FAQ : jesus-witnesses mailing list ListOwner : FAQ Home : Version : 1.6.0 Summary : Frequently Asked Questions from the internet mailing list `Jesus-Witnesses'. Purpose: This FAQ is designed to pull together the answers to frequently asked questions relating to the Jesus-Witnesses mailing list. The prime focus of the list and this FAQ is the religious group known latterly as Jehovah's Witnesses, and their controlling organization, the WatchTower Bible & Tract Society; because many features of these bodies are far from unique, and due to the wider interests of some members of the list, much of what is covered in the FAQ will apply directly or indirectly to a large number of other religions and organizations. Approach: The focus is not on doctrine - which is impossible to achieve any consensual answer upon - but rather on the structure, methodology, history and other mundane stuff. Where doctrine is touched upon, it is examined in the light of internal consistency and techniques of propagation, rather than the perspective of any religion or philosophy: this reflects the list membership, an (un)holy, but generally amiable, alliance of academics, agnostics, atheists, Catholics, JWs, ex-JWs, new-agers, Protestants, and for all we know, Zoroastrians. Copyright: This document is distributed under the CopyLeft principle; it may be copied freely in whole, or as individual numbered sections. Smaller quotations may be made under "fair use" provisions, conditional upon clear attribution and indication of ellipsis. No additions, amendments or deletions may be performed on this text. All copies should be verified against the canonical version held on the ICLnet archive site, or by consultation with the membership of the list. Comments: No one is infallible, and neither can the FAQ be completely comprehensive. Please address corrections, extensions, new questions (and even better - new answers) to the ListOwner. Necessarily, in an arena where strong views are customary, most of the material will be controversial to someone or other. If this applies to you, and you have a constructive and reasoned criticism, then please provide it to the FAQ keeper - irrational, tendentious or abusive posts will be safely disposed of in full compliance with government directives on toxic waste Acknowledgments: The help of many people in supplying quotes, arguments, constructive criticism, questions, answers and encouragement has gone into this FAQ. Some of the names are listed here, the anonymity of others have been preserved :- Triumphing Over London Cults (permission to use parts of newsletter) Not Just Bibles (WWW & FTP home for FAQ) Gary Bogart (lots of work putting WWW site together) Richard Anderson (supply of WTS statistics) Jan Groenvald (proofing, references & suggestions) many others on the list (quotes, references, suggestions etc.) Location: Up to date copies of this FAQ can be found on the CompuServe Religion forum (Christianity file section), ICLnet ftp and WWW site, and the cult conference of cix (London, England). Net sites: There are three principal Web sites associated with this list, a comprehensive listing of all relevant sites is contained in Q99: http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/apl/jw/1jw-home.html http://www.cam.org/~pinnacl/beyondjw.htm http://www.nano.no/~telemark/DnSEng.html Conventions: Throughout this FAQ, the terms `JW(s)' and `WTS' will refer to `Jehovah's Witness(es)' and the `WatchTower Society' respectively. Standard internet conventions include italicized words surrounded by *asterisks*, _underlined words_ by underscores and %emboldened% words by percent characters. A mail-friendly 72-character margin is used. Of the version numbers (x.y.z), y is incremented whenever a new question is added, and z when any amendment is made to existing ones. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Table of Contents Q1.0 What is the purpose of the Jesus-Witnesses list? Q1.1 Who can subscribe to the Jesus-Witnesses list? Q1.2 How does one go about subscribing or unsubscribing to the list? Q1.3 Are there file treatments of JW doctrine and practices on disk? If so, how can these be obtained? Q1.4 If I decide to subscribe to the Jesus-Witnesses list will my true identity be revealed? Q1.5 What are friends net, PhunNet and BroNet? Q1.6 Is the WTS on the internet? Q1.7 What is the 'Philia' list? Q2.0 How is the religion organized? Q2.1 How big is the WTS and how fast does it grow? Q2.1.1 How much preaching does it take to make one convert? Q2.1.2 How many members are lost each year? Q2.2 Where can I find the accounts of the WTS? Q2.3 What's all this fuss about organization? Q3.0 How do JWs maintain their much vaunted unity? Q4.0 What do JWs believe regarding the