A Series of Tubes

So in my previous post I mentioned the numerous books that I recently came across about Jehovah’s Witnesses.  Below is a picture from the book Jehovah’s Witnesses:  Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom.  It is a picture of the governing body of the Jehovah’s witnesses as of January 1992.

The first thing I noticed is that Milton looks an awful lot like Jean Luc Picard.  For comparison see the photo below:

The second thing that I noticed is that every single person in the picture is a very old white male.  I wondered why this was considering that in other pages of the book there are pictures of Jehovah’s witnesses trying to convert spreading God’s word across the globe, with no preference to race or gender.  Well I found part of my answer in my trusty Reasoning from the Scriptures.

“Is the assigning of headship to men demeaning to women?”

I should stop before I quote the response in the book.  Please note that the intrinsic assumption of the question is that of headship of men.  The question is not “Does the bible support a patriarchal society?” because it is obvious that it does.  The question is instead “Is the patriarchal society commanded by the bible bad for women?”  On to the answer:

“Being under headship is not in itself demeaning.  Headship contributes to the handling of matters in an orderly arrangement, and Jehovah is “God, not of disorder, but of peace.”(1 Cor. 14:33)  Jesus Christ is under the headship of Jehovah God, and he finds great satisfaction in that relationship. -John 5:19, 20; 8:29; 1Cor, 15:27, 28.”

So you see, God is on top, then Jesus, then Man, then Women, and I’ll assume that there is something below women. It is explained a little later that man does not have absolute control of women.  That is because there are things above man, specifically Jesus and God.  Man cannot tell women to do something that would go against something God has commanded. For example: Man is allowed to tell women to make them a sandwich because God is indifferent on the matter, however man cannot tell women that they should get a blood transfusion to save their life because that would go against God’s commands (Specifically: Acts 15:28, 29; Lev. 17:10; Gen 9:3,4).

Getting back to the original picture of all those white guys, the reason they are all male is more explicitly explained in another question and answer in Reasoning from the Scriptures (page 432):

“Should women be ministers?

Those charged with oversight of a congregation are described in the bible as being males.  The 12 apostles of Jesus Christ were all males, and those later appointed to be overseers and ministerial servants in Christian congregations were males. (Mat. 10:1-4; 1 Tim. 3:2,12) Women are counseled to “learn in silence and with full submissiveness” at congregational meetings, in that they do not raise questions challenging the men in the congregation.  The women are ‘not to speak’ at such meetings if what they might say would demonstrate lack of subjection.  (1 Tim. 2:11, 12; 1 Cor. 14:33, 34)  Thus, although women make valuable contributions to the activity of the congregation, there is no provision for them to preside, or to take the lead by instructing the congregation, when qualified men are present.”

Well the Jehovah’s witnesses do site the bible for their convictions.  I’d argue with them about it but unfortunately the argument has already been settled:

Of course if they want their sign to be a bit more accurate they should make their cartoon character about 40 years older.