Exactly when did the Jehovah's Witnesses start backpedaling?

Question

I have been out for a while, but I KNEW it was not my imagination that when I was in, information we received from the Watchtower Society was considered "precious food from the faithful and discreet slave."

Lately I have been shocked to see answers from JWs which describe the WBTS as a "mere legal instrument" used by JWs, and even some answers that can be considered a denunciation. This was unheard of in the past!

Wikipedia says, ""Watchtower Society" has also been used synonymously with the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses, even in their own literature, such as in the book Worldwide Security Under the Prince of Peace (1986) OCLC 15485620. More recently, Jehovah's Witnesses want to be more clear about making a difference between the Watchtower Society and the organization."

So when did the change occur, and do you think the need to distance themselves from WBTS was more in response to the sexual abuse allegations, or the UN scandal?

Achtung, I at least applaud your concession here that a correlation did previously exist, despite your assertions to the contrary on other answers. However, the correlation existed between what you call “the faithful and discreet slave” and The Watchtower Society. Further, this notion was deliberately perpetuated by the WTS, and was not the result of any overzealous individual JW or "imprecise reference".

Likewise, to the extent that "such a correlation no longer exists", this new stance is also being deliberately perpetuated by the WTS.

Answer 1

I was in "the truth" from 1969 to 1996. In informal conversations, JW's have always talked like "the society" IS the leaders of the organization, much in the same way people refer to the Pope in RC Church means the religion itself.
Conversations such as "The society recommends not going to college." To outsiders, this was jargon. But JW's understood it to mean "The faithful and discreet slave class under God's directions says not to go to college." It is one and the same within the organization. The information received from the society, FDSC, Bethel, Governing Body, or even elders and overseers were considered to be the organization's directions and thus the way the religion stood on whatever was being discussed which was to be adhere to as if it came from God himself.

I too have noticed the turn to "just a legal instrument" stance and completely understand it as the hypocricy it is. To distance themselves from any negativity, the followers are trying to do some major public relations spinning, or "dog and pony show" and "smoke and mirrors". BUT I still hear phrases such as mentioned earlier from my children when discussing certain spiritual topics. So no matter what their public spin might be, underneath and within their inner circles, nothing has changed in reality. It's still just as hypocritical as it's always been.

I think it comes from their desire NOT to be seen as followers of men within the NY headquarters of the WBTS.

Answer 2

Jehovah's Witnesses look to the bible as their only significant authority, and no true Jehovah's Witness could ever be convinced to disobey or disrespect God's Word, including its teachings by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Of course, within their local congregations, Jehovah's Witnesses respect (but do not cultishly pine after) local "older men" who are appointed to serve as elders, overseers, and shepherds locally. Similarly, the global Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses benefits from the maturity, oversight, and shepherding performed by a central "Governing Body" of elders. In previous decades, there was a close correlation between this "Governing Body" and the corporate officers of the various legal instruments used by Jehovah's Witnesses.

Such a correlation no longer exists.

When an older publication of Jehovah's Witnesses asserted some connection between the work of Jehovah's Witnesses and some "Watch Tower Society", that publication merely used an imprecise reference to the legal entity itself (rather than to the body of elders who served as the corporate officers of that legal entity).

Incidentally, here is the only quote from "Worldwide Security Under the Prince of Peace" would could be construed as this questioner (and Wikipedia, apparently) does:

Chapter 11, page 95 paragraph 12
[quote]
This noteworthy fulfillment of the prophecy has been carried out by Jehovah’s Witnesses under the supervision of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.[unquote]

Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/jt/index.htm?article=article_07.htm
http://jw-media.org/people/who.htm

Answer 3

What Wikipedia says is true - Some INDIVIDUALS do use the term Watchtower Society interchangeably with Jehovah's Organization, but it is NOT TRUE the we as a whole do, nor does the WTS itself do so.

A careful search of the publication "Worldwide Security Under the Prince of Peace" revealed no such instance to me.

Answer 4

In time of proscriptions the first thing the goverments do is close the branchs and stop the spread of the good news with that measure, you can close here but we can keep working in other places, internet is as evrything in the world good or Bad depends of the use you do if that is wrong to be aware of Pornography, gambling online etc, then was a sin.

How many kingdom halls have you seen that must be sell to pay for a demand in sexual abuse as we see in the news?

Answer 5

this is more of a question than an answer but, if the WBTS is merely a "legal entity," does being disfellowshipped from the legal entity not really separate you from your relationship with christ and the church? So the WBTS isn't necessary for a relationship with God?

I must not be making the connection here.

Answer 6

Perhaps if they backpedal faster they will say something along the lines like "Hi I am a Jehovah's Witness, but we have nothing to do withe the Watchtower Society and/or WTBS. Infact its perfectly fine to openly disagree with their writings or articles or teachings."

Answer 7

I noticed this same trend, but I have observed it going back even farther. Like many religions, JW's deny their racist past. they have backpedaled on predictions. They originally shunned the idea of going to college. They were very anti-internet at 1st. I used to respect the JW's to a degree for certain principles that seemed less hypocritical than most branches of christianity, but the line gets blurrier all the time.