Just Like Us

Yep, good people everywhere.

Will they admit they copied the Mormons?

Do an image search for “scientology volunteer ministers” to see many more yellow shirts. As much as I don’t like Scientology, I do think this is cool. I’m not sure they’d ever admit that they totally stole that from us, though. Or did we steal it from them? Probably doesn’t matter.

I see a lot of vitriol against “advertising” using yellow shirts in angrier forums than this one. I think the vitriol is misplaced. Who doesn’t love to be able to identify the cavalry when they arrive? Why not help people who are hurt, hungry and lost by arriving in a sea of gold, like the dawn after a dreadful night?

I have had the opportunity to serve for hundreds of hours with my set of yellow shirts. At first I was a bit bitter about the “advertising”, but I think there are some practical issues that made me back off from this. When helping a few weeks ago a homeowner next to a house we were working on had a truck pull up and guys just started tearing out sheetrock without even talking with her much. She came over and asked if they were “with us.” She was worried they were really there go through her stuff looking for valuables.

I hate how much it was advertised after the fact. We need the top leaders to come and do a photo op as much as Puerto Rico needed Trump to toss out paper towels.

What I do have an issue with is why they don’t move from t-shirts to vests. I have seen a few vests that would fit a wider range of people, would let someone swap out their shirt once it is drenched. But I am just too much of an engineer!

I’m convinced the JWs have copied us to a huge degree. Not all in a negative way, but one of the most obvious things I noticed about JW is that as well as being better organized it is also esthetically very similar.

One other way in which they copied us is a sudden emphasis on family. I believe they never had this back in the seventies.

Some parallel evolution but really much more than that. JW top brass was practically invisible for a while but again, since the 1970s, they have what are effectively general authorities, seventies and apostles by other names. And it has to be admitted we did all this first!

I am increasingly aware of how little difference there is between Mormonism and all other -isms.

Like the light going through the prism that is in my avatar… There are different shades of the same light.

Sort of. There are similarities and differences. An outsider would see JWs and LDS as very similar. An insider can see massive differences – temples, the afterlife, additional scriptures, military service, blood donations etc.

This doesn’t invalidate my point above. I do think the JWs have copied us. We came before them in many regards.

This doesn’t invalidate my point above. I do think the JWs have copied us. We came before them in many regards.

Your point is totally valid, and I didn’t intend to invalidate it.

I like how you said we see the differences depending on the point of view…inside or outside…where we are looking at it from…which accounts for many times people talking past each other.

Also, methodists were there before we were, and so on. We have certainly done our share of borrowing from others. I also wonder how much they knowingly copied us, or if they were just having good ideas around the same time we were having good ideas…perhaps, as you said, a little afterwards.

Don’t worry Heber, I was trying to make it clear I wasn’t backtracking on previous comments. No offense taken.

Yes, you are spot on. We are highly influenced by Methodists. You notice that with the fact we have a highly Protestant garb and chapel style coupled with more Anglican/Episcopalian style hymns that the Presbyterians might not have (although we have been influenced by them too.)

The major – though rarely commented on – parallel is with the Campbellites who were big into restoring the NT church.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbellite

I also wonder how much they knowingly copied us, or if they were just having good ideas around the same time we were having good ideas…perhaps, as you said, a little afterwards.

In the case of the JWs – who I am discussing elsewhere, there is parallel evolution – the suits and dull clothing don’t come from us but a wider Protestant context. Going out in twos is Biblical. The stuff about families being together is definitely from us. The website design has many original features but too much of a resemblence.