Jehovah's witnesses get some pretty ridiculous counsel from HQ. I'm talking about counsel in areas that should be second nature. A couple examples that spring to mind, which have been discussed ad nauseum are tipping at restaurants and being kind to worldly folk. Last night's service meeting had a 20 minute part on being kind to worldly people.
Children need to be reminded to be kind and thankful, adults do not.
Fools and bad people don't tip. Dolts and the disturbed are the ones who are unkind to people they don't know. Are witnesses fools and bad people? Well some are, but most are a product of their way of life and teachings.
The relationship between witnesses and the leadership kind of reminds me of the relationship between the Pharisees and the common Jews.
Pharisees hated the commoners because they were uneducated brutes lacking the refinement of the upper class. The problem was that the Pharisees kept the commoners under their thumb and bound them with such heavy loads that all one could really expect was boorish behavior
The Watchtower society causes their own problems. They teach that billions of people are worm food. Only the truly wicked do not convert, and those who leave are especially demon infested. They give members an elitist, boorish attitude but then expect them to be kind and refined to non members.
Why should I tip a worldly person? That money is much better deposited as 'treasures in heaven' by donating it to the World Wide Work. Why should I waste my time being kind to a worldling, the end is around the corner and they are about to be destroyed.
Part of the problem is that witnesses believe a person must cultivate the fruitage of the spirit. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The Holy Spirit is like a tree that produces love, joy, peace, long-suffering, KINDNESS etc. A farmer does not cultivate a certain fruit; he cultivates the plant that produces the fruit. Holy Spirit is the plant. If a person has Holy Spirit then those fruitages will become a part of him. That's why Galatians 5:16 NWT says: 16 But I say, Keep walking by spirit and YOU will carry out no fleshly desire at all.
You see, the flesh makes it natural to do the works of the flesh. The Spirit overturns the flesh and creates a spiritual man or woman. It then becomes unnatural for a Spirit led person to do the works of the flesh.
Kindness is a fruitage of the Spirit. Witnesses, like children who have not grown past their child like, selfish ways, must be reminded to be kind.
What do you think? Do witnesses have Holy Spirit?