I dont think there is any reason to feel sorry for these Bethelites being asked to leave. They are happy to do as the Society asks them. They truly feel what they do for the Society they do for God.
Same is true of all the cults. The members are asked from time to time to up and move and make great sacrifices and changes for the leaders and this they are willing and happy to do.
I finished last year a book about a Buddhist cult commune here in the U.S.
It is bizzare how loyal the members are to this lady who claims to be the incarnation of a holy person.
They adore her and follow her everywhere she goes in the U.S.
They work outside the commune and give her all their money and work on her building projects and make and sell stuff for her. All the while she has boyfriends and is gaining and losing weight on diets and splurges and speaks to them of God and what is good for them.
She even disciplines them and treats them like children. Sends them away and orders them back. Tell them she loves them, and then tell them how dissappointed she is in all of them.
She is good at what she does.
So is the Watchtower Society. It has had over a hundred years practice at convincing people it is Gods faithful servant. Millions of people believe it.
Bethel Downsizing Spin
by Cellist 61 Replies latest jw friends
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anewme
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undercover
we Bethelites really came to realize the need in the field. Statistics given in the talks noted the number of English congregations that lacked sufficient brothers to take the lead.
If I was still in and read this, I'd have to feel a little under appreciated. I mean, we go to all the meetings, go out in service, do everything asked of us and yet, they have to send the Bethelites out to the territory because we aren't doing a good enough job.
I'm sure some will have that same thought. And I'm sure some, who aren't so quick to accept the official edit, will figure out that there must be a downsizing at Bethel and that they're just trying to put a positive spin on it.
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under_believer
I had the same thought as metatron--wouldn't the recent victory an ex-Bethelite had on a worker's comp claim have a lot to do with this? The Society has always had a real scorched earth policy with things like that--"FINE! You're gonna make us follow the same rules as all the other companies? Then we'll send everyone home so you can't tell us what to do. Nyah-nyah!"
Edit: Here's that worker's comp article: http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/story/380379p-323000c.html
Edit: Reading further, think about the huge increase in insurance Bethel would have to carry on all those workers... I am leaning more and more towards this being about that ruling than about anything else. -
Hondo
Also discussed were the more than 1 million inhabitants of the US that live in unassigned territory and quite a few more who do not receive a regular witness.
This above, from the Bethel letter, is a bit confusing. What does it actually mean? Are there only a million+ folks left in the U.S. to be witnessed to? Does it mean that ~299,000,000 (approximate U.S. population) people have already been approached, or approximately 74,000,000 households (base on 4 personnel per family), doors have been knocked on? If so, what has been the success of all this witnessing. If you compare a "period ot time" example, in this case the tenure of Pope John Paul II, how do the numbers compare to each other. For example, during his 25+ (1979 - 2005) years as Pope, 250,000,000 new catholics joined the church and were baptized, and, to best of my knowledge, John Paul did not knock on one door. Can the JW's claim any numbers close to this? They "pound the pavement", and doors, putting in a ton of hours. What is their actual success rate? I'm not espousing Catholicism mind you, but only using them in comparison as an example, primarily because just about all the major TV stations covered John Paul's death, and ultimate successor process, intermingling in all broadcasting the history, facts and figures about the Catholic church.
Just curious. Thanks for any response.
Hondo
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johnny cip
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There is ; no reason to feel sympathy for any of these people, they have the same minds and access to the same information we all did, if they choose to ignore it, then they have made their decisions and I feel nothing for them when reality crashes in on them kilroy says; and i can not agree MOre. mostly if these so called jw's have heard the fact about the wts before,. and still stick their heads into the sand and deny deny deny...
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sir82
Are there only a million+ folks left in the U.S. to be witnessed to? Does it mean that ~299,000,000 (approximate U.S. population) people have already been approached, or approximately 74,000,000 households (base on 4 personnel per family), doors have been knocked on?
No...what it means is this: Each congregation has an assigned "territory", a splotch of land ranging in size from a few city blocks, to a few hundred square miles, depending on the location of the congregation (urban or rural). 99.7% of the US population falls within the borders of one of these territories.
But there are a million or so folks who live in an area so, so isolated, that there is no Kingdom Hall for dozens or hundreds of miles within their house. Think of ranchers & farmers in Montana, Idaho, South Dakota, etc.
In theory, these folks are witnessed to by "specal pioneers", or or covered once every year or 2 by a group of publishers who go out to "unassigned territory" for a few weeks or so.
Regarding your question on effectiveness, no it is not effective at all. Millions of hours are wasted on a message that no one wants to hear, and that the deliverers have little or no interest in spreading.
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sir82
And, by the way, I fully agreee that the reason for the "downsizing" is economic, and very likely due to concern about medical claims. Other threads have commented about how the majority of those being "let go" are in the 40-60 year old range, the typical age at which corporation workers are downsized.
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Hondo
Thanks sir82. I disagree with your statement "and that the deliverers have little or no interest in spreading"... Not my ex-wife (she joined the JW's after 20 years of marriage ruining our family, life, and so forth and so on). She is wrapped and packaged so well by the WTBS/JW's that she would run down the street naked with a purple hat on yelling, "the sky is falling, the sky is falling", if she were told to do so because of some misquoted, out of context biblical passage. She will do what she has to to "spread the word (lies and deceptions) of the WTBS", thinking that she is in the "troof." We were divorced in 2003 by the way.
Hondo
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sir82
Let me re-phrase that..."the majority of the deliverers don't really honestly truly care if if anyone listens".
If the publishers really, honestly, truly believed that Armageddon was coming "real soon now", within a matter of weeks or months, and they really believed that people's salvation depended on their response to the preaching efforts, would their presentations really be along the lines of "Good-morning-here's-the-latest-Watchtower-as-you-can-see-it-asks-a-very-interesting-Bible-question-can-I-leave-it-with-you...not-interested-OK-have-a-nice-day."
Of course, there ae a few that really are motivated to want to help people, and are really sincere in their efforts. But in my 40+ years of experience, I think by far the majority are primarily interested in being seen by the elders and/or their peer group as appearing to busy, and really can't wait for the coffee break to start.
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looking_glass
they will receive an allowance to help with finances.
Does anyone know what this translates to dollarwise? Does it vary as for each person and how long they have been a JW or at bethel?