Seems the Watchtower is becoming more pushier / cult-ier... (page 2)

saltyoldlady

Black Sheep - You are just too precious! I loved your last paragraph - almost wished I was back in so I could try pulling this off - it would be so much fun.

garyneal

Black Sheep,

You are too funny. I would certainly love to hear some stories on how your family responded to these tactics.

Alfred

Excellent suggestion Black Sheep... thanks

Omg Blacksheep... That's so funny. I did that once when I was in the beginning stages of getting out. I was at a quick build and a brother wanted to do the WT as a group cause we were doing parking which was away from where the WT study was. I announced that we can't do that because CLEARLY it was against scripture. In front of the group he argued with me and quoted the scripture about where there is 2 or 3 there is Jehovah's spirit and that I was completely wrong and what I said was in fact against scripture...

A brother quickly took him aside to talk to him. The confusion on everybody's face was priceless. We got outta doing the WT that day, lol.

moshe

Villabolo, you need to show everyone what a conscientious recycler you are- the greenest of the bunch-

or maybe you just want to show them how much you love them--

-

Lunatic Faith

I always think it is so funny when the WBTS points out Christendom's hatred of God's name. Do you know why they hate it? Because it has become identified part and parcel with Jehovah's Witnesses. Before JW's, in the 1800's, it was used widely by Christendom's churches.

So, by being obnoxious, JW's have actually managed to blacken Jehovah's name all by themselves. They are the ones bringing reproach upon it.

finallysomepride

that's if it realy is his name?

which it isn't, just a very poor translation

Ding

Under Rutherford, the WTS grew greatly in zeal and numbers by doing two things:

1. Hyping short term specific dates for Armageddon / the new system, and

2. Hyping a persecution mindset: JWs standing alone against the world, the government, Christendom... whatever...

Fred Franz focused on the first method with his 1975 prediction and his Adam-Eve creation gap theory to keep that whole frenzy going.

That has flopped. They can't set a specific date now because too many people are watching and information is so readily available.

They've even redefined "generation" so the new system seems farther and farther away to JWs than what they were promised.

So now they are going with the second method -- persecution complex:

-- Apostates are everywhere so get off Facebook and the Internet

-- DFd people are like demons; treat them like the plague

-- World conditions are getting worse and worse; crime, wars, the stock market, riots, hurricanes, tsuamis, lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

So this week it's the old standby: When in doubt, attack "Christendom" and the "wicked clergy"; they're persecuting the truth!

In reality, as others on JWN have recently pointed out, 99.999% of people in the world don't know what Jehovah's Witnesses believe, and they don't care.

Vidiot

GaryNeal - "Seems the Watchtower is becoming more pushier / cult-ier..."

'Course they are; that's what happens when you develop a bunker mentality.

It's been almost 100 years since 1914 and the End of the World still stubbornly refuses to take place, DFs and DAs and faders are significantly outnumbering active JWs, they can't date-set anymore and keep credibility, fewer and fewer active JWs actually attempt to follow all the rules anymore, the Information Age/WikiLeaks Era is turning the stone walls of the Tower into glass, 2/3s of those born-in leave by adulthood, more and more succesful court battles are being waged against them involving medical risks and abuse scandals, science is making discoveries and advancements that refute WT ideology, they're stuck with an End-Times script containing powerless or nonexistant villains, and they make almost no attempt (that I can see) to prepare their membership for the 21st Century realities of unsustainable population growth, climate change, and the effects of Peak Oil.

What apocalyptic millennialist authoritarian high-control group wouldn't develop a bunker mentality - and thusly become more extreme - in the face of all that?

Seems the Watchtower is becoming more pushier / cult-ier...