JW’s are now allowed to have beards and publicly preach....

[Jack Ryan]

@Anna 

8 minutes ago, Anna said:

Hey critical thinker, why are you on here? 

You got me!

Really it's because I have issues stemming from decades of mind control from the JW's.... So I am not a good example.

Other people should save themselves and future generations from this radioactive titanic religious cult if they don't want their children discussing whether they are allowed to wear beards in 50 years from now.

I would rather they study science, medicine or technology and actually do something to help mankind rather than spread hate toward apostates who don't agree with their version / translation of some 5,000 year old camel riding desert sands God's words to an extinct people.

[Anna]

3 minutes ago, Jack Ryan said:

@Anna 

You got me!

Really it's because I have issues stemming from decades of mind control from the JW's.... So I am not a good example.

Other people should save themselves and future generations from this radioactive titanic religious cult if they don't want their children discussing whether they are allowed to wear beards in 50 years from now.

I would rather they study science, medicine or technology and actually do something to help mankind rather than spread hate toward apostates who don't agree with their version / translation of some 5,000 year old camel riding desert sands God's words to an extinct people.

I am truly sorry you had that experience. I can see it has damaged you. You must realize though that most Jehovah's Witnesses have not had those kind of negative experiences and are well balanced and useful members of society. Also, most of them do not discuss these "issues" on forums like this, (notice there are only a handful on here) if they discuss them at all. Neither do they spread hate for apostates. 

Each human being is entitled to live the kind of life they believe is right, this includes Jehovah's Witnesses. And since they believe there is a creator who has given instructions on the best possible way to live, (since he IS the creator) they want to show him gratitude, and follow his advice. 

[TrueTomHarley]

On 7/20/2019 at 1:31 PM, JOHN BUTLER said:

Dictatorship Tom. Domineering at it's best. 

Is it? One could make that case. It certainly could be annoying at times. Still, not every whim in life goes your way. I never wanted a beard anyway. It did sometimes cause some trouble however, when they grew one for non-standard reasons. They could always do it, but they might come in for counsel and be kept from what Witnesses call “privileges”—MS, elder, pioneer, and so forth.

Yet, isn’t this another case of the non-doers saying that the doers are doing it wrong? Witnesses are a close-knit group, organized that way for the sake of preaching the good news. They rub shoulders will people of all dispositions and backgrounds that they otherwise wouldn’t rub shoulders with. The past circuit overseer said that Jehovah has molded his people into “large, united, happy, somewhat dysfunctional family.” Idiosyncrasies will pop up in a dysfunctional family, and this was one of them.

On 7/20/2019 at 3:28 PM, Srecko Sostar said:

the hand of justice is slow but attainable ..... after cca 100 years. 

Not really.  It has been a issue only for the last 30 years, which is still not nothing, but neither is it 100. In the days of beatniks and hippies, Anna’s application of verse would have been spot-on. A beard during that time, suggesting affiliation with those characters, did indeed have a high chance of stumbling new ones or unbelievers

Neither of you are in any position to lecture. Both of you have put yourself in places where you have no need to get along with people—if anyone annoys you, simply write him or her out of the picture. Inevitably, you surround yourselves with people who are pretty much like yourself. I don’t know it for sure, of course, with you as individuals, but it is the typical pattern that you have probably fallen into.

If I were not a Witness, my friends would almost certainly be persons just like me, with little variety. Instead, I have friends of every age, nationality, ethnicity, social class, educational and economic level. I have a whole circuitful of real people who like me, and I like them. It is not for the sake of making friends that I come online—I have more friends than I can handle. The only common feature that they have is that they are on the same page spiritually, which I regard as a good thing, not a bad thing. I am grateful to Jehovah for it, and to his organization, because it would not happen otherwise. 

There is a price to pay for such close interaction, however. You don’t always get your way. Sometimes you have to yield. Sometimes you yield on things that you think you really shouldn’t have to yield on, but you know that keeping the peace is better than getting your way on every thing. 

Nations have cultures. They all have their own unique ways of thinking, their own quirks, some of which will seem nuts to another nation. Witnesses have their own culture, too, and their own quirks. It is the price to pay for working in close proximity with many different people. I wouldn’t get too hung up on it.

[TrueTomHarley]

 

11 hours ago, Jack Ryan said:

Science has left religion and customs of desert nomads from 5,000 years ago literally in the dust.

Obviously, if you have outgrown the cause, the sacrifices involved in cooperating with the cause will seem oppressive to you. This is a no-brainer.

If one is still true to it, one puts up without too much fuss the inconveniences that being organized for the cause can bring about. The cause entails both pluses and minuses, and those true to it generally think that the minuses are relatively insignificant. 

But if you leave the cause, then the pluses become non-factors at best, minuses at worst, and what were already minuses becomes draconian “mind-control.”

This is also not especially difficult to figure out.

