Watchtower sitting on potential goldmine of millions of non-JW memorial attenders

by yadda yadda 2 21 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Vidiot

  yadda yadda 2 - "Logic follows then that the key to new, real growth in the western world for the organisation (which has been in decline for years) is to eliminate that class of teaching/policy and move to a more moderate position."

  You're completely right; progressive reform is the key to survival for religions in the Information Age...

  ...except...

  ...they'd arguably no longer BE Jehovah's Witnesses if that really happened..

  x

  Trust me; the whole slick JW.org e-religion reboot is just to give the WTS the appearance of modernization.

  The fact that recent internal WT documentation and correspondence has reiterated (and IMO, hard-lined) their stance on blood transfusions, the child abuse "two-witness" rule, and the demonization of former members should be all the proof we need that, at its core, it's remained unchanged.
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  yadda yadda 2

  I agree with you Vidiot, but I'm not talking about this new 'e-religion reboot' as you put it. That's clearly just white-washing the grave, wrapping old wine with new wineskins. It's just the latest technology to preach the same garbage. From phonographs and their own radio stations, to colour magazines, then video cassettes, DVD's, then a webpage, and now a live streaming online TV studio.

  They have been in terminal decline in the West (and Japan) since the internet started and the GB seem to be floundering around about what to do about it. I think the Society is in real denial. They are haemorraghing and it's getting worse. They do not understand that the internet has permanently exposed their otherwise hidden dirty laundry and ongoing bad behaviour and errors. For the last 15 years they have been floundering about with no real idea how to reverse the decline and $$$ undoubtedly drying up.

  The only thing that will stop the rot is doctrinal and policy reform.

  But I agree with you that there is no sign of this coming in the near future. The sheer lunacy of their latest 'generation' teaching and the way they are highlighting the embarrassing and clearly false 1914 doctrine particularly highlights how absolutely in denial they are. Any real reform won't be coming for a long time.
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  GreenhornChristian

  Yes it is mostly family members that fell away and are guilted into coming or never baptized and guilted into coming.

  it's usually those who are already familiar with the Jdubs one way or another.

  The first memorial after I phased i met a witness on the street. She said see you tonight. I looked at her puzzled ( on purpose). At the memorial she said. I just raised my eyebrows.

  They just asume the the inactive will come to their most important farce.
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  Vidiot

  yadda yadda 2 - "I think the Society is in real denial."

  Looks like the religious equivalent of a mid-life crisis to me...
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  Phizzy

  Right at the end of the O.P you hit on the salient point, to grow at all in the future in a significant, ie profitable, way,the JW.Org Mob will have to get rid of their obnoxious smell.

  This terrible smell, reminiscent of the "silent but deadly fart", known in Polite Society as the "Butler's Revenge", comes mainly from two Doctrines/Practices.

  1) The Blood Doctrine.

  2) The Shunning Policy.

  Both are indefensible when Scripture is read and understood properly.

  Both leave a stench in the nostrils of the Public. Until they drop these two, at least, they will continue to lose members, and to fail to recruit replacements.
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  Vidiot

  Don't forget the "two-witness rule", Phizz.

  Something tells me the stink's building on that one, too.
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  smiddy

  If the witnesses put the blood doctrine policy , the door to door requirement , and holidays etc , and

  . made it a personal decision /, conscionous deciscion , they would gain millions of those who had previously left to rejoin the faith .

  I hope that never happens , but human beings what they are , you never know.

  smiddy
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  yadda yadda 2

  Exactly Smiddy. The GB doesn't have to abandon those things, just moderate them so they are 'conscience' matters only.

  Can't it be enough that JW's reject the trinity, immortal soul, hellfire, use the name 'Jehovah' 20 times more than the name 'Jesus', etc, without having to go door-to-door, stop your kids going to harmless birthdays, not even saying 'hello' to your own immediate family, etc?

  The Society is ridiculous and holding the org back from growth. It's like they feel JW's have to be the opposite and contrarian on absolutely everything in order for it to be 'the truth'.

  The number of JW's should be about 20 million by now, ie, the number of memorial partakers. The growth is stymied, stagnant and declining due to the sheer bloody-minded weirdness the leaders insist on perpetuating, like Christendom's geek pariahs.

  How many millions have left or been kicked out harshly (eg, got drunk a few times, smoked a few ciggies) who really posed no real threat who might otherwise have stayed and donated $$$$ all these years?
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  InquiryMan

  Is this a description of an average American JW congregation:

  JW congregations are made up of life's losers, eccentrics, and essentially simple-minded souls.

  I do not recognize this from my own country or even the many congregations I have attended meetings when visiting abroad.

  This seems like a very judging and condescending comment.
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  bigmac

  It's really very simple: For the most part, JW congregations are made up of life's losers, eccentrics, and essentially simple-minded souls. Why would anyone who is a 'winner' at the game of life even want to be associated with such a down-at-the-heels fringe group??? Not to mention the fact that their beliefs are sheer lunacy and the result of intense brainwashing. The only non-JWs who attend the Memorial are either unbelieving mates or family members who go to humor their deluded relatives. Add in a few genuine freaks and oddballs and there you have it. It's not rocket-science, folks!

  so spot on Navytown......thats why so many stay in the cult----frightened of the real world outside.