Could you get disfellowshipped for simply asking questions?

by LogCon 41 Replies latest watchtower bible

• 

  stuckinarut2

  Yes!

  ask jwfacts!
• 

  MrMonroe

  William Schnell, in "30 Years a Watchtower Slave" (chapter 5) wrote about how the Watchtower Society was "bent on eliminating the last vestige of individual thought and action within her ranks".

  Using an increasingly strained extension of the concept of "types" and "antitypes" of Bible characters, Rutherford and his buddies set themselves up as the "Faithful and Wise Servant Class", to whom all goods were given, in a bid to eradicate completely the old Bible Student belief that CT Russell had been the "faithful and wise servant".

  After that came the "Mordecai-Naomi class" (the last members of the 144,000 anointed on earth), then the "Ruth-Esther class" (a later, younger class of recruits when it was discovered the door to the heavenly class hadn't actually closed), then the vast "Jonadab class", over whom they would all rule. Schnell wrote: "Note that each class emerged on a lower strata, and the lower the strata the larger the numbers."

  There was also the "evil slave class", and if you can be bothered reading Watchtowers from the 20s and 30s, you'll encounter many, many more: I started making a list of them at some point and it was both tedious and absurd.

  Ray Franz, in "In Search of Christian Freedom" (p.166-7) wrote a fairly devastating critique of the Society's "class" concept as they applied it to Luke 19 and Matthew 24. He says that at Governing Body meetings he argued for consistency: since the "faithful slave" became a class, shouldn't there also be a "ten-mina class" and a "five-mina class", a "many strokes class" and a "few strokes class"? Where would it end? In the end, he said, the parable was being perverted: "Rather than serving as an exhortation to modest, faithful service to one's Master and one's fellow servants, it is used principally as a means to demand unquestioning submission to the Governing Body's direction."
• 

  sparrowdown

  Example of a non GB approved, disfellowship-worthy question:

  "Did'nt James warn against having class distinctions among yourselves at James 2:4?"
• 

  JustVisting

  🎵 so watch how you walk

  🎵 and watch what you think

  🎵 and thus you'll keep from being disfellowshipped🎵
• 

  JustVisting

  2nd stanza: 🎶 12 apostles and God's 1st born🎵

  🎶 mean less than the faithful slave🎶

  🎶 soooo, watch what you read🎶

  🎶 and watch how you talk🎶

  🎶 so thus you'll improve theocratic'ly🎶
• 

  clearpoison

  Just for asking questions? My understanding is that you wouldn't

  But

  After they have given you the loving guidance that you need to stop asking questions and trust that the light gets brighter, from that point on any questions are subject to df procedure.

  CP
• 

  prologos

  questions like: "--how will YOU [fill in the required group] escape the judgement of gehenna--?"

  it is reported that it did it for the carpenter from galilee!.
• 

  Smiles

  Yes, a JW could be reproved or excommunicated for improper questionings, a.k.a. 'foolish questionings'.

  2 Timothy 2:23
  
  Titus 3:9

  It really depends on the circumstances, such as what was asked, how it was asked, who was asked,
  and how elders interpret the content and manner of questioning. Questioning doctrine or authority
  can get a JW into tribunal trouble, fast.
• 

  sparrowdown

  Sometimes it's not the question that will get you into trouble, it's whether or not you accept their answer.

  But there are definitely some questions that would tip off some GB loyalist that you are entertaining doubts, and could instigate a (behind your back) investigation.
• 

  Mum

  The Thought Police have power in JW land. Beware of any manifestation of thought!

  "Good Christians, like slaves and soldiers, ask no questions." - Rev. Jerry Falwell (The Rev. Falwell would have made a great JW elder, no?)