afterlife and soul? Q4.1 How is it all held together? Q4.2 How can I find what the individual JW actually believes? Q5.0 I've heard people apply the Orwellian term `doublethink' to JWs. Is this justified and if so, how does it work in practice? Q5.1 Are there any other Orwellian links? Q6.0 Are JWs a cult? Q6.1 Are JWs paranoid? Q7.0 Is the WatchTower Society a false prophet? Q7.1 Is it a prophet? Q7.2 How has the WTS managed to survive so many failed predictions? Q8.0 Are JWs brain washed? If so, how? Q9.0 Are JWs Un-American and Un-Patriotic? Q10.0 Why do ex-JWs go to such trouble to fight their old religion? Q10.1 Who's this Raymond Franz fellow? Q10.2 Someone I love is studying with JWs, what should I do? Q11.0 I'd like to find out for myself if JWs are what they say they are. After all, they laughed at Columbus & Galileo! Q12.0 I've engaged a JW in a discussion - but he never reads my posts and mails back the same old lines. Why is he so unreasonable? Q12.1 Is it worth continuing the discussion? Q13.0 Who's this Johannes Greber fellow? Q14.0 What do all those initials in WT references mean? Q99.0 Where can I get more information or support? Q99.1 Are there any books on the subject? Q99.2 What's in it for these groups? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Q1.0 What is the purpose of the Jesus-Witnesses list? (a) Jesus-Witnesses seeks to link ex-JWs thereby providing a means of fellowshiping and "talking out" the concerns and hurts they harbor as a result of their association with the WTS. "Fellowshiping the Disfellowshipped". Although the list takes its name from the words of Jesus (Acts 1:8), membership neither requires nor implies any specific religious belief. (b) To bring open-minded JWs into a forum to discuss and question things which is forbidden for a JW to do within "the Society". (c) As a resource for those with a scholarly or personal interest in the WT organization & JWs in general. Q1.1 Who can subscribe to the Jesus-Witnesses list? Anyone. Ex-JWs, current-JWs, and interested others. Q1.2 How does one go about subscribing or unsubscribing to the list? Send a post to the ListOwner . Q1.3 Are there file treatments of JW doctrine and practices on disk? If so, how can these be obtained? Individual members have large file libraries, some of these files may be found on the FAQ home site (iclnet93.iclnet.org). These are organized into categories of NWT, prophecy, organization, ethics, testimony and resurrection, and are referred to throughout this document. Check the references in Q99 for non-jesus-witnesses resources; the principal other site is the TowerWatch home site (\\ftp.nano.no\pub\TowerWatch). Q1.4 If I decide to subscribe to the Jesus-Witnesses list, will my true identity be revealed? Some have desired to subscribe to the list but are fearful to be "found out" and reported to the local JW elders. But there is no reason to fear, and many list members will be able to empathize fully with your situation. One can gain access to the list and receive postings from the other participants and, so long as a direct reply is not made to the Jesus-Witnesses mail group, anonymity will be protected (replies can be made via the ListOwner, rather than under one's own name. The ListOwner will then repost under his OWN name thereby ensuring anonymity). Only the owner of the list has the Internet addresses of the participants and he will NEVER divulge such information to anyone under any circumstances. Others use pseudonyms as their Internet address and this will insure their anonymity. In addition, there is an Internet anonymous service, contact Q1.5 What are friends net, PhunNet and BroNet? %Friends% net is an internet mailing list, working technically in the same way to %jesus-witnesses%, and with a number of sub-lists on special topics. However, the membership is exclusively JW, the list is somewhat reclusive (the 300 or so members have double-blind alias internet addresses to prevent their real addresses being known -see Q6.1!), and strict orthodoxy is essential. To this end, it has formed it's own 7-man body of elders, aka "The Friends Host Committee" (FHC), and holds 'judicial committess' to consider list discipline - a number of members have already been expelled from the list. If you want to `see both sides of the story' or are interested in joining that list, fill in the Web form at , contact the list owner , or check the Friends FAQ site on the Web . The separate lists are detailed below:- Complete List friends-all@wolf.eecs.umich.edu Member registration friends-register@wolf.eecs.umich.edu Convention Chat friends-assembly@wolf.eecs.umich.edu Bay Area,CA JWs friends-ba@wolf.eecs.umich.edu Departing Friends friends-bye@wolf.eecs.umich.edu General Chat