Thursday, March 20, 2008

Dress and Grooming for Visitors Touring Bethel


One sign of a cult is that they try to exert a lot of control over their members, even in small things. This is the case with Jehovah's Witnesses and it appears to be getting worse.


Jehovah's Witnesses now have a tract to explain how visitors to their headquarters (known as Bethel) should dress. A scanned copy can be seen here, along with a discussion of it.


Bethel includes factories where their literature is published. They are asking visitors to wear some pretty fancy clothes for factory tours. What about people with health problems who may require comfortable shoes? Isn't it demeaning to women to insist that they wear a skirt instead of pants or even dress slacks? They claim to welcome the public to tour their facilities, but I doubt they will feel welcome in that overly strict environment.


This tract claims that we have to be careful about offending or stumbling others. Personally, I'm offended by any religion that tries to control their members' lives with endless rules and regulations. It is OK to encourage someone to use their conscience. However, it appears that the leadership of Jehovah's Witnesses is trying to be so controlling that their members don't need a conscience.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi! I'm still a JW from Spain and the blog is very interesting.
This week the meeting was very boring. I mean more than usually. What kind of religion speak more about what you can dress than of religion itself?

Anonymous said...

Hello im a unbabtized publisher studying with jehovahs wittnesses. The organization has served as a protection for me. Ive become part of a family that is filled with intense love. As for a concsience this is something that we as humans have to train. Their grooming standards are based on bible principles. Never do they tell you what to do. Jehovah has blessed us with freedom of choice. Unlike an animal which acts on instinct. We as humans have personalities and opinions which leads to choices that make us who we are. What a loving god, and creator Jehovah is to have given us such a provision. "luke5:7 "I tell you thus there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner that repents, than over ninety nine righteous ones who have no need of repentance"