Will the WTBTS ever become mainstream like the WWCG?

by donny 15 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  donny

  Back during the 80's and 90's, I occasionally heard statements lumping the Society in with the likes of the Worldwide Church of God who had very similar teachings and even believed in 1975 as being a year that God would act (1975 in Prophecy! by Herbert W. Armstrong). Clearly the roots of the WWCG were from the same as the Societys and both groups were viewed as cults. Then during the 1990's the leadership abandoned many of its unique teachings and became more mainstream and in 1997 they were admitted into the National Association of Evangelicals.

  Is it possible the possible the Society will become mainstream in the future or do you think it will always try to hold on to the "truth" moniker?
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  BabaYaga

  You know, with the "blood fractions" bit, I really thought they were lining up to do away with the blood pariah altogether.
  
  Now, with the recent tightening in (with no college, no speaking to disfellowshipped ones, even tighter on reading and the internet, and a new drama about not helping the poor, burn your books instead!) I am really thinking that the blood fraction change was a legal matter to protect their own ASSETS, and nothing more.
  
  They are becoming tighter, smaller, and more cult-like, not the other way around.
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  hamilcarr

  You never know. The recent tightening could be the last spasm of a withering generation.
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  megs

  Based on everything I've read, I'm inclined to believe what Baba Yaga said. If anything, they are becoming more unconventional with their doctrines and exclusivist m entality. Since they were unconventional to begin with this is no small feat...
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  OnTheWayOut

  Praise the powers that be- I think the JW's missed the path of mainstreaming.
  Mormons are (IMO) much stranger and cultish, yet they caught the path.
  WWCG had to (unprecidently) apologize for their previous leader to mainstream.
  I don't think WTS will succeed in apologizing for their blunders- they have gone
  too far past them in denial of mistakes. Admitting their errors now or in the future
  will cause too many to leave. Hardly anybody joins now except in lands where
  the JW's are new and people don't have handy access to the internet. The internet
  thing will change and everything new gets old.
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  navytownroger

  I don't think the Witnesses have ANY intention of becoming more mainstream. They are too invested in being different & 'not part of the World'. They may change a bit around the edges for legal reasons or to update their failed predictions (1914) but I don't foresee any big effort to appeal to the masses. All the better for them to withdraw more deeply into an air-tight box divorced from reality. Hopefully more & more members will get fed up with it all & drop out.
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  catbert

  Jehovah's Witnesses have the lowest retention rate of any religious tradition.
  Only 37% of all those who say they were raised as Jehovah's Witnesses still
  identify themselves as Jehovah's Witnesses.
  
  http://pewresearch.org/pubs/743/united-states-religion
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  WTWizard

  I think they are going to become one of the most dangerous cults ever. While they will stop short of mass suicide, they will spiritually quarantine their members and make it impossible for them to ever leave. And they will not ever have access to outside information. Unlike the suicide cults, this is going to go on as they continue scamming people in.

  If they get their way, they will usurp control of the whole world. At which point, they will plunge the whole human race into the Second Dark Ages. That will be a time that will make the First Dark Ages look like an age of enlightenment.
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  Not Feeling It

  They are too invested in being different & 'not part of the World'.

  Agreed, NavyTownRoger. They wear it like a badge of pride.

  All in all, I think there is a serious dichotomy in the org. There are hard-liners, peace-and-lovers, strict, lenient, robotic, and willful. Makes for interesting family dynamic in my neck of the woods! I still contest that the jeudgemental, hard-liners are the majority.

  -- Not Feeling It
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  AuntBee

  There is a video about this topic concerning the WWCG at this web site: www.lhvm.org/wcg.htm. (I hope that works. If it doesn't, the name of the organization is LIving Hope Ministries.) This video is very interesting; it's an amazing story.