Do you think the general public cares about former Jehovah's witnesses?

by Christian Gutierrez 66 Replies latest jw friends

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  Darkknight757

  New converts in developed countries are dwindling that's for sure. People being baptized these days largely consist of lonely seniors, mentally challenged adults and children born into the religion. It's apparent that if the Jehovah's witnesses don't start popping out babies at a faster rate their baptism numbers will go stagnant.

  Imagine an ASSembly where there is no baptismal talk? From some posts here about very few getting baptized at conventions, that may someday become a reality. (Or they will start having actors do it just to make the R&F think people are still coming in🙁)

  I think the question of using such an insignificant group to herald the end of billions on earth would be a very interesting question to ask next time a Jehovah's Witness comes to our door or we see them on their literature carts. For a God who desires "all to be saved" he sure has a funny way of showing it.
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  Toshibabadu

  At the last assembly i attended only one person was baptized
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  stillin

  The ignorance of the general public will result in their death at the hand of our loving creator.
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  nonjwspouse

  The general public is unaware. They only see them as quirky and if looking a little further rarely get beyond the sanitized public face/information.

  This is one of the most dangerous things about the WTBTS and the ability to convert. General ignorance of them, and the targeting of people with a strong emotional need for answers, and ones who want to escape pain with the promise of a perfect life very soon.
  

  Scientology is much smaller, but they too appeal to this strong need for answers. Thankfully a reality revealing public face is occurring now with Leah. If only if only, this could transfer to the JW. If she would do a segment on the JW.
  
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  rebel8

  Complacency paves the way for cults to be maintained and grow because the general public is the target audience for growth.
  

  The best way to make the public care is, unfortunately, gory stories that have a main character they can relate to.

  Most people don't care much about run-of-the-mill stories. To them, it sounds like, "I voluntarily joined this weird group and it took me years to realize they were weird. I believed dumb stuff that, on the surface, are obvious lies. I voluntarily stopped doing normal life stuff like Christmas and dating. When I realized all of this was weird, they started to be mean to me and now my friends don't talk to me anymore."

  Or gory stories like mine--they just can't relate to it, shrug their shoulders and move on.
  
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  scratchme1010

  I was wondering if you guys think if the general public cares about our stories or if they even care what the Watchtower does to people???
  

  My stance is this: we are living in a world where a person like Kim Kardashian is considered relevant. If you look at what people pay attention to, and what makes people interested, no. I believe that the general public has grown to have a very short and shallow attention span, and can't care less about anything that doesn't give them immediate gratification, even if it's to its own detriment.
  

  That said, this reminds me of a comment that a person made in a YouTube video from an ex-JW. She was stating something along the lines of ex-JWs are always talking about that organization and seem to never let it go.

  Many people have very little knowledge of the negative effects that cults and oppressive groups have in people. Even many ex-JWs are not aware of how badly influenced they have been until they start "deprogramming" and learning to think for themselves and accept the time and energy lost due to the WT.

  If they know nothing about the WT, know nothing about cults, brainwashing and their negative effects, and if none of that affects them directly, no, the general public will not care. At best, some people may have a degree of curiosity, but I believe that is short lived.
  
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  flipper

  The thing that can be annoying to me is when I hear people in the business world I deal in say " oh, we have JW's do work for us and they are so upstanding, such honest people " - going on and on about their " great " qualities due to being a JW. People in the real world just see these allegedly " innocent looking " shiny , happy people knocking on their doors or standing by a cart in their town and look at them as harmless, but weird. They'd rather them NOT call on their doors on Saturday morning. JW's are looked at as an annoying gnat that keeps landing on you when you're hot and sweaty.

  To offset this fake " JW's are so good " complex in some non-JW's heads- what I've done is share with them the news reports of child abuse going on within the WT organization explaining how awful the child abuse policies are, I'll talk about the shunning of inactive or dfed relatives or friends, and how they won't give their minor children blood transfusions letting them die. I also mention how they won't let their kids go to college. By sharing any number of these WT atrocities with them , I've been able to put some REAL into non-JW's reality about things they were totally unaware of in the WT organization or JW world. It's worked pretty good actually- people respond and say , " Really ? I didn't realize JW's did that ! " So it's a matter of informing them - in my opinion. They won't hear of it otherwise , unless they research on the Internet. But a conversation exposing JW's faulty policies can spark a curiosity in them to check the Internet and then - boom ! - reality sets in. This isn't an innocent organization
  
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  Gorbatchov

  Not at all.

  G.
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  Christian Gutierrez

  I remember a few times at our special day assembly they would still give the baptism talk even if nobody was getting baptised.
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  Darkknight757

  Seriously? They have the talk with none being baptized? That seems a little wierd. Perhaps to remind their followers to remain loyal to their vow?

  That's kind of sad that they couldn't come up with something of a filler for the second most boring talk of the year.