by Listener 98 Replies latest watchtower bible
Welcome "AlexMoran"
A "Balanced elder body", as you put it - should care less about what facial hair is sported by men and more about really caring for the flock.
Elders will spend hours discussing beards and other nonsense like whether you should be allowed to choose whether to stand up or sit down to read the Watchtower or at how many dozen degrees below zero can sisters wear trousers.
Little Pharisees dancing to Bigger Pharisees tune.
What proportion of the 18,000 plus partakers in the latest memorial have beards? (excluding sisters, of course )
Recent comment from that WT mentioning beards.
Alex Moran A Balanced elder body will view it something like this:
There are very few balanced elder bodies. BOE's are typically run by one authoritarian elder or a family clique of elders who badger and bully the rest into compliance with their own personal views and rules.
It was written to encourage local congregations to consider the matter again
They had no right to write about it in the first place. The fact they are still writing about it shows they have lost all moral sense on this topic and are still looking to lord it over the congregation.
Of course he could still choose to wear one, it is up to the individual.
Slyly worded. You can go and murder someone, it's up to the individual. The critical thing is not what the individual does but how the elders react. In this case they would react badly, impose sanctions, create a division, 'interview' the brother to find his motives, tell him he's stumbling others, create an unpleasant suspicion over him. And why? What's the crime, the serious cause of disunity? Oh yes, he grew a neat beard.
One final consideration - the conscience of others in the congregation.
The congregation does not have a conscience, they have a reaction. This reaction is not their own, it is how they are told and taught to react. "For those loving Jehovah there is no stumbling block" let alone something as mundane as an unoffensive beard. Elders conveniently misunderstand being surprised for being stumbled. They are not the same. Until a small beard stops someone attending the meetings, no-one has been stumbled. Want to change the 'conscience' of the congregation? One local needs and the whole game changes. That's how well trained the 'consciences' are, and this is how the GB get instant acceptance for all of their doctrinal changes.
all it will take is a few brothers who are willing to wear a beard, go out in service, comment, give student parts to persist for a while, then you would likely see a change in attitude.
Which is proof conclusive that the beard rule is an arbitrary, divisive, tradition of men which has no basis in scripture and should not be a rule in the congregation.
some Body of Elders will try to bully young men into submission
Not just some, but many.
They will write to HQ, ask the CO, have elder meetings on this. They are frightened to make the right decision because it involves a change to a long held custom, so instead they maintain the wrongness of it with a sanction from a higher up position. They wash their hands like Pilate but they are still culpable pharisees.
They knowingly violate the rule "Do not go beyond the things written". (1 Cor 4:6-7)
They lord it over the congregation. (Mark 10:43-44)
They overstep the commandment of God because of their tradition. (Matt 15:3)
They ignore the spirit and add a burden beyond the necessary things. (Acts 15:28)
Their hearts are far removed from Christ and their worship is in vain because they teach commands of men as doctrines. (Matt 15:7-9)
They try to direct their own step instead of stick to the scriptures. (Jer 10:23-24)
They only see what man sees and not what God sees. (1 Sam 16:7)
They incense God because it is their own proud rules who stumble others, not the beard wearer. (2 Cor 11:29)
And to any rational person, it is simply insane.
Alex Moran - "A balanced elder body..."
These days, you've as much chance of finding one of those as you do of catching a jackelope.
It is up to the individual = a phrase the WTS uses for public media purposes when jws know it means "disassociated themselves."
But Don't homosexuals shave to appear more feminine? I feel like that would be the objection to not shave 2000 years ago.
Coincidentally, a couple of months before my judiciary committee met I had a debate with one of the elders who ended up being on that committee, and the debate was on this very subject. At the time I was wanting to grow a beard to make myself appear older, (I have a young looking face and felt that it might be affecting how I was perceived at the door in the field ministry), and he kept coming back to whether it was the norm in the area that we live. I pointed out that it wasn't that uncommon with professionals such as doctors and businessmen and such, and then he switched tacks to saying that it had to be the norm among Jehovah's Witnesses. Now earlier in this debate he had told me in no uncertain terms that if I grew a beard I would not be assigned to carry the mics or read the Watchtower, so I asked him whether he thought it would become the norm if they didn't have this policy against beards. (Mentioning that I could name a half a dozen brothers off the top of my head who would grow a beard if it wasn't frowned upon) He refused to acknowledge that there was any policy against them. I don't know about how you view it, but making brothers choose between having a beard and having those precious "privileges" that are made to seem so important certainly sounds like a policy to me.
I tried to look for a list of professions beards are frowned upon. the best I could find are police officer, military officer, banker, and politician.
