I see it posted that many are 'waking up' etc. But the religion is still growing! Many enjoy the kool-aid. Are we guilty of wishful thinking?
Wishful thinking? Will WTBS ever go down?
by MC RubberMallet 34 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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free @ last
Yes
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leavingwt
It will be going strong long after we're all dead.
Seven million strong and growing.
Jehovah's blessing is obvious.
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MC RubberMallet
F@L - Yes to which question? Lol.
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MC RubberMallet
I'm scared to admit it, but I think they will continue for a long while....
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metatron
Full Disclosure would finish them off, although not immediately. It would take a while to sink in.
It will be interesting to see what happens with the 16 page mags. They can keep dragging themselves to Kingdom Halls forever but the mass preaching work is dying, whether they admit it or not.
metatron
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nuthouse escapee
Wishful thinking - yes
Will WTBTS ever go down? - at some point, possibly. I'm not holding my breath.
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King Solomon
Yup.
WT is a doomsday cult that has reinvented its eschatology to survive at least two BIG missed deadlines, and while the people at the top may have gotten drunk on a non-lethal dose of their own Kool-Aid (Franz' book didn't indicate them laughing at the R&F behind closed doors, at least), have managed to reinvent the story-line to account for the failed prophecies.
The recent official demotion of the anointed class is simply another step in consolidating the power of the GB, dismissing all the old coots who played along with the anointed scam after so many years while still leaving anointing as a feasible possibility (when they've got GB members in their 40s who've played that game, so they must keep that poker face going, but they don't need them to have any real say).
The changes occur at a glacial pace, and are easied in, having been telegraphed well ahead of time such that the idea is accepted long before its officially announced, hence decreasing it's awakening potential (ironic that, with JWs walking D2D with a magazine called Awake! Talk about an Orwellian title....)
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breakfast of champions
I honestly don't know, but this is how strong of a hold belief has on people with FAR stranger beliefs than jehovahs witnesses:
Cultists sought their UFO with high-tech scope
By Kelly Thornton
San Diego Union-Tribune
March 31, 1997SAN DIEGO -- Two Heaven's Gate cult members bought a $3,645 state-of-the-art telescope from a local shop in January in hopes of spotting the spaceship that would whisk them into celestial paradise. They returned it a week later when they couldn't locate the elusive UFO.
"They were frustrated and disappointed," the clerk who made the sale said yesterday. "They obviously wanted to see (a spacecraft) and we just kind of shrugged our shoulders. We let them return it, and they left somewhat dejected."
The experience obviously did not shake the cult members' faith in spaceships or in the idea that they must shed their bodies, or "containers," in order to catch a ride on the mother ship in the Hale-Bopp comet's wake.
Thirty-nine bodies, including those of the men who purchased the telescope six weeks earlier, were discovered Wednesday at a Rancho Santa Fe mansion.
The cult members drank a deadly mixture of phenobarbital and alcohol and then hastened death by suffocating themselves with plastic bags, the Medical Examiner's Office said.
"At least two of them knew for sure, without a doubt, that there was nothing following the comet, and they still chose to take their lives," said the clerk, who asked that his name and the name of his astronomy store not be identified.
Sales receipts show the two telescope shoppers, who called themselves Brother Logan and Brother Hal, purchased the fully computerized, robot-style Meade 10-inch LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope Jan. 30 and returned it Feb. 7.
The clerk said he recognized one of the men -- with "startling blue, glassy eyes" -- on the television news recently as the group's leader, 65-year-old Marshall Applewhite. His companion bought the telescope with a credit card in the name of John M. Craig, also known as Logan Lahson.
The high-tech telescope -- almost the size of a refrigerator -- can be programmed to find 64,351 celestial objects automatically. "It can find everything that's ever been cataloged in the sky," the clerk said.
Applewhite and Craig, who wore the buzz-style haircuts now associated with Heaven's Gate, came into the shop Jan. 28 and spent about 90 minutes with the salesperson learning about telescopes.
The pair did not seem educated about astronomy, the clerk said. For one thing, they seemed unfamiliar with the operation of a standard telescope, something amateur stargazers know. "They were like any Joe off the street who had watched 8,000 episodes of 'Star Trek' back-to-back," the clerk said.
They left without making a purchase, but returned two days later to buy one of the most expensive models in the store. The salesperson showed Craig and his companion how to set the telescope's coordinates to locate the Hale-Bopp comet.
"I said, 'Good luck. I hope you enjoy what you see,' " the clerk recalled. "A couple of days later, they called and were very frustrated, not in a mean kind of way. They said, 'Well, gosh, we found the comet, but we can't see anything following it.' "
The clerk said he now feels guilty about his response. "I said in a joking way, 'Well, that's because there's nothing following it.' "
Despite their ignorance in matters of the sky, he said, the men seemed intelligent and friendly but unyielding in their opinions. "These people came off as very well educated and very set in their ways, not willing to listen to anyone else," he said.
The men returned the telescope for a refund on the credit card, less a 10 percent restocking fee.
Copyright 1997 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
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blondie
Many religions have survived attacks and difficult times. Some part of the WTS will exist for a long time. The focus should be on helping individuals. The WTS lost almost 3/4 of their members around 1925 and after 1975, 2 to 3%, but has bounced back.
The Roman Catholic Church has been surviving the sexual abuse cases against not only in the US but all over Europe and has survived attacks for years before this.