friends-chat@wolf.eecs.umich.edu Computer Talk friends-comp@wolf.eecs.umich.edu Digested Posts friends-digest@wolf.eecs.umich.edu Spanish Chat friends-espanol@wolf.eecs.umich.edu FHC (Big Brothers) friends-host-committee@wolf.eecs.umich.edu IRC scheduling friends-irc@wolf.eecs.umich.edu News of the Day friends-news@wolf.eecs.umich.edu Weekly Scriptures friends-nwt@wolf.eecs.umich.edu Daily WT Passage friends-txt@wolf.eecs.umich.edu Mail Directory friends-white-pages@wolf.eecs.umich.edu Weekend WT Passage friends-wtext@wolf.eecs.umich.edu Youth Chat friends-young@wolf.eecs.umich.edu There's also a FAQ of sorts for %friends% net, although it's more of a transcribed WTS tract masquerading as a FAQ (and even that only occurred after much heated debate on one of the friends sub-groups). It's believed that the list is the source of a useful (and quite lighthearted) glossary of WT jargon - this is available (in commented form) from the ICLnet site, and the original unglossed version from the web address below: . BroNet, superseded now by PhunNet is a private BBS network spanning the USA, Canada, Germany and the UK; like %friends% it is for orthodox JWs - a questionnaire testing both correct doctrinal and cultural knowledge is required, and informal `grapevine' checks also keep the list `pure'. Access is by dial-up only; these networks are composed of personal PCs running message board software which dial each other up at night to exchange mail. At one time, non-WTS-sourced text files of WT literature were available, but the WTS has stomped on this; however, `study files' with all the relevant quotes are available for each meeting, together with several DOS and Windows packages for congregation management. Most of the chat is of the `hi do you know so-and-so' type, although there was a brief flame eruption (the *pasta salads war*) some time ago; moderators have now been set up for every conference to keep the chat `lite'. For access, logon to the phone number nearest your state, or mail the ChiefPhunner, , :- AL 205-851-8125, 717-432-9312 AZ 501-442-5574, 602-996-3046 BC 604-731-1649 CA 310-204-3249, 818-365-7212, 805-349-9222, 916-488-7929 818-361-6182, 818-961-7903, 310-948-5919, 415-878-9157 CO 303-427-0243 FL 407-790-4721 IN 812-339-8530 MA 508-753-1658 NE 702-826-1896 NV 702-363-1870, 702-826-1869 UK 0181-428-8522 WA 509-456-3557, 206-581-4108, 206-695-1536, 206-868-1165 Internet: postmaster@phunnet.org The status of these networks may change following the internal bulletin (_Kingdom Ministry_) of September 1995, which hinted strongly that computer and network usage was dangerous; it warned especially about JW only networks, and the activities (study file creation, software exchange) which have been a special feature of PhunNet. Q1.6 Is the WTS on the internet? The WTS has long had CompuServe accounts for shifting files around the world where international phone lines do not permit them to make manual data calls; however, no WTS activity has been spotted in any CIS forum. Although neither PhunNet nor %friends% have any official links with the WTS, `Society men' are present on PhunNet (various `circuit overseers' q.v.) in the USA and UK, who are able to keep an eye on what potentially is a dangerous global lateral channel of communication in an organization which has a strong hierarchical control of information; being mobile & well connected they are ideally placed to root out unsuitable or bogus members; the first known excomunication based on transcripts of net threads took place in 1995, with details published on talk.religion.misc. Some staff at the WTS HQ in Brooklyn also participate; given the WTS's support of short-wave radio (the internet of the past) as a hobby, and the presence of a station at Brooklyn, it's likely that such individual net presence will increase. Warnings about the danger of BBSes were given in a 1993 WT, and the Jan 22 1995 Awake relayed negative press coverage on the Internet; but given the growing ubiquity of the internet, the WTS may be inclined to both monitor JW activity, and examine the potential of this `cyber-community' as a preaching field. Recently, the internal Lotus Notes network at Brooklyn was linked using the CompuServe gateway service to the Internet (domain b-watchtower@notes.compuserve.com) as part of a project to link branches together, and distribute information to JW lawyers throughout the US - some computer staff have tacit permission to use it privately. If you can't get thru by e-mail, lo-tech addresses are:- WatchTower Bible & Tract Society 25 Columbia Heights Brooklyn, NY 11201 (718) 625-3600 or by fax: Writing Department: (718) 596-2906 Executive Office: (718) 624-8030 Q1.7 What is the 'Philia' list? 