by Ding 6 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I always used to wonder about those Awake articles that had nothing to do with anything like, "Interesting Nutritional Facts" or other articles that could have just as well appeared in the Reader's Digest.
Can someone explain the purpose of those types of stories?
The only thing I can see is that people at the door might be willing to look at them even if they wouldn't take the Watchtower, thereby giving JWs an excuse to make a backcall.
I think the Awake articles count as elective credits for the Better Than College Education.
The writers in the writing department are told to occasionally write articles that interest them. That's all these are. They are not usually specifically assigned by the GB. In fact many of them are not even written by US bethelites. Many of them are written from branch offices around the world.
They are the "hook" in marketing. It was always easiert to place the Awake! than the WT
If you write an article for the Asleep! that encourages sort of normal activities or that looks educational, it looks more like a reasonable religion than a cult to those who are supposed to be going into it. Then, you get the Washtowel Teach book, study, and realize there isn't going to be time to enjoy any of the activities contained in the Asleep!. Instead, you are to waste all your time in field circus placing these Asleep! rags.
was the awake always like it is now ?
when it started, I think 1920, it was called "consolation", then it was renamed (forgot what).
however, it seems it started off clearly religious, and later got more "worldly" in their subjects, mostly because many people prefer non-religious magazins anyway. So it was just some kind of marketing trick, to make people take the magazins...
in fact I recall many times people telling, they prefer the awake...no wonder for the WT, esp when the study article was in the normal edition, you need insider knowledge, otherwise it just sounds like bla, bla, bla....
of course, once you surpassed this insider knowledge, it becomes again blah, blah, blah...
As Lady Lee says, they are the hook in marketing. You could always think of someone who could benefit from articles that were relevant to them, such as my uncle with his problematic in growing toenail, or my neighbour with her cystitis etc. How could they refuse an answer to their problem?.. chuckle..
