Why no warnings against "fading" in the literature?

by sir82 28 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  sir82

  Agreed, there are constant "loving reminders" about not slowing down in your service, but the reasons generally presented that someone might slow down are given as materialism, laziness, "lack of appreciation", overconcern with your own health, etc.

  I don't ever recall them offering counsel against "fading as a strategy to avoiding shunning when you realize that you no longer want to live the JW lifestyle", i.e., as a conscious choice. Not "drifitng", but purposely deciding "OK, here is my plan: start missing one meeting per month, then later missing one meeting per week, then...etc."

  But as I noted in my first post, it is becoming a more-common method, and in many cases it works. So why don't they acknowlege that?
• 

  drew sagan

  The problem is that it is very difficult to tell whether or not somebody is fading because they believe the Watchtower is wrong or because they just can't meet the demands of the religion.
  
  They already put tons of pressure on people who leave but still believe it is the truth. If they where to start condemning them and saying that they where possible apostates it could cause a real mess. The Watchtower doesn't want to cause people not to come back who actually may.
  
  I do agree though that they wouldn't want to admit that it even exists. It shows that it has worked and that God isn't weeding out the bad seeds.
• 

  Jim_TX

  In a way, they don't mind the 'faders' - as long as they were once 'baptized', as this adds to their numbers that they publish at the end of the year. After all - they are still considered 'members' albeit inactive members.

  I have a feeling that if they went through their 'box' and pulled out all of the 'inactive' ones and held a mass DF-ing at one meeting - there would be quite a drop in the numbers that they publish. It would also dishearten the remaining 'troops'.

  Of course - nowadays - with the Internet - those who used to just fade away - are now going online to investigate - and are learning that they are not alone in their feelings. This is beginning to bother the folks at HQ - and they are trying their best to prevent others from also 'looking' on the Internet - else they will also 'fade' or become inactive.

  Regards,

  Jim TX
• 

  WTWizard

  They do have parts on missing meetings. People that start missing meetings will soon get a call from Brother Hounder. The same thing happens if people that have been steady in field circus start putting fewer hours than normal. The hounders are likely to want to know what's going on--if you did 20 hours a month for the past two years, why aren't you doing it now?

  How often they refer to returning to the former love of God. That actually applies to those who are not doing as much as they had been, for whatever reason. Parts on the meetings, as well as the occasional study article in the Puketower, discuss the skipping of meetings. When people begin skipping the meetings, Brother Hounder will start hunting for the reason and goad the person to become regular at meeting attendance once again. If that doesn't work, they will continue hounding the person. Declining field circus activity also triggers a call from Brother Hounder, sometimes when only a few days have passed into the new month.

  No, they don't call it "fading". But, when they have all the hounding about missing meetings and doing as much as you possibly can in field circus, they are talking about the same thing.
• 

  Sunspot

  I wonder if they still use that "visual aid" of holding the bible up and letting fingers off it, naming them as "one meeting missed-two meetings missed" and at the end ALL fingers let go and the bible drops to the floor. It was another one of those "cleverly contrived" demonstrations that enforced getting to ALL the meetings.

  I often used to think that if I had properly "studied and underlined" everything the WTS had allotted for the week just WHY it was so imperative that I rush through a meal, jump into meeting clothes and sit there through a meeting as often as they wanted me to. They liked to say that the first inkling that a JW is "falling away" is not having (what they called) "proper appreciation" for the meetings....which when boiled down....is nothing less than not showing complete subservience to the Watchtower.

  There was an elder that when he closed the meeting, would ask that JWs look around and see who was not there....and then call or visit that one when they got home to ask WHY they were not at the meeting. Whether it worked or not on others, I could not say....but I know it wasn't done for ME because I was not a pioneer or in an elder's family. But it WAS a way of keeping an eye on the pulse of things and seeing how many "unauthorized" missed meetings there were. It's kinda like needing a note from your doctor to miss the gym class.
• 

  R.F.

  They already put tons of pressure on people who leave but still believe it is the truth. If they where to start condemning them and saying that they where possible apostates it could cause a real mess. The Watchtower doesn't want to cause people not to come back who actually may.

  My thoughts exactly.

  It's quite common to see some drift away and then go back. The WTS surely doesn't want to do anything to keep the "weak" away.

  R.F.
• 

  oompa

  Sir82: It has been pretty firmly established that the WTS monitors ex-JW discussion boards generally, this one in particular.

  Sir, how has that been extablished? I have not seen anything about it yet. Could anyone post some former threads about it? BTW the subject is covered in an old book and I think WT has kind of talked about it without using the word....this shows they are led by Gods Holy Spirt and that the Bible is inspired by God.....oompa

  (Hebrews 2:1) 2

  That is why it is necessary for us to pay more than the usual attention to the things heard by us, that we may never drift away.. . .
• 

  sir82

  Sir, how has that been extablished?

  There was a court case involving the WTS in which the poster "Amazing" was involved...printouts of his comments on this board were used in the proceedings. I don't remember the exact details and am too lazy to look it up .
• 

  Trevanian

  Here's another theory.

  Fact. People will fade. In the absence of means to physically kill people, people will fade.

  Fact. If Jthe JW org wanders too far out of the mainstream, there will be no hope of attracting new members, let alone maintaining legal benefits.

  Hence. Let faders fade, and still maintain some semblance of ordinariness around them and their JW families.
• 

  FlyingHighNow

  This one:

  2) They don't want to plant ideas in the minds of JWs who don't know any "faders" & who don't read internet forums