'Philia' is a closed internet mailing list, with a membership almost totally, but not exclusively, of people who've been raised as JW children. The privacy of the list, and the 'extended family' spirit that prevails there, allow frankness of discussion and emotional support, plus friendly and fun chat - members plan to meet up in real-space sometime, and exchange photographs for a family album. Philia is not a place for preaching or wrangling over doctrine, but as a cosy and supportive place to talk over common concerns and explore life post-Watchtower. If you'd like to join in, enquiries should be made via the jesus-witnesses list. Recently additional philia sub-lists have been added for specializied interest groups in WTS research and counter-cult work. Philia members have produced the following statement about the group:- "Philia is for ex-JWs: it is a private place for healing, support and fun, and the membership is controlled to permit members the confidentiality and comfort that they need. However, consideration will be given on an exceptional basis to non-JWs who have become well known to a number of Philia members, and are deemed to fit in with the general ethos of the group. Anyone wishing information or assistance on the WatchTower Corporation are directed to the open, public internet group known as "jesus-witnesses". Many philia members are also members of that group, and involvement there is the best way to get to know them and possibly be invited to join philia." Q2.0 How is the religion organized? The most important thing to note is that %Jehovah's Witnesses% appears only as a legal entity in the constitution of individual congregations; JWs speak of the `Organization' or `Society' and mean the conglomeration of a number of legal corporations. It is essential in any examination of the religion to discriminate between "Jehovah's Witnesses" and the "WatchTower Society" (the WTS). Principally, there is the WatchTower Bible & Tract Society of New York, which owns and operates the various factories, farms and offices in Brooklyn and up-state. An older company, the WatchTower Bible & Tract Society of Pennslyvania acts as a holding company and owns copyright on all publications; it is this corporation which holds AGMs (rallies) for about one thousand `voting' members, usually long-serving JWs. According to some versions of JW history, the two state versions of the WT society are due to some legal chicanery surrounding the founder's divorce. Similar organizations exist in other countries - the extent of the legal and explicit ties with the USA corporations vary with local legislation. [A summary history is given in jw#68.txt in the organization archive.] The UK, being the first overseas mission, is a little unusual in having not only its own local WT company, but being the base for the IBSA - International Bible Students Association. This is used for property holding and as the front for organizing conventions in the UK and old Empire countries. There are also a raft of older corporations - noticeably the Peoples' Pulpit Association (which has latterly acted only as a scapegoat for some of Russell's more unacceptable works) - and a string which CT Russell used for various maneuverings; these are thought to be in mothballs - including the United Cemeteries Corporation, a dummy asset-holder which was the mystery `donor' of the infamous Miracle Wheat; and the Tower Publishing Corporation which printed WT literature at commercial rates until 1898 (and is referred to simply as `a' printing firm). [See file jehwit34.txt in Organization archive for more on Russell and the early WTS.] Due to factions and intense legal wrangling after the founder's death, (the succeeding president announced his presidency to the press before his election) - several splinter corporations formed. The largest two such in the United States' remain the Layman's Home Mission and the Dawn Bible Students Association, which remain loyal to and still print CT Russell; these are known collectively and charmingly by JWs as the `Evil Slave'. Rutherford rejected almost everything Russell believed, openly criticizing his support of the USA in WWI, his Pyramidology, favouring of the wealthy, and indirectly his bushy beard and vegetarianism. Nothing but a shell was left of his theology, but various negative beliefs, and a vastly watered down version of Russell's 5-class universalist salvation by Christ's ransom. Reading the legal documents of association only tells half the story. The religion operates formally as legal corporations and congregations, and informally as JWs. As an example, there is a Board of Directors of the WT society, which has full corporate existence - however, the real decisions, since 1976 [see below], are made by