by Jeremy C 140 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
in-name-only JWs
I prefer the term: JW in name only, with the acronym: J-Winos
Jeremy, great thread. To check your PMs, you have to check them twice. The first time doesn't work. If you go back to them a second time, the message will usually open. Sometimes it takes a third try. Eventually they open up for you. Also, if using IE9, you may try compatibility mode.
I'd like to set in motion a recomendation that this thread be moved into the Best Of section.
If they start some sort of youth program, it's a tacit admission that Armageddon really isn't "very soon".
What's the point of starting a youth program if global destruction is nigh? The WT might illustrate it his
way: "What if the cruise director on the Titanic decided to start a Bingo game after the ship struck the iceberg?"
Yes, it would be a delicate manoeuvre for them: How to keep everyone on edge expecting the end and how to cater for young people's normal devlopmental needs. But, hey, they manage to engage in a bit of having it both ways with their grand building proposals. For example, they will crow from the platform about big plans to have more building and/or install new computer-directed technology for the ropinting presses - sometimes planning 4 to 5 years or more down track.
When it suits, the Watchtower is incredibly flexible; otherwise it turns a deaf ear and the most it will say is, Don't run ahead of jehovah's organization. That's precisely what they said in the 1970s when some well-regarded brothers first got together to talk about the need for youth oriented programs. Their sensible initiative was squashed and the brothers shamed into silence. Nearly 35 years later....same old, same old deafness...
Yes but they've hinted, sometimes even outright expressed, that they expect all their buildings to survive Armageddon and be used in the "new system".
In the "new system", we'll all be marching toward perfection, and won't have any need for youth programs.
A "youth program" is an acknowledgement that youths need special help & attention in "this wicked world" to be well-adjusted adults in "this wicked world". It implies "this wicked world" will be here another decade or 7. The WTS wants - needs - to keep Armageddon "soon".
I don't think they have the brainpower or originality to pull off a maneuver that delicate.
In other words, their 130 year old "The Sky is Falling" gig is eventually going to send them to extinction:
-and it might well be a toss-up as to which will contribute the most to that,
i.e. interest by the community in the JW charade drying up , or haemorrhaging to death by loss of those already in (particularly the young).
Roll on the day!
Bill.
J-Winos, I like it, Sweeney!
This is an interesting thread. I like it.
One bold question, I've asked before: Will the self exaulted Governing Body ever ask themselves, What the F**k is the point of all this ??!!
Why bother? Why not retire at Paterson and relax? Why fight all the trends...... and lose? Why pretend to be Hitler in the bunker while congregations rot, donations decline, kids fade, elders resign and decay flourishes?
metatron
I appreciate everyone’s compliments and comments, thank you.
I should have given more credit where credit is due. I failed to talk about the fact that there are many Elders in the organization who are trying very hard to encourage the youth. When I was a teenager, there were a couple of Elders who took quite a bit of interest in me – and it was more than just going out in door-to-door work, it was genuine bonding time.
I think the challenge is that most Elders simply are not able to do as much as they would like to do in terms of encouraging the youth. With jobs, home life, personal study, meetings, and Elder’s business that has to be handled, many of these brothers are simply overloaded. I knew of more than a few who struggled with depression and it took all the strength they had just to take the morning group out in field service. On top of this, many Elder bodies get the whip cracked over them by the traveling overseers who often push them to focus more on field service. Personally, I don’t fault the Elders. Who encourages them? Who gives the Elders encouragement and reassurance?
I think it comes down to the fact that this is a “works” based religion. Everyone is working to earn their salvation. Traveling overseers are continuously pushing the Elders to help others earn their salvation. It’s like a twisted game from the Middle Ages, where everyone is trying to make it to a finish line, or else get executed if they don’t. So, in their minds, they reason: “who has time for a youth group when so many people out there need to be saved from Jehovah’s Day of Judgment?”
there are many Elders in the organization who are trying very hard to encourage the youth.
Really good point, Jeremy.
I have a vivid memory of a convention address in the 1970s that warned elders not to provide programs for young people that went beyond the existing provisions. The speaker even mentioned how some brothers in the States had run ahead of the organization and complained to the then governing body about the lack of programs for young people. I often wondered what became of those nameless brothers who were described as being too full of themselves - or similar unflattering words; those brothers were certainly well motivated in their concern about young JWs but were portrayed in the utmost negative tones by the convention speaker.
You're absolutely right: Most elders are doing their level best to work within the organization's strict 'policies' and it wouldn't take too many instances of really negative feedback from 'on high' to rob them of any remaining vestige of helpful intentions to wards young ones. It's kind of expected in a high control group - but still very sad.
The funny part is that first they scare of two thirds of all the young people, then after they've left they complain that there aren't enough men reaching out to become a ministerial servant and that we should be looking for men while going door to door..
