by Fisherman 9 Replies latest watchtower bible
Jws have died rather than to comprise.
The intenet though has made public different perspectives on wts beliefs and policies that the average jw would not have even thought posible to consinder that such viewpoint existed. No doubt, jw officials and other sheeplike ones have been exposed to that information and so has the public in general. The information on the internet and in the media is challenging to the wts.
Has the wts ever changed because of such information?
yes they do if u think about it especially about 1914 checkout http://sixscreensofthewatchtower.com
Interesting. I definitely think the XJW "apostate" websites forced the WTS to get their own official internet site. It was too much to ignore. This represented a new challenge they had to meet. Plus I'm sure they had to address warning the members around the dangers of the net on several levels, not just apostate stuff.
On a similar vein, they have been influenced by popular culture as well in a rather strange way. Russell and others wore beards when that was the fashion back then. But then men started being clean shaven, which was the new "Christian" look. After the hippie era, where unattended beards were associated with that movement, they forbade brothers to wear beards. It meant new ones coming into the truth who happened to wear a well-trimmed beard as part of their personal style had to shave it off. I always considered that an unncessary rule and burden, and one I think they were slow to correct. In fact, it might still be in place, even though nobody remembers the hippies now.
Just another reason I'm glad I'm far away from that oppressive cult.
JC
They beefed up their child abuse policy.
They dropped association with the UN DPI.
Actually they almost instantly dropped their UN affiliation once it became public.
They changed the penalty for taking a blood transfusion from disfellowshipping to disassociating yourself. They wanted a better image with the governments they were trying to get recognition in, that the WTS wasn't forcing people to make the decision that it was supposedly their own decision. At first nonjws in the media thought that was a good thing until ex-jws informed them that these jws would be shunned and treated the same way whether the term was DF or DA.
Blondie
Up until the Dateline on pedophilia show 5 years ago, there was never any explicit written document confirming parents' "absolute right" to report abuse of their own children to the authorities. However, in response to that program, a letter was sent to all congregations describing that "right" that was granted to them.
I have noticed one big change. They are constantly hounding people to stay off the Internet and to not pay attention to the media. There is, of course, the exception that anything that originates with the Watchtower Society itself is exempt from these rules.
After Kerry Louderback-Wood's article slamming the WT for not specifying "Hemologin" was now allowed by the WT, thus keeping the members in the dark, and opening the WT to lawsuit....the WT printed an article 6 months later that specifically allowed Hemoglobin.
If they do, then of course they would never admit it ...
However it is evident that they have changed important doctrine because of the passing of time and simple non fulfillment of the predictions . I am thinking of the generation of 1914, and more recently the completion or not of the gathering of the anointed in 1935. Therefore they follow events with doctrines rather than leading with spirit directed predictions, as they would have you believe