the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses, neither of which bodies exist anywhere in law. Likewise, the official levels of ownership between branch offices and HQ has little to do with the real lines of control, which are enforced not by corporate law, but by JW law, with its internal ecclesiastical tribunals and penalty of excommunication. This is true also for relations between congregations, which in most countries are autonomous property-holding bodies, and the parent organization. One exception to the latter state of congregations exists in London, England where all property is owned, not by the local congregation, but by the `London Company of Bible Students'. The JW structure, as opposed to the legal WT structure, is something of an hourglass shape. At the top is a committee of a dozen or more elderly men who claim to be `spirit-anointed' (i.e. amongst the 144,000 king-priests of Revelation; only 8,617 of whom survive as of April, 1994); this is known as the `Governing Body' (GB), decides all matters of doctrine and organization, and devolves the day-to-day running of the church to sub-committees dealing with writing, doctrine, factories etc. Two trends are apparent with regard to this body: in the past, the GB tended to be a Soviet-style rubber-stamping body for the decisions of the WT President, but with the the end of a continuous line of doctrinal 'oracles' - Russell, Rutherford and Franz (although 'President' Knorr succeeded Rutherford, he was a manager and not a preacher, and Franz ran the doctrinal and translation work during Knorr's term) and the %palace coup% of 1976, when the GB wrested power after a long struggle from the WT corporation and it's president, this has changed, and senior `non-anointed' JWs have been assigned to assist with the sub-committees - this has become essential with the shrinking pool of those with heavenly-ruling aspirations - and thus creating a new `Nethinim' class half-way between the `Anointed' and `Great Crowd'. This committee structure is also found in subsidiary branch offices, led by a %Branch overseer%; a %zone overseer% visits and supervises branches in a region of the world on behalf of the Brooklyn HQ. At the other end are the congregations - these can be anything from a family in a remote area, to a large city congregation of 150 or more, but tend to average about 70-90 regular attenders, being split once they become too big. These meet twice a week: usually on Sunday morning for a 45 minute speech, which fleshes out an outline supplied by the WTS, and a 1 hour `discussion' of a set WT article (the quotes are there because the questions are printed at the bottom of the page, the answers are found in the paragraphs, and the whole thing is directed from the platform by an elder); again, usually on a Thursday evening, for a 1-hour public speaking school (speeches for the men and boys, and role-playing for the women) and a 45-minute set of shorter speeches, Q+As or demonstrations relating generally to the public ministry and personal life. These meetings are opened and closed by a public prayer, and a song from the WTS' own, quite unique, hymnbook. As mentioned before, congregations are usually legally autonomous associations on paper, often owning their own buildings, despite the de facto tight organizational control from above: the two ranks of officer - %elder% and %ministerial servant% (deacon) - are _not_ appointed by the congregation, but suggested to the country branch office by the congregation elders and appointed (or removed) from above; this is also true of full-time `pioneer' ministers. This arrangement was the work of Rutherford, Russell's congregations being in the grass-roots style of Congregationilism, and many of their members not surviving the change to hierarchy. The congregation is further broken down into cells, known as `groups', which meet once a week in a private home for a Q+A session on an assigned book (with tea and cakes if they're lucky!), and is the primary unit of organization of the door-knocking ministry. Congregations have their own internal disciplinary arrangements, known colloquially as `judicial committees' and legally as `ecclesiastical tribunals'; these are formed ad hoc to deal with breaches of discipline by members. JWs are expected to inform on fellow members' wrong-doing; however this principle of disclosure does not extend to the elders themselves, and they do not necessarily inform secular authorities of breaches in the law revealed to them in their duties [See jw#20.txt and rape.txt in ethics archive; WT Sept 1, 1987]. The framework of all these activities is not to be found in overt WTS literature, but in a set of elders' manuals which are kept strictly secret from the laity; the crucial