...and the ship is sailing over the edge.
Such is the state of the Watch Tower Society.
The earth is flat...
by rory-ks 12 Replies latest jw friends
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Coded Logic
The Watchtower is a corporation. And a corporation will do whatever it needs to do to survive - even/especially if that means sacraficing its principles. Even if that means sacraficing some of its existing members. The WTBTS is a huge brand name with instant brand name recognition and they will make what ever changes are neccissary to meet the needs of this newer and more educated generation. The cats out of the bag - information can no longer be controlled. Think about it, five years ago vindicating Jehovah's name was the most important thing to the Jehovah's Witnesses. Now they are perfectly okay with calling themselves JWs. The enormity (meant in both senses of the word) cannot be overstated. jw.org isn't the end of the changes being made - it's just the begining.
Who knows what will come next. But the PNR has already been passed and the changes will start happening faster and faster. I would be perfectly comfortable predicting that in the next ten years the WTBTS will change more then it has in the past fifty. And the JWs of twenty years from now will be almost completely unrecognizable. Rock concert like music preformances at the kingdom halls, dancing, food, and "Jesus loves you no matter what" will all become the norm. Religion is going out fast as the "nones" become more and more prominent and the only way to keep people in religion is to make it all about sense of community and inclusion. The WTBTS will embrace all of this because it will be what's neccissary to survive. Remember, they are - and always have been - a corporation.
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Vidiot
Coded Logic - "The Watchtower is a corporation. And a corporation will do whatever it needs to do to survive - even/especially if that means sacraficing its principles."
Sure.
Except that it's not just a corporation. It's an ideology, too.
And there are very significant aspects of that ideology that simply don't lend themselves to the kind of progressive reform that religions need to implement in order to survive in the Information Age (Biblical literalism, authoritarianism, exclusivity, self-imposed marginilization, etc.).
If the WTS were to seriously overhaul those core aspects of their belief system to modern standards, they'd (arguably) no longer be Jehovah's Witnesses, anymore.
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designs
If you only measure in small distances you can get 'flat'....
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rory-ks
It's their credibility that is sailing over the edge - some would argue that there needn't even be a ship in the picture because their credibility went over long ago...but I liked the picture.
I like the "flat earth" analogy because many of the Organisations beliefs are stuck in the ancient past - Creationism, fundamentalism, authorship of the Bible and time of writing. These are all aspects that have meant this huge clunking vessel can not steer itself away from the edge. It is a corporation, and that takes it over the edge; it is making itself indistinguishable from other Christian denominations, and that takes it over the edge.
I like the ship in the picture - a container ship, the hapless cargo, thousands of congregations with hundreds of thousands of members, blindly being driven over the edge by a blind leadership.
Coded Logic, I love that point about JWs: Five years ago vindicating Jehovah's name was the most important thing to the Jehovah's Witnesses. Now they are perfectly okay with calling themselves JWs. Excellent stuff!
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Coded Logic
Hmm, I can't help but wonder how much more they can change or update their ideology. And would doing so actually save them? -
ttdtt
Unfortunately I think the Mark Twain quote applies to the WT.
“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
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Phizzy
Although the religion will eventually die, as will all religions that base their very existence on "evidence" that can be disproved, the Big Money is being salted away as I write, and much of it has already been salted away.
I doubt those shadowy figures who are really in charge of the Corporations will be bringing any money back into the religion to save it.
Over the edge it all goes eventually, and those clever money guys laugh all the way to................... not the Bank, some place they cannot be touched.
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Truthexplorer
Watchtower aint sailing over the edge. The so called south pole is in reality the actual barrier that circles the flat earth. I would however say that the WT ship is hitting one iceberg after another and 'may' sink soon unless it steers its ship on the right course. -
prologos
The wt navigators have given themselves room to maneuver, "zigzagging, tacking" ( (Br. Klein) until 2075 when the current overlapping scenario ends. they will hedge, not go over the edge, a trip to nowhere.