Two brothers doing the territory stopped in at my place. I kept them on the step. After some hellos and catching up, I said “So you folks are on TV now”. I was quickly corrected. I should have said “We” are on TV now. I said “OK that’s nice to know I’m still included”. They insisted I was still deeply loved by the congregation. I told them I was quite shocked at the direction the organisation taking, especially after all those years of criticism of televangelists. Then I got into this year’s conventions, the “I love this city” video campaigns, jw.org tourist attraction pamphlets, guided tours of the city, brothers organising “mob” events, pop music, line dancing and disco dance lessons on the Kingdom Hall podium, trinkets and souvenirs, silly banners waved around, cheering, hooting and doing the Mexican wave at the theocratic venues. I then added, that’s why I said “you folks” because frankly, I don’t agree with all this ‘imitating the world stuff’. If ‘imitating the world’ is what it takes to get the brothers to attend the conventions, then the GB, and you guys personally, should be asking yourselves some very serious questions.
I got a sheepish, embarrassed look from one of the brothers.
But the other one went glassy-eyed and plunged into how great jw.org was, the immense success it enjoyed, and how Jehovah was behind the changes, because thousands were coming into the Truth every month now. People, especially the younger generation, were learning about jw.org because it was popping-up on their devices.
I reminded him that Jesus had taught the path was narrow, it wasn’t going to just pop-up on a device. Before, JW’s had always believed and taught an effort was involved. I added that if the number was really growing that fast perhaps he should start questioning the destination of jw.org’s path. He didn’t get it.
I looked at them both and said “What really concerns me are the buttons, stickers, etc. and everyone plastering their fingernails and cupcakes with jw.org. Family study has become family worship, and for family worship, the family makes jw.org cookies. At the conventions jw.org is up on jumbotrons 160 X 72 feet long and it’s beginning to look like Israel to me….you know” and, determined to etch a visual memory of my thoughts into their minds, I kneeled down on the pavement, did a long Mecca Bow, then finished my sentence with “…the golden calf.”
There were bystanders on the street, this was becoming too embarrassing for them and they suddenly became pressed for time.
I got quite a kick out of this discussion and thought I’d share it. I think it underlines what I’ve discovered over time. It a lot harder to get a JW out, than it is to get him in.
However, my real point is: this summer the GB has given all faders ‘a gift on a silver platter’. An easy to explain, non-doctrinal, impossible- to- disfellowship reason for leaving JW’s. A deep discomfort with the “worldly” direction the organisation is headed in.
I’m at a timeframe where it would be ridiculous to announce I was disfellowshipped, so I felt quite a ease to leave them with the added thought, “You know with all these new developments, I’m starting to wonder if you folks aren’t part of Babylon the Great, LOL”. They stopped smiling.