by stillajwexelder 77 Replies latest watchtower scandals
Lady Lee,
I agree with you. I always remember them saying that when persecution came the home bookstudy would be where people would meet in small groups.
Well, I mentioned this fact to one of my ever-optimistic JW friends who feels that they could re-institute the home book study at some later date if necessary (if you can imagine this happening). Whatever.
LHG
Have any of you thought of this?
In the WT Isaiah books, it cited the text in Isaiah where it said when the tribulation comes, the faithful should go into their interior rooms til the wrath be past. As some of you have mentioned the book study group was considered the place of protection previously.
Lately, as it has been pointed out on this board somewhere, it was stated that the WT changed to the Kingdom Hall for the place of the interior rooms. The Church buildings of Christendom have always been considered as places of refuge, a place where someone can take sanctuary from government and hostile forces. In Vancouver BC there have been numerous cases where illegal immigrants have taken refuge in churches, sometimes for years, to avoid deportation back to their homeland.
The WT cannot disclose this information to the rank and file, it would be revealing of their policies for protection to Satan’s authorities.
Also KH mortgages are one of the biggest sources of income for WT. They want to focus the congregations attention on the buildings, and make sure that the contributions keep coming in. They want to make the K Halls as holy places, under God’s protection.
belbab
we had a missionary give a talk at our KH last week and he referred to it as "family worship night" and used that term in his prayer.
the annual meeting notes stated "spiritually strong families will survive armageddon" and went on to pump of the family study night.
there is nothing about gas. So why did they even say it? morons........
Willy - I totally agree with you. Lets face it, Mormons are a "high-control" group that had even more socially unacceptable roots than JWs with the whole polygamy issue and yet they are quite wealthy and while not mainstream are certainly close enough. Many people where I live (deep south at the moment) certainly view them as a cult (JWs too) yet I think in other parts of the country, that may not be the case. The LDS keep their folks much better than JWs do and still have an enormous amount of control. I would love to see the whole plan. We need another Franz to bolt and write a book!!
Thanks so much for posting the letter. I really appreciate that - there have been a lot of unsubstantiated rumours here.
I can't believe they actually put in the lettter that they did not want to put uncessesary burdon on people. Yeah, right. If you're a third-world person, the WTBTS uses they're persecution as great examples - i.e. walking 10 miles to go to a freaking bookstudy! Plaster that shit on your trash books, but when gas prices get too high, and "satan's persecution intensifies" (BULLSHIT!) you can drop the bookstudy.
How can people actually believe this tripe? The light just gets brighter and brighter.... and witnesses get spoon fed this crap and get dumber and dumber. Frankly, I think that people that believe this deserves they're fate - that of being unhappy morons.
Oh yes makieng more time for personal study that is such BS. Anyone crazy enough to go and do that is nuts how about spending more time with family or making a living or boweling or fishing or making love on that evening, or just plain get drunk. Can anyone tell me what else we could do with that free time?
Although they are talking about this Family Worship Night thing, they have to already know that it won't be done. The sheeples won't do it, so they'll be made to feel guilty for not doing it. And the "FDS" doesn't really want them to actually study independent from the congregation.
For a high control cult, reducing the meeting nights will weaken the chains that bind. I foresee the "friends" saving their gas money for more recreation.
latest rumored on this is that Jehovah through his holy spirit directed them to come up with the high gas price comment to shame the powers that be to bring the price down. Guess what, it seems to have worked.
A couple of more things popped out at me from some posts
Also KH mortgages are one of the biggest sources of income for WT. They want to focus the congregations attention on the buildings, and make sure that the contributions keep coming in. They want to make the K Halls as holy places, under God’s protection.
Nowe it's been a very long time since I went to any meeting but I have a pretty clear memory of the book study conductor very obviously putting the donation box out in the middle of the room to encourage donations. I doubt they ever got much. So if they were coming up dry at the book study it might make sense for them to move it to the hall in the hopes that having them corralled in the hall one more night they might increase donations
One further note. What does this do to meeting schedules when 2 or 3 cong are meeting in the same hall?
As for making the load lighter? I can't think of one time they said this that it actually made the load "lighter"
Something just occurred to me.
You have an hour-long study of a book each week. You get through, what, half a chapter a week? How many chapters in the average book? (I forgot) ... sooo, you get through one book every six to nine months? You have to move on to another book.
Used to be, there were like two new books released at every assembly. There was almost always a new book to move on to at the book study.
But, more recently, books have been recycled. Daniel book studied at least twice, Greatest Man book repeated, Revelation book studied several times, etc. Throw a new one in each year, you still have to go back to an old one before the next book is released.
With the costs of publishing no doubt going up, and donations going down, printing new books every year is a hardship. People are getting sick of recycling the old ones. "Not THAT book again....!" they sigh under their breath. Plus, the older the books get, the more the information goes out of date. Can't really study the old blue Creation book anymore, can they?
SO ... how about increasing the time it takes to get through one book? Decrease the length of the meeting! Oh, wait, who's going to want to drive an extra hour round-trip for a half-hour meeting?
SOLUTION: You drop a meeting night, which makes you look loving and gracious. You cut the study time to 20 minutes, which for all practical purposes at the very least DOUBLES the time it takes to get through a book. Voila! You might even be able to skip publishing a new book every year! $$$$$$$ saved!!!!
