by Englishman 7 Replies latest jw friends
Just seen this on Paul Blizzards site at: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/2919/main2.html
"Before baptism, one must answer over 80 questions in front of a panel of elders."
Really? What's all this about? Enlightenment would be much appreciated!
Englishman.
I had to answer the questions E-man back in the late 80's.
Thanks for the info, I was away when that was posted.
Englishman.
I dont know anything about a panel of elders.
In my days,up to 1998, three elders would each take a section with the student, one to one usually in their home , we used to use it to get to the principle ,rather than a detailed "head knowlege"
Still heavy going though
Hi E-Man: I see Dungbeetle cited my post about the 227 baptism questions. About 70 of those questions are Optional and most Elders will not get into them ... well, except for some Nazi-type Elders who feel that every question must be spirit-directed. I have known a few like this ...
Like you, when I became a JW, we answered 80 questions from the Lamp book. I did this in about an hour with the Congregation Servant. Since the 1980s, the questionaire session is normally broken up between 4 or 5 Elders, each taking a Part of the questions as designed in the OR book.
The good news for the candidate-elect is that even if an Elder is a Nazi-type, they only have to tolerate him for about 40 or 50 questions. In all the years I was a JW, I never knew of even one case where anyone failed the Questionaire session ... I think that unless a person still believes in the Trinity, or hell, or still lives in serious sin, the Elders don't push for exacting answers ... they look for general comprehension and acceptance of the JW system. [*D]
I've known people who had to take the oral exam a few times before they qualified for water immersion.
My three sessions were funny. The first was with my bookstudy conductor, a very grandfatherly, gentle man. I could have said that Ba'al is the name of the true God and he would have smiled and nodded his head.
The second was with an elder who my father helped bring into the faith. He skipped half of the questions, saying: "You know this stuff, blah blah blah."
The third was with the PO, definitely the Nazi-type. He made sure I didn't just give rote answers, but that I thoroughly understood the material. After the standard questions were finally over, he added some of his own.
(this was in 1989)
"If George Bush walked through that door into this room, would you stand up?"
Since we didn't stand for the national anthem, and this was a very strict JW elders, I said No.
"YES, YOU WOULD STAND UP FOR THE PRESDIENT!"
"Now, if Jack Kemp [HUD secretary at the time I believe] walked into this room, would you stand up?"
Now I'm figuring I should say yes, so I say Yes.
"NO, YOU DON'T NEED TO STAND FOR HIM!"
So now I'm thinking, PLEASE don't ask if I should stand up for Nancy Reagan.
Well, after that, he reached over, shook my hand, said "Congratulations" and whisked me out of his house.
What made it more embarrassing was I had locked my car keys inside my car so I had to go back, ring his doorbell and ask for a coat hanger. LOL
Eman,
Methinks both you and I didn't answer any questions beforehand except the two questions at the baptism.
We also made our dedication to God and Christ NOT the organisation as is the case today.
Cheers,
Ozzie
