Expert: Andrew - 4/13/2007

Question
QUESTION: Hello Andrew,

I was reading your profile and I would like to ask you what are some of the extensive rules that JWs have.

Can you please list these rules and then elaborate on one of them.

After your reply I will be asking a JW for their perspective on the rule.

I am doing this on this forum because I read other forums because I can ask a question of both sides with out being influence by a person to person discussion with a JW and so that I can control the questions not like some sites where every one wants to give their two cents worth of ideas and so I can weigh up all the pros and cons for my self with out to much distraction.
ANSWER: Dear Gordon,

You describe a useful process for analyzing academic data impartially. However this process does not take into consideration how people snap from one mode of being to another despite the data; or how being controlled and giving up one's right to decide for himself can be made to seem so very alluring. These are realities in our world, so I suggest there are dangers that cannot be anticipated by means of your process.

So in the spirit of the process you have outlined, I suggest in order to protect yourself and your capacity to decide for yourself, you first study and understand how cult mind control works before you engage with persons who are claimed to practice it. Once you understand the tactics clearly, then engage with them, then you can decide for yourself whether Witnesses actually practice these tactics based on your first hand experience. It may take months of exposure before you will begin to recognize the patterns; and during that time the Witnesses are chipping away at your mental defenses, so it is still a risky business; but you are an adult and must decide for yourself.

If you do not study how cult mind control works first, then your experience with them will be reframed in a very different way as you will have no defenses or point of reference for understanding strange behaviors, and therefore their explanations for strange behaviors will be all you have to work with, which is what they are counting on.

So I do not recommend treating this like a science project. Science does not destroy families and commit spiritual abuse through an orchestrated system of social pressure.

So as not to be unduly influenced by the critic point of view (mine) either, you might choose to gain an understanding of the tactics of cult mind control by means of reading certain books such as "Releasing the Bonds" by Stephen Hassan and "Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism" by Robert J. Lifton. Neither of these authors specifically comments on Jehovah's Witnesses. I could also recommend several other good books if you're interested.

Or if you are open to it, I would be happy to discuss these tactics more in detail with you. But I get the sense you're looking for less interaction with me so as to preserve a somewhat "unbiased" view.

So to be more specific about your question: I cannot list the extensive rules of the Witnesses because the list literally would contain tens of thousands of behaviors. When the list gets so long, one has to rely more on methods of determining what "would be" in the list rather than memorizing such long lists, which is really quite beyond most people. Also, there is no official list published anywhere, so one has to read all of the hundreds and hundreds of pages they publish each year and attend the hundreds of hours of lectures they give each year in order to gradually develop a knowledge of their expectations.

The method for determining what "would be" in the list is fortunately simple: If there is any behavior you might have ever engaged in after becoming a Witness which you have not already confessed, and a Witness elder doesn't approve of it, based on no particular criteria at all, and brings it to your attention, then you must submit and repent and apologize and pray for forgiveness and ask for training regardless of whether the behavior was right or wrong, regardless of whether you remember doing it.

You see, a Witness judicial hearing is not an objective reasonable hearing to determine guilt or innocence. Rather the Witness leadership (once they set a disapproving eye on you) are sizing you up to see if you are thinking for yourself, which they call "independent thinking" (the gravest offense they recognize), or ready to give in to elders totally and immediately, which they take as a sign of  faithfulness to God. They are not so concerned about whether you actually commited a transgression from the long list as whether you are ready to apologize for anything and everything, which signifies submission. It is the submission that counts. Witnesses can commit grave crimes then show absolute submission and not be expelled or commit trivial "sins" and show indifference and be expelled.

All cults must use this sort of yardstick and response, because those who cannot be controlled are a threat in any system of closed logic.

While any humble and God-fearing person might readily be willing to submit to God himself, is it proper to expect human beings, who have God within them, to submit to men claiming to represent God?

Although the list would be too long to disclose completely,
what I can do is give you examples of requirements from their list. See below. Do not expect the Witnesses to give you the unvarnished truth about any of these items. That is something they simply don't do where a potential recruit or the reputation of their organization is concerned. However, you can research their literature (available on CD) to see what they say about each of these things. Even then, it is hard to determine what they really expect, as they often use very convoluted language in their literature so that things that might seem unreasonable to outsiders can be plausibly denied or reframed.

Keep in mind I am not claiming I would choose to do all the things in this list or that they are all honorable behaviors. Many honorable people would choose not to do some of the things in this list. But choosing not to do something is quite different from being expelled from your community and cut off from your family for doing it. Other things in the list are completely honorable, yet Witnesses define them otherwise for their own reasons.

To elaborate on one item I have listed, studying the Bible without Watchtower literature: The reason this is prohibited is because they believe individuals studying the Bible without the guidance of Watchtower literature will come to incorrect, disapproved conclusions. They believe God only guides people through approved channels, not directly in their personal lives or through the divine within. Therefore they believe conformity to the many requirements relayed through the organization is the only way to receive God's guidance.

I hope this is helpful. Good luck in your research.

