while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.
because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".
i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.
The facts prove otherwise.
That summary post of yours referred to above is a brilliant synopsis of why events like the Asian tsunami simply cannot be explained away using typical JW reasoning. I remember reading it at the time and it really struck a chord as I was still trying to completely break the chains of cognitive dissonance. I really don't care if any accuses me of too much Cofty love - that was one of the best posts I ever read on this site.
according to the org's website, various congregations will be moving in with other congregations, effective january 1st 2017.
(i've only highlighted a couple) in all probability, their own k.h.
is/has been sold.
"According to the org's website, various congregations will be moving in with other congregations, effective January 1st 2017."
I think Searcher has misread some of the info on the org website. Some congregations show a change for 1st Jan 2017 but only in meeting times at existing halls. This is where congs in the same hall are swapping meeting times.
according to the org's website, various congregations will be moving in with other congregations, effective january 1st 2017.
(i've only highlighted a couple) in all probability, their own k.h.
is/has been sold.
I personally know a brother who works heavily on construction planning on the the LDC here in the UK. He very recently confirmed that they have been and continue to be look at EVERY SINGLE HALL here as to where consolidation can take place.
Of course there is some low hanging fruit. The large cities are already pretty sorted and areas of easy consolidation (e.g. Brighton) are being done but nowhere is safe. The next candidates will be halls requiring rebuilds or significant refurb. Clevedon is a great example. The hall had two congregations. They dissolved one congregation (Portishead), assigned the members to at least three other congregations, closed the hall and made everyone go to halls at least 20 mins drive away - which for parochial English brothers is like asking them to fly to the moon.
Make no mistake - this approach is being planned and executed everywhere.
reading konceptual's account of talking to cart 'witnesses' and it reminded me that when we left in '89 we thought the religion would do one of two things.
get more hardline, consequently lose members and eventually come to an end in some way.
or ease up on the members, fewer rules, less fs time, less meetings, just to keep them in.. all the recent apostate stuff, treatment of dfed kids and the hardline attitude to people who leave or try to fade has confused me, made me think they are harder on the r+f., but i don't think this is true.
A JW said to me the other week, why don't you come back to the meetings? There's only two meetings a week now, and you can go on the carts instead of door to door. As like a selling point. There's also the implied threat that you are "bad association" if you don't go back to meetings.
Indeed SBF. They view the reduction in meetings, carts and use of video messages (which is just a new version of the foot in the door and play a speech from Rutherford tactic from 80 years ago) on the ministry as "loving provisions" yet it's obvious that it's a strategy covering all the other points in your post.
i was really puzzled when i opened this edition of the wt magazine at the above “study”.
what on earth has this picture at the top of page 13 got to do with christian watchfulness?
i wasn’t making a connection at all.
They keep using the phrase 'the light is getting brighter' when they change their doctrines but in reality, it's getting dimmer and dimmer.
Whilst I agree with the sentiment 100%, the WTS have not used the phrase about the "light getting brighter" for years. It persists in the mouthsof individual Witnesses but they have been at pains to use phrases that convey a slightly different tone such as "beliefs being clarified" or "progressive light".
They are trying to convey that things haven't really changed. Of course they have and the light is indeed getting dimmer and dimmer - they know less than they did 10,15, 20 years ago.
this is big!
according to what they say if i'm correct an investigation was done back in 1998 in concerning what american companies invested money in to germany.
mike and kim state that a document they have attained shows a list of american firms that had invested into germany as late as 1943. on this list is non other then watchtower !!
The biggest thing is that no one really cares. Rutherford and his well documented two faced approach to Hitler is of very little interest to anyone in the org, let alone some fairly sensationalist misappropriation of data in a report.
When you wake up the facts about WTS hypocrisy over political matters like Malawi, Mexico, the UN and Hitler take on a meaning and import but I would submit that these are rarely the driving forces or even the straws that break the camel's back behind an individual waking up. Most Witnesses couldn't care less about what the WTS did or didn't say 5 years ago.
It's just a shame that this claim could actually turn someone off due to it simply reinforcing the stereotype of the bitter apostate presenting lies.
with the proliferation of social media, more people have been reached by the watchtower organization than ever before in history.
it sure took them long enough!.
at the same time, anti-jw activism has caught fire to counterbalance the propaganda.. there are all sorts of activists operating "out there" using books, videos, podcasts, facebook, and incidental un-witnessing to puncture and perforate the false message and counterfeit codswallop of the governing body.. __________.
This site has personally been invaluable during my awakening and continues to provide an outlet for discussion and comment that otherwise would be hard to achieve. My personal opinion is that the only other source of open discussion and support is the exjw reddit.
Facebook groups are great in themselves but tend to be more limited in their membership. I occasionally dip in the ex jw uk group but as I have to use a second account under incognito browsing it's a bit of a pain to have to keep logging in. If I was openly out then I think FB would be a better as the community aspect would be more accessible.
JWfacts is awesome. There is no other place to go to to find facts presented in a logical and evidence supported manner.
JWSurvey seems to get alot of traffic and the nature of the content there does seem to draw the curious. I know Cedars is marmite to many but I don't think you can underestimate the reach of the site. I also think that the editorial content has become more rounded as Cedars has involved others in the content production.
There are obviously many ones presenting content on youtube. Some are better than others, some will appeal to certain people more than others.
I don't think there is a single right or wrong way. Individuals will consume information in whatever ways are most suited to them and this may vary for that person at different times, I know it does for me. Their needs may also vary with where they are in the journey. In the early days, information from JWFacts or a snappy video on youtube may be best. Other times it will be support through discussion here, reddit or Facebook.
The only thing I would say is that the people/sites/vloggers that I keep going back to and value are the ones that avoid sensationalism and distortion of the facts. Opinion is one thing, but there are some out there who simply end up confirming the apostate stereotype which I think is counter-productive.
in geoffrey jackson's autobiography published in in the watchtower, he states that him and his wife went to serve as missionaries on the island nation of tulavu in 1979, and there were only 3 baptized witnesses in all of tulavu, and he translated all of the witness literature into the tuvaluan language in 1980, printing it right there on the island.
the article says they served as missionaries there until 1985 when they were assigned to the samoa branch.. .
in july, 2008, the watchtower society penned a letter to the un human rights council about the treatment of jws in tuvalu.
Thanks Wild_Thing. I searched "jehovahs witnesses tuvalu" in Google and the letter you refer to came up fourth in the list. So this information is easily found with zero input from any "apostate" sources.
Now then, what are the chances of the org responding to a letter on the matter.....? :-/
in geoffrey jackson's autobiography published in in the watchtower, he states that him and his wife went to serve as missionaries on the island nation of tulavu in 1979, and there were only 3 baptized witnesses in all of tulavu, and he translated all of the witness literature into the tuvaluan language in 1980, printing it right there on the island.
the article says they served as missionaries there until 1985 when they were assigned to the samoa branch.. .
in july, 2008, the watchtower society penned a letter to the un human rights council about the treatment of jws in tuvalu.
Good catch Wild Thing. How did the UN letter come to light? Is there a way that a JW could find his letter easily or via JW sources?
this notice is not official yet and it should be confidential until released thru the proper channels.
a friend of mine told me about a huge elders meeting in southern california.
the subject was the relocation and dissolution of some congregations; it seems that this is the result of some project that has been going on for some time and is going to be implemented right now.. please let me know if this is happening all over the country?.
Very interesting theory Jeff and it would not surprise me at all. The theological issues that the WTS have are terminal in the long run but as long as the org has money then life goes on as normal for the heavyweights in their ivory towers. Any strategy to maintain funds over pure scale of membership has to be a winner for them
