jeremiah18:5-10

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Posts by jeremiah18:5-10

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  40

  Next steps for the Austrailian Royal Commission

  by Coded Logic in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  since the watchtowers' lawyers have (a) failed to make any recommendations to the arc that would bring the watchtower up to date with "best practices and procedures" (b) have failed to submit a proposal for victim restitution (c) have failed to secure funding for a redress scheme and (d) have completely dismissed all the arcs' findings - what's the royal commission's next course of action?.

  i see two possibilities:.

  ) negotiate a settlement with the watchtower.

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  jeremiah18:5-10

  I believe the greatest damage that can be done, has been done, the publication of the ARC hearing videos and evidence.

  WTS has proven for decades that they do not respect laws of the land that conflict with their beliefs. As long as they believe that their laws, rules, and beliefs epitomize gods laws, rules, and beliefs, they will stubbornly resist, falling back on and being empowered by their history of resisting persecution. 99% of all current JW's will simply chalk up any adverse judgment or press to being satanic persecution. The best that can be hoped for is that the ARC videos and evidence deter new converts from joining.

  If indeed new converts dry up, the religion will eventually wither away, imploding as age and years win out. The only hope for new converts is in third world countries without ready access to the internet. However, without new converts in advanced countries, the money will dry up.

  The more investigations and hearings that occur, regardless of legal outcomes, the better. The more video and paper evidence that surfaces and finds its way to the internet, where it could seemingly live forever, the better the chance for exposure and negative impacts to WTS.

  In short, if the reputation gets soiled and their true nature exposed, support wanes. When support wanes, money dries up. Without the money, WTS goes away. It may not be quick, but at least momentum has shifted from growth and moving forward, to contraction and moving backwards. This alone is encouraging to me, even though I do wish for a quick, total, and complete demise, especially during my lifetime and that of my parents, I just don't see that happening though.
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  16

  JW's correlation to franchise business

  by jeremiah18:5-10 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i operate a 31 restaurant franchise.

  it is no small task.

  the franchise is a well known american company and a rapidly growing one.

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  jeremiah18:5-10

  Phaedra, I control stores in Ark, Ok, and Mo. Our franchise own stores in Chicago, I'm certain they are always hiring, but I don't have any say over those. Sorry for the delay in replying
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  16

  JW's correlation to franchise business

  by jeremiah18:5-10 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i operate a 31 restaurant franchise.

  it is no small task.

  the franchise is a well known american company and a rapidly growing one.

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  jeremiah18:5-10

  Not Blind, you are correct!!
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  16

  JW's correlation to franchise business

  by jeremiah18:5-10 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i operate a 31 restaurant franchise.

  it is no small task.

  the franchise is a well known american company and a rapidly growing one.

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  jeremiah18:5-10

  I certainly agree with the assessment of their future. I mention it only to highlight their model, or attempted model as far as financially. Their philosophies and motivations do not line up with a business mindset or really even having a sincere religious mindset. It's more of just about being a high control cult in that area for sure. It's this lack of alignment that should ultimately cause it to devour itself and fizzle out, especially as more and more people hopefully realize the lack of sincerity and see through the thinly veiled money grabbing schemes. Of course, for that to actually happen, it has to be that their people want to open their eyes and overcome their fear of the unknown, life outside of the JW religion.
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  16

  JW's correlation to franchise business

  by jeremiah18:5-10 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i operate a 31 restaurant franchise.

  it is no small task.

  the franchise is a well known american company and a rapidly growing one.

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  jeremiah18:5-10

  Berrygerry, yes I agree, the comparison is limited in that regard. JW's as a whole don't have the most disposable income it would seem, which should have an impact sooner or later on their success and focuses. No doubt this contributes to the downsizing. The true spirit and trend of franchising is to push most expenses on the franchises so the corporate "mother" can stay strong financially and be able to leverage the brand, I see WT doing that. However the franchises "congregations" aren't going to be sustainable in that regard, thus combining of congregations in KH's. I'm certain WT is modeled after top franchises business models.
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  16

  JW's correlation to franchise business

  by jeremiah18:5-10 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i operate a 31 restaurant franchise.

  it is no small task.

  the franchise is a well known american company and a rapidly growing one.

