Is There Truly Any "Underground Reform" Going On?

by minimus 32 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  metatron

  Reform of the Watchtower Society?

  No! , no more than "reforming" the Soviet Union.

  Take a look at all the changes in recent years - legal troubles, public exposure, downsizing Bethel and dropping contributions.

  If this was any ordinary corporation, the shareholders and directors would be screaming for someone's head. Since this is a

  religion , logic somehow doesn't apply.

  I also think that many of them privately realize that the 'jig is up'. They are just holding on to their positions and offices

  and have lost their faith in the whole thing. While this might yet produce positive change, it is more likely that they lack the

  vision and good sense to turn things around, as an imaginative MBA might do.

  I'm hopeful that they are running out of time and opportunities, as cash flow dries up and exposure intensifies.

  metatron
• 

  hybridous

  
  I think that the orgainzation will continue to suffer, but...

  If the WT is going to play the 'cooling off' card, then that implies that they have given up expectations of growing the organization. Growing the organization is what the leadership is about. Like any business, the religions goal is to protect what it has and improve its share of whatever market there is.

  I think there remains a strong sentiment from the 1950s to the 1980, when the service reports would come in and all you'd hear was growth all over, and how that proved the Jah was blessing this organization. People got very used to the idea that this organization would grow indefinately. I think in the minds of many, many JWs, this organization cannot and will not falter. The WT playing that 'cooling off' card will be like pulling the rug out from under those people.

  The WT can fall back on that explanation any time it wants, but there is a flipside to it. The flipside to cooling off is: negative growth, negative dollars, and you're on board a sinking ship. You think JWs fake their ministry hours now?! Wait until the WT acknowledges that no one is coming in - go ahead and fake, what's the point?

  And as for reform, metatron is correct. There is no reform, there is only fracture. So be it.
• 

  TheListener

  The GB is the head and the congregations are the body. I view the COs and DOs as the nerves running from body to head.

  In this instance the body is changing and becoming weaker and not as focused, the nerves are telling the head this and the head's response is to tighten control over the body. I truly believe that the head doesn't know what to do.

  Think about it. Most members of the GB and the other heavies that directly interface with them haven't had the proper training in how to run an organization of the dubs size. It takes college, tutoring and plain old on the job training to learn that stuff. Training that they've never had. I can just imagine them asking each other "what do we do to control the friends and make them listen to us?"

  Running a billion dollar corporation isn't child's play - neither is herding the cats in the congregations (publishers are cats in this example)