elders paranoid about baby shower

by jurs 22 Replies latest jw friends

  • jurs
    jurs

    Perhaps someone out there knows if this is a common JW paranoia. Once a sister in my hall was going to have a baby. Because she wasn't in the "click" no one offered to give her a baby shower. She was upset and told people , including myself she was hurt, so I gave the baby shower. I should point out that I had recently moved into this hall and barely knew this sister. She had been a JW all her life and had been at this hall for a long time but yet no one would have this shower or offered to help me when I said I'd do it.

    I brought the invitations to the hall to give out. I'm told I can't do it but I can give out invitations in the parking lot. So I wait for sisters outside to give them invitations and an elders wife tells me I shouldn't even give them out in the parking lot, even though its for everyone and just JW's! Some garbage about how its not kingdom hall related. Sheesh!! So I call this same elders wife and ask her for a list of all the people in our hall so I can mail invitations, I'm new at this hall and I don't know peoples names. SHE WOULDN"T GIVE IT TO ME. Because Now Get This................... If and when authorities come after the elders ro kill them or inprison them she didn't want a" list "around of people who are Jehovah's Witnesses. She didn't think I should have a list either of the JW's , just in case in gets into the wrong hands! I told her that I'd throw the "list" away after I wrote out invitations. I can't remember now if she gave me a list of names or not or if someone else helped me. I just remember thinking what a pain in the butt she was.

    Has anyone else ever had a similar experience?

    jurs

  • hamptonite21
    hamptonite21

    How long ago did this happen?

  • jurs
    jurs

    Hamptonite21,

    It was about 6 months after I was baptized. so that was about 11 years ago. It was in Brighton Colorado. Why does it sound familiar?

    jurs

  • hamptonite21
    hamptonite21

    No it doesnt, I just thought maybe the elders are being told to be careful right now and hide lists.

  • Xander
    Xander

    edit: sorry, not really relevant after all....

    Edited by - Xander on 18 October 2002 16:56:41

  • Oldhippie
    Oldhippie

    When I was congregation secretary, I kept the records on a computer program developed by a brother. Though I was never told to dump the program as it was extremely usefull and made the monthly report to the society a breeze, there was always a high level of apprehension about those records being on my personal computer. The program was password protected and I was told never to allow anyone access to the records nor to used the publisher lists for any purpose other than congregation related. And yeah I heard the same stories about the list falling into the wrong hands and putting the publishers at risk. I don't know what the current policy is about maintaining congregation records on personal computers.

  • waiting
    waiting

    Hello jurs,

    Yes, I live in South Carolina - and in Indiana before that - and what you describe is completely accurate.

    I've heard from the platform (which means as close to God and the Society as one can get) that lists of brother's names & phone numbers shouldn't be kept except for those "Need To Know" few elders. "One never knows when Satan will make the goverments turn their fangs against Jehovah's True Followers."

    And no little sister could call and get an entire list for something as frivolous as a Baby Shower.

    As for not giving out invitations? It was exactly that way down here......and still is. If you borrowed a skirt from a sister - you couldn't return it to her in the KH parking lot, as the parking lot was part of Jehovah's House of Worship too. My 80 mil got caught on THAT one - man......was she pissed. No invitations of any kind on ANY JW land - "This is Jehovah's property."

    I was talking about employee taxation with a brother who wasn't withholding for his employee (and he was wrong) out in the parking lot one Sunday with both our spouses present. The idiot actually wanted us all to walk out into the street to carry on this conversation because it had to do with Ceasar's Laws and money! My husband & I refused btw.

    Local jw's take this kind of crap to the Extreme sometimes. It's stiffling!!!!!!!!!!!!! (which means I went from shocked, angry, to "spiritually dead" over some of this same crap.)

    waiting

  • roybatty
    roybatty

    Hey Jurs,

    Yeah, two more silly JW rules. If it's not related to "spiritual" matters, it shouldn't be done at the Hall, even though just everyone breaks this rule. When I was a jerkhead elder, I was told to speak with a "brother" who would do some of his business at the Hall. Since most of his clients were JWs it was easy jsut to exchange invoices and checks at the Hall. I told him that the Hall wasn't the place to do that. Oh brother.

    Regarding lists, yeah the Society came down hard on the about 10 years ago. Again, they're worried about "big brother" coming to get them and having these lists would make it so much easier. LOL! So it was/is an unwritten rule that there shouldn't be lists of the local congregation members. Oh wait a minute, what about personal phone books? DOE! Again, rules written by men who have never had their own business or had to contact people who didn't live with them. Idiots.

  • santacruzchick
    santacruzchick

    Wow, it looks like a lot of you guys came from really strict congregations. Sisters in my congergation were always exchanging clothing and things of that nature in the parking lot.

  • Xander
    Xander

    Yes, but did the elders know?

    -----------

    You know....the whole 'no lists' thing has me curious...they SAY it's because when 'the great tribulation comes, we don't want the government to get such lists'. But, we all know full well the GB (and perhaps several levels down) know their whole religion is BS (well, I'm assuming - either that, or they really are all crazy).

    So, what's the REAL reason no lists are kept? Specifically, what's the REAL reason *congregation members* are not allowed to keep lists - when we all know full well that elders are allowed to?

    I've been scratching my head on this one and can only come up with one possible - but not very good - explanation. The same reason they discourage internet use. If the publishers can easily talk/communicate amongst themselves - freely share information - and can actually directly SEE the numbers of people coming in vs people coming out....it would be a serious problem.

    So, they discourage the internet - almost explicitly banning message boards - and ban lists of members.

    Thoughts?

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