mox writes:
a letter is always sent with a new publisher, and actually it IS scriptural according to Ro 16:1 (and i think other places too) where paul recommends people into new congregations. if one wanted to take issue with the content of the comments, thats another matter.
A 'letter of recommendation' as it is written in Rom 16:1 should be positive in nature, don't you think? After all, if it contained gossip or information that would lead others to make negative value judgements about the person who is being described therein, it hardly constitutes a "recommendation", does it?
Secondly, it's rather difficult to take issue with the contents when you are either not permitted to read the letter yourself or the existence of such a letter is denied. One would think that the person being written about would deserve the courtesy of a copy, but the WTS does not do that (in order to protect the WTS from libel suits probably), which makes it easy for the elders to deny that any communication, other than the transfer of field service records, has taken place when someone moves to another congregation.
Also, when Paul wrote to the Corinthian congregation, he made an about face on the topic, stating that a person's Christian conduct was all the recommendation that was necessary:
2 Corinthians 3:1-3This slanderous behaviour is just one more example of how the WTS has become the 20th and 21st centuries' Pharisees.
Are we starting again to recommend ourselves? Or do we, perhaps, like some men, need letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, inscribed on our hearts and known and being read by all mankind. For you are shown to be a letter of Christ written by us as ministers, inscribed not with ink but with the spirit of a living God, not on stone tablets, but on fleshly tablets, on hearts.
Love, Scully