Best wishes,
Andrew
____

- Premarital or extramarital sex
- Masturbation
- Certain sexual acts even with your wife
- Watching R rated movies (approval varies by locality)
- Reading romance novels
- Watching daytime soap operas
- Wearing short skirts
- Extracurricular school activities such as football or drama
- Joining a fraternal organization such as the Masons
- Joining any organization other than theirs
- Attending a University to increase earning power or for self development (OK if only to earn modestly)
- Getting a piercing anywhere other than the ears
- Getting a tattoo anywhere
- Using any recreational drug not prescribed by a doctor
- Taking a blood transfusion
- Eating blood sausage (common in Ireland and Germany)
- Celebrating any holiday or birthday
- Participating in any New Age modality such as crystals
- Having your palm read
- Taking bread or wine at the annual Memorial
- Serving in any military service
- Reciting the pledge of allegiance
- Performing the hand-over-heart gesture during national anthem
- Allowing your child to participate in any holiday or birthday
- Voting
- Any participation in political process
- Even school politics, such as class "president"
- Carrying a firearm as a policeman or security guard
- Marrying a non-Witness
- Attending another church
- Not attending a remote Kingdom Hall during your vacation
- Talking to an apostate (like I supposedly am)
- Having dinner with an XJW not in your immediate family
- Reading the Bible with any XJW, even immediate family
- Socializing more than a few times a year with relatives who were never Witnesses
- Hang gliding
- Smoking or chewing tobacco
- Hanging a cross on your wall
- Hanging wind chimes on your porch
- Maintaining friendships with non-Witness friends
- Having coffee after work with co-workers
- Not turning in your best friend to keep the congregation "clean"
- Spending less than 10 hours a month in door-to-door preaching
- Missing weekly meetings (3 times a week required)
- Studying the Bible without Watchtower literature

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you Andrew for your quick response.

I appreciate the list of rules, however you did not elaborate on any of them.  Can you please chose the one that you disagree with and tell me why you think this is a "bad" rule. e.g. how does it go against the Bible.

There are some of the things you mentioned that do not seem bad at all to me such as

- Premarital or extramarital sex
- Using any recreational drug not prescribed by a doctor
- Smoking or chewing tobacco

I can understand from a health perspective why the above are not good practice and for - Premarital or extramarital sex - why that does not fit in with Bible teaching.  

Answer
Dear Gordon,

> however you did not elaborate on any of them

I my 2nd-to-last paragraph, I elaborated on one item in the list. Please re-read.

Whether a teaching goes against the Bible or any other spiritual authority is a theological question, and therefore outside my area of expertise. I do not address theological questions nor critique anyone's spiritual beliefs nor set spiritual guidelines that others should be expected to follow. It is not the place of any man to do such things.

> There are some of the things you mentioned that do not
> seem bad at all to me such as
> Premarital or extramarital sex
> Using any recreational drug not prescribed by a doctor
> Smoking or chewing tobacco

I already addressed this in my 3rd-to-last paragraph. Please re-read. It is not whether it is OK to do anything in the list, but rather it is whether it is OK to tell people what they can and cannot do, and cut them off from their families and communities if they do not comply.

Do you feel it is the Christian way to disapprove of others and then use such disapproval as an excuse to withhold compassion from them? Or is Christianity not rather a faith which teaches that "God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten son"? and that "God is love"?

I do not claim that the Witness rules are "bad" rules. Rather my claim is that they use their rules as a means of exerting extraordinary control, and measuring compliance, and therefore it is not any particular "rule" but rather the collective set of rules and the way they are applied and the mindset that one group of men can and should set standards for another which becomes problematic.

Adults do not properly exercise such influence on one another. Rather we properly set standards for ourselves and our children.

I have not claimed that people should be free to do anything illegal or immoral; rather I do claim that adults claiming to believe in God are accountable to God, not to each other; and that no man has a better connection with God than any other. These are social and political issues.

The theological aspects of these matters is up to each individual to decide, and I respect their right to make such determinations for themselves. However, I have the expertise and therefore authority to comment on the social and political aspects:

Those claiming to have "better connection" with God and therefore a right to control the lives of others are selling something. Are they not?

What do you think of these particular prohibited items from my list?

- Extracurricular school activities such as football or drama
- Joining any organization other than theirs
- Attending a University to increase earning power or for self development (OK if only to earn modestly)
- Taking a blood transfusion
- Celebrating any holiday or birthday
- Performing the hand-over-heart gesture during national anthem
- Allowing your child to participate in any holiday or birthday
- Voting
- Any participation in political process
- Even school politics, such as class "president"
- Carrying a firearm as a policeman or security guard
- Reading the Bible with any XJW, even immediate family
- Socializing more than a few times a year with relatives who were never Witnesses
- Hang gliding
- Hanging wind chimes on your porch
- Maintaining friendships with non-Witness friends
- Having coffee after work with co-workers
- Not turning in your best friend to keep the congregation "clean"
- Studying the Bible without Watchtower literature

And most notably, one that I omitted before but is perhaps the most important one:
- Exercising unconditional love

Did you know that the Witnesses actually teach that unconditional love is wrong?

If you do not see the problem with these things, which most non-Witnesses see immediately, then perhaps you are already further along in your Witness indoctrination than you realize.

Best wishes,
Andrew