I think one of the main reasons are simply that they are getting stumpers thrown their way! I've read several correspondences where it ends up with them telling the inquirer to "Let the matter rest" or "Wait on Jehovah". I'm sure they're aware of these being posted online and making them look bad, so they don't want their lack of explanations (or poor ones) to be in writing.
Society tells us to stop asking questions...
by cedars 60 Replies latest watchtower bible
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AwareBeing
Knowledge will increase for mankind in the time of the end;
but for Babylon the Great, what knowledge she has will dry up.
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sd-7
I figured out it was pointless to bother asking questions of the Society or even the elders, as I knew whatever they said would be, more or less, based on the literature. Or else their own jacked up life experiences, which usually were of no help to me.
Seeing some of the unbelievable questions that were printed in the '50s "Letters" section, which then became "Questions From Readers", it's no wonder they felt a need to say something like that. When people's brains are so full of fudge that they have to write in to you to ask if they can go to the movies, have life insurance, divorce if they find out their mate is a practicing homosexual, and so on...well, you just know there's a serious problem.
I knew I stopped donating to them long before I left, for a good reason. Because you're paying people to screw you over, control your life, and scare the crap out of you so that you can in turn....give them more of your limited time and money. Wow, that makes sense!
--sd-7
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flipper
CEDARS- Very good thread. Thanks for posting this. I think this is an admission by the WT society that they WILL NOT, or REFUSE to look beyond any of their publications to answer questions for rank & file Jehovah's Witnesses. By them stating this they are discouraging JW's from looking elsewhere for answers as well.
To prove what I just stated in the last sentence, notice THIS quote from this same article you posted , " Of course , there are some topics and scriptures that our publications HAVE NOT specifically addressed. And even where we have commented on a particular Bible text , we MAY NOT HAVE DEALT with the specific question that you have in mind. Also, some Bible accounts raise questions because NOT ALL the details are spelled out in the scriptures. Thus, WE CANNOT find immediate answers to every question that arises. In such a case, we SHOULD AVOID SPECULATING about things that SIMPLY CANNOT BE ANSWERED . " WTF ?
Translation : If we the WT society leaders cannot answer a question for you- there is NO NEED for you to be speculating about it ! If we cannot supply the answer for you- there IS NO ANSWER ; and it's not important enough to research and speculate on anyway !
So basically the WT society is telling people to NOT do outside research because it will lead to trouble in their faith causing them to doubt. AND to disregard any outside research if it doesn't come from the WT society sources. Very dangerous cult this is
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flipper
Underlying purpose of the Wt society is " do as we say and don't ask questions. " Really sick
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Yan Bibiyan
Thoughts please!
I am going to be blunt.
Um.....F@#k them!
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rocketman
Cedars,
What I'm pointing out is that I'm sure they get a lot of questions that I'm quite sure are either redundant or downright strange. They've printed a lot of material over the years, so why would they want to reiterate something they've already stated?
When I was an elder, there were some folks that asked some really strange questions. While I made a sincere effort to answer questions, there were times I could tell that people simply didn't bother to do a little research on their own.
But as I said, the WTS has cultivated this dependency, and so the common jw is often afraid to make a decision without consulting them first.
As the saying goes: "There's no such thing as a stupid question. Just stupid people that ask questions".
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finallysomepride
Bounds volumes are great for propping up a broken bed leg!
another use: computer monitor stand
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cedars
What I'm pointing out is that I'm sure they get a lot of questions that I'm quite sure are either redundant or downright strange. They've printed a lot of material over the years, so why would they want to reiterate something they've already stated?
Oh yeah I'm with you there rocketman, they must get piles of questions from publishers whose knee-jerk reaction is to write into HQ rather than do a bit of research. Probably this was a major motivating factor in the development of the CD-ROM, anything to make it easier to do research and stem the tide of letters. However, before I gave up entirely on the organisation I had reams of perfectly legitimate questions to ask them that weren't touched on in the literature. I never wrote to them in the end (and I'm glad I didn't) because I wasn't impressed with the tone I got to a letter I sent in years ago, and I was sure I wouldn't get a well-considered reply next time round.
It still smacks of hypocrisy to say that Jehovah is providing abundantly for the organisation, AND to have unlimited free labor from a volunteer workforce, and yet suddenly they are no longer "in a position" to answer individual letters. I can't help but wonder whether part of the factor influencing this u-turn is that they don't like assigning brothers to answer correspondence, because by reading incoming letters such brothers are at greater risk of being exposed to the real truth. I would love to know what the turnaround of staff is in those departments.
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Alfred
Knee-jerk reaction or not... the WT hates questions...
One of the most most frequent questions they get in the mail is about their chronolgy as regards to the whole 607-1914 Adventist teaching they keep re-cycling...
That's quite probably why this article was published around the same time as the two recent articles about Jerusalem's destruction. They were pretty much silent on this subject since 1988 (the year the Insight books were published). But the questions kept piling up. Eventually the GB had to get old Rolf Furuli to dazzle the rank-and-file with his BS so they can all shut the hell up (on the subject of chronology) and get back to work...