ANONYMOUS

by tijkmo 13 Replies latest jw friends

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  tijkmo

  did u ever write to the bethel anonymously..cos if you did or if you are thinking of doing this is how they view it

  ***

  w68 5/15 pp. 318-319 Questions from Readers ***

  Questions

  from Readers

  ?

  I will be looking for the reply to my letter in "Questions from Readers" in The Watchtower.?Unsigned.

  That we have a section in this magazine entitled "Questions from Readers" testifies to the fact that we regularly receive inquiries from the readers of the Watch Tower Society?s publications. Some inquire about doctrinal matters or things they read in the Society?s literature. Others seek Scriptural counsel on problems they personally have.

  While we do not have facilities for unlimited correspondence, we are usually able to help if someone needs a Bible answer to a question and he is unable to obtain it locally. When we receive an inquiry, we reply privately by means of a letter. But not all the questions we receive are also reproduced in this section in The Watchtower. Sometimes the correspondence is of a personal nature and so would not be of interest to our readers in general. Other replies are not published because the matter has recently been discussed in the Society?s literature. In such cases we often give the inquirer references so that he can consult what the Society has already published on the topic.

  However, we do not reply to unsigned letters, or to letters signed only with initials. And obviously we cannot write back to an individual if he does not supply his address. If someone truly wants help on a matter, he ought to put himself in position to receive it by providing his name and address. Letters that cannot be answered because the writers did not give this information will not be presented in "Questions from Readers."
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  zugzwang

  The real reason they won't respond to unsigned letters is because they want to know who it is that is questioning their teachings. If someone sends a letter and asks a question such as: "Why does the WTS say Babylon was destroyed in 607 BCE when all other sources say 587/586 BCE?" they want to know who asked that question so they can notify that person's elder's so they can get ready to disfellowship them. It's just another control tactic.

  zugz
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  iiz2cool

  Once my ex and I were out of town and, like good little dubs, decided to go to a meeting there. We looked for the local KH in the phone book and went, only to discover that it is now a Pentacostal church. So we phoned the hall asking for its new location so we could attend. The "brother" that answered the phone refused to disclose the location and refused to get an elder for me to talk to, so we ended up missing the meeting.

  Being a little pissed about this I wrote a letter to Bethel about it. Instead of answering me directly they gave my name, address, and phone number to the elders in that town, and one of them started calling me and writing letters. I was seriously pissed about that.

  No wonder people write letters anonymously.

  Walter
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  LongHairGal
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  LongHairGal

  Itz2cool:

  So, they wouldn't tell you where they were and you wanted to go to a meeting??

  The sick part about this is that I know of an instance where a dangerous person called a hall inquiring about a certain sister and some idiot told him her whereabouts.

  Go figure.
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  OldSoul

  I was searched out and tracked down after I sent a recent letter questioning a certain activity. If they spent one-tenth the time reading and considering my letter that was required to track me down and verifiy that I was a real person, they might have responded to my letter with something other than their standard cookie-cutter reply on the issue.

  Alas, like the law, the WTS is an ass.
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  Purza

  I remember an elder telling me that if the society receives a letter with no address or name, they look at the envelope and use the zip code in the post mark to find out where it came from. Then they send the letter to the local BOE to see if the person can be located. I never understood why they would go to all that trouble, but I am sure they have their reasons.

  Purza
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  Lady Lee

  Letters sent to Bethel are referred back to the local congregation for the elders to follow up.

  I learned that one the hard way
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  catchthis

  we reply privately by means of a letter

  Lie. How do they define "private?" Private should mean only between the WTS and the one posing the question. But if a special question is raised, such as asking where the FDS gets their authority, the reply letter is CC:'d back to the local BoE. How's that for privacy?
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  ChakkaConned

  I learned the hard way too Lady Lee. Why aren't names signed by the ones who write the articles in their publications if they're so hip on knowing whose writing what??