Is the internet hurting new JW recruits?

JimmyPage

If someone came to your door with a religious message and you were attracted to it, would you immediately google the religion and find out its pros and cons?

chickpea

couldnt back in the day,
but i sure as hell would now

in fact, i have a stamp i carry
to mark any WT trash i find
in public places with the JWFacts
web address.... right where the
provison is for "i am interested"
BS request ....

lavendar

You would think anyone with common sense WOULD do that.

I'm sure it is. Sometimes when I see one of these creepy tele-evangelist on TV I will Google his name just to see what come up. It is so easy to check things out nowadays. Anytime I make a major purchase I go to the internet to get info on the product before I buy. The Watchtower would love to return to the days before the internet. The good olds days would take a real effort to dig up any dirt on them.

Amazing

Yes, in the western world here the Internet is easy to access, there has been a slowing of growth for the JWs ... to almost a standstill ... though it sometimes picks back up a little. It will likely never return to the exciting days in pre-1975 when we grew so fast we did not have room in our Kingdom Halls to hold everyone.

flipper

JIMMY PAGE - I know I would look at the internet if I were searching to join a religion , Witnesses or otherwise. And yes, I agree with you - having internet access is probably doing a lot of damage in preventing new JW recruits because before they are baptized people get the " watered down " or " feel good happy " JW message so as to lure them in and not offend them.

But once a recruit gets BAPTIZED - then the witnesses & WT society starts laying the wood on members and becoming hardline in warning them about the internet. So the time to get to these newbies is BEFORE they join - at that point they still have an open mind. In my opinion

Heaven

I would say yes the internet is hurting new JW recruits. I for one had recently considered studying with the JWs as I was uncertain that what I had felt and remembered as a teenager was in fact true. So I did my research online and boy was I gobsmacked!

I mean, I knew when I studied something wasn't right. I felt uneasy about certain things, confused at others (like 1975's failed arrival of the Big A) and downright appalled specifically at the subjugation of women. But that was over 30 years ago. Perhaps things had changed? Apparently not!

I am so very grateful to all who have come forward and bared their souls online for all to see. So count me as 1 success story. Woohoo!

In this age of the Internet, as soon as someone comes knocking on your door for whatever reason, NEVER give any pertinent information to that person and ALWAYS GOOGLE them after they leave (or even right while they stand there! ).

AllTimeJeff

I know for a fact it has. I lost at least 5 studies while I was in. All went on the internet (something as a JW I couldn't do) and said that they were satisfied that JW's did not have the truth.

Embarasing as it was at the time for me, every single one asked if I would be interested in reading what they found. I turned them down.... What a moron I was!

CrimsonBleu

Amazing said: there has been a slowing of growth for the JWs ... to almost a standstill ... though it sometimes picks back up a little.

Amazing, do you have any substantial stats on that so I can show to one of my sisters who insists the numbers are growing larger by the day?

JWinprotest

Lavendar said, "You would think anyone with common sense WOULD do that."

That's sometimes the problem. I can only speak based on the new recruits that have come into our cong the last few years, but I can tell you that most, if not all the new recruits are a bit squirrly and common sense (among others) is an attribute that these ones are missing.