What do you think the Society's future holds?

by KW13 46 Replies latest jw friends

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  BlackSwan of Memphis

  I would really like to think that the Society will just tumble, but I doubt it.

  Religion has survived for centuries and it will continue to survive. JW's included. I think some people just Need a religion like the jw's to tell them what to do. So as long as there are people who need it, it will be there in some fashion.

  If I'm not mistaken there are still members of that religion that David Koresh fostered isn't there?

  Sooo if that can survive so can the jw's.

  *sorry to rain on anyone's hopes and dreams
• 

  JWdaughter

  Hi, I keep trying to post, but it won't let me. Trying again.

  They are gonners. Eventually no one will remember them, no one will even recognize the name. The most active generation they have now is the 60+. Young people have more access to information and those who grew up in it grew up in a time that really showed the warts of the org. New prospects have access to info before they ever even get involved. People can be good hearted and naive. Most are not stupid. Most people value intellectual honesty, integrity and personal morality-they don't want to damage the lives of others. Hard to preach things you KNOW are lies when that is the case-even if you are in a rut and don't know how to get out. They are losing their American base which supported the rest. They are in sorry trouble and will be like the Shakers by the time my kids have grandkids-if not MUCH sooner.
• 

  M.J.

  Very interesting chart, Elsewhere. But I do suspect there will be a definite "event" that causes an anomaly leading up to, and after 2014.

  I've even heard a JW express TO ME, a non-dub, that 2014 is coming up soon! 100 years since the end times began!
• 

  M.J.

  oh, and the number of Spanish publications printed will surpass the number of English publications.
• 

  llumpire15

  I know none of you know me, so I'll introduce myself. My name is Margie James, been out since 1994. Lived in Montgomery Alabama and Fort Walton Beach Florida. I always been active in someway or another in helping ex-Jw's. I don't post here, but listen an awful lot.

  This is my question.......could you put together the same kind of chart - except - include only numbers in the United States??? It would be interesting to see the correlation between growth and the internet (the information highway). Where is the growth or decline in numbers in relation to the growth or availablity, ease of use of the internet.

  Just a thought...would really like to see those numbers. Can anyone make this happen.

  Thanks, Margie
• 

  funkyderek

  It's all in the cards...

  
• 

  stevenyc

  As Napoleon said: When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.

  steve
• 

  Anitar

  Margie, welcome to the board, I'm glad to hear you visit. Start posting and let us know what you think!

  Ok, everyone. I agree with many who say that change will come very slowly. However, there are a few catalysts that are pushing the process along. First, the writing department has been on auto-pilot for several years, and the governing body are dropping like flies. This spring, when Albert Schroder died, none of my mom's congregation even knew about it. I was the one who told her, because I saw it HERE. You would think that would be important news, right?

  Second, the child molestation policy will be their death sentence. People, especially Americans, are getting more and more angry about this every day. I see at least once or twice a week on Dateline, or something like it on ABC (is it Stone Phillips or Anne Curry?) where they trap a child abuser by using a decoy in an online chatroom. And how many of those men confessed to being ministers of some kind? So is it really a stretch of the imagination that a JW is using a similar process? Perhaps even an elder...? Then the occasional stories like Mary Kay Letorno, there seems to be at least once a year. Finally, Oprah gives 100,000 dollars to each person who catches a predator on the list on her website.

  So with all this exposure given to individual abusers, is it not logical to assume that it's only a matter of time before large organizations are investigated? To be fair, every organization has this problem to some degree, whether secular or not. The fault lies in how they deal with this problem. The watchtower blames the victims and sweeps the problem under the rug. Someday, someone will bring this to the attention of the public and mass media. Then they will devise a clever cover story, spend millions in an image overhaul, and pretend to have changed. But by then it will be too late, the world will already know, and in the court of public opinion, they will be guilty.

  Anitar
• 

  JWdaughter

  David Koresh was never more than a blackhead on the face of religion. Now they have 'a few followers left'. I don't think a few fringies pose quite the danger of a large corporation such a the WTS. Billionaires. If there are a few JWs in the far distant future I can live with it. What bugs me is that they have credibility because of their numbers and their money and their publishing. They are 'recognized' as a religion. They should not even have that courtesy. THAT is what will end, and that is what I am looking forward to.
• 

  kilroy2

  I have seen the dubber talking heads run in to problems before, 1975, watched how many sold what they had,quit their jobs, all waiting for the big bang that never came. and then got shot down for expecting the very thing they were told to expect. And the dogs went back to eat its own vomit. I don't think you will see the dubbers cult go down, that would be to much to expect. Remember what P.T Barnum said, there is sucker born every minute. dubber,sucker, all the same thing.