Watchtower Lawyer’s Response

by Marvin Shilmer 37 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Marvin Shilmer

  I have a boatload of secular articles authored by Watchtower staffers writing in their official capacity with Watchtower.

  When I read these articles it never ceases to amaze how a picture is drawn of an environment the typical Witness would think alien.

  Particularly the ones written by Watchtower attorneys paint a picture whereby fundamental individual rights are emphasized. Yet under Watchtower doctrine the individual Witness is not allowed the simplest fundamental right of having even a single third-party observer to a hearing that is admittedly judicial in nature.

  In my experience, when writing for secular journals Watchtower staffers paint a picture that is different than reality for the community of Witnesses. Of course, again in my experience, 99.9% or more of the Witness community never knows of these articles let alones bothers to obtain and read them.

  Marvin Shilmer
• 

  No Room For George

  Spiritual warfare at its finest.
• 

  wannabefree

  I have been hounded by "Service Group Overseer" to get one filled out. I believe the last time they were'nt handed out, you were instructed to see the Overseer of your Service Group to get one. After I picked one up the hounding stopped, never checked to see if I filled it out.

  If I remember correctly, back when the Insight books were release at the convention, you had to flash the no blood card to pick them up.
• 

  cantleave

  I had a book study conductor who would every now and again ask, without warning, for us to produce our cards. He was a good egg, and honestly thought he was doing this to protect any of his group from "sinning" if they were ever in the situation of being unconscious in hospital.

  There was never any thought that carrying a medical directive was "optional" for baptised publishers. In fact when there was a bomb scare at Southampton DA, one of the things asked for by the Attendants was your card, if you had to get back into one of the departments.
• 

  Mad Sweeney

  Looks to me like the Watchtower changed the format in the KM for 1998 just to lend support to the journal article their attorney was writing, then went back to the historically coercive arrangement the following year.

  Another possibility is that they wanted the 1998 no-blood process to be the same worldwide in case officials from Europe, specifically Bulgaria, wanted to compare what they had been told in 1997 (that there are no sanctions put upon JWs for taking blood transfusions) with what the Watchtower does elsewhere.

  There are no coincidences.
• 

  teel

  I also remember several cases, where the method to identify yourself as a JW was to show your no-blood card.

  JW <=> no-blood card, absolutely nothing optional about it.
• 

  cantleave

  As I recall, you are "encouraged" to provide a copy to your G.P and ensure the congregation seceretary has a copy on file too. In fact in my old congregation, we (the elders) had a checklist of who had / had not submitted theirs to the Secretary.
• 

  Marvin Shilmer

  Mad Sweeney writes:

  "Looks to me like the Watchtower changed the format in the KM for 1998 just to lend support to the journal article their attorney was writing..."

  An astute observation. Thanks for saying aloud what my blog article willfully leaves for folks to digest on their own.

  Marvin Shilmer

  http://marvinshilmer.blogspot.com
• 

  undercover

  The sad part is you have to be a Witness to understand how coercive and grasping the WTBTS is...

  Actually, I think it's more of "you have to be an ex-Witness to understand..."

  Believing JWs do not see through the smoke and mirrors. They blindly follow the WTS without question. When you finally realize you were duped do you start to see how conniving and decietful the WTS really is. Not even outsiders can see it like we can. We lived it, we saw it in action (though not realizing the significance of it at the time) When we left, we made the connections between what we thought was "truth" and what we are now realizing was the "real truth". Outsiders can't fathom what it's like to come out from that.
• 

  Band on the Run

  The intrusion into personal autonomy issues chills me. Cult in caps. JWs are lambs for the slaughter. If the scripture were clear, maybe I could see the big deal. 1975 should have woken someone up that the GB are human, not God. The GB dictates and ordinary people face the consequences.