by NotFormer 13 Replies latest watchtower scandals
I've been going through past threads on here during the period I was not very interested in what was going on in JW world. The Australian Royal Commission era caused a great deal of excitement and inspired some hope, but did any good come of it?
The 2 witness rule in child sexual assault cases still exists, and elders still don't call the police and try to handle things in house. So was it all just a giant nothing burger?
Exposure.
Embarassment.
And their grudging concession to the redress scheme reveals that, when backed into a corner, the Org will show its throat to “Satan’s World” to keep its tax-exemption…
…strongly suggesting that they really need it.
And that is useful intel.
And that is my point: they didn't wither. The two witnesses rule in CSA cases is still WT policy, even in Australia. And they still insist on handling everything in house and refuse to call the police. And probably disfellowship witnesses who exhibit common sense and call the police before informing the elders.
About the only withering I see is that recruitment has become more difficult and that the people still in are losing faith/interest in the whole thing. A slow death by attrition is hardly desirable. This organisation deserves to go down in a bang, not a whimper.
The CARC shone a brief spotlight on the corrupt practices of the organisation, but the Australian Government took no real action against it, and no other national governments took the opportunity to have a look at the witnesses, to see if they were up to the same shenanigans in their jurisdictions. Norway removing their funding is one of the few bright spots.
I suppose that doesn't mean that we are stuck with the organisation forever. They once boasted about the funds flowing into their coffers and the real estate investments they were making with those funds. Now they seem to be running on fumes. The once profitable publishing business has dried up. Seriously, how does a business that doesn't have to pay employees not make money?? They were able to get a one off boost by selling off all the real estate that they by good fortune had invested in in New York City. So they made some decent capital gains, but those are windfalls, not reliable income. Even the once mighty sham of building ever more kingdom halls has fallen by the wayside, to be replaced by a renovation, rather than new building, policy. There are threads on here that suggest that the organisation is 🩸 bleeding money 💰 on lawsuits regarding the issues that they refuse to address and change, so there is much hope in that. As has been suggested in this thread, hitting them in the money belt is the way to make them feel pain.
And what of the lovely GB? Do any of its members lay awake awake at night 🥱 and wonder what happened to the once mighty organisation? Or are they so surrounded by yes men that they have no real idea of how dire the situation is? Do they have any sense that something has gone seriously wrong? Apart from Tony Morris, that is! 😆😺
So, what do posters think, can the WT last beyond the 120th anniversary of 1914, i.e. 2034? Will it?
Not Former, you make valid points. The ARC was a disappointment overall. They had the "goods" on WTC but let them slip away. Even if that is not the end of the attention they give WTC, it is indeed frustrating to see that they basically did little to nothing in stopping the abuse of children. In their defense, I suppose one could argue that the problem was much larger than the problem in JW congs. They have a lot to address with other religions, anf the political capital it takes to do that is enormous.
WTC's demise could be almost immediate if they lost their tax exemption in the U.S. alone. However, I suspect that it will be a slow death by attrition due to CSA lawsuits, apathy among the young, and inability to recruit fresh new members.
Having served at WTC headquarters, I can tell you that the inside view is dire. They joined the UN so that they could hobnob with the BIG BOYS (catholics and other mega religions). Now they have employed the same law firm that is helping the Catholic dioceses declare chapter 11 in one location after another. This is no coincidence. That should tell you what the near future holds for WTC. It will not be the end, but you will be able to see the end on the horizon when that happens. They may even relocate the headquarters to a friendlier nation (like Argentina), but that will only postpone the inevitable. When the faithful stop traveling to tour headquarters and worship the GB, in practical terms, it will be over.
Don't take me wrong - ALL of the faithful will NOT abandon WTC. Decades from now, some will still be holding their breath for the Great Tribulation to start. They will be inconsequential - does that make you feel better?
I read recently that a few Shakers still exist. I don't care and neither does anyone else I think. JWs will eventually be so few that no one will care - and neither will I.
Their demise is death by a thousand cuts - some cuts are deeper than others, but they are hemorhaging money and support as I write this. I don't personally think that any emergency efforts can save them. They want to stay out of court to avoid bad PR and unpredictably high settlements. So, they have chosen to negotiate and settle with tight NDA's in place. This is nothing more than a calculated strategy to give them time to get the ducks in a row for chapter 11. Follow the money my friend. Don't believe wildly inaccurate reports they publish. They are the king of the lie - why should they change now.
If I was a GB member, or the inner circle. I’d be thinking in terms of; as long as the machine keeps running to see me through my old age. Then what do I care about it’s long term sustainability. In another 10 years apart from Sanderson, and Jackson, a lot of them would have died, or be too old to care anyway. I want it to run long enough to see me through.
I know this reasoning well, as I have come to the same conclusion with my aged father.
I don't really care if a few hangers-on are around in the decades to come. Look at the Mormon breakaway groups that are still loyal to Joe Smith and don't recognise anything that came after him. I'd just love to see the blatant demise of the central WT organisation, that took so much from so many and gave so much to so few (being on the GB is still a good gig, while it lasts).
I suppose that it is something that they just can't exercise power the way that they used to. Their secret documents and communications are no longer safe from the public the way they used to be. I wonder how that affects the psyche of the GB and others in command? Once their word, both spoken and secret, was law, and now everything they whisper in secret is being shouted from the housetops. It must be quite the comedown. I wonder when the pilgrimages to Bethel will cease, or at least decline to the point that the GB will notice? The implications above are that it is already happening enough to frighten the Bethel horses.
On a positive note, I used to hate seeing the smug face of Herbert W Armstrong on my tv every Sunday morning (I switched over immediately) and now the organisation that he built is but a shadow of its former self. So maybe there is hope. Selling off the family silver is a short term solution at best, and the diminishing number of Kingdom Halls must be worrying to the R&F, even while they're being assured that everything is fine.
The Australian Royal Commission era caused a great deal of excitement and inspired some hope, but did any good come of it?
The 2 witness rule in child sexual assault cases still exists, and elders still don't call the police and try to handle things in house. So was it all just a giant nothing burger?
It caused a lot of bad press for the JW's at the very least. I know of a handful of JW's that were disgusted enough to become inactive, and stay inactive. They probably lost a few members because of it.
ARC was not a legal/Criminal investigation. They had no power to arrest or charge onayone or any corporation.
The website says:
On 12 November 2012 the then Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, announced that she would recommend to the Governor-General that a Royal Commission be appointed to inquire into institutional responses to child abuse.https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/final-report
The Commission was an inquiry; a study. It studied the problem and made recommendations. Period.
What it accomplished was to show just how big the problem was in Australia and that there was a need for changes. They could only recommend changes; not enforce them.
What it also accomplished was the awakening of many JWs as they followed the case and watched and/or read the transcripts.
The fact that they got a GB member on the stand and JWs who watched or read saw him lie was huge. Yes he could claim "theocratic war strategy" and that the court was further down the food chain from Jehovah but some people saw through the lies to the real truth. In that sense it was a real win for many people.
And it has become a building block for other lawyers to watch as they actually to charge JWs and the org for not reporting child abuse where they are legally required to do so.
And it highlighted that they will put the org before the needs and rights of the children they are supposed to be caring for.
Organizations that crash-and-burn sometimes bounce back, phoenix-like, from the ashes.
Death by slow attrition, though? Not so much.
