Are JWs attracting more and more off-center people?

by undercover 38 Replies latest jw friends

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  undercover

  This thread is prompted by the thread about a JW woman who disprupted a funeral. I don't know the details as I can't view YouTube from work, but it did get me to thinking...

  Over the last couple of decades, at least, I've noticed that more and more 'fringe personalities', for a lack of a better term, have infiltrated the ranks of the everyday JWs. True, JWs are themselves a fringe element to normal society, but even within their own communities, there used to be a sense of normalcy, or at least seemed to be.

  Has the cultic message of the WT Society started attracting people with different thought processes over this time period? Or has instant mass communication just enlightened us to how fucked up JWs really have been all this time?

  I'm not talking over the last 5 or 10 years...at my age, I can remember back 30 plus years. Were JWs of the 50s, 60s and early 70s as filled with nutjobs and loose cannons as they are now? Were they just better hidden or controlled? Or did the organization, over time, start appealing more and more to people whose cheese was slipping off the cracker?

  Curious as to ya'lls keen observations and insights...
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  Mad Sweeney

  It was just you. They've always been loony. I've been in maybe a dozen congregations in my life and there hasn't been a single one without at least one completely crazy person (in good standing in the congregation) in it, usually several. The JWs are probably 20% weirdos, 70% normal people who are duped, and 10% uber-dubs.
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  Michelle365

  I say sure why not? It's instant acceptance for people that may not be accepted elsewhere. All you have to do is show up at all the meetings and preach 15 mins a month. What "fringe" personality wouldn't be interested?
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  undercover

  The JWs are probably 20% weirdos, 70% normal people who are duped, and 10% uber-dubs.

  Those sound like about the same percentages of what I experienced...but it does seem that the 20% seem to have found a way of finding the limelight when back in the day, they were mostly seen and not heard.

  It could be that the Society is losing control not only of the youth and the cynical/skeptical ones who keep questioning...they're losing control of their fringe element as well, which gives them oppurtunity to go out and give the Society a nice big black eye when they go off half-cocked.

  The Society has always been about putting on a good face, that's why the've always attempted to hide skeletans in their closets instead of facing the problems. Take the child abuse scandals. For years no one would have ever thought about JWs and child abuse, but now after expose after expose, scandal after scandal, it's becoming clear that this was a problem for a very long time. It was masked and never dealt with. Now it's coming back to haunt them.
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  Scarred for life

  I agree with Michelle365. It's instant friends and a support group for people that couldn't find that anywhere else. But it's a good question and a good topic, undercover.
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  zarco

  It seems that over the last 25 to 30 years the majority of JW converts are those who do not fit in with "normal society". In other words, those with good jobs, an education, a stable family life or general contributors to society do not become JWs. Part of the reason is that the WTS has increasingly isolated itself and its followers from communities. The core principle supporting such isolation is that all who are not JWs will be destroyed by the JW god. Another factor is that "normal" people check out things before they buy... and now any with an internet connection one can see what the WTS is about before they join. The gullible do not check things about before they buy and are likely the only converts to the WTS with very few exceptions. So the WTS is stuck with the gullible (fringe) as its base of support. Bad for WTS in so many ways and horrible for those joining them.

  zarco
• 

  thetrueone

  ZARCO
• 

  Gordy

  Of the those that are baptised each year the majority are usually the children and/or family of JWs.

  So is a lot of inbreeding among them going on?
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  WalkTall

  You are all hitting the nail on the head. I look around at the hall (as in every one I've ever been in) and there are maybe two or three people, if that, that I would choose on my own to be friends with. The rest are loons, leeches, or lobotomized. Wow, that was harsh. Let me just say they are not my cup of tea.
• 

  frankiespeakin

  I would say basically the same thing Zarco said. Internet savvy people won't join, heck when I'm gonna buy anything I always check the net to get the scoop., I think a good portion of people do the same in the US, it's a house hold item.

  The sense of urgency is gone most JWs don't feel it likely that the end will come in their life time, the meetings are way more boring than in the past with constant reminders to shut off your mind and trust the F&DS that has definitely got to be unappealing to new attenders(not indoctrinated enough) and throw up some flags.

  And so your left with only nut cases and the disenfranchised sticking around and becoming JWs.