by eyeslice 20 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
" Jehovah's Chariot is on the move !" Where to ? to hide in the Wilderness ?
I think stuff like this MUST add to the Cognitive Dissonance of those starting to wake up. Even when I was a practicing and believing JW, when they used to spin stuff as a " Blessing", or "Evidence we are deep in to the time of the End" I use to think then , " No it isn't" .
I remember reading some where that in Mexico they culled a lot of the English congs. Apparently the locals were attending for free English lessons. Or maybe there was some arbitrary rule about you couldn’t go unless you were a native speaker. Wt is good at arbitrary rules.
At least part of it is probably just to free up time in the now-overbooked Kingdom Halls, some of which are hosting 4-5 fullsize congregations. There are only so many time slots to have scheduled meetings.
Good. This means that my learning German is going to make it even more miserable for them to get back through to me. About all they have in this region, besides English, is Spanish and a few that speak Italian or French. And, with the partially deserved reputation of being such a hard language to learn, hardly any jokehovians are going to bother learning German (the grammar is quite difficult, but the vocab, spelling, and pronunciation are actually fairly easy) just to get me back in.
Under that logic, the next GB generation have a perfect reason to stop or redesign preaching altogether because if there are no more people interested in those biblical studies........let us redirect our efforts to something else.
Jeezus...
...downsize the property assets...
...downsize the meetings...
...downsize the ministry work...
...downsize the literature output...
...downsize the foreign language efforts...
...WTF is gonna be left?
Phizzy - "Even when I was a practicing and believing JW, when they used to spin stuff as a 'Blessing', or 'Evidence we are deep in to the time of the End' I use to think then, 'No it isn't'..."
"Everything is proof we're right! Even the stuff that contradicts the other stuff!"
Know what's really funny?
Back when I was still in (but by my mid-30s, terribly unhappy), a big part of me genuinely hoped that was true...
...specifically because I foolishly assumed that once the Big A was actually one and done, I'd finally be free of the Org.
I actually felt sick to my stomach when it became painfully clear (from both platform talks and in correspondence/literature) that the Watchtower Society explicitly planned on governing the entire world - with the Warwick compound serving as the de facto capital, no less - for the full Thousand-Year Reign, if not longer.
I didn't want to live on this planet, anymore.
Organizational changes such as these are always driven by one or several of the following reasons:
-- Protection of organization assets
-- Protection of organizational prestige
-- Maintenance or extension of power over adherents
I don't see how closing down foreign language congregations / groups would help with the first 2 items on the list.
So it must be item 3 - maintenance of control.
That seems to fit - I recall hearing a discussion not long ago of "concern" by some elders about young JWs joining foreign language groups because it was the "in" thing to do. They were doing it because it made them (the JW kids) look good in the eyes of their peers ("yeah, look at me, I'm so spiritual, I'm pioneering in the Mandarin group") but they weren't really "putting in the work". They didn't catch onto the language quickly, or at all, and outside of 4 hours a week at the Kingdom Hall, never spoke or even tried to learn the language. Plus it was "easy field service" - go to one address where someone speaks the language, then drive half an hour to the next address, then another half-hour drive to someone's return visit....you could spend 4, 5, 6 hours a day "in service" and never have to "give a witness".
If it bugged the elders I was listening to, they certainly would have voiced their "concerns" to the CO, who would then report back to the branch. If the branch offices were getting dozens or hundreds of those reports, well, that explains it. Can't have the kids (or other publishers) getting "easy time" and mentally checking out at meetings - they should be miserable just like everyone else.
Apparently the locals were attending for free English lessons.
Lol can't have someone getting an actual benefit out of the meetings.
FFGhost - "...Protection of organization assets... Protection of organizational prestige... Maintenance or extension of power over adherents..."
Yup. The second one is, IMO, the most important, though.
These days, every decision the WTS makes... every decision... is crafted with the overarching goal of maintaining the illusion of "God's Exclusive Earthly Organization".
Maintaining membership loyalty and discipline is a no-brainer, as long as the R&F subscribes to that fiction (what True Believer would dare leave that, after all?)...
...but more importantly, protecting the Society's assets - or, more accurately, staying fiscally solvent - is vital in maintaining the religion's continued functionality, and therefore - from their POV - cannot be allowed to be eroded (how could "God's Exclusive Earthly Organization" fail financially, after all?).
It's the reason I think the WTS has been fighting so hard - and making such seemingly counterintuitive decisions - to keep its "charity" status... I suspect that the Org's business model has become almost completely dependent on its tax-exemption to stay in the black.
Unfortunately for them...
...as we dive further and further into the 21st Century, it seems like it's becoming increasingly tricky to make the necessary adjustments that secular authorities require to keep said tax-exemption without undermining the Organizational fiction.
