Wow, very interesting and eye-opening post! I have been lurking on this site for at least a couple of weeks now and have learned a lot, as well as confirmed some of my own doubts about the religion. It really does seem that the door-to-door preaching is nothing more than busy work. What makes it even worse is that I remember being told that there was no need to even consider college since this system would end well before my sister and I would even graduate from high school - the preaching work was the most important thing and we should all be putting in more and more hours. Well my high school graduation came and went (1996), and I am so thankful that my parents did not share in the attitude of condemning a higher education as a waste of time that should be better spent in pioneering. I have often wondered what happened to some of the others in our congregation who decided to forego college for the all-important preaching work...
The dirty little secret of Watchtower PREACHING WORK you may not know
by Terry 47 Replies latest jw friends
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Terry
When you stop and think about the meaning of "no higher education" it stops you cold.
What were the Dark Ages but a preoccupation with the next world and the utter neglect of this one!
Humanity plunged into darkness because the bible, god and superstitious fear ruled the minds of everyone oppressed by
a heirarchy of ignorami. (ignoramuses).
The Preaching message of the CHURCH back then was always one of standing still and cowering rather than plunging ahead into undiscovered country where answers lead to a better life now.
The spiritual food at the proper time of Jehovah's Witnesses seems to have the fetid stench of the Dark Ages lingering over it.
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Balsam
Terry and All,
Something that has always puzzled me is why after Rutherford have the men in charge like Knorr, Franz and the so called governing body continue in this when it is obviously so flawed. Are all of these men so completely corrupt and jaded that they would go along with this obvious control Rutherford set up unquestioningly. Of course Raymond Franz did question and the promptly got rid of him. It isn't like they had some kind of governing body handbook they handed out back when the governing body convincing these men to follow along with it. Why haven't there been more of an uprising among the so called higher ups. Getting the leadership to buy into this bizarre thinking enough to convince others to follow it unquestioningly just seems weird. But if we look at other high control groups like the Latter Day Saints is equally strange from the outside. They have their secrets and they have their shunning practices for those to leave the religion too.
What is it in humans that would draw us like crazy to these kinds of secretive religious organization. I myself was in it for 30 years and now I'm out I am totally baffled as to why I stayed in it as long as I did. My husband back then and I both went into the witnesses in a troubled time in our marriage, and after I left him and the religion he continued to stay in it and I am free. It seems to click off something in certain peoples brains and fulfills some sort of need or needs we have that we believe can't be filled anywhere else. If one day the good feeling we got from it disappears still some stay in it fearful of leaving. I know I did, and was fearful for my kids.
Why does this even work today, it is impossible to keep all the witnesses off the internet and seeing things, so how is the JW organization still managing to show growth?????
Ruth
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Terry
Terry and All,
Something that has always puzzled me is why after Rutherford have the men in charge like Knorr, Franz and the so called governing body continue in this when it is obviously so flawed.
Extrapolate this to secular politics.
Both political parties are completely bogged down in a flawed corruptive mess that they barely acknowledge. It is easier to go on going on according to your ideology and focus on what the other guy (other religions) do(es) wrong.
No politician views HIMSELF as corrupt.
The problem is context.
Once you seal yourself off from outside input you hardened into your ideology and cannot get loose.
It is a trap.
It is like being squeezed to death by a python. The more you struggle the tighter the coils constrict.
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cantleave
Welcome bluegirl78, [lease post a introductory.
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JoJoJones
I agree that the door to door method is not nearly as effective as using the media would be. It seems so archaic (right word?) to go from house to house in these days of awesome technology. Maybe the WTBTS just wants to keep the 'rank and file' busy or something - - wasting time in field work. That way the JWs are kept under control. Of course, I don't really know why the Witnesses are so persistent in going door to door. I can only guess, myself. However, going house to house seems basically so ineffectual. The religion does get recruits, but enough to keep the poor JWs constantly pursuing them door to door? What a waste of time!
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Terry
The inflow doesn't match the outgo.
Think how many thousands and thousands of disfellowshipped and faded JW's have gone out and away from the Kingdom Hall.
They are like dissatisfied customers. They got bad service. Will they keep their mouth shut about it?
Ever hear of the RULE OF TEN?
Every dissatisfied customer tells ten people about a bad experience. Those ten tell ten others.
Before you know it the whole world has a bad opinion!
Don't buy it?
Ask your average joe what his impression is of the Watchtower or Jehovah's Witnesses.
Good or Bad?
A conversion from a household visit is very different from any other kind of contact. It is intrusive and confrontational from the getgo.
Only the weak respond. People with no backbone who are easily manipulated. Either that, or they catch a person who has hit bottom.
Either way---you aren't working with the best material.
Bad move.
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cyberjesus
Excellent Job as always!
Thats why my last 3 years I would assign myself alone and would go to my car and take a nap for a couple of hours. I sort of knew it didnt really make a difference/
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Terry
A practical approach to spreading the Good news!
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Mad Sweeney
Great article/post. To me, now, it begs the question: With the traditional cash flow avenues drying up, what can they do next to maintain the borg?
It is my belief that every single organization's overriding goal is maintaining its own existence. All stated organizational goals are secondary or tertiary to that one overriding goal to just keep going. So the traditional means of preaching keeps the status quo and protects the borg in many ways but what it doesn't do, in fact what it is decreasing in doing at a dramatic rate, is bringing in cash. So now what?