A BIG change the Watchtower will have to face up to . . .

by nicolaou 25 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  nicolaou

  1995 drew a line of demarcation. The doctrinal rudder of Freddie Franz was gone, the sacred cow of the 1914-generation had been slaughtered and the Internet had arrived!

  It will take a while longer but the time is coming when pre-1995 old timers like the gentleman below will be an impotent force within the Society - if that hasn't happened already. My point is that it will not only be potential new converts getting clued up and not joining the cult - thousands of the post-1995 generation of tech savvy, independently minded born-ins will be doing the same thing - and leaving!

  Wishful thinking? Perhaps, but I really believe the next 15 - 20 years will be amongst the most important in the Watchtowers history . . .

  Don't give up!

  
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  ziddina

  "....but I really believe the next 15 - 20 years will be amongst the most important in the Watchtowers history ...."

  "most important"...?

  Dang!

  I was hoping for "most disappointing"...!!
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  ScenicViewer

  I think youi make a reasonable point. You can scare the older ones by demonizing the internet; many of them have no interest in it anyway. But the younger ones, who are much more tech savvy, will not be so easy to fool.

  When the old ones are gone, and the younger ones take their place, the Society will have to develop new scare tactics. It may not be as easy as it has been in the past.
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  Listener

  You have a good point there Nicolaou.

  We are living in the information age and many of us with enquiring minds now how to easily access it. The older ones are unfortunately dying off but with it, so is the innocence.

  It seems ironic that for so many years the WT has discouraged higher education, now just about any informations is at our fingertips.
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  ScenicViewer

  Another thought.

  There is already less increase in advanced countries than there has been in the past. Is it possigle that Third World countries, where information is less available, are producing the real increase.

  Mayabe those places will be targeted more heavily by the Watchtower in the future. I wonder if this is one of the reasons the Society became an NGO affiliate of the United Nations and still has some hidden NGO connections, to pave the way to gain entry into countries previously inaccessable.

  Just an idea.
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  wha happened?

  3rd world countries are 1st on their list for converts. More growth there, but not easy on the WT bankbook. These countries tend to donate less

  Yea tyhat's a good point. It's easy to villanize new technology. It's new and a little scary, whats it coming from etc etc. But trying to use scare tactics regarding the internet to the next generation is like our generation getting scared about using the telephone. Or driving a car.

  What age group would anyone say that pre 1995 generation is?
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  wobble

  I agree with your O.P Nico, we can see it happening now, the Internet is such a wonderful aid to fiding even the most obscure information.

  I believe too that as the 3rd world countries and the poorer immigrants to richer nations get connected to the Net we shall see a large exodus of these good people.

  They often get sucked in because family members already are in, and they will leave as families too. These people are often very concerned with moral values, and on the surface they find that the WT/JW religion seems to be a moral one, but once they discover the underlying foundation of lies they will not want to stay.
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  moggy lover

  I think it could be sooner that 10-15 years. We have just over two years to go to enter the crucial year of 2014, which will linger as the skunk at the proverbial party through all those 365 days. Credulity has its limits, and I am sure many will discover the irony in 100 years of empty promises, re-evaluated dogmas, and new bigotries directed toward dissenters, and will vote with their feet.

  Again, I think the older ones will be largely unmoved since, having expended so much time and effort in this religious movement, and having heard so many "explanations" for theological improprieties, that they will continue to swallow this. It is the young, the curious and the creative, the ones that the Watchtower so desperately needs, who will defect in large numbers.
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  designs

  moggy- I agree about the older jws in their 70s and 80s, they have reached the settleing down phase of their lives and to leave without friends would be very difficult. Mentally they have become accustomed to 'having their pov changed by the Watchtower', they expect it and roll with it. Ray Franz was an exception and I think early on he hoped he could change things from within.

  For anyone born in from the 80s on they have so little understanding of the pre 1975 world of the JWs. The Society has been so effective in rewriting their history that it would take some outside digging to uncover the facts and dates. I remember being shocked when the Proclaimers Book and the Revelation Climax Book came out and the blantant mishandleing of their history was being dumped on the new minds. I knew then that we were in the grip of some very fearful and controlling minds.
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  Scully

  Nic, I couldn't help but notice just how happy that chap looks.