by jwfacts 140 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Love the charts, jwfacts! Thanks for the great research.
Indeed, the jws were off with their projections.
Reading this thread reminded me of what the elders used to say to justify erecting all those quick-build kingdom halls. Something to the effect that, "The day is coming when people will be arriving in droves to the kingdom halls, so we have to be ready for the crowds!"
Anybody else remember this?
satinka
I mentioned that a charismatic leader would be needed to stop the downward trends. However, there do not seem to be any yet. The current GB are going about things the wrong way, becoming more cultlike, rather than more open, which is going to be counter productive in the long run. (jwfacts)
In Steve Hassan's books he mentions that the more desperate a cult becomes when it sees it's losing members - the leaders of those cults become even MORE strict and controlling in their teachings, actions, and attitudes towards members. I believe we are seeing that right now as we move along through 2011 in the Jehovah's Witness cult. (flipper)
I have been pondering this myself. The world has changed a great deal and it is becoming more and more difficult for the Watchtower or anyone else to play down issues, or otherwise sweep them under the carpet. Historically, when a cult has come under outside pressure it closes ranks - it moves from Indianapolis to Guyana, or sets up a fortress at Mount Carmel or a bunker in San Diego and it hunkers down in preparation for the end, which they themselves might precipitate. The key difference with the Watchtower is its size and dispersion. My take is the Watchtower leadership's greatest, perhaps impossible, challenge is to figure out a way to paint a picture of mounting persecution from the outside world and get 7 million people to close ranks. But there apparently isn't much brainpower at the top in Brooklyn and unless they can bolster their ranks with a brilliant tactician they can only become more strident in their demands for absolute obedience. The Happiest People on Earth may be about to become more miserable.
Repeatedly it is said that 2/3 - 3/4 of born-ins are leaving the Org. This is what the Pew Study also suggested.
I DO NOT see that happening here locally.
Of course we are in the Bible Belt of the south which has always been a stronghold of fundamentalist religions, so it is good turf for JWs as well. In our cong, the youngsters are striving to be MS and are being appointed at 19 or 20. MS in their late 20s are being appointed as elders. The ones I see leaving are the burn-outs in their 40s (or 30s at the earliest). Of course that is aside from the ones being "asked" to leave because they can't keep their zipper zipped. They are again trying to resolve that problem by the marriage of teenagers once again. That too has always been more acceptable in these parts. But, I can think of several who were DFd or reproved who are back at climbing the ladder again as opposed to just hanging in there to be with family.
Your observations where you are at? (And where are you if your are comfortable stating that.)
Some Cong's are made up mostly of family members, a few hard cores and a sprinkling of lost souls.
That means they won't leave because: 1) it's the families club, 2) some are stubborn and 3) no place better to go to.
I used to think almost all born-in/mostly-raised JWs stayed in, too. And then I started counting. I've racked my brain to think of all the kids I grew up with or who I saw grow up in the congregations I've been in and came up with 24 in and 25 out. Still not 2/3 but I have lived in some conservative and rural places. I would imagine the urban areas are much higher % out.
I'm from a fairly rural area. I think I'll be boosting the leaving average above 2/3 here.
I grew up on a fairly small and remote island (Tasmania) with 2000 JWs. I did a spreadsheet of the 40 I grew up with, about 2/3 are now inactive. Of the people I associated with in the congregation I moved to at 20 less than half have left, but they are ones I met at 20, so that count misses those that would have left in their teens.
When I was in I never got how anyone could leave the 'truth'.
Now, however, I see the level of mind control they're under.
I commented on another forum about how trying to 'un-witness' to a JDub makes their 'forcefield' go up.
I find a great deal of success showing non-JDubs what a terrible cult the GB are running. 'worldly' people think the whole reporting hours and be judged each month is awful.
People are surprised as they think the WTB$ is just another 'nice' religion. Little do they know.
Fight the fire from the edges.
It'll be interesting to see the 'results' next year.
I did not read all the posts but I know here in Massachusetts alone there are 7 congregations in the past month that have announced they are merging/combining. The criteria is less than 70 publishers for each congregation. So the congregations that share KHs are merging as of Sept 1st if they fall under the criteria. Some will have 12+ elders in each newly formed congregation.