Still, you don’t actually disappear, do you, Jack? Aren’t you the one who has started up to a dozen threads in a single day designed to stumble your ex-brothers? If Science is the true God, then go on following Him.

 

 

[Guest Indiana]

6 hours ago, The Librarian said:

Soon we will have to ditch the business suit since it is becoming fashion relegated to lawyers, courthouses etc...

Yes my dear @The Librarian ... do you like this for next convention? 😁🤭

 

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

3 hours ago, Guest Nicole said:

  10 hours ago, The Librarian said:

Soon we will have to ditch the business suit since it is becoming fashion relegated to lawyers, courthouses etc...

Sometimes Lawyers wear some pretty strange clothing, depending on the Venue.

[Anna]

On 7/20/2019 at 3:13 PM, JOHN BUTLER said:

On 7/20/2019 at 3:10 PM, Anna said:

You have evidence for that?

Yes probably. In the same book that said they knew Christmas was wrong but kept on celebrating it at Bethal until 1926 ish. 

So, what book is that?

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

If "Tight Pants" are so risque, and get certain Brothers all hot and bothered, and  distracting them from their Theocratic duties,  Tight Pants Tony would have an absolute stroke over THIS outfit!

Perhaps there should be a Watchtower Policy Statement that Kilts have to go down to the ANKLE!, and not have Mylar pillows or spherical orb designs bouncing around on the genital area as the brother walks along.

If you ask me, if you are going to wear that outfit outside of Scotland, you better damn well have a sword!

Forget the Badges at the Restaurants! 

We have a full scale "TPT" CRISIS here!

By the way... that pillow thingey in front, the Sister is pointing to with astonishment, is called a "TPT Conundrum".

 

[Colin Browne]

On 7/20/2019 at 7:31 PM, JOHN BUTLER said:

Yes and to think they let congregants smoke tobacco into the 1970's without a problem, even though they knew it was totally wrong in the late 1800's.  But no beards, just to prove they were the boss. It's called dictatorship, nothing else. 

 to quote TTH " Though nowhere forbidden by scripture or Bible principles, no "rule" was applied with more vigor than the "no beard" rule, "

Dictatorship Tom. Domineering at it's best. 

They never allowed smoking into the 1970's - that was when it was banned, and one could be disfellowshiped if known to smoke. I was in the Malvern congregation in Gauteng during 1956 and was among the smokers.

[Colin Browne]

1 hour ago, Anna said:

So, what book is that?

The past cannot be changed - only the future.

“But the path of the righteous is like the bright morning light That grows brighter and brighter until full daylight. 

The way of the wicked is like the darkness; They do not know what makes them stumble.” (Prov. 4:18, 19)

[JW Insider]

13 hours ago, Jack Ryan said:

Much more productive than spending your time as a people wondering if beards are ok or why you are all forced to wear suits and ties for walking down the street.

Reminds me that the Bethel Elder who was also the head of Purchasing, at Bethel, and who worked for Dean Songer in 1979, suddenly came back from a two week vacation with a beard, very well trimmed, and short. He actually looked better with the beard, too. But everyone knew what would happen to him. For one thing, Dean Songer wore a crewcut and a thin black tie, so he always looked like one of those guys in the Houston control room during a Gemini or early Apollo flight.

An article had come out at (about) the exact same time that he grew the beard, which made him seem "rebellious" to most of us, including me. Although I didn't know him, and it might have easily been a coincidence, since the article was no doubt accepted for publication at least two months earlier. The article said:

*** g79 4/22 pp. 27-28 When Another’s Conscience Is Involved ***
The same counsel applies when it comes to wearing beards or certain articles of clothing. In some locations people still view beards as identifying rebellious elements in society.

It was too late for the next issue, but a month later, a small "Watching the World" item was included, that did not seem like a coincidence:

*** g79 5/22 p. 30 Watching the World ***
The U.S. Supreme Court recently let stand a District Court ruling that a supermarket chain has the right to maintain its “no beards” rule for some employees. A man who was fired for refusal to shave had brought suit. He said he has a skin disease common among black men that can result in irritation or infection when short hairs curl back into the skin. The District Court had ruled that “the grocery chain had a business purpose for the rule which overrode its slight impact on employees,” according to American Medical News.
The California State Senate has ruled that, in the Senate chambers, men must wear “appropriate attire,” including coats and ties. The senator who proposed the resolution declared that “appearances are important,” and that a certain amount of dignity was expected by the public. Certainly this is also true of those who profess to represent the highest Lawmaker in the universe, Jehovah God.

The newly bearded brother in question was not black, but at the time, at least one black brother (also an elder) was asking if he could grow a beard due to a serious skin condition from ingrown whiskers after a shave. It was already beginning to be allowed in congregations in the US for some black brothers, but that allowance was considered a slippery slope.

 

[Evacuated]

9 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

that allowance was considered a slippery slope.

Glurp! And I thought the British were "conservative"! (In their views).