Do you think the Watchtower will ban commenting at the meetings one day? If you are PIMO, you might want to try to make some comments to make others think about the “truth”!
Commenting Ban?
by Iamallcool 22 Replies latest jw friends
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hoser
If your comments aren’t verbatim from the paragraph or very close to it they will just not ask you when you put up your hand.
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Iamallcool
True that! They can still try to make others to think about their comments. Of course, they will have to think carefully about what to say first before they raise their hands!
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road to nowhere
I doubt it. It is one way to make you feel part if the group.
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Simon
"Sorry brother, try reading your comment again - you didn't quote it from the Watchtower Comments Section exactly word-for-word".
"Now, we'll all recite it after you."
But then that was always pretty much every meeting ever - someone reading the WT paragraph, someone asking a question, then someone reading part of the paragraph again to establish their righteousness with their public display of obedience and compliance.
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waton
yeah, in effect now. try to bring some analytic thinking into the "study" and you will be banned for life.
That is why the controller in the ZOOM is the PO otboE. or other trusted enforcer. only repetitious propaganda permitted.
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hoser
establish their righteousness with their public display of obedience and compliance.
Kinda sounds like how Deena Hinshaw and Jason Kenney put on and take off their masks at the daily COVID press updates
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FFGhost
Nah, it's one of those "real" requirements to determine who is "worthy" of "special privileges".
The WT "literature" says that to qualify to be an elder or MS you need to meet the requirements of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, but here are the "real" qualifications:
-- 10+ hours of field service reported per month
-- Note: Doesn't matter whether you actually do 10 hours - the only important thing is to report it
-- Also note: you should be "visible" in the ministry - at least occasionally support group arrangements.
-- Attendance at every meeting, including commenting
-- Not a problem for or an embarrassment to the congregation in general and the elders in particular
-- Your family meets or at least comes close to the above requirements
That's it. The requirements at 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 are so vague and unremarkable that virtually any JW male who can breathe with his mouth closed meets them. And of course qualities such as intelligence, kindness, generosity, empathy, reasonableness, etc. are not only irrelevant - they are practically disqualifying factors.
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BluesBrother
No , the Q and A discussion is a basic of their meetings. When I was a a Watchtower conductor I used to welcome the interesting answers, I’ld purposely call on those who would add something to the meeting. That is the way we did it in the old days and those who were my mentors knew how to do it and still end on time.
The ones I have seen in recent years seem scared of answers not from the paragraph, I don’t think they have the confidence to know if they are right or wrong.
If they decide to punish someone they will pointedly ignore their hand, letting them know they are in the doghouse.
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dozy
I don't think commenting will ever be stopped - it's a control / personal reinforcement learning mechanism ( a bit like the "personal testimony - why we believe the Mormon church is true etc" in the LDS).
For many years we had a really good "old school" WT conductor who made it a genuine bible study (within the limited parameters of the article) and he encouraged additional research and commended answers that weren't basically cut and paste verbatim from the paragraph. It was a real highlight , to be honest , and probably kept me in the Org for an extra couple of years , in hindsight. Sadly there was an elders school that focused on "sticking to the material" and I think he got privately criticised by a CO so in a shake-up of elders duties he decided to resign taking the WT feeling he had done it for long enough and wanted to give a younger elder the chance. The new guy was pretty useless.
Sadly real teachers like that are few and far between in the Society these days and the religion is so "dumbed down" that most people just regurgitate what they read in the paragraph.