by robB 12 Replies latest watchtower bible
I think the WTS is going to get crazier over time: more controlling, more restrictive, more insane, with crazier ideas and "commandments." I think at first people will stay in (esp. born-ins who've never known the outside) but eventually the whole thing will start to slowly, and then more and more quickly fall apart and probably splinter some more, i.e. smaller, even wackier groups.
OR...it may get bigger and stay exactly the same. Only time will tell.
I am hoping for crazier. My wife is already noticing how disjointed the reasoning in a lot of the new WTs is. Bring on the craziness! Help get my family out!
If they go mainstream, even in only small ways, what do they have as a selling point ?
Exactly, Phizzy. I've often wondered that about the 7th-Day Adventists now that they are increasingly earnest to be seen as a non-threatening group who "just" want to be seen as "Christ's disciples".
Don't forget that decisions to tone down the craziness are often driven, not by reason per se, but desperation (e.g., dwindling numbers, a larger and growing pool of nominal attendees, high drop out of youth, etc). If they increase the craziness factor they risk increasing the exodus and ending up with a hard core of zealots. Look at the Christadelphians - a once thriving evangelical group who were very active in the late 1800s and early decades of the 20th Century now reduced to a smattering of small groups here and there.
