My own background features travels to other countries, exposure to different languages and cultures and teaching people of different beliefs. The WTS has long sought to homogenize its followers so that wherever a person lived, the format for worship would always be the same. It was one of the ways the Society maintained control worldwide and it has been quite effective. That doesn't mean it is good, but that it is effective. It is not only in matters relating to worship that rigid standards are imposed as we all know. Dress, groomimg, entertainment and even the most intimate aspects of life fell under its purview as well. So I am not surprised that kneehighmiah is unhappy with the cultural norms among Jehovah's Witnesses.
The history of the organization is a checkered one when it comes to race relations. Both Charles Russell and Joseph Rutherford subscribed to the racist thinking of their times. Both believed that people of color were inherently inferior to whites and their writings were steeped in the thinking that was Calvinist in origin. Russell at least believed in allowing individual congregations a great deal of autonomy. Rutherford ended that and coerced these congregations into an aggregate that left little room for individual expression or initiative. The publications always featured people of European extraction with few references or allusions to other people and cultures. But with the start of the civil rights struggle in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, the WTS was forced to acknowledge the injustices many suffered and to begin commenting on it.
Its approach was to stifle and discourage any participation, however passive, in the movement in the United states. People in other lands who were restive also were counseled to "wait on Jehovah" for justice and to more or less suffer in silence. The WTS went along with the hateful Jim Crow segregation in the American South by setting up separate congregations and circuits for black and white Witnesses as well as sending traveling overseers to those circuits and congregations that were of the appropriate ethnicity. The only integrated meetings were at district and international assemblies. In those years, the WTS never preached racist ideology, but it silently condoned it. Men of color were not brought into the Governing Body when it was established in 1971, and non-white Witnesses who served at Bethel were frequently assigned the less desirable and menial jobs. Few were given positions in the Writing, Service and Legal departments at headquarters.
The result is a leadership who is willfully and deliberately ignorant of the culture, heritage and history of people of color who make up a very large segment if not majority of Witnesses on the planet today. Small wonder that the worship at kingdom halls around the world is "whitewashed" because that reflects the view of a Governing Body which itself rests on a foundation of racism. So there is no reason to believe that this will ever change unless and until the composition of the Governing Body becomes more inclusive and cosmopolitan. But don't expect that to happen anytime soon. Only
"company men" can ever expect to gain access to that sanctum, men who are carefully screened and trained to keep the status quo. What else should we expect from a cult whose roots sprang from racist thinking in the first place?
Quendi
