The GOVERNING BODY doesn't make the polices....... (page 2)

Terry

Pithy, incisive, well-reasoned and hard to refute, Farkel!

agonus

The Governing Body MADE the policies way back when... but the policies are unmaking THEM now...

Terry's got a point. Like the Org itself, as Ray Franz pointed out, the policies have become entities unto themselves - living, breathing creatures nourished by WT lawyers' evasiveness and the R&F's collective gullibility and powerlessness.

Terry

The cells in the human body replace themselves over the course your lifetime many times and you go from child to adult in that process.

At any one moment you are YOU. Over the course of a lifetime you are always YOU....but...each freeze-frame of YOU is slightly (or not so slightly) different from the others. It is a natural process.

In a religious "body" there are changes which include replacements of key figures, ideas, policies and such and all the while that religious body never considers itself DIFFERENT than what it IS. Yet, over the course of many years there certainly are key differences.

William Miller's predictions led to the Great Disappoint(s). Ellen White came along and steered those who were excited by Miller's teachings and Adventism was underway. C.T.Russell morphed pyramidology, adventism and a grab bag of other novelty items into yet another manifestation of End Times warning literature which, then, Judge Rutherford shaped into his own theology....and so on...

At no time in this process did somebody stand up and declare: "I'm going to change what you are and what you believe!"

There was an implicit groupthink about what it meant to be a christian. Not only a christian, but, a TRUE christian.

Denominations spring up like mushrooms---not because any person considers themselves a revolutionary so much as a VOICE OF REASON and TRUTH facing resistance by fellow believers.

The GOVERNING BODY is a tumor that sprung up in the body of Jehovah's Witnesses as a wild cellular mutation of the doctrine of the FAITHFUL and DISCREET SLAVE. The FDS doctrine came from Maria Russell and proved useful for creating a MYSTICAL reason for listening to the many weird and stimulation End Times teachings of Pastor Russell.

The clincher for modern day JW's leadership was the huge error of Nathan Knorr and Fred Franz in stoking the fires of chronology to a fever pitch and exposing the religion to catastrophic embarassment in 1975.

Knorr rubber stamped Franz no matter what and Franz upheld Knorr as the sole authority (for good reason!).

The "coup" was a silent one in the early 70's. None of this was anything more than policy creating an enviornment for change rather than a cabal of insurgency.

Everybody at Bethel failed to doubt that Armageddon was going to come in 75. It is the identifying mark of JW's that they've advertised from the beginning. How could they doubt their own resident genius/maven/prophet/guru?

At the same time, however, RATIONALLY and SUBCONSCIOUSLY everybody knew it wouldn't happen at some level.

This dissonance moved things around as if from an outside force.

The 1968-1975 push for Armageddon was the giant boulder tossed into the Lake.

The lake stayed the same lake but the waves and ripples touched every side!

Mad Sweeney

Sir82 nailed it I think.

The Governing Body merely put the spiritual veneer on the policies of the Watchtower Corporation. They don't "govern" anything. They do what they're told to do because their livlihoods depend on it.

agonus

It is undeniable that the WT material which has been posted here of late - the new elder's manual, the new blood document - continues to resemble legalese more and more and theological language less and less.

However, it also can't be denied that guys like Splane are powerful forces for guilt and self-loathing.

Hard to tell which is more effective.

Terry

A book came into our store the other day.

It was all about American religious denominations and the history of them.

It was dated in the 1940's.

It clearly stated that Jehovah's Witnesses were not centrally governed as a matter of choice because they serve Jehovah and not a body of administrators!

Oh how times have changed!

C.T.(Pastor) Russell had belonged to a congregational church after leaving Scottish Presbyterianism because he liked the autonomy of local ecclesias operating independantly.

JeffT

I lot of the books I read about political and business organizations, like to point out that they are like living organisms. The entity has a life of its own and exists to replicate itself. In this sense the GB are prisoners of the entity they have created. Their biggest mistake, made quite a long time ago, was the notion that EVERY aspect of a Christians life must conform to some group standard. Hence they are continually pulled into making decisions that ordinary adult people ought to make for themselves. ALL doctrine, no matter how inconsequential, must be determined by the GB. Even personal standards, like what to wear to meeting must conform to the group think.

And now, they have no way to get themselves out of this box.

Ding

Jeff,

I don't think the GB wants to get out of the box; it's a huge power trip, and I don't think they question their role, at least not if their attitude is the same as what Ray Franz described in CoC.

They treat JWs like little children who need to be restrained from running out onto a busy freeway.

I think most JWs are happy being in the box, at least on same level.

It provides a sense of security and certainty in an otherwise insecure and uncertain world.

One of the attractions of the WTS is that they appear to have answers for everything.

As a JW, you're all right with Jehovah as long as you are obeying "his organization."

If they steer you wrong, you are blameless because you are obeying the FDS, and it's Jehovah's problem to straighten them out.

The ultimate example of this is that loyal JWs believe that if they or their kids actually DIE because they obey the organization, they are almost guaranteed of making it to the Paradise Earth, even if the organization later receives "new light" on the subject (receiving a vaccination, for example) and even if the organization has double standards (Malawi - Mexico military service cards, for example).

Their mantra seems to be, "Better dead than ahead."

"Don't run ahead of Jehovah" = "Orders -- I was just following orders!"

And the voice of the GB is the voice of Jehovah.

OUTLAW

So..The Decisions the WBT$ GB make,is no ones fault?..

No one is responsible?..

The WBT$ Business has everyone at its mercy,including the WBT$ GB?..

Nonsense..

People either take responsibility for their actions,or they do not..

Finding reasons why WBT$ GB Cowards can hide behind excuses,doesn`t help..

....................... ...OUTLAW

The GOVERNING BODY doesn't make the polices.......

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