It's Foolish to Believe the Watchtower Will Always Be Around.

by kneehighmiah 57 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Terry

  The strange fact about religious cults is they don't really die very often because

  nobody goes broke underestimating people's intelligence.

  Religious obsessions are actually self-inflicted wounds after a certain length of time.

  You are born into or you convert and it seems like the best thing for awhile.

  If you are intelligent you catch on eventually; THIS ISN'T WORKING FOR ME.

  You move on.

  But--if you are that not so rare personality who can fit into a group which does your thinking for you

  and you are more all about FEELING than REASONIG . . . you'll go along to get along.

  Did you know there are still International Bible Students around who teach only what Pastor Russell came up with?

  What does that tell you?
• 

  designs

  What! the pyramid doesn't contain the secret steps to heaven..
• 

  James Brown

  The Watchtower today, is not the Watchtower I grew up in in 1952.

  They believed armedgeddon would come by 1975.

  They did not have a governing body, they had a president.

  They believed millions who saw 1914 and were of a discernable age in 1914 would not pass away.

  The Sunday talks used to be an hour.

  Pioneering was 100 hours a month.

  You couldnt take organ transplants or bloood transfusions.

  The United nations was bad not something that they would belong to.

  They had a piano player play the piano before, during and after the meetings.

  They had a band/ orchestra at the assemblies.

  They cooked good cafeteria food at the assembies.

  The congregatations had pick-nicks often and played sports together every week.
• 

  QC

  kneehi: I believe the organization will no longer exist in its current form in 10 years.

  Yes

  Money and membership is drying up. They are trending like Evolution, religion generally and global warming.

  Toward desperation!
• 

  designs

  JB- when congregation picknics were banned by the Wt. was like the day the music died.
• 

  James Brown

  JB- when congregation picknics were banned by the Wt. was like the day the music died.

  Designs, I was gone by then. I started fading in 76 and have been out since 83.
• 

  kneehighmiah

  Cults will always be around. But how many cults of the 70s and 80s are still here? The WT will die and a new cult will take it's place. Some current JWs may join a new cult. This will happen soon. LDS are not isolationist. they will survive. Uneducated isolationist cults like the JWs have a short life cycle. WT is overdue. The leadership knows it and they have already cashed out.
• 

  Still Totally ADD

  When did this banned on picknics happen? It's only been 3 1/2 years since I left. Still Totally ADD
• 

  kneehighmiah

  You can still have them, but you can't call it a congregation picnic. This is because someone could get hurt at the picnic and then sue the organization.
• 

  Magnum

  kneehighmiah: already the organization cannot recruit new member effectively in developed countries

  I agree; it just ain't happenin' anymore. They can only recruit losers, misfits, those lacking in intelligence, those who aren't well-read, those who are a few fries short of a Happy Meal, etc.

  kneehighmiah: Being a catholic requires minimal sacrifice. being a jw requires enormous sacrifice. Eventually people will realize it's not worth the sacrifice.

  I agree with that, too. I know some who are Catholics; being such is not even a minor inconvenience to them. Being a JW goes far beyond being an inconvenience. It requires, as kneehighmiah said, enormous sacrifice. It requires major changes in lifestyle. I had zero weekend for thirty years. How many well-read, intelligent, normal people are going to make that sacrifice for the JW religion of today? I had no afternoons or evenings. My life was consumed by JWdom and I was still always behind; never could get it all done. The only thing that enabled me to keep going was the belief that I had the truth and the hope that the end could come at any time. It ain't easy to convince people of that anymore.

  The JW religion that I knew, the one that seemed more scholarly and noble, is already gone. The real excitement is gone. They have to keep coming up with gimmicks to try to keep some excitement up and the apathy down. I think it can only be downhill. If JWs really had the truth, they should be progressively more attractive to the world - like a beacon, but the opposite is taking place; they become progressively more unattractive. It's going to be interesting to observe and see what happens.