During a dinner conversation with a loyal JW, he mentioned that the society seems to be making stronger statements to JW's. He mentioned the "Keep On The Watch" brochure, and how it seemed to be for JW's as well as the public. He acknowledged the "personal questions" the Society were asking us, in the brochure - how pointed and direct they are, even asking you to rank your physical and spiritual activities on a scale of 1 to 10.

Of course, this JW thinks this is a sign that the end is near.

But with the "godly obedience" assembly theme for 2005, the new OM book, the relatively new brochure aimed at waking up sleeping dubs, it seems that as the cult is getting more negative exposure, they are responding to this exposure by instituting a new tyrannical crackdown on dissidents and dissident thoughts.

Having read Steve Hassans book on cults, it seems that after a major prophetic failure, a cult will get more aggressive with its members and more tyrannical and expect them to do and believe just about anything.

I feel that the Society is making its own scorched earth policy - better that we ALL go down together, then just us old men in Brooklyn.

The devotion the die hard dubs are giving the Society has gone over the border of fanatical - it's frightening to just speculate on how far a dub would go to prove his loyalty to "Jehovah's Organization"

The Watchtower has been crippled, and I say that again - crippled - by the Internet. The truth IS out there, for all believing dubs, if they would just look at it - and they are.

Elders, MS's, CO's and even DO's - men who were intensely loyal to the organization, are quitting and "preaching the word as never before."

As developing lands get computers and net connections from people like Bill Gates, it's only a matter of time before the illiterate become literate.

How can the Society respond to the biggest threat in their 126 year existence? You would have thought by now, there would have been some attempt at reform?

Of course not! These leaders are not softies - reform hurts them and hurts membership. Lightening the load for the friends is unthinkable.

Did you know anyone whose Boss asked them to do less?

Profits hurt when people are slacking - placements and donations hurt when witnesses tire of the same old repetitive life in the JW world, with very little, if any, variation.

The Society, it seems, is going to respond to these threats by doing the only thing it can do best - kill the messenger, make the loads heavier and keep that carrot spinning.

They will get malicious, even evil to get their members fanatical attention.

Those who have sold their soul to this cult have nothing to lose. They will nod their head, say, "Yes sir, three bags full sir", and "How high" when the Society tells them to do something.

A cults way of defending itself is to make life as miserble and as strict as possible. Could this be to root out those who are not true blue believers? It could well be the case.

Thus, the talks and articles you may read and hear about, will be more focused on Jehovah's Organization, than anything else.

And the litmus test for obedience for fanatical JW's, is those who are willing to terminate friendships with those who have doubts, and turn them in.

The Society is facing a war on two fronts - those who want reform and those who want things to stay the way they are.

Their message and empty rhetoric will get stronger, more pointed and will put all members on the spot.

Can you say fascist?

The WTBTS's huge weapon is Disfellowshipping.  Reform is impossible as long as they have that weapon.  They will not disarm themselves so the dubs have to do it by ignoring the weapon . No reform until that happens.

excellent post truthseeker. If we were an immunesystem you'd be a killer-T cell. Victory to the resistance!

Bas

One of my favorite songs reminds me of my life as a JW... it is called "Mad World" by Gary Jules

Scary, isn't it. People have talked on this forum before about the civil war between the hardcore authoritarians and the less-so ones. I wonder if this will ever cause a "civil war" or an actual split, of course the ones who split would be df'd and no JW would go with them.... so I guess that a split wouldn't happen.

The organizations that the WTS attributes itself to have undergone major splits in the past. The WTS is not the religion of Russell, The Bible Students. The Bible Students actually continue to exist to this day. When you think about it, technically the Jehover's Witnesses are a sect of The Bible Students.

If there is a fracture in the WTS, a few new religions will emerge and the ones loyal of each organization will declare that their religion is the one and only true religion.

There will never come a time when the organization will fracture to the point that nothing is left and leaving only the individual people to wake up and wonder off to their own destiny.

Althought this is unrelated to the topic in nature, and I have used up my two threads per day, I feel that the info given me today would be pertinent to the discussion.

I was talking to an elder about the downsizing the Society is undergoing. He told me himself, that the reason the Awake is being cut back, is because they have nothing more to write about.

He then told me that an outside company is now manufacturing and producing all the Society's tapes and CD's.

Of course, we're not told who's actually making what. All part of the secrecy of the cult - after all, they don't want anyone to think that outsourcing is not a sign of Jehovah's blessing.

When I last visited Bethel, I saw the CD recorders and tape decks myself - I thought they still made them, obviously what I was told today makes me wonder if Bethel is nothing more than a real estate corp than a printing one, if they are outsourcing.

 

Heck yeah there is hope. Tons of it! There is a lot more to life than guilt and fear.

 

 

change is in the air! Can we hope for "new light?"