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lifeafterthewatchtower · 6 years

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Mormons vs. Jehovah’s Witnesses Part 01 // Priestly class and leadership

This post series is based on a fascinating discussion I had with @markruscianism on the topic of “Thought Crime” (see the original posts here and here). Turned out they were baptized Mormon and in one of their replies shared a lot of information on the LDS church and how it is structured and organized.

Since I didn't know too much about Mormonism, I thought I'll compare what they wrote to Jehovah's Witness doctrine and practices and share some insight on how the Watchtower Bible And Tract Society does things.

I don’t want to leave anything out but also don’t want to flood the dashes with post even longer than my usual texts, so I split it up into smaller parts. Here’s part one.

Markcruscianism wrote: "For reference, I was a baptized Mormon for a period in late teens/early twenties. I never agreed fully with all of their teachings, and always disliked the intellectual climate. The establishment of a “priestly class” (used here loosely) can cause a lot of problems. The LDS (Mormon) church tried to escape this with their structure of teachers and Bishops, but in the end, they just ended up moving the “priestly class” further up the hierarchy, even more inaccessible and unaccountable than a local Bishop would have been. (...) Mormons consider most of the men who give (...) talks to be Prophets"

My reply: I was never baptized Jehovah’s Witness. But I was born into this religion and was part of this organization during all my childhood and teenage years. I faded away in my early twenties. I was an unbaptized publisher and part of the (now discontinued) “Theocratic Ministry School”. I never really conformed with all JW teachings, but as a believer I hated myself for not doing so. Which eventually - after about 15 years after I left - made me re-evaluate my religious upbringing. I fully agree: Putting human beings in charge of spiritual matters can become problematic. Jehovah's Witnesses claim to not have any sort of human leadership (or priests for that matter). A claim that is - mildly speaking - questionable. Actually, it's a lie. At least when JWs use it as a way to set the Society apart from other religious organizations.

JWs are organized hierarchical. At the time of writing, the leading figures are/is the so called "Governing Body", which consists of eight members - all men. They make all the decisions concerning the organization. In 1943 the GB was announced as the "legal governing body" of anointed Jehovah's Witnesses, but its real function was somehow undefined, because until January 1976, it was the president of the Watchtower Bible And Tract Society who had complete control of doctrines, publications and activities. More on that to be found here. On a lower level there are branch-overseers, circuit-overseers, elders ("congregation overseers"), Ministerial Servants (assistants of the elders), publishers (baptized JWs), and unbaptized publishers. None of them have any influence on anything the Society decides. Overseers and elders are “the sheperds”.

The publishers are divided into two groups: regular publishers and pioneers. Pioneers are publishers, who are held in high esteem. They make a living on their own but somehow manage to do a lot more "field service" than the "usual JW". To my knowledge there are no written rules but regular publishers are expected to do around 10 hours of field service per month. Pioneers around a 100 hours per month. All the branch- and circuit-overseers are employees of the Watchtower Society and are full-time traveling Witnesses who visit congregations and give talks and ... well... do their overseer work. They are - sort of - “mega-elders”, directly in contact with the JW headquarters or branch-offices. Those JWs who work in the headquarter, or one of the branches, are called Bethelites because they work in the “Bethel” (the name of the headquarter). I don't know if they are required to be pioneers. But basically they are regular baptized JWs who "just" work for the Society. But because they work in the Bethel they are also held in high esteem. Some fascinating insight on Bethel work in Ray Franz' book "Crisis of conscience", in which he shares a lot of information based on his status of being a member of the Governing Body before he left. Also very interesting info in Barbara Anderson's book "Witness to deceit". Barbara Anderson used to work as a researcher for the writing department, and has lots of insight to share.

Until late 2012, the Governing Body described itself as the representative and "spokesman" for God's "faithful and discreet slave class", a class of 144.000 allegedly “anointed by God” Witnesses (who have “heavenly calling”), and who are - according to 1972, April 1st Watchtower magazine, "the modern-day “prophet”, the spirit-begotten, anointed ones who are the nucleus of Jehovah’s Witnesses today" and who - according to the 1986, May 15th WT - claim to be the "channel for new spiritual light". Interestingly enough, the Governing Body is the only group of people, who formulates policy and doctrines or approves material for publications and conventions but the majority of so called “anointed Witnesses” have no authority to contribute to the development or change of doctrines. They are not consulted, but even instructed to "stay modest" and not "wildly speculating about things that are still unclear" (1997, June 1st WT). Basically, anointed JWs who are not part of the Governing Body are just regular JWs, who don’t even have the status like a typical elder or Ministerial Servant. Just as every other JW, they have to accept whatever the WT tells them to do, say, and believe. Also interesting that there are indeed women among the anointed. But throughout JW history none of these so called anointed women was ever part of the Governing Body. How does an anointed JW know that they are indeed one of the "chosen ones"? They just know. That is the explanation. The Watchtower warned that not everyone who claims to be anointed is indeed anointed and admits that they do not know how many of the 144.000 anointed are still on earth. As mentioned, in 2012 the Watchtower changed its doctrine again, and declared the "Governing Body" to be the "faithful and discreet slave". So they do not claim to be the "spokesman" of a class that is said to be God's channel anymore, but to BE this channel. A huge but actually merely technical change because "the anointed" who were not part of the Governing Body never were involved in development or change of doctrine anyway, but nevertheless this change put much more spotlight on "the eight men". How to become part of the Governing Body? They appoint and invite people. Sometimes these were family members. Like Ray Franz who was Fred Franz’ nephew. So there are eight men who decide everything and claim they have direct connection to God, eight men who - by democratic vote - decide what will be done or not be done (Ray Franz, a former Governing Body member describes this quite interestingly in his book "Crisis of conscience"). Where's the difference to other religions that have priests and popes, and whatnot, who also claim to directly get God's instructions? Why are those religions with human leadership and JWs are not? Needless to say that none of the leading figures (from Ministerial Servant up to member of the Governing Body) has any sort of credentials, specific education or training, or any sort of scholarship other than that they know JW doctrine. So - if we want to put it this way - the better you can parrot JW teaching and the more time and effort you put into organizational work, the better your chances are to climb the JW hierarchical ladder. (Only if you’re a man of course). Being a JW is not about discussing the Bible (or “theology” for that matter), it’s not about growing and evolving. It’s about accepting what the leadership tells you and to parrot that. But more on that in future posts.

In the next part: Bible study and Supplemental material

#Mormonism #lds church #Jehovah's Witnesses #jehovah's witness #ex jw #comparison #markcruscianism #my writing

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