It's Over Johnny....The Demise of Jehovah's Witnesses

by ctrwtf 44 Replies latest jw friends

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  neverendingjourney

  But what if we've misread all this?

  Are the two ideas mutually exclusive? Could the transformation to a real estate development model be motivated by declining cash flows from the publishing model?
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  ctrwtf

  @sir 82 I've thought about the transformation from publisher to real estate mogul. The problem is, where is the cash flow? Real Estate is a very fickle strategy for them especially when one considers that the vast majority of holdings are not so valuable KH's. Even with the new redux in KH's they are not exactly liquid assets.

  I've no doubt that the Wits are going to be around for awhile.....but eventually their well will dry up.
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  sloppyjoe2

  Sometimes I think ex JWs are the same as current JWs. Current ones take whatever evidence they can to prove the system is crashing. Exjws take whatever evidence they can to talk about how the org is on it's demise. It's not going anywhere!
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  Finkelstein

  It isn't so much that the WTS is suffering form financial woes, in a matter of fact the WTS has never been as rich as it is now. What the WTS is confronted with is its long history of false maligning teachings, which were expressively devised to attract attention to the organization's literature and lure in followers who are eventually mentally trained and influenced to distribute that literature.

  Add in the easy access to information available on the inter-net, you have a real concerning problem.

  So what do the leaders of this organization do or what choice do they really have to sustain the operation and the devoted following ?
  

  Fear monger and manipulate the bible toward their own commercial appealing advantage and to further create inherently corrupt doctrines to sustain that following. These men are quite aware how to treat questioning dissenters, they boot them out quickly and put a muzzle over their mouths. This is another tactic to sustain the operation of the organization.
  
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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  To add to the list in the OP:

  A legal department that looks criminal. -- It used to fight to defend religious freedom and freedom of speech, but now is reduced to paying out settlements and trying to defend WT's failed "protecting our child molesters" policy.

  Preaching has changed. -- Yesterday went through a different part of downtown and saw a couple of WT litteratrash carts, an elder-type playing with his phone, and a couple of sisters talking to each other. They're tucked in the entryway of a building under renovation about a block away from where pedestrian traffic is. Jeez, I thought working on construction projects was an easier way than d2d to get my time, but now they count time just standing around downtown. And d2d seems to be reduced to handing out tracts for their website.
  
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  Fisherman

  With terrorism the way it is maybe it's a wise decision to move out of the epicenter of what many experts think is the target for a future terrorist attack with a low yield nuclear device.

  You know, I though about that but seems that they don't need those factory buildings located in residential locations. Also, people don't go to the public library as much to get a book when they can read on the internet so seems that printing books is not what it was in its time. The new location Warwick also seems to suggest War wicked possibly the expectation for all H--l to break loose and the new position is in preparation for that.
  
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  Magnum

  It is over to me in that it seems that JWs are in retreat; JWdom is not what it used to be. It sold out. JWs and JWdom itself used to be bold, almost confrontational. Now, they run from not only arguments, but even questions. The quality/caliber of the individual JW is much lower than it was a few decades ago. The literature is dumbed down. The preaching is puny (if it can even be called "preaching").

  I used to really look up to the GB and want them to go on TV and debate religious leaders and expose them. Now, I think JWs should keep the GB boys locked in the back bedroom where they can't embarrass anybody.

  Yeah, the org might continue to exist in some form, but so does Vanilla Ice (or whatever his real name is). The glory days for the org are over. It is retreating with its tail between its legs.
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  neverendingjourney

  I think a vastly underrated factor in the religion's decline is the governance-by-committee structure they instituted in the 1970s.

  What this religion needs is bold leadership. It needs to reinvent itself and head off in a new direction, but you're simply not gonna get that kind of change when it requires a 2/3 supermajority from a ultra-conservative group of geriatric men. Instead we see the malaise and gradual decay that's quite evident today.
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  Magnum

  Somebody mentioned terrorism. Terrorism to the org is not a dirty bomb; it's a 1969 Awake! bound volume or any of many, many publications, articles, etc. that show how wrong and loony they are. Those who know real JW history and have decent knowledge and intelligence are terrorists to JWdom.

  I think literal terrorism might even help out JWdom. It can provide a distraction from their undesired exposure and scrutiny, and it can whip up excitement giving them reason to believe the end is near.
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  Finkelstein

  One could even speculate that the WTS's recent down sizing and moving away from printing manufacturing to digital publishing, is a calculating move to further sustain the organization for as long as it can for the sake of the many people who make a living and retirement source from the organization ( GB members)