would dubs ever go into field service if there was no record-keeping?

by zagor 49 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  zagor

  Do you think that any dub would ever go into field service if they didn’t have to record hours of service?
  
  
  

  I don’t believe it at all. In fact, you could see that everything they do is because there is some sort of record keeping behind it, i.e. being seen as “upstanding jdubs”. Just as Jesus described it well “All the works they do they do to be seen by people” Mathew 13:5.

  Along the similar lines even the reason why they help sometimes is so that they can have legitimate reason to intrude in your life. (sort of like return visit)

  I remember this elduber who used to help people with small things like say give them cabbage from his garden only to have now open door to intrude in their life.

  And lastly, when they give you something it was usually destined for rubbish dump anyway. However, it was good they could find a victim to give it to so that unsuspecting sucker now has to be eternally thankful for this piece of junk.

  your thoughts please!
• 

  JW83

  elduber - I like it!

  Yeah, I think the dubs have got group control down to a fine art. I do know that there are some who genuinely want to share the message & think it's the truth. I wasn't really one of them - I believed it but I was embarrassed about being so different & it was pretty obvious no one wanted to listen!
• 

  aniron

  I knew of JW's who don't or rarely go out on field service even with record keeping.

  When I was a Min.Servant I used to assist the Service overseer, part of my training for when I became an Elder. But left before I did.

  Anyway, when the reports would be coming in at the end of the month. He would go through them saying "I see sister X has done 6 hours again this month, interesting, seeing that no one ever seems to see her actually out on field service."

  "Brother Y has done 12 hours, yet according to his Group leader, he has only been on service once this month"

  "Oh look Brother Z has placed 40 magazines again. I wish he would stop just pushing them through peoples post boxes"

  I asked whether we count them if we knew they were not right. He said "Of course we do, makes the congregation look good for when the Circuit Overseer comes. Besides once the numbers are sent off to Bethel, who cares. No one in all my years has ever checked up on any of them."

  Which brings us back to that old question "Just how accurate are the reports we see in the Kingdom Ministrys and Yearbooks."
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  Ellie

  Everything they do seems to be for show.

  However, I did ask my mum a similar question and she told me that only one person in the congregation gets to look at the reports and he has to keep it confidential so there would be little point in doing lots of hours just to impress him.

  Mmm, it looks as though I've been lied to again.
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  zagor

  Yeah, "field service" - read - controlling mechanism. I think if it weren't for "monthly service reports" that many dubs would much sooner start asking questions. But with this stuff in place they are placed like cogs in a machine that just can't stop and think for a moment what it's doing.
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  greendawn

  After the change in the 1914 generation dogma I think a lot of dubs realised that they had been manipulated into harming their educational and financial prosects and lost interest in preaching, others lost the sense of urgency the WTS so carefully cultivated in them.
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  garybuss

  I wonder how many current Witnesses think the early Bible Students went door to door.
  
  The door to door practice has an interesting history.
  
  
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  luna2

  When I was an unbaptised pub (or whatever it's called these days), I somehow missed the instruction on turning in time....the sister I studied with moved to AZ right when I was starting to get serious about being a dub, and the gal she turned my study over to was less than thorough about explaining these things (it's such a hoot now because she's become uberpioneerdub and doesn't even have time for personal hygene she's so zealous and meticulous about service).

  Anyhow, I knew I had to go out door2door before getting baptized, but I didn't know I was supposed to record everything. I later calculated that I'd been out about 25 hours that month. Stupid me, I thought that Jehovah was keeping track and that all JW's were honestly doing their very best for him every day, that this was a personal demonstration of faith, yada, yada, yada. I was quite shocked when the PO gave me grief about my qualifications for baptism because I hadn't written everything down on a little scrap of paper and turned it in.

  Somehow knowing I had to jot down every little bit of time I spent talking about the troof and what zines and books I'd placed spoiled it for me. I think I'd have been better at FS without the record keeping.
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  Sunspot

  Everything they do seems to be for show.

  Exactly.

  If there was no record-keeping----I'd have gone out with the group to "show" I had done it. I did believe it was the troof back then, and felt I was "pleasing Jehovah (TM)", but I would have been out there to please the elders too.

  Annie....how screwed up was I?
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  EvilForce

  No they wouldn't go. It's all about figures and statistics.
  
  I always loved the people who would hand write letters and count the time. I would ask "Wouldn't it be faster and more efficient to print them out on a computer, then sign them by hand"? They would say that their method made it more "humane". Puleeze. No, your method allows you to write 10 letters. My suggested method would allow you "write" 300. It's not about effectivness it's about TIME spent.