question in the former is `are you repentant', in the latter it is `do you accept the authority of the WTS?' - a negative response to this virtually guarantees excommunication. Punishments can range from a private rebuke to full shunning, with a variety of measures in between, e.g. public rebuking, exclusion from public reading of scriptures or meeting participation; the main threat, however, is the social stigma which attaches to these. The judicial committee also meet to consider the reinstatement of a shunned member into the congregation. A peculiar form of quasi-shunning is known as `marking': this is a measure taken without judicial investigation, and is enacted by a speech in a regular congregation meeting, pinpointing - without actually naming - certain members or groups within the congregation, with whom social contact should be limited. Members who voluntarily take their names off the church roll, for whatever reason, are shunned in the same manner as serious sinners, and are said to have `disassociated themselves' even though JWs themselves cut the association (comparable to the Scientology treatment of *suppressives*); the _Insight_ book says "such ones willfully abandoning the Christian congregation thereby become part of the AntiChrist". Shunning for JWs involves, with the of a mistranslation of 2 John 9-11, such simple greetings as `Hello'; the Sept 15, 1981 WT warns that "a simple `Hello' to someone can be the first step that develops into a conversation and maybe even a friendship." The fiat extends to "unnecessary" contact with shunned family members. Disciplinary action can, and has been taken against JWs who continue to have even simple social contact with ex-JWs. Recent reports have uncovered a new verbal sleight of hand - "implicit disassociation"; this can occur, for example, if a JW is known to have cast a vote in a political election; a judicial committee can declare this person to have 'disassociated themselves' without meeting with the person concerned; the act itself is taken to be an implicit statement of intent. Curiously, such an act as voting can merit an instant punishment which acts with specific Scriptural interdicts - adultery and stealing - do not. This playing with synonyms and neologisms (disassociation & disfellowshipment) for ad hoc reasoning or legal chicanery is part of a broader pattern. The fit between the two halves of the organization is achieved by two groupings, with associate officers, known as %circuits% and %districts%. Circuits are organized partly by geography and partly by number, and although being incorporated and having their own sets of accounts and property (usually the cars of the `Circuit Overseer' and sometimes dedicated convention halls), are much less formal and self-sufficient than a diocese in a traditional church. The two main functions of the circuit are biannual conventions (one of two days - the `circuit assembly', one of one - `Special Assembly Day'), chaired by the Circuit Overseer (CO), and biannual visits to each congregation by the CO (although circuits have been growing faster than the supply of COs and not all receive two visits a year). This week-long visit is one of heightened activity by the congregation, meetings between the CO and elders, deacons and pioneers, and the writing of reports by the CO - both for action by the local congregation and for the information of the country HQ. The CO is a committed `company-man' (at least until he burns out) and keeps a strict eye on deviations by individual congregations from the norm - this has extended even to the playing of music: COs have informed congregations which use live piano playing that the WTS instructs them to use WTS-supplied tape recordings for the "sake of uniformity". Keeping an eye on *him* is the District Overseer (DO), who chairs annual 'District Conventions', and visits each circuit (and a `host congregation') at the time of its circuit convention. Just in case any of the COs and DOs begin to build personal power-bases, they're switched every three years to a different part of the country - they act as the link between both halves of the organization, but belong firmly to the Society. In the past COs and DOs were totally reliant on the WTS, owning nothing but what could fit in their `circuit' cars, and relying on congregations for accomodation and expenses and the WTS for an allowance; recently the trend has been for them to maintain their own dwelling, both for rests between visits and as a fall-back. The term `overseer' itself is the NWT translation of the Greek term 'episkopos', usually translated in English as `bishop'. --------------------------------------------- file: /pub/resources/text/apl/jw/jwfaq.01.txt (continued, see jwfaq.02.txt)