Will the WTBS ever relax the current clothing/dress/grooming standards?

by Utopian Reformist 40 Replies latest jw friends

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  hamsterbait

  
  Actually Booze Rutherford did give a lesson in this.

  Up to the 20's JW preachers were expected to wear frock coats on the podium. Rutherford realised that in order to move with the times less formal attire would appeal to the gophers.

  He astonished an audience (I forget where) when he went onto the assembly platform dressed in a lounge suit. The lesson he was teaching - that christians cannot be sanctimonious about their dress. (Ironically in the mid 90s a brother did do the announcements in a (then comeback) frock coat. He was counseled for dressing too worldly!!)

  Alas the lesson was lost - lounge suits are now the new sanctimonious garb.

  I reckon if it survives long enough, to keep up the appeal to the young (i.e. fundraising healthy) you'll see men giving talks in open neck shirts, or jeans and sweat top. If it keeps cash comin in, why not?

  HB (of the we aint evolving new fur class)
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  Preston

  They won't..I tried wearing spaghetti straps at my last meeting...didn't work

  - Preston
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  misspeaches

  I think the only progress that has been made in dress and grooming is that they don't measure how long the sisters skirts are as they come into the kingdumb hall anymore.

  I remember a mentall disabled sister in one of my old congs who used to regularly turn up to winter meetings in tracksuit pants. (For my american friends that is like sports/athletic pants). On an especially cold night she would wear a skirt over the top of them. She got away with it... LOL
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  misanthropic

  They won’t I tried wearing spaghetti straps at my last meeting...didn't work

  - Preston

  Was it sequined? I hear they really frown on the “flashy” clothing.
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  onintwo

  I liked the comment about how the Borg uses the local brothers to decide on the specifics. I remember wearing a pastel dress shirt in the late sixties, (with coat and tie of course) to read the WT on a Sunday. Don't remember if it was light blue or grey, but I got counseling afterwards about how White is the "preferred" color for dress shirts. Never forget that. Also, men were to wear a suit, not a sport coat and slacks, no matter how nice they looked together, for parts on the meeting. That soon changed, as the "light got brighter and brighter".

  Onintwo
• 

  MidwichCuckoo

  I think that as Armaggedon is 'just around the corner', to show faith the Congregation will have to attend meetings naked as a pre-empt to Paradise.
• 

  vitty

  The listener

  I thought you were serious too ! Put a little icon up it shows your kidding
• 

  googlemagoogle

  Hey google! I like your avatar, Savatage rocks!
  
  hey, finally someone who knows it :-) oh yeah, they rock.
• 

  Lilycurly

  Spaghetti straps are frowned upon? Wow! There were so many young sisters wearing them over here, and it's not because of hot weather either, I'm in Canada! They would parade around in form-fitting spaghetti strap tank-tops and short skirts. (Those were usually the ones dying to get married.lol)
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  misanthropic

  I don't think they aren't allowed, I wouldn't really know for sure. But I do understand why Preston might not be accepted wearing them... hehe, I was only teasing him.