by minimus 32 Replies latest jw friends
"love of the greater number has cooled off",
Yes with the core hardliners that reasoning will work, and there will always be that core.
But that number is dwindling fast to a ever-present, but delusional and disconnected core. I dont believe the "love of the greater number has cooled" card will play as well the next time around with a lot of JWs.
Axelspeed
I agree with jgnat and the others. Many dubs today are just going thru the motions. The ones who leave are those who grow weary of that game and feel hypocritical about it. It was very obvious during the last decade that zeal had diminished among the rank and file dubs.
Field service became an excercise in avoiding door to door cold calls while being sure to be "seen" by the "friends" as they attended the meeting for service. The advent of the cell phone made it possible to be "called away" from the field by some "emergency" and many have perfected this technique. The one-hour coffee break became the standard. Playing time was shortened so that 11:15 a.m. became "close enough" to noon to call it a day.
Meetings became expendable, too, as long as you attended just enough of them to keep the elders off your back. I once worked with a guy who called in sick about once a month. He would call at 6:30 a.m. before anyone came to work and leave a croaky-voiced message. This company had a liberal sick leave policy of one day a month or 12 days a year. Once when he was on vacation, I was asked to open his computer and find an Excel file my boss needed. I spotted a program titled "Sick Leave Plan" and was intrigued so, of course, I opened it. The guy had mapped out his sick leave in advance for the year! He wasn't about to leave one day unused. Many dubs are like that with meeting attendance. They actively plan to miss a certain number of them and know how many they can blow off without calling undue attention to themselves.
I submit this kind of active "civil disobedience" (which would include, these days, sending your kid to college) will eventually bring down or change the WTS in unimaginable ways.
Willy, were you in my Hall???
Great minds think alike, jgnat.
(I wish I could bake though)
The only movement is for the exit door.
Underground, at best, you have elders purchasing motorcycles, not a reform though.
Willy, were you in my Hall???
No, min, they're all alike!
M, that associated jws for reform exists, I was on their website today. they are trying to reform the WTS blood policy and say they do not linnk to any apostate sites, but they link to here, JWD on the opening page of the blood and medicine forum. Thye seem like very nice people.
I've met some people in jw land that were quietly trying to reform the org, one elder at a time, but as has been stated, they keep too much of a choke hold on the bros and sisters (somewhat less) to get very far.
Powerful people like Ray Franz and Ed Dunlap could not do it - so no - no chance
I believe that reform is progressing and will eventually build to a critical mass. The Internet is playing a major part.
It is true that past (potential) leaders of any reform efforts such as Franz and Christenson were not very successful and that even iconoclastic forerunners like Randy, Kent, Carl et al. have produced only minimal effect thus far.
But 1) the work of these persons is far from over because with the Internet more active JWs are able to access their work and writings and 2) again the Internet now permits the coordination of reform/revolutionary efforts with relative safeties and in safe harbors free from premature exposure or censorship and finally 3) the "time" for reform or revolution withing the broader timeline and evolution of the religion was not yet right until our time period.
I have said it before, the Organization is currently at an unprecendented position and crossroads in its history: theologically (without any viable end-time prediction, construct like the Generation Docrtine or specific date -- something that is totally unique in its 125 year history), organizationally (without any semblance of leadership or direction by the now meaningless presidency(ies) or the Governing Body), psychologically (both as a function of the foregoing and as a function of our larger 21st Century society), materially (as it copes with the voluntary donation arrangement), and paradigmatically (as it transitions from its 20th Century Publishing House model to what it will be in the 21st Century).
Finally, every Revolution or Reformation requires the courage of a few individuals to lead the way, sometimes even a single individual can make a difference. On this day when the death of Dr. King's wife is remembered, we can easily suppose how differently things might be or that the Civil Rights movement of the later 20th Century might have progressed much more slowly without MLK's and others like him taking a leadership role.
Who will be the leaders of the Revolution among Jehovah's Witnesses in the 21st Century?
We shall see.
-Eduardo Leaton Jr., Esq.
Would anyone involved in 'underground' reform not simply be suggesting that the parent structure is inherantly false and therefore why reform what's already wrong? The moment a believer starts to think that the object of belief needs reform have they not crossed a boundary into disbelief? If there was a reform anyone involved at the grassroots would theoretically be saying they were more 'inspired' than the leaders ergo they should be leading - when it comes to religion I think reformed belief systems which changed bottom up have lost any potential claim to being true..what do you think? Policy change has to come from the top to have even a shred of legitimacy ..I think anything else is schism. The Catholic church and the Protestant Movement is an example.
Still it would be cool to think that there was a massive public upswelling that would knock down the two main supports of the 'Bethel Wall' - blood and shunning - you would get some very happy families as they reunited.
organised reform? pfft not in our lifetimes (much like a lot things) however there is a definite undercurrent. people don't feel guilty about missing meetings at all, or not going out on service all that much-my favourite one that the ex "golden boy" uses (left school early, pioneered and worked part time-still a ministerial servant and working to become an elder) uses is "the long term goal is to get back to pioneering" (while he works a good job in sales, brand new car 5 holidays a year and is up to eyeballs in debt). Our hall has not seen any new regular pioneers in 3 years- in fact 3 have come off. people are hedging their bets however, keeping their foot in the door, just in case.
