Privacy Act? What Privacy Act?
How long have you been studying with Jehovah’s Witnesses? Did you realize that from the very first time you spoke with them, they were gathering information on you and recording it?
They gathered information on you that would help them convert you; your type of work, your interests, things that concerned you - all good stuff that could be used to get you to purchase more magazines and books. Information they would write down and use later to make it appear that they were really interested in you. Some of this information was then reported to the congregation.
When you accepted a Bible study things really went up a notch. Your Bible study conductor started to fill out formal congregation reports on your study that were submitted each month to the congregation secretary (an elder or overseer). The secretary would then compile this information into a "congregation" report that was sent to the societies branch office in Auckland.
New Zealand has privacy laws, designed to protect the privacy of individuals that are by and large ignored by Jehovah’s Witnesses – when was the last time they advised you that they were gathering information about you?
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Field Service Reports
Each witness must fill in a monthly report which details exactly how many hours they spent in the house to house work, how many magazines, books, tracts and Bibles they sold ("placed" in Watch Tower jargon) that month, how many "return visits" and how many Bible studies they conducted. A "Return Visit" is any follow up visit to someone who has shown some interest – usually by purchasing some magazines.
Then for each Bible study they conducted, a separate report is filled out which lists the persons name, address, what Watch Tower publication is studied, how often, and any other relevant comments.
Many active witnesses dread the end of the month because it is report time. You see there are acceptable amounts for each of these items to be reported. Falling below these minimum amounts is a serious problem, it indicates spiritual weakness.
The measure of a witnesses spiritual strength is the amount of time they spend in the house to house work and the amount of literature they "place", not their love, or faith or any of the other "fruits of the Holy Spirit".
Failing to report in any month earns the witness a special mention in the congregations report to the branch office – the witness is listed as "irregular", which is a label most witnesses are terrified of. Essentially it means the witness is failing and other witnesses should be wary of that person. Once so labeled, the witness must report continuously for the next six months before the label is removed. If the witness fails to report for six months their label is changed to "inactive" – a polite way of saying the individual is dead spiritually.
I once read an article in The WatchTower about someone who falsified their report and was caught out. This article pointed out the "proper" response to such an individual. No doubt this article was published because the society had become aware that falsifying reports was a world wide problem, and local congregations needed some "guidance" on how to deal with such persons.
Can you imagine the amount of pressure individual witnesses are under – the sort of pressure that would make them falsify their reports?
Christ said that Christians would find "refreshment for their souls" if they came to him. This sort of pressure on each and every witness is not refreshing.
Do you really want your spirituality to be denegrated to obsessing over numbers of publications sold or the number of hours worked this month?
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