Imagine The Governing Bodies' Frustration.....

by metatron 9 Replies latest jw friends

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  metatron

  If the heads of Governing Body members aren't ready to explode yet, I suspect they shortly will be.

  The organization is long accustomed to a certain dynamism - that is rapidly evaporating. The result is that they must now

  work hard to maintain an image of dynamism! New "truths" won't appear - no one has Fred Franz's gravitas.

  Committees drain away any sense of rapid, dramatic response - and attempts at change are often greeted with meagre results

  ( Some assemblies didn't even bother with meetings for Ministerial Training School). Actually, the only dramatic announcements

  in the organization these days seem to involve what's next to be cut - or what immediate demand the Society's lawyers have

  crafted to avoid the next set of lawsuits.

  I gotta believe that every man wishes to "make his mark" on the world around him. Trouble is, the maneuvering room in this cult

  is just about non-existent. A tradition bound Catholic leader might build a new hospital - but in Watchtower-land, such a proposal

  would get you marked as apostate!

  From the Governing Body down to the local congregations, there is a commitment set in concrete to hold on to everything

  and change nothing! In my last days as an elder, I felt as if a conscious effort was being made to eliminate all creativity

  or real initiative. An objection was raised because I started using a table for sisters giving talks in the Ministry School.

  Apparently, some C.O. years ago didn't like this and did away with it. Horrors! I've violated an unwritten law!

  No matter how stupid, no matter how unjust, no matter how pointless it all is, nothing must be allowed to change

  (unless tort lawyers are pounding on your door - or contributions have run dry again).

  Frustration: they've sought it, they've sworn allegiance to it, and by God, they've earned it!

  metatron
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  ezekiel3

  there is a commitment set in concrete to hold on to everything and change nothing!

  Spot on.

  But's what's this about tables? We use them for sisters in our hall every TMS. Sounds like a COck to me.

  An objection was raised because I started using a table for sisters giving talks in the Ministry School.
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  LongHairGal

  Metatron:
  
  You are so right for putting into words what I always felt about them. They are rigid and unbending (whether they are right or wrong). Almost like the death grip. I feel it is partly because of arrogance that they are like this. As you know, they are all so godlike and therefore too good to ever be told they are wrong. In fact, they are right even if they are wrong! It is so funny that you say they earned it. Maybe all those experiences in WWII made them so hard that they will absolutely not change!
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  sir82

  Horrors! I've violated an unwritten law!

  At the end of the last service meeting part for the evening, not long after joining a new congregation, I walked off the platform as the brother who was to give the closing prayer walked up to it. He was ascending one set of steps as I descended the other.

  One of the "old-school" elders pulled me aside afterward & asked me if I were following some new directive, as "in my 55 years in the organization, I've never seen it done that way."

  My face may have betrayed the "WTF???" that was in my head. Apparently, he liked to see the brother who gave the last part remain on the platform, standing alongside the brother giving the final prayer, rather than stepping off the platform.

  He didn't press the issue, but that just goes to show that this type of attitude is far too common.
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  Neo

  This topic needs to go bttt.
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  blondie

  I have to say that I have seen tables used for the sisters' talks in the 8 different congregations I have attended over the last 50 years. Unless the sisters are using a setting of going door to door, a table is always present for them to lay out their Bibles and other material.
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  littlerockguy

  Tables were always used by the sisters in the KHs I have been to. In fact some of the settings of the talks would include places like "sister talking with "so and so" at kitchen table" or any other setting where there would be a table. What was the logic behind the "unwritten law"?
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  lawrence

  We were out in field service with a CO once (car group) and 2 sisters asked the CO if they could use bean bag chairs instead of the table for their talk (like a householder's house). He exploded, "the next thing we'll hear sisters wanting are lava lamps for settings, and brothers will want pool tables in the library." One not so bright brother popped up, "that would help build the brotherhood." Needless to say, we had some pointed Friday night talks during the regime of this CO.
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  metatron

  Logic? We don't need no stinkin' logic! ( with apologies to Treasure of the Sierra Madre")

  Unwritten rules are often dictatorial whims of Circuit Overseers ( as this one was).

  Some others included talks should not contain any outside quotes or references even if they

  support the Watchtower. I was on my way out when that one appeared. Another one:

  You gotta call every publisher every month if you don't see time handed in by them.

  You can't say 'Well, they're adults and I expect them to behave as such and turn in their

  time without begging' .... no sir, that doesn't fly.

  metatron
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  JustTickledPink

  You the lack of change and lack of adaptation is precisely why businesses fail. They think "wow we've got the market, we've the sole producer, we're the best, we're on top" and if they won't change things around, introduce new products, or change advertising or their market eventually things just dry up for them. The same thing will happen with the Watchtower as has happened to other businesses who believe they were a monopoly. Eventually the lack of change kills you.

  Madonna is still in business but you don't see her still wearing a cone bra do you?