door to door

gda

Some JW's at my daughters door Saturday morning. They said nothing, nada, zip, zero, and just passed the mags to her and left. Is there no interaction any more?

sir82

Is there no interaction any more?

There is supposed to be, but more and more JWs just go through the motions to "get their time in" so they can remain part of the social club that many JWs view their religion as.

JWs are judged primarily by what is "visible to others". The elders see the numbers on their publisher card, so if those are "high enough", the JW is judged as "spiritually mature" and viewed as worthy. If the numbers on the publisher card are "too low", the JW is judged to be "spiritually weak" and less than desirable association.

The actual content of their ministry could not possibly be more irrelevant. The primary criteria for approval is what the numbers on the card say.

Also important is "visibility" in meeting participation. Again, actual content is utterly and completely irrelevant; the important thing is to participate (meeting comments, talks, etc.).

OneEyedJoe

There's been a pretty steady decline in the zeal most JWs (at least in my area) have for d2d. There are a few older ones that still act like they did when 1975 was coming, but for the most part anyone under 40 is just there to count time and make the morning as easy as possible.

When it comes to the "special campaign" stuff that they do for memorial, conventions and, apparently, the website - they're told to get in and out as quickly as possible, so in that case it comes from the top that they don't linger and talk to people.

joe134cd

Yup sums it up. I dreaded the D2D work. Knock hope they weren't home and if they were tell them I'm JW and hope they would immediately say not interested and get the Hell out of their.

DesirousOfChange

they don't linger and talk to people.

They can't.

If you've seen the youtube videos where an individual approached a JW at the Literature Trolly, none of the JWs could carry on much of a conversation, let alone take a stab at defending their doctrine. Hand out a tract that features the website JW*Org. THAT is the new JW Message.

What's really sad is that you can be sure that those given the assignment of the Trolly are likely pioneers/MS/Elders. Still they are brain-dead. But they are "putting in" their 30, or 60 or 80 hours per month and "earning" the Pioneer title. It works because most of the general public are ignorant too concerning anything religious.

IN THE PAST, JWs were different. They knew the Bible. At least they could memorize the scriptures for their doctrine. At least they could mesmerize the dim-witted by pulling out their Bible and cherry-pick a few verses to support their Paradise Earth and End of the World urgency message. Not any more.

Doc

SAHS

When all is said and done, at the end of the day the Watchtower organization/corporation is a sales-driven, membership-hungry pyramid scheme (no pun intended – “pyramid,” Russell). And as with any type of pyramid scheme, the simple bottom line objective is ultimately to accumulate as many leads/members/followers as possible. More members = more followers = more influence/power = more “assets” (i.e., investments and liquidable capital) = $$$.

So, therefore (evidently), it’s in the best interests of those “humble” brothers at the top for all those folks down there doing the fancy footwork to get those tractazines and blue Website squares out there to as many people as possible – as quickly as possible – which apparently now means skipping the pleasantries and small talk.

DwainBowman

Druing the invite/track work, your supposed to pretty much say hi, and hand it to them, and go! Evety cong has a bunch of these things, and have to cover as much of there area as possible!

NoGoodDeed

During a recent trip to the United States I encountered a group of three Jehovah's Witnesses in a train station. I had to wait 45 minutes for my train, so I decided to walk over and engage them.

I was surprised at how they tried to avoid talking to me. One told me that I should just take whatever literature I wanted and read it on the train. When I asked a question that I though was fairly innocent, two of the JWs just looked away. The third said, "We are not here to answer questions. We are just here to hand out magazines."

Is this typical? Are the JWs told not to engage with interested people?

NGD

rebel8

What a great way to place more magazines.

When I was in, we had to ask for a donation of $.20 or some amount like that, because supposedly the angels would then be able to tell if the person was really interested (if they were willing to pay).

If we didn't have to do that, shoving it in their hands and walking away would have made my life a lot easier.