by cameo-d 4 Replies latest jw friends
Just ran across a bit of info and it reminded me of the "Hall's".
quote:
"Like other landed Yale societies, Book and Snake owns its own meeting hall, or "tomb." As is traditional with the meeting places of Yale societies, the building is windowless and available only to the current members and alumni; parties have been held that include friends of members, however. "
"...a number of buildings of "Society Halls," as they are called, have been designed and erected which have a character all their own. I say "character all their own," but I should limit this by saying that they have a sort of kinship with funereal and sepulchral architecture."
---Ashton Willard
----------------------------------------------
The first society and a close chronological follower on the heels of the original Union College societies was Skull & Bones (1832). The club met in rented rooms for over two decades, but in 1856 alumni incorporated as the Russell Trust Association 100 and built a nearly-blind-walled tomb on High Street .
Sheldon quotes a description of the building as a
grim-looking, windowless, tomblike structure of brown sandstone, rectangular in shape, showing a front of about thirty-five and a length of forty-four feet, and it is at a guess thirty-five feet high.
quote:
"There are several common traits among these societies. The pattern for many of these societies has been set by practices at Yale. For example, many societies have two part names which follow the pattern set by Yale's Skull and Bones or Scroll and Key."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collegiate_secret_societies_in_North_America
Two part names? Like...
Watch Tower / Bible and Tract Society
KH architecture is more than a construction of bricks and mortar.
Does the architecture of KH fit that of a secret society? Let's see....
1. To join a secret society you must be invited.
(Do most visitors to the hall walk in off the street spontaneously? OR do most visitors attend the KH at the invitation of a JW member?)
2. To be invited to a meeting one is usually "tapped". Tapping is a ritual that applies mainly to college campuses, where one is tapped on the shoulder.
(Could door-knocking be a form of the 'tapping' ritual?)
3. There is no doubt that secret societies are selective and exclusive.
(Have you ever been told to terminate a study because they were not JW material? Has anyone ever been interested in joining and fault was found that they did not 'measure up'?)
to be continued....
According to David V. Barrett, author of Secret Societies: from the Ancient and Arcane to the Modern and Clandestine, states that one of the characteristics of a secret society is that : It has "carefully graded and progressed teachings."
----
JW bible studies with outsiders seem to fit this pattern.
I find it odd that the uninitiated person is referred to as "the study". It seems that the book should be what is being studied.
Actually, it is the person themselves being studied or scrutinized to determine if they are compliant enough to be JW material.
This is the initiation; this shows that there is a selection criteria.
The bible study program appears to be a requirement to attend the KH, rather than an option.
The KH is not a place where you can easily "fit in" without the indoctrination procedure. I would also venture that most people do not even attend a KH without having first had a bible study lesson(s) with JWs and an invitation to attend KH.
Questions outside of the material being presented is not much appreciated. It throws a kink in the speil. The "lessons" are indeed "carefully graded and progressed".
