The Unwritten JW Law

by Fe2O3Girl 21 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Fe2O3Girl

  Thanks for those references, Blondie. Interesting that the comments seem to err more against women wearing trousers, the later the comments are made! However, I can't see an explicit statement that it is inappropriate for women to wear trousers on JW business. A JW apologist could claim that the WT has never imposed such a silly, arbitrary and old-fashioned requirement. Much as, apparently, it has always been OK to associate with non-witnesses.

  Nonetheless, we all knew what was "allowed" and what wasn't!

  It boils down to control. People who are capable of deciding what constitutes smart dress might find they are capable of deciding all sorts of things for themselves. And that would never do.
• 

  Terry

  Stumbling!

  People who don't watch where they are going do it.

  People preoccupied with distractions do it.

  People innately clumsy do it.

  People who are uncoordinated do it.

  Naturally, therefore, a mature spiritually minded adult christian person would put the interests of a person who is by nature inattentive, preoccupied with distractions, clumsy and uncoordinated AHEAD of everything else!

  The lowest common denominator of personal weakness is the Jehovah's Witness rule of conduct!

  This turns PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY on its head and makes the victim the criminal. The person who misperceives and misinterprets the clothing of another is made NOT responsible and the innocent party harming nobody is made to blame!!

  It makes WHIM the determining factor in a persons choices; but, not even PERSONAL whim; but, the whim of another!

  Justice is making sure somebody gets what they deserve. Injustice is punishing somebody for what someone else does.

  The Watchtower Society cannot even make a sensible policy about personal freedom that does not turn logic, fairness and responsibility upside down which destroys the concept of justice and fairplay.

  PAR FOR THE COURSE!
• 

  blondie

  Unwritten rules are a characteristic of cults and spiritual abuse.

  I found the book had a segment on unwritten rules and how it destroys a spiritual community.

  

  The book is structured according to the following plan.

  Part I: Spiritual Abuse and its Victims
  Introduction
  1. “Help Me…”
  2. Spiritual Abuse is Not New
  3. Abused Christians
  4. The Pre-Abuse Set-up
  5. Identifying the Abusive System
  6. When You Cannot Leave
  7. Abuse and Scripture
  8. Revictimizing Victims

  Part II: Abusive Leaders and Why They Are Trapped
  Introduction
  9. “Because I’m the Pastor, That’s Why!”
  10. “You Can Trust Me”
  11. Image is Everything
  12. Straining Gnats, Swallowing Camels
  13. The Weight of Religion
  14. “No Admittance”
  15. Spreading “the Gospel”
  16. The People Get Devoured

  Part III: Post-Abuse Recovery
  Introduction
  17. How to Escape a Spiritual Trap
  18. Renewing the Mind
  19. Recovering Right Focus
  20. One Response: Flight
  21. A Second Response: Fight

  Epilogue
  Message to Perpetrators of Spiritual Abuse
• 

  Finally-Free

  Just how in God's name does one get stumbled due to a woman wearing slacks?

  I'm sure the person who is stumbled by a woman wearing slacks wouldn't think twice about going in service or out to lunch with a child molester.

  It's all about appearances priorities.

  W
• 

  MidwichCuckoo

  In Western society it's perfectly acceptable for women to wear trousers. Thirty years ago schoolgirls didn't have the option of wearing trousers as part of the uniform, now they do. The only 'sisters' I am aware of who have worn trousers to the Hall are those with leg problems. By the same token, I think there are a few who should be wearing bags over their heads.
• 

  DannyBloem

  Do you believe it if I told you I have given a public talk with a skirt on?

  You share Mr Midwich's hobby I see.

  Not really, it just thought it would be funny, and it was normal there, so.... I can't consider it a hobby....
• 

  MidwichCuckoo

  it was normal there, so.... I can't consider it a hobby....

  Wow - I think that's very forward thinking of the Congregations in Belgium. Here in England, men usually only wear skirts / dresses / their wives' clothes at weekends.
• 

  Honesty

  Control and appearances are everything.
• 

  TheOldHippie

  So that noone gets offended or stumbled - and so all the congregation must take care not to offend one 85-year old woman or man; strange. "Outside", noone is offended. And then they quote this ONE experience from quite some years ago, when a JW comes to a door, he has a beard, and the woman behind the door says "oh no! I don't want to get involved in violent student riots!" - These days, it's the conservatives, the new wealthy ones, who have beards. Look at Spain - all men have a small beard. So much for violent student riots. Stuck in the 50s.
• 

  Cognitive_Dissident

  This turns PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY on its head and makes the victim the criminal. The person who misperceives and misinterprets the clothing of another is made NOT responsible and the innocent party harming nobody is made to blame!!
  
  Right on, Terry!
  
  That's the exact issue that I've ALWAYS had with the whole "stumbling" thing. It puts you on perpetual high alert and forces you to live in fear of what the suspicious, eyebrow raising, sideways glancing, fake smile giving PIONEER next to you is going to think.
  
  And when they talk about reproach upon the Christian Congregation they're making the assumption that the rest of the world has the same backwards view of personal responsibility. It was always held over your head that you might bring reproach upon the congregation by drawing negative attention from some worldly source when the only ones who were ever "stumbled" were the so-called pillars of the congregation, and that only because they themselves feared some mysterious backlash that would threaten their perceived "shepherding" capabilities.
  
  It's kind of like saying, "if you have a beard you're going to make the Boogie Man mad, and he's going to tear down the kingdom hall. You don't want that to happen, do you?" And everyone is ACTUALLY deathly afraid of the Boogie Man, so you get this constant barrage of harassment to follow the rules that aren't actually rules because nobody wants the big faceless, unnamed evil of reproach that is the Boogie Man to tear apart the Kingdom Hall. As if any one of us actually had that much power. It's kind of a shame actually. If we did, then I could stop wishing that the WTBTS would crumble in a flurry of exposed hypocrisy, and just go out in service dressed in drag and the unfathomable reproach of it would make the whole thing go belly up. Ahh, if it were only that easy.