It makes sense that the Watchtower would keep track of which homes have been visited in the door-to-door witnessing efforts, what the responses were, and the like.

But it also keeps detailed records on the number of hours individual Witnesses put in each month in the field service. They are expected to hand in written monthly reports.

Why? It’s a control mechanism. Continue reading

In Matthew 5:32, Jesus said, “I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”

Rather than teaching this scripture and then leaving the matter of divorce and remarriage to the consciences of the Witnesses involved, Watchtower elders follow a complex set of rules to determine whether a divorced Jehovah’s Witness is “scripturally free to remarry.” Continue reading

Not surprisingly, given the legalistic environment of the Watchtower, a Jehovah’s Witness who becomes aware of “serious wrongdoing” on the part of another Witness is supposed to make sure that the congregation elders are or become aware of it. Continue reading

After nearly six years of threatening married Jehovah’s Witnesses with disfellowshipping if they engaged in “repugnant” and “unnatural” sexual practices, the Watchtower relented—sort of… Continue reading

In the previous post, I documented the Watchtower’s intrusive regulation of the intimate sexual conduct of married Jehovah’s Witness couples.

This marital micromanagement became a major problem for the organization. But how did the organization find out what married Witness couples were or weren’t doing in the privacy of their own bedrooms?

The Witnesses told them!

Why would they disclose such intimate information? Because of the Watchtower culture which requires Witnesses to report their own wrongdoing to the elders. Continue reading