A gradual decline or sudden collapse for the WTS? (page 3)

drew sagan

The Watchtower Society will continue to adapt and evolve to make sure of its own survival.

Eventually the dramatic expectation regarding thefullfillment of the "end times" will be traded for a much more conservative model. It may not happen today or tomarrow, but give it fifty years or so. Eventually the hopes of the group will be faced with disconformation, the realization that what they assumed about the "end of all things" wasn't correct. They will then find ways to move their group beyond such hopes. They will survive.

I do believe that 30-50 years from now the reilgion will look much differant from what it is today only because if it doesn't then it will not survivie. Whle the WTS proclaims that they see the world in black and white, they have shown that by their actions that they are planning in the grey.

Liberty

Despite becoming incrediably dumbed-down and anti-climactic since the death of Fred Franz I fear the Watch Tower Society is here to stay. I hate to admit this, but if the drastic changes I've seen in Watch Tower land over the past 40 years (especially 1975 failure, the headquarters shakeup that ousted Ray Franz, and the death of the 1914 Generation) didn't wake the J-Dubs up nothing will.

I don't know what keeps the present day J-Dubs hanging on because at least in the 1960's and 70's we had a vibrant door to door ministry, confusing but interesting and creative Bible interpretation, and 1975 or at least the 1914 Generation to keep us going. It looks to me now that the big "A" has been postponed indefinetly without even a clear approximate timeline. Without a timeline hearing that the big "A" will be here "soon" is all but meaningless. The door to door work is a complete joke because there is no one at home under 70 years old anymore. Since the death of Fred Franz there has been no interesting Bible out-of-our-ass conjecture and the rules are even more hardass.

But I have heard that there are many young people who are attracted to fundie religion and harsh discipline as a backlash to the freedom in the secular world. People want a break from thinking for themselves I guess.

Witness 007

The Watchtower is like "The Terminator" it looks like it's dead but it just keeps on coming back...WHY WON"T YOU DIE!!!!!!

journey-on

What you see today in the WTS is the results of the dynamics that were there from the 50's thru the mid 70's. That dynamic was based on a fervor that is now missing. That fervor was generated from a FEAR OF ARMAGEDDON and the HOPE OF A NEW WORLD IN OUR LIFETIME.

That fear and that hope will be as much as gone after 2014. The Society will make new changes and it WON'T involve the drudgery of door-to-door preaching or the mind-numbing meetings they have now! If they survive at all after 2014, they will be nothing like the organization you and I have known and been a part of.

Quandry

I go with gradual decline.

There have been "out there" religions like the Puritans that were thought at the time to be the only channel God was using, but where are they today?

We recall the hard line stance they took as regards morals, adherence to the "elders" at the time as spiritual judges, etc. Eventually, they had to deal with the witchcraft issue. The rank and file were so afraid of their positions in the congregation that they turned in friends and family members. Many were killed or shunned (sound familiar?). Eventually, the members began to wake up and see what was happening. That these men were just that...they had no special pipeline to God, and eventually the membership was absorbed into more mainline ways of worshipping.

The WTS takes hard stances on members, and so many are df'd and shunned now it must amount to thousands and thousands. These ones are becoming more vocal against the WTS.

The WTS is also being hit with the pedophile thing, and must pay many many lawyers googobs of money. This has got to make some take notice.

The ones who report that the growth is taking place in remote places with no TV or internet are correct. These poor folks have no way of checking out the history of the organization, and thanks to the new sanitized public edition of the WT, will have even less avenues to find out any less than savory information about the Society. (A clever move on the WTS' behalf, I must admit).

Yes, I go with gradual decline...many coming in the front door but soooo many going out the back.

besty

Longterm strategy - survival of Borg

Short term tactic to achieve this - adjust business model to meet new reality of flat revenues, abuse settlements, property value escalations

Interesting thing about the current group mentality is that roughly 5 million have been baptised since 1991. Difficult to estimate of the current 6.5 million how many were baptised before 1991, and how many of those baptised since 1991 have subsequently left. Perhaps JWFacts can help out here - he's the expert!

My point is that a very significant number of todays JW's won't have registered the 1995 generation change. The mantra is 'soon, soon,soon...' and that seems to keep them happy.

It will be interesting to see how long that works for with a +300,000 -100,000 model.

Perhaps indefinitely?

sspo

The only hope is that the GB conscience will kick in and finally acknowledges that 140 of changing doctrines are truly not bible based.

It would take a lot of humility and i don't see it happening.

oneairhead

I have to admit that when i found out about all of this on the internet i was upset. I thought that perhaps the borg could be taken down through some covert ops from within.

Now I believe that those ex-jws who have taken hold of their lives and went to school or back to school and started a true career earning real money should start a public education campaign sort of like persons running for office do. Each year money is collected and used for some targeted public education via radio, tv and print (internet is pretty well covered). Also money could be used to monitor the every move of the leaders within the ranks of the borg, co's, do's, GB, gilead instructors, etc. That intelligence could be used against them for information gathering from within or an internal operation.

Money is what drives everything, the WTS thrives on it. Why couldn't it drive a campaign against it? There have to be some wealthy ex-jws who could drop some dollars without hurting their bottom line.

Are there any ex-JW politicians who need a platform to run on? There are a lot of watchtower issues to use.

Don't misunderstand i am NOT proposing starting a religion just an outreach program that is headed up by a wealthy benefactor who has the experience or persons on his staff to make it happen.

People have tried it before but did not have the money backing them to do it.

One

willyloman

I used to think they were in decline and would shrink in the years ahead, that their own policies and pronouncements would sink their ship. But I have come to realize they are exactly what they say they are: A government. Most government operations in the western world have one thing in common: They are generally inept and unproductive, yet they continue to grow because they have the ability to tax their citizens.

The WT has a built-in taxation program. They publish books and magazines, for which contributions are expected, and each time they publish something there is a guaranteed "market" for more than 6 million copies. In fact, the demand is often higher because many of the 6 million dubs buy multiple copies to "place" with others.

So the dubs don't look like they ought to be able to function in "the real world." But like many governmental operations, they do function. Because they are not in the real world.

lfcviking

i think you will always have a handful of people that cannot function properly outside of a tightly controlled organisation such as the Watchtower. In my opinion there will always exist this very small minority of people who are so acclimatised to being isolated from the real world that they would have dificulty functioning outside of it. These people i think would stick with it even if their entire belief system was undeniably proved false.

What the WT will struggle to explain though in the coming years is the event of Armaggeddon. How long can it keep on saying that Armaggeddon is just around the corner? They have been saying this is the 'last days' for well over a hundered years now already, so how much longer can they contine to stretch these 'last days' out for? Surley people will soon start to realise that they're being lied to and will start to drop off here and there and their numbers will begin to fall. Then eventually in maybe a few decades time they will be left with this 'hard core' of defiant members whose number might just be a few thousand compared to the 6-7 million today.

LFCv

A gradual decline or sudden collapse for the WTS?

Share this