the Brooklyn/Paterson gerontocrats lust after control
Met, I think another term would be, ‘fearing loss of control.’
Disfellowshiping has served the WTB&TS very well over the years because many Jehovah’s Witnesses who’ve stayed would’ve left sooner without the threat of losing the support groups of family and friends. And as we all know, that task is accomplished by curtailing the free flow of un-censured information and the freedom to come and go as you please as with most mainstream churches. Which illustrates with regards the WTB&TS, one cannot be both, either you’re ‘in’ or you’re ‘out’.
More importantly, the WTB&TS Corporation has to walk the fine line of credibility through volume of adherent population in an effort to maintain the status of a government sanctioned, tax-exemption on religious publication sales and investment revenues.
The WTB&TS and the financial pressure that can be brought to bear, in conjunction with six million Jehovah’s Witnesses, has served to prove that the organization is somewhat of a lobby group. But if too many Jehovah’s Witnesses begin to speak their minds by questioning the Society as well as 'walking', that could make it harder for the Society to convince the Government tax revenue departments that the WTB&TS serves some useful social-economic purpose, which might cause the Corporation to be more easily viewed as a self-serving cult.
In my opinion, the need is so important to the Corporations survival, that without their status of tax-exemption, the WTB&TS would dissolve their ‘religious’ heritage very quickly just as many borderline religious organizations in the past, that have taken more than they’ve given.
However the WTB&TS has a history of guarding their Government tax status religiously. Unlike many ‘religious’ organizations that have been lax in this regard, and thankfully, fallen by the wayside, whoever controls the WTB&TS seems to have recognized the importance of keeping production costs at rock bottom while maintaining a relative high volume of cash sales to expenses, coupled with no taxes on revenue for their Corporations continued financial success.
Whether a higher power exists or not, likewise for example, as with the National Inquirer or Amway, there is simply no evidence of alignment between the WTB&TS and any cosmic significance, only that which can be conjured in the minds of Jehovah’s Witnesses through mass marketing by the WTB&TS ever since the day ‘Judge’ Rutherford bellowed, “…Advertise, Advertise, Advertise.”
…inspiration has never been their (WTB&TS) strong suit.
I agree Met, (spiritual) inspiration, doesn’t pay the bills, marketing prettily colored publications containing a message that's worn thin and can't stand on its own without the ‘glitz’, does.
Flip
