I know of one good way to get people to do this. If you strip their lives of everything that resembles normal, all that's left is boasting sessions and field circus. Going behind those apathy carts and wasting the morning or afternoon (or both) will appear better than sitting at home (a tiny studio apartment) with nothing entertaining or comfortable. I wonder if this is one reason why they are cracking down on people living comfortable lives.
Witness Carts - A Vehicle for Significant Decline
by slimboyfat 70 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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WTWizard
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nonjwspouse
I have to believe this push for carts is another CYA such as removing the term " school" from the ministry school.
The action of knowingly allowing any abuser to go door to door, and sometimes along with underage children in tow HAS to be a huge liability which the corporate lawyers know is too great to ignore.
Another lawyering move in my opinion, since the door to door HAS to be known as super effective in keeping the r&f too busy to even think of investigating/questioning the WTBTS claims or history.
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LisaRose
Going door to door you might be rejected by only two or three people in an hour but with cart witnessing you could be rejected by hundreds. People rush by, refusing to make eye contact, nobody shows interest, it has to be at least a little bit discouraging. I don't know how people can do it, it must feel like a big fat waste of time.
As they say, insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
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bohm
Terry:
In the old days (pre-Internet) witnessing was like gunslinging where you stood at the door and shot it out and watched the unindoctrinated bodies fall in a crumpled heap on the doorsill.
Post-internet, however, a conversation with another human being is likely to be more of a death trap for the JW because Ex-JW's have wallpapered with FACTS every search engine pitstop there is.This is exactly my thinking. Going to someones door with a message is something I can easily see appeal to a person especially when he or she is convinced of the message... like you are easily the only religion around that really does that on a large scale. Standing still on a street with a cart and watch people walk by... you can just look around and next to you there is the hara krishna, the newspaper salesguy, the greenpeace or the other people who flag down people in the street and they are likely doing a much more active job than you.
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No Apologies
Cart witnessing creates class distinctions among the Jws. Metropolitan witnessing is for kingdom evangelizer grads, cart witnessing is for pioneers and well spoken of publishers. Door to door is reserved for slackers and undercover apostates.
Whats Metropolitan witnessing? How is it different from cart witnessing?
No Apologies
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freddo
@No Apologies
Metropolitan is where you have one city that contains at least about twenty congregations or more in its catchment area (say any congregation within ten miles of the cart witnessing places).
A Circuit Overseer is responsible for the Metropolitan sites within that area - usually close to shopping malls, train/bus stations, business districts etc. He then appoints a lackey "up and coming" elder or two to oversee it and arrange schedules of (usually) pioneers and sometimes elders and their wives from various congregations to cover "trolley/cart shifts" of three publishers together.
Those chosen to go on Metropolitan come from those approved by each congregation service committee and filtered through the CO and his lackey assistant.
"Normal" cart witnessing is that which is arranged by each congregation in its own shopping areas etc but which shouldn't conflict with Metropolitan. The ones allowed to do congregation cart witnessing are approved by the local Body of elders and usually include anyone who is not any or all of bonkers/smelly/dressed like a sack/tourettes and the like.
In the UK a city like London would have several Metropolitan circuit cart set ups; somewhere like Birmingham/Glasgow (1 million pop) would have two or three. Cardiff/Bristol/Edinburgh (350/400,000) might have one each. As in one circuit arrangement with two or three sites in each city.
Smaller cities such as Plymouth/Newcastle or Southampton might just have one or two sites in each and only half of the congregations in a circuit providing labour.
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slimboyfat
jwleaks I'm not sure I understand. You what me to summarise the article, or you're objecting to me attributing the views of one sociologist to sociologists in general?
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slimboyfat
I reckon they've got more carts in Edinburgh than Glasgow. I've seen them at Waverley station, Charlotte Square, the Royal Mile, Nicholson Street and Bruntsfield.
In Glasgow I've only ever seen them on Great Western Road next to Oran Mor and under the cavernous highland man's umbrella at the central station.
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slimboyfat
Oh right the metropolitan/cart distinction is something that passed me by, I just see JWs with stalls and carts and think they're all the same.
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steve2
Sometimes the JWs have little say where they set up the trolleys/carts because local council laws forbid preachers and peddlers in more populated shopping mall/centre areas.
Hence, it is
Snot uncommon to see the (sporadic) trolleys in low foot-traffic locations - and even at these locations, they hang back in alcoved areas so that passersby may only notice a trolley but no one near it - every time I observe them from a parking lot, no passersby ever even glance in the direction of the trolleys.