What is the purpose of having so many testimony meetings since it is obviously NOT a teaching method?
There appear to be several reasons:
As a method of getting members to vow deeper submission and willingness to the group mindset, e.g. “to surrender ALL and become as a little child.”
As a method of monitoring the submission of members, “to endure unto the end.”
To monitor who ISN’T taking part so they can do something about that.
As a method of earning “brownie points” with the workers at convention or special meetings.
To influence certain people the workers are “working on,” to get them to submit, obey or believe something.
To draw people together since they all have to give their testimony, they feel obligated to be in every meeting.
To keep everyone spouting the “party line” in constant affirmations which actually acts as subconscious messages of control.
The head workers have consistently used the testimonial meeting as a method of monitoring how submissive the members are to their message and control. They use the same method to monitor the workers. They have little interest in whether the testimony is scripturally correct or not. They appear more concerned with the submissive quality of the prayers and testimonies of each person, worker or saint, to detect any questions, deviance from the “party line” or rebellion to the dress and behavior code.
If they do notice any red flags, they will watch him closely, find out who his friends are, or who he may be talking to outside of the group, then they will start preaching at him in their sermons. They will visit him at home and drop hints in the form of clichés or stories about other people they have known who have had similar questions or attitudes.
If that doesn’t suffice to control the person, they will go to other family members or friends and express concern over the dissident. This is also done in an effort to warn family and friends not to accept any information from him. That often works to whip the person into shape and isolate him from others. If it doesn’t, the workers may come to visit again and bring in a stronger worker who can intimidate him with scare tactics: Threatening that he may “lose out” if he persists in whatever he is doing or thinking.
They are usually slow in their process of excommunicating anyone. They would rather have a person continue coming to meeting, even if he is opposed to the doctrinal beliefs of the group, than to let him leave. (As long as he is quiet about his beliefs). They may take years to act, hoping that the questions will go away. They usually do. Most people give in after several months of these subtle, coercive techniques. On some occasions, if the offending members have meeting in their home, the workers use subtle techniques to inform members who attend that meeting, to refrain from going, thus, the offending members are slowly, methodically, over several months, excommunicated by SHUNNING.
If the dissident happens to be a worker, the head worker will call him on the carpet, talk to him, warn him and try to soothe his feelings with either sympathy or firmness. If that doesn’t work, they will send him out of town or out of state to a less populated spot where his attitude won’t cause them any trouble. Many times, they place him with a rigid hard-liner old worker in hopes that the old worker can get the offending worker straightened out. If he continues to exert his own independent convictions, they will take him out of the work.
There is generally never even a question from others as to why the worker was dropped. If members persist in questioning as to what happened to ‘so-and-so’ worker, the workers will hide details and spin tales about what happened to that particular worker. They are always evasive!! The people and other workers assume that God is in control, so to ask why someone is dropped would be to question the Lord. No one would think of such a thing!!!
In fact, most people assume that if God has dropped this person, then they better not have anything to do with him either. Most Ex-workers are heartbroken by the lack of interest shown to them by the people they have sacrificed their lives for.
Revised April 9, 2012