Managing a doomsday cult

by Half banana 23 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • Half banana
    Half banana

    The WTBTS have only one objective: to keep their religious engine on the tracks.

    The pastoral care of their followers (although they would publicly deny it) is right at the bottom of their priorities.They demand abject loyalty. As a matter of sociological fact the subscribers to the Watchtower belief are on average placed at the lowest rung of the income ladder and in the bottom category of the least educated of religious groups. An educated following could not cope with the contradictions and absurdities.

    The key facilitator of the Watchtower objective is to have the money keep on rolling in... Forget the needs of the flock!

    A doomsday cult is all about the marketing of hope...the ever imminent arrival of reward for your loyalty to the cult. The cult never has to prove its abilities to furnish satisfaction because it relies on the mind and lifestyle control of its customers through its propaganda machine in relation to the spurious hope. It works only on the basis of “hope” and strictly not on the realisation of what that hope is for. This is the religious scam. This is what keeps the money coming in.

    But here is my point, in the last century from around 1927 onward the WTBTS promoted a plausible untruth that those who saw 1914 would also see Armageddon. Like every other fatuous edict from the Watchtower, delivered with threat and promise; it failed. In the last century they convinced people that they alone had exclusive divine attention and pointed to the events of 1914 as if they had predicted WW1 by divine providence. This belief is a travesty of what was actually prophesied. Instead of religious glory it was a disaster and Russell knew it. With JC ruling in the heavens since 1878, it was taught that by 1914 he would bring the destruction of all of “God’s enemies” along with the rapture of the consecrated (anointed) and the earth returned to paradise by then. Not surprisingly more than half the membership (or was it two thirds?) decided not to follow Joe Frankly Ratherflawed who had dishonourably grabbed control of the magazine but could not control the proprietorship of the Russellite beliefs, for they splintered into various sects.

    The 1914 untruth is no longer evidence for their claim for exclusive divine attention. The “overlapping generations” fools nobody; it only exposes the GB desperation. The consistent prophetic failures of the Watchtower are evidence that Big J is not interested in them, if he were interested or if he existed at all, he would have got it right the first time! So without the theological fixture of 1914, to what other myths about themselves can this doomsday cult resort, to demonstrate that God is exclusively using them?

  • hoser
    hoser
    I say they should have come clean about 1914 already cut their losses and moved on with a new date. I don't think many buy into the overlapping nonsense anyway.
  • DATA-DOG
    DATA-DOG

    It's more a social club with underlying threats of death.

    DD

  • The Searcher
    The Searcher

    My best friend (n/p Catholic) asked me how any reasonable Witness could not see the through the Org's monumental lie that a person's own death wipes out their sins! (based on a literal interpretation of Romans 6:7)

    He then said he understood why they would concoct this fallacy; because then the rank & file could entice potential recruits with a "carrot", namely, that even though their dead loved one was mass-murderer, and a serial paedophile, and a major drug-dealer, and a devout atheist, and a member of an Islamic group who beheaded Christians - all their evil deeds were wiped out by their own death, and they will get a resurrection!!

    Wonderful, where do I sign?

  • Vidiot
    Vidiot

    Half banana - "The WTBTS have only one objective: to keep their religious engine on the tracks."

    Yup.

    It's the fundamental underlying objective behind anything and everything they say or do.

    (Ironic, considering just how much it seems to be going off the rails these days. )

  • Magnum
    Magnum

    I agree with your entire post.

    So without the theological fixture of 1914, to what other myths about themselves can this doomsday cult resort, to demonstrate that God is exclusively using them?

    I wonder that myself. What is their main claim to fame now? What is their main bragging point? What is the main thing they claim identifies them as Gods' one and only chosen people?

    I asked a JW that not long ago, and her answer was "Look at the preaching work." My answer to that was "Yeah, let's look at it. You yourself know that by far the vast majority of JWs are unqualified for any preaching work and you've complained to me about it. You know that many JWs who preach have never even read the Bible and don't even know the doctrines, history, and theology of their own religion. Many of them (I gave her specific examples) could not tell you who came first - Abraham or Daniel. You yourself have complained to me before that if you get a good call in the ministry, there's nobody in the congregation, including elders, that you'd feel comfortable turning the call over to. You know that JW preaching is a huge waste of time with JWs inventing ways to just count time. They work the same easy territories over and over and refrain from going to hard territories where people are educated and can challenge them. They ride around packed in minivans and leave mags in doors, in coin laundries, etc. They call on the same old deadbeat calls over and over just to count time." At this point, to this JW's credit, she was shaking her head reluctantly in agreement with me, and she then stated clearly that I was right.

    The other point she mentioned was that JWs are unified. My answer to that: "Sure they are, and so are the North Koreans. But it's forced unity. JWs and North Koreans aren't allowed to disagree with their leaders. They're not allowed to think independently. Information to them is controlled and manipulated in a deceptive effort to keep them at unity. I believe that JWs are not really at unity, though. I believe that a lot of JWs secretly wonder about and doubt certain JW things, but they're scared to say so. Or maybe they think they're only ones who feel that way - that something is wrong with them for feeling that way - so they keep silent (think Emperor's New Clothes)." After saying this, I got the deer in headlights look - no answer - just a blank stare.

  • The Searcher
    The Searcher

    "I believe that a lot of JWs secretly wonder about and doubt certain JW things, but they're scared [terrified] to say so."

    That nails it for probably countless tens of thousands of Witnesses - and I'm certain that a lot of Elders are amongst them!

  • Billy the Ex-Bethelite
    Billy the Ex-Bethelite

    The pastoral care of their followers (although they would publicly deny it) is right at the bottom of their priorities.

    The R&F are told that they are happy and that their lives would be miserable if they were "worldly". If any JWs are having problems, they are told to rely on Jehovah and work harder in "Jehovah's organization." And if anyone dares to point out any flaws or injustices in that organization, we know it doesn't get corrected. No. The "complainer" is told to stop being critical or they'll be birdfood very soon now.

    The other point she mentioned was that JWs are unified.

    WT doesn't have unity, they enforce conformity. When you spend much time in a congregation, you start to see the gossip and conflict that flourish underneath the veneer of "unity".

  • millie210
    millie210

    I would wonder if one of the "new selling points" is all the languages they are putting out Bible information in.

    I am thinking about those translation hubs they are supposedly putting in some of the real estate they acquired in Florida.

    Think about it. Who needs a physical building to translate languages? That could be done on a laptop on a street corner as long as someone knows the language.

    So that makes me wonder if that is their new claim to fame,"look at all our languages"!!!

  • The Searcher
    The Searcher

    The UK Branch bought a beautiful house for the Welsh language "translation committee".

    Property speculation again!

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