Did you think they were hooked on titles and "classes"?

LongHairGal

I couldn't stand all the titles and categories they had! I felt they were hooked on respect which maybe in some cases bordered on adulation. I had a problem with this because I always saw it as unchristlike. The early christians were not hooked on titles. And this was not limited to men only. There were certain sisters there who ate up the attention they got because of being a pioneer.

I was never desirous of attention and people do not impress me. I think that is why perhaps I pissed some people off because I didn't give the sense that I was as impressed with them as they were with themselves.

Even today in the "world" in general I absolutely hate when I have any dealings with a man who thinks he is a pasha or a woman who thinks she is a great lady.

!!!

luna2

I think certain people in the cong. certainly were and are.

There was a particular CO we had (I had him twice! once in IL and once in CT) who really seemed to eat it up. He'd kind of condescendingly call people by their last name (no Br or Sr attached), and would make jokes, sometimes embarrassing people quite on purpose. His talks were filled with blood and gore to the point that I wished I had the guts to stand up and walk out of the Hall. I guess not many felt as I did, however, because that IL cong. almost kissed his feet when he graced us with his presence.

I had to bite my tongue hard to keep from saying too much. I couldn't stand him or his wife. She had some sort of problem or sensativity to perfumes and it was made into quite a big deal. Even a wiff of scented shampoo or too much fabric softner on clothes was enough to send her weeping from the car when going out in service. She had a ton of food allergies too, always requesting organic foods and really placing a burden on those that had them over for a meal. While she may have truly had such a problem, I always suspected that it was mostly a put on. Sure gained her a lot of attention, though.

When this CO and wife were assigned to CT, I couldn't take it and absented myself completely for their whole visit, so I don't know if the same adulation was accorded them from the cong. here too or not.

RichieRich

The last time the CO visited, he asked me to accompany him in service. Instead of telling him a vague answer- I told him the truth. I said "Sorry, I'm going to the gun show [redneck fest] this weekend". He was very pissed and complained to the elders. Then one brother asked me what the deal was. They were like "but he's the CO! You cant tell him no!!" I told the brother I served Jehovah [BS] and not man. My time is as important as his, and I was honest with him...

but yes JWs are very caught up on titles like they relae to greatness. Especially when a high-up gets disfellowshipped... "But he was an ELDER/ Service Overseer/ whatever"

swiftbreeze

especially elder families. it was always "my father's an elder so blah blah blah" or "my husband is an elder so blah blah blah"

it's like if you have an elder in your family you got the inside track.. and you do

it just makes me want to stick my finger down my throat and vomit

Markfromcali

You know it may very well be that's all some people have. If you can't cut it on actual merit, even if it is just the merit of a human being, then you have to resort to an artificial construct like the position of an elder or something like that. And when you get enough of such confused people together then they all play their little roles in a world they've created together.

Sunspot

I never realized the extent of labels that were used until I was out of the WTS. Not only the "higher" but the "lower" ones as well. The moment that one gets involved with JWs they have a label pinned on them!

Return visit

newly interested one

bible study

baptismal candidate

brother or sister publisher

ministerial servant

all the "servants" or I guess they call them "overseers" categories (ie, service overseer, etc)

elder

PO, DO, all the way up the ladder to Bethelite and GB

inactive

marked person

fader

DAed

DFed

Apostate

Every one of these labels has an emotional reaction or button that is unconsciously pushed when you hear them. What other religion has such a dictionary-full of titles bestowed upon them?

Annie

ozziepost

It was Chuck Russell who started it all! At the time, in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the whole notion of class was very popular and was being promoted by Karl Marx. In fact, so much did CT Russell borrow from this that he even included the struggle between capital and labor in his early writings!

Such is the legacy that the modern-day WTS has inherited.

Cheers, Ozzie (permanently upside-down class)

LongHairGal

Sunspot:

Good points! I never really counted how many titles there were! But you are right when you say that they each all have an emotion attached to them. Kind of like pavlov's dogs. I guess that is what they are.

How infantile! How can any real thinking person be impressed by any of this?

PaulJ

It seems there is a lot of pigeon-holeing.

ozziepost

Ah yes, Paul, pigeon-holing, labels, it seems a common trait.

Did you think they were hooked on titles and "classes"?

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