Society's view of stained glass windows

by Bonnie_Clyde 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Bonnie_Clyde

  Back in the 50's the Society used to criticize the churches for their stained glass windows. Now they proudly point to their assembly hall in Jersey hall with their chandeliers and stained glass windows. I know there are a number of Kingdom Halls with stained glass too.

  I think few congregations owned their Kingdom Halls in the 50's. In our area we rented a room at a hotel and later rented a dance hall (it was above a saloon), and that's where the meetings were held until we bought some property and built our own KH in 1959. Up till then we were so proud that we weren't commercialistic like the churches--with their "stained glass windows." Now we just don't talk about it.

  Bonnie
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  nomoreguilt

  B & C......Good to hear from you again, I am well. As to the stained glass. We had relatives, jw's that lived in Chicago. I recall in the early 60's that they had purchased a church building and held their meetings there. It, too, had stained glass windows. Over the few years that we visited them and attended their meetings they never converted the stained glass to clear. Must not have been a big deal, eh?

  Take care.

  NMG
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  yknot

  We were still poo-poo in my KH.....

  I think the WT started to back off it's 'stain-glassed' stance after restoring the Stanley with it's piece of stained glass.

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  w53 5/1 p. 260 Why Maturity Is Lacking***

  To help fill in the spiritual vacuum imposing cathedrals are built, lavishly furnished with pipe organs, stained-glass windows and other works of art, and choirs are trained. Is it any wonder, then, that churchgoers are not mature when the goal of the worship they attend is entertainment and appeal to the senses instead of edification and appeal to the reason and conscience of man?

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  w69 10/15 p. 632 When You First Go to a Kingdom Hall***

  In this vein, you will also observe that there are no stained-glass windows, as in many churches, to help create a hushed aura of artificial sanctity. Instead, the spiritual atmosphere at the Kingdom Hall is genuine, springing from a real interest in true worship and Biblical instruction. And the light, natural surroundings in the hall encourage those present to be outgoing and friendly, not inhibited by a mysterious imposed solemnity.

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  g82 3/8 p. 6 The Catholic Church’s Past Attitude Toward the Bible***

  Instead of favoring education among the masses and translations of the Bible in the local languages, the Catholic Church encouraged the production of ‘books of the ignorant’: picture Bibles (such as the Bibliapauperum, or Bible of the poor), Bible histories, miracle plays, statues and carvings, church wall paintings and stained-glass windows on Bible themes. Such were the crumbs that the Catholic clergy let drop from the rich spiritual table of Bible knowledge, which they kept for themselves and for a few privileged kings and nobles.

  ***w89 4/15 p. 13 par. 8 The Infamous Harlot — HerDestruction***

  Oh, how beautifully she decks herself out! She is famed for her stately cathedrals with their imposing architecture and stained-glass windows, her bejeweled pagodas and wats, her time-honored temples and shrines. True to the stylized fashions set by the great harlot, her priests and monks are arrayed in costly robes of scarlet, purple, and saffron.

  BY 1991 the opinion had changed fullly.....with ***g 91 3/8 p. 22 Stained Glass — From Medieval to Modern***
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  blondie

  I think it wasn't that stained glass in itself was bad but that the "scriptural" themes were not accurate according to WTS doctrine.

  Blondie
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  ninja

  the watchtower may hate stained glass windows...but the brothers love it......it keeps them in business cleaning it....he he....
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  no more kool aid

  We just bought several antique stained glass pieces to hang on the wall. Maybe that's how they will get me!
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  WTWizard

  Another one to add to the list of acts that betray hypocrisy of the Washtowel Slaveholdery. And to think many people are lucky to have any windows at all in their Kingdumb Hells--keep the actual beauty to a minimum, and people will supposedly appreciate the fake "beauty" of the false promises that much more.

  As I sit here in front of a window decorated with Christmas lights, with a huge weeping fig tree also decorated with Christmas lights and ornaments...
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  Cheetos

  I can't belive the pervasive cult like thinking and mind control of the JW's, it mmakes me sick to the point of projectile vomitus.
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  mkr32208

  What in the world do the stained glass pictures in KH's show? People in tacky suits handing out worthless watchtowers?
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  Bonnie_Clyde

  Thank you Yknot for the references. I can't count the times when we drove past a church in the 50's I'd hear some comment about stained glass windows.