"Unique" Achievements By the WTS - Special Only Through The Ability of the World to Do The Same

by konceptual99 11 Replies latest jw friends

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  konceptual99

  Bit of a long winding topic title but the thread on the dub in the bunker video made me think of what thing the WTS does that are seen as basically impossible for anyone else to do and therefore evidence of Holy Spirit and God's blessing, yet those same things are done by the rest of the world day in, day out.

  I have a few examples:

  - ability to buy a feck off big printing press and print thousand of magazines an hour. Only that every other big publishing organisation uses the same presses to do the same thing.

  - ability to get inexperienced people to act using an acting coach as well as produce feature length films with reasonably high production value levels and special effects. Getting an acting coach to coach is hardly only workable through holy spirit. Software and hardware to produce films and special effects is cheap and readily available - what is possible these days using basic kit is amazing. Chucking large numbers of people, costume makers, tradesmen, graphic designers, artists etc into a production is hardly unique.

  - rapid response to disaster. The ability of the WTS to organise relief in short order is considered something the world marvels at. Except it isn't. Charities the world over repeatedly deliver relief programmes requiring huge logistical organisation all the time. Not only that they do it to a scale the WTS could only dream about. They also deliver to people regardless of race or religion and for extended periods of time. Experienced professionals like doctors and nurses risk life and limb to do do things like work in Syria for a few weeks.

  What other things have you come across that the world actually does better than the WTS?
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  stuckinarut2

  What about Public Speaking?

  We were always told that ONLY gods people can deliver public addresses with such poise and style....

  Yet, people the world over, men and WOMEN deliver far better talks to crowds every day!
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  Londo111

  Very good point. In terms of disaster, other religious groups also go to help out as well, and come to the aid of members and non-members as well.

  I've noticed Watchtower loves to trumpet how they helped, but Jesus said not to blow one's trumpet, to do such things without fanfare. Also Watchtower loves to receive insurance checks and sends elders to convince people to hand the checks over.
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  stuckinarut2

  Ok, I know something the org does REALLY well that the world doesn't do: Guilt its members into becoming clones....and donating money ....
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  exjwlemming

  The old "Quick Build" Kingdom Halls! I come from a construction background. The support on Saturday and Sunday was large. I have to say about 80% of the volunteers considered it a social occasion and 20% of the people did 95% of the work. There was alot of wasted manhours and time with an unorganized work force. Elders and MS, with no skills, directing and organizing the work. Many times, tasks and work had to be redone. I remember seeing about 60 people shingling a roof on a sunny day. Everyone wanted to get up on the roof and be a part of the action. The foot traffic damaged and destroyed the warm, soft shingles. A 20 year shingle only lasted about 10 years and the roof had to be redone. When the congregation was informed that they needed a new roof, some wanted to go back after the manufacturer because it was under a 20 year warranty! In addition, the same hall cut corners on the roof framing and used thin particle board to span the trusses. They also had to replace all the roof sheathing. They saved $9 a sheet between particle board and plywood when the hall was being built. Ten years later, they had a $20,000 bill, in materials, to remove and replace the entire roof. The quality was slipshod and thrown together. Materials were wasted on people not having the skills to complete the assignment correctly. If they would have built a modern day ark, it would have sank like a stone. A "Worldly" construction company would have done a much better and economical job. In the long run, the building would last longer and have fewer repair and rework needs. However, it's all about appearances and making the R&F feel good about the org.
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  dozy

  I was also baffled why the building of a prefabricated timber frame hall could only be done with Jehovah's backing and direction while vastly more complicated buildings and projects were purely human endeavors. The complete botch up refurbishment on our own Kingdom Hall by the quick build team had to be seen to be believed and we had to get "worldly" contractors to fix some of the issues.
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  keyser soze

  Don't forget about the worldwide preaching work. The holy spirit must be behind that. Except when it comes to yielding actual results, that is. Then the holy spirit is pretty impotent.
  
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  ttdtt

  How about MEPS!! A sure sign from god!

  It is so amazing that my 2K computer with Adobe InDesign can do the same thing.

  But the big key is that the JW website is translated in sooooo many languages!
  Now really who could do such a thing by god.
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  FedUpJW

  There was alot of wasted manhours and time with an unorganized work force.

  Agreed!

  A bit off topic, but I remember years ago when I still was not fed up going to a quick build and being handed an aluminum grain scoop and told to shovel a large pile of brick stubs from behind a pallet of mortar sacks so a Bobcat loader could haul them away.

  I got promptly "fired" from that chore when I declined to shovel and instead said, "Let's wait until the Bobcat gets here and can move the pallet. Then we can shovel the brick stubs ONCE instead of twice."

  Sorry a55hole went and found some dimwit that agreed to shovel them from behind the pallet, and when the Bobcat operator got there he just laughed and asked why they didn't wait for him to move the pallet and only shovel once.
  
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  konceptual99

  MEPS - good example of where the WTS used to go to a whole heap of effort to build something (in this case an phototypesetting computer - nothing to do with translation) and pride themselves on their ingenuity. To be fair, at the time there probably was not the need to do photo-typesetting in so many languages and computing was still emerging from the mainframe days but it's the sort of thing that the WTS has stopped doing.

  Now they are happy to bring outside contractors in and are gradually rooting out the DIY hobbyist types who seemed to dominate various areas of Bethel and the old school RBC.

  What I am confused about is the ability of HS to enable them to build a computer 35 years ago yet it was not able to help them invent Facebook in order to get the message into pretty much every home in the entire world. Having said that it's not surprising given that the internet was pretty much a dirty word until the jw,org rebrand happened 3-4 years ago. Now you'd think they'd invented the whole thing.