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  jeremiah18:5-10

  Wing commander, lol, no my franchise is in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Chicago. Corporation is based out of Kentucky.
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  16

  JW's correlation to franchise business

  by jeremiah18:5-10 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i operate a 31 restaurant franchise.

  it is no small task.

  the franchise is a well known american company and a rapidly growing one.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  jeremiah18:5-10

  Never a JW, I agree with your point. However, no business is immune to negative comments and bad press in this day and age of social media. Our corporation and franchise both have departments devoted to tracking social media for negative comments and then seek to address it and do damage control. WT likely does the same.

  I think the big difference between business and JW is businesses are accountable to investors, legal entities, etc. JW is accountable to no one it seems, theres no external system of auditing. I hope this gets changed and that the RC is a first step in that direction.
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  16

  JW's correlation to franchise business

  by jeremiah18:5-10 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i operate a 31 restaurant franchise.

  it is no small task.

  the franchise is a well known american company and a rapidly growing one.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  jeremiah18:5-10

  I operate a 31 restaurant franchise. It is no small task. The franchise is a well known American company and a rapidly growing one. The nature of it is at first, to grow rapidly, once gaining recognition and brand loyalty, objective increasingly focuses on profitability. The brand recognition is gained through marketing and variety. Brand loyalty is gained through product quality and service. Once attained, profits take over and a hard look is taken at price increases, and cost reduction. They idea is less expansion, more sustaining and improving brand value.

  The similarities to JW are obvious. They're past rapid expansion stage, they're merely about protecting the brand and increasing profits. These things run their course and level off. There will from time to time be marketable, subtle gimmick attractions that catch the notice of longtime customers/adherents with some focus on new customers/adherents. Theres an increasing focus on less print and more social media and digital marketing in both. We have shifted from traditional orders of 90-100% to now receiving 50-60% being online orders, JW similar transition. Things become less personal and more automated.

  The parallels amuse me. But I no longer see JW as a religion as much as I do a pretty well run franchise with a focus on their brand and sitting back enjoying the profits.
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  37

  "It's the intent that counts and not the result."

  by donny in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  "it's the intent that counts not the result.".

  i have been out of the jw organization for some 22 years now and i sometimes get a reminding jolt out the hoops that some will jump through to make their religion make sense to them.

  the first line in this post is what a jw on the street here in salinas told me on saturday when trying to justify the society's history of false prophecies.

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  jeremiah18:5-10

  I personally feel the most brilliant thing you did was how you responded to the question, "are you an apostate?". Your response, " what's that?" Seemingly disarmed the jw and may enable them to justify research. Well done!!
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  47

  Why don't parents of an abused child go straight to police, why go to an elder first??

  by FeelingFree in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  i hope i don't come across as judgemental but having read a lot on the current child abuse cases and the different threads on here, i am left wondering why on earth a parent of an abuse victim would go to an elder with the problem first and not straight to police?.

  as a parent myself i know that if anything like that happend to my child (this applies to when i was still an active jw as well as now) i would not hesitate in going to the authorities as soon as i found out, it wouldn't of crossed mine or my husbands mind to go to an elder.

  maybe after we had reported it but definitely never as the first port of call.

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  jeremiah18:5-10

  As a former JW and an elder that once was on a judicial case investigating alleged child abuse, I can speak confidently about the internal struggle I went through. It is my opinion that most JW's, elders included, do not have proper self-esteem. They base their self worth on the way they are viewed by the elders and the "friends". They have no idea how to assess their value for themselves or to take pride in personal decision-making because they have willingly surrendered this ability to the organization. I was worried about how I would be viewed if I suggested that they go to the authorities with their concerns and suspicions. I feelt incapable and unqualified to be involved in this case, especially since the victim was not old enough to even speak yet.

  The parents were in anguish and were close friends with the alleged perpetrators parents, and this internal struggle coupled with their desire to be viewed approvingly by the elders and the congregation, caused them to just follow protocol. The only thing that could be done was to take the word of the alleged perpetrator, a 16 yo boy, and try our best to detrmine if he was honest or not, mind you none of us had any training to do this, just rely on the Holy Spirit to reveal it.

  We made the "call" to Legal and were told since there's no witnesses , this is all you can do. Use your best judgement and encourage unity.

  Makes me sick that I wasn't strong enough to go with my instinct.

  Makes me sicker to now realize that both myself and the people involved were more concerned about their own reputation than the well-being of the little infant girl.