I think their primary concern is survival. Control is a symptom of the greater goal of keeping "the organization" running. I don't think it's control for control's sake, and end in and of itself. These men want to continue believing that Armageddon is just around the corner. So do millions of their followers who were duped. The tight grip and control they exert over the flock is designed to keep the wheels from falling off of their make-believe world. I think that's the most accurate prism through which to filter WT leadership's recent moves.
What is the Organization Trying to Acheive?
by The-Borg 25 Replies latest jw friends
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JeffT
I don't think the WTBS knows what it is trying to accomplish.
A definition of "fanatic" I think from Frank Herbert's Dune, but it may be someplace else. "Some one, who, having forgotten his goal, redoubles his efforts to get there." Seems to fit.
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jwfacts
It is not that easy to run a religion. What works in one century is different than in another one. Many other religions are loosing members even though they are more relaxed than the WTS. And one on the fastest growing movements is Evangelical which can also be very strict.
Disfellowshipping helps alert people to it being a cult and so stops people joining, but it is a fear technique that also stops people leaving. I am sure the GB have considered dropping it, but are worried if they do even more will leave.
I think the big issue is the organization was built on people wanting the world to end. Now that is looking less likely without any compelling end of the world predictions, there is no longer as much drive and excitement.
To survive the GB need to move the focus to worshipping their unique and wonderful God, but that is a big mind shift. And it is hard to convince people Jehovah is wonderful when they have spent the last 100 years saying he is about to kill billions of people. So that would have to change as well.
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The Almighty Homer
Its was always about power and this $
They got both
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reniaa
Matthew 7:13
"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.Taking on the values of a world is at odds with Jehovah and will not get you into the kingdom, there is a fine line between forgiveness, showing love and acceptance of wrongdoing, it's one easy to cross.
1 Corinthians 6:12-17 (New International Version)
12 "Everything is permissible for me"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"—but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 "Food for the stomach and the stomach for food"—but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh." [ a ] 17 But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
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mrsjones5
Only if you're one of the annointed Reniaa. How quickly you forget jw doctrine.
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Athanasius
I think that the Watchtower is at the same place the former USSR was in the final decade of its existance. Currently the ailing Jaracz, the Watchtower Brezhnev is calling the shots. But once he dies someone else will take his place. Will Jaracz's replacement be the Watchtower Gorbachev?
The recent layoffs at Bethel, the switch to distributing cheap paperback books, and the million dollar pay outs to sexual assault victims indicate cash flow problems ahead for the organization. The exodus of members from the industrialized countries and the increase in third world JWs will further stretch the Watchtower's financial resources. If the Watchtower is to survive it will have to bring in affluent converts by broadening its religious structure to appeal to educated people.
Therefore, it is possible that a Watchtower Gorbachev, in an attempt to save the organization, will force through reforms that will make the Jehovah's Witness religion more mainstream.
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parakeet
If they want lots of growth, why don't they just lighten up a bit and dispense with the whole charade of harshness and disfellowshipping.
That is the single WTS doctrine, that, if revoked, would bring down the WTS in less than a decade. Think about it -- allowing free thought and discussion between apostates and dubs would devastate the dubs' core beliefs. The only dubs left would be a small handful so indoctrinated that even common sense is beyond them. The continued existence of the WTS absolutely depends on shunning apostates and their ability to think and reason.
Encourage charitable works, social gatherings, education, freedom of speech, having a family etc etc etc. This would greatly increase their numbers and their bottom line $$.
Again, not an option. Without their end-times fearmongering, dubs would no longer stand out in the crowd as God's "chosen people." They'd wither into a harmless little religion and fadeaway. Most dubs hang on because of the long-promised "imminent day of God's fury" and the ridiculous hope of a perfect future world. Take that hope away, and dubs will go bye-bye. Look at the mass exodus after 1975 and other failed prediction dates.
They seem to be shooting themselves in the foot at the moment....They need a new marketing team.
Foot-shooting is the time-honored WTS way. New marketing won't help them. They have to keep stringing their followers along with false predictions in order to keep book sales enthusiasm up. When the promises come to nothing and the dubs become disgruntled, the WTS wipes out the past, and/or blames the r&f dubs (two more time-honored tricks). Then it's time for another apocalyptic date -- very soon, just around the corner, any time now, etc.
How long the carrot-and-stick routine will continue to work is anybody's guess.
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WTWizard
They are trying to get everyone afraid of doing anything except what they are told to, and of failing to do successfully what they are told. Their ultimate goal now is what the Catholic church's goal was when it was first founded: complete world domination to the point where they own everyone and everything.
Yup, the Second Dark Ages.
To stop them from pulling that off, we need to keep them from getting the people and the money they need. It costs money to buy off the governments, and it takes people to get humanoids in power that will go along with the witlesses and just plain let those creeps start us into the Second Dark Ages without a fight.
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diamondiiz
For a while they've been masking themselves as God or Christ. Couple months ago, they had that article where they claimed that Jehovah and Jesus trust governing body......... There are other recent articles with similar theme running that governing body is God directed and God's only organization and all need to obey it. How many times do they write/say that Jehovah says...... when in fact it is GB who says...(BS)... They are trying to control r&f more and more.
They are clamping down on members and forcing them to choose them over everyone else. How many normal people would listen to voice of strangers than their own family and friends? JWs do that everyday! They will shun friends and family only because GB teaches them to.
GB is definitly upto something rotten and I'm guessing another end of the world is imminent. I don't think they will say a date just as they were implying 1975 but I think they will push an imminent great tribulation which IMO this recession will feel like to many within a year or two. A major recession or global depression will definitly help them in a very short time bring in cult like personallities into their herd as people out of fear will look for survival. Similar increases as pre-1975 should occur as many uneducated DFed people will flee back into "Noah's Ark" only to be disappointed one last time. This may spark the 2014 attitude where JWs will remember that Jesus returned in 1914 so as logical as all their dates are, it would be logical for 2014 to usher a final salvation for all those following GB all these years. As that fantasy passes by IMO that will devestate WTS and hopefully it won't fade but just crash and burn.
Ray Franz called them victims of other victims which is one statement I truely don't agree on with Ray on. People that have the facts presented and know the facts are no longer victims. GB are not victims but control freaks. They're old enough that I doubt they care what happends to anyone the rule over. Jaracz surely didn't care about child abuse victims and I would be surprised if other GB memeber care any more? They perpetuate the cult mentality and are pushing people around like Catholic Church did in the middle ages but there is too much info out there that it's just another major slip up and her waters will dry up and people will wake up from their sleep. Question is when that happends how many of these JWs will be totally messed up when it occurs to many at once instead as it's happened to many of us as a minority within the congregations. A major blow and realization of facts to many at once could create one big mess - suicides and depression. But I think that time is coming as GB can't tighten the screws much longer and feeding rank and file members the closeness of the end without something going majorly wrong for them. I don't think the event will be a fader style..