When I pioneered, 100 hours per month meant 1,200 hours per year. Then it changed to 100 hours per month but the yearly requirement was reduced--can't remember to what. I know the reason was so the pioneer could have a vacation.
Jehovahs Witnesses - Mainstreaming, Like It Or Not
by metatron 47 Replies latest jw friends
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WTWizard
I hope they go belly up, like Circuit City. At least Circuit City put out worthwhile products.
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mkr32208
Nothing in your post had to do with going mainstream. It was a list of cost cutting measures and dwindling enthusiasm of the flock. Thats fine but you can still be crazy on a inexpensive part time basis. To go 'mainstream' means getting rid of insane cult like qualities and teachings. In that respect they are becoming less and LESS mainstream every month!
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Lady Lee
get real people. These things are minor compared to issues like control of information, time, thoughs and feelings. The iron fist the WTS holds on people are what makes it a cult, not how many meetings they go to and howuch literature is published.
- The move from group studies in homes to having it in the hall is their attempt to have more control over what gets discussed AFTER the meeting.
- The separation of the WT magazine into a public and an in-house study is pure information control.
- The downsizing in required hours is because people just won't do it - they have to support themselves and that is getting harder to do
- subscriptions -- gone due to money but also to get that face-to-face meeting with people in the field - more opportunity to start those "Bible" studies
- food at conventions - gone to money issues but not the way you might think - it is a decision based on the legal contracts made with the convention sites - a required contract with the food service company that is twinned with the convention site. It is the food service company that has forced the WTSto stop providing/selling food on the premises
- hardbound books to paperback - pure $$$$ issue
- dumbing down of study material - well they have always done that. Since JWs rarely have post-secondary education I suspect even those in the writing department are responding to a need not only for a simplified language but they are now targeting non-anglophone people, immigrants anyone who will respond to the simplified language.
Thw WTS will NEVER go mainstream. They would have to give up the stranglehold they have over people's lives
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moshe
JW's have lost their way. They used to know exactly what the good news was and what their purpose was in the grand scheme of "vindication of Jehovah's name" . Now they are floundering. I ran into some JW's at a 7-11 store in Florida- two groups and opposite sides of the store looking for weak minded people. I made short work of the three brothers- they all had urgent reasons to leave when it became obvious to them I enjoyed beating them over the head. The next group was Hispanic, but they had two who spoke English and translated to the retired brother who was the leader. They were confounded by my blood transfusion arguments and they, too took off. JW's just don't get no respect today.
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metatron
I think that many of you need to consider what the "mainstream" actually is. It's burned out Protestants whose main religious act is bring a dish to pass. It's people who use religious doctrines and practises like they were passing thru a supermarket filling a cart.
Look at the Catholics: Their beliefs are as hard core as ever -on paper- complete with burning forever in hell, Jesus becoming bits of crackers and celibacy. And the people who attend? You'll notice them in jeans and windbreakers on Sunday morning. They practice birth control, keep their boys away from private meetings with priests and can't be distinguished from anyone else except for a yearly smudge on their foreheads.
The above is the future of Jehovahs Witnesses. And I would add that many - maybe most - of their kids are there already. Facebook anyone?
metatron
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truthseeker
Great post Metatron - you should write a book.
The Evolution of a Religion - folks, we have been on this forum for years and seen the gradual dumbing down of everything to the point where you cannot even bring outside material into a discussion of the Bible.
The WT must be feeling the economic pinch - is there anything left for them to reduce, eliminate or dumb down?
You have 7,000,000 dubs on autopilot who practice the same monotonous form of worship week after week, hoping for some crumb of truth from "the faithful and discreet slave" that the Armaggedon they have preached about for so long is really close at hand.
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truthseeker
Met, the Catholics do not demand so much commitment from their members, and as their hope is in heaven the religion could easily last another 2,000 years.
JW's have spent their lives waiting for God's will to be "done on earth as it is in heaven" and the Society demands a commitment from its members. This is the group who will burn out and suffer the most.
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DaCheech
these subjects give that warm fuzzy feeling inside!
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DaCheech
anyway, the religion is not mainstreaming, but the majority of the publishers are