called them hypocrites because they looked good on the outside, but inside they were full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Don't know how much of the bible I believe in anymore, but this part seems to fit the Org to a T.
• 

  Love_Truth

  Wow! I think it would be easier to list the ways they haven't gone "beyond what is written".
  

  Right off the top of my head:

  Birthdays

  Holidays

  Smoking

  Drugs

  Limiting sexual intercourse positions within a heterosexual marriage.

  Breaking up families

  Hiding pedophiles

  Commanding regualr attendance at Assemblies amnd "meetings".

  "Field Service"

  Keeping records of hours, magazines and books placed,. etc.

  Blood transfusions (blood eating is unscriptural, but not transfusions, IMO)

  Focus on works, not faith

  Focus on external appearances, rather than the heart condition and fruitage of the spirit

  Condemnation, or judging, of non-JWs as worthy of death.

  Men with vasectomies can't be an MS or Elder (new one they came up with)

  GB claims to be meditor, rather than Jesus

  FDS lies

  In short, they turn their opinions into rules, and DF or DA anyone who disgrees with their provably unscriptiural rules.
• 

  FlyingHighNow

  I think the main purpose behind reporting is to exercise control over congregation members, and to intimidate them. They want to know who is "weak". I'm sure many lie on their service reports just to keep elders off their backs. I did, for a while.izz2cool

  izz, I agree. The company I work for does something similar to us with sales. They record the percentage of sales each of us does and they always tell us they will give us hours based on our sales. The funny thing is, when we look at the charts, all of us all over the spectrum with our sales. None of us do better at it. It is intimidating though.

  They were always putting down the Pharisees for all the burdens they put upon people in ancient days. But from the other side of their mouth they were micro-managing our lives to the extreme...cyber-sista

  Sista, his is something I gradually became aware of as time wore on in my witness career. Sooooo true.

  Men with vasectomies can't be an MS or Elder (new one they came up with)

  In short, they turn their opinions into rules, and DF or DA anyone who disgrees with their provably unscriptiural rules. LoveTruth

  Wow, I didn't know about the vasectomy deal. What a load of manure.

  It's true about most of their rules stemming from the opinions of old, crotchety men and their prudish, Victorian, antiquated ideas.

  Heather
• 

  Elsewhere

  It's easy... just open any piece of literature they wrote and look for words like:

  • Clearly...
  • Apparently...
  • Likely...
  • Evidently...

  Anytime you see something like that, it means that they are pulling something out of their a$$ and they have no proof to support it.

  Clearly the end is near!

  Apparently Jesus believed....
• 

  dustyb

  lol. something funny that i've started to do at the Watchtower study on Sunday's is instead of following along with them, i just underline every "buzzphrase" and stuff they can't back up. this next week's article is FULL of underlines, blocks and circles. i don't think you'll be able to read this article after i get done circling and all (like you can really read it w/o interference all the way thru...)
• 

  FlyingHighNow

  • Clearly...
  • Apparently...
  • Likely...
  • Evidently...

  Elsewhere

  Clearly you have put much thought into this simple way of spotting WT balderdash, bilge, blague, bosh, bushwa, claptrap, eyewash, malarkey, rot, rubbish.

  This is a very helpful tool. Thank you. Have a green beverage.

  Dusty, please scan a page and show us. I'd love to see your underlines, blocks and circles . Hey, I think I've seen your avatar on a trailer trash site. Is that where you got it?

  Keep 'em comin' folks.

  Heather
• 

  got my forty homey?

  My personal problems were

  1. The turning in of field service time and compiling of personal records in Brooklyn EG. names of DF'd.

  2. Governing body. Where in the bible does it state that there was a PERMANENT governing body.

  3. Blood. If blood represents life, why can't HUMAN blood be used to save HUMAN lives.
• 

  FlyingHighNow

  3. Blood. If blood represents life, why can't HUMAN blood be used to save HUMAN lives.

  GotMyFortyHomey?

  Very good point. I love Redd Foxx.

  Heather
• 

  onacruse

  Else, you hit a real sore spot there...those oh-so-subtle "directive phrases" (as Hayakawa would say). Gawd, I could just crush concrete with my bare hands, thinking back on how many years I fell for that crap.

  FHN, my vote would be for "new light (yet to be revealed, of course)" vs. "we have the truth (and frag your ass if you dare question us in the meantime)."

  Sorry for my rather angry post...this just really touches a raw nerve. grrrrrrrrrrrrr....