---"2. Suits only or no privledges. ie giving talks, operating mikes, behind magizine counter. you weren't allowed to wear pants a different color then your jacket. if you wore khacki's and a jacket you were basically a worldly person. this later changed slightly, you could wear black or grey dress pants with a different color jacket. Can you believe they actually did a special needs talk outlining all this?"---
Yep, I can believe it. I never wore a suit, I always wore a sport jacket (and pants too). I was constantly questioned about it and my answer was that I preferred to dress that way. My father even took me shopping once and bought me an expensive suit. It still hangs in my closet, I wore it once.
After a while I wore sport coats to irritate the elders more than I did because I wanted to. Years and years of it, getting questioned about it regularly. But I did have privleges (MS), just kept getting asked if I could afford a suit and I said, "Yes, I could. Just don't want one."
What silly rules did your congregation make up?
by weinermcgee 97 Replies latest jw friends
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thom
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xjwms
Materialism in our congregation was always about your car.
Big and expensive, .... you were just a show off, ... making a showy display ya ya ya
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blondie
No open toed shoes.
No more than one piercing in each ear (lobe) for sisters
No jean skirts
No slits on skirts past the knee
No cleavage (sisters had to have another sister look down from a chair to see and the sister had to bend over to see if cleavage was visible)
No T-shirts with pictures or writing on brothers working a quick builds or at conventions/assemblies.
No more than one ring on each hand, on the ring finger.
Brothers could not wear necklaces or bracelets.
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daystar
Materialism in our congregation was always about your car.
Big and expensive, .... you were just a show off, ... making a showy display ya ya ya
In our congregation, all the important people had big, expensive cars. If you were an elder, you most likely drove a Benz, Cadillac, BMW, etc.
What a difference, huh?
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Marvin Shilmer
Once I visited several congregations in the South Pacific where publishers were resistant to change. What were the changes? Believe it or not:
1. Sisters had to start wearing something below the waste to cover their privates or else they could not attend meetings.
2. Sisters had to cover their breasts if they were on the meeting program.
3. Brothers had to start wearing a tie if they were on the meeting program.
The tie thing is what got so many up in arms. Ties were very hard to get and expensive, and the publishers were dirt poor. The problem was alleviated by a visiting brother donating a tie to the congregation. Yes, one tie. It was amusing to observe the ceremony during a theocratic school or service meeting where the brother giving the talk would don himself with "the tie" and then hand it off to the next speaker coming to the front. During the school meeting this was hilarious. The school overseer shed and donned that tie about 10 times during the meeting! This went on until the tie was not only filthy dirty but in tatters.
Oh, did I mention the brothers were bare-chested, except for the tie? This thread is about silly rules, isn't it?
COs in the United States had a slide talk provided with one slide showing a sister from one of the congregations I visited. The photo was of a large bare-breasted woman who was breast feeding two children at the same time; one child in each arm. The shot never failed to draw laughter from audiences in the USA, but the average publisher never knew the whole congregation behind the photograph was practically naked, and ready for field service. About the only thing covered on a semi-consistent basis was the uh, shall we say, bare essentials?
Marvin Shilmer, who's going way back with that experience
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xjwms
Daystar
I can remember visiting in Chicago, .. most of the people in the cong there had the Benz and Caddys.
I was blown away .. would never fly were I was from.
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Elsewhere
- You cannot study the bible without using literature provided by the WTS
- You cannot come to conclusions about the bible that are contrary to what the WTS teaches.
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daystar
xjwms
Then the dynamics within the congregation as a whole was likely very, very different as well. There was very much an "US and Them" attitude, which is not unusual of itself. But it was primarily along the lines of material wealth. Some less rich brothers could make MS or even Elder, but they were never really treated as equals to the other, rich, businessman Elders and their buddies.
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weinermcgee
HEY LOOK I FOUND IT!!!!
1 CORINTHIANS 3:9 - And Jehovah burned with anger as Behethlabillybob entered the tent, and behold, he wore a suit jacket that did not match his pants! Lightning filled the sky with Jehovahs anger and it struck down upon Behethlabillybob in a quick flash of light destroying him instantly, whereupon the flock said "Daaamn!"
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stillAwitness
Women can't wear ties!
Skirts must be 3 inches below the knee(won't someone show me that scripture)
No more than one piercing in the ear!
No open toe sandals in service!
No sleeveless tops in service!
I swear these were enforced in my congreagation years ago. NO LIE!
The one that always gets me in trouble: No showing of the bra straps!