by Marvin Shilmer 10 Replies latest jw friends
Watchtower and 2014
Today I uploaded a new article offering my views of what Watchtower has waiting in the wings.
My article is titled Watchtower and 2014 and is available at: http://marvinshilmer.blogspot.com/2011/06/watchtower-and-2014.html
Marvin Shilmer
To this, I say, not bloody likely! The Internet is so closely associated with porn, apostates, and etc. that I'd be extremely shocked to see them turn to it as a tool. If more people knew they could download the magazines on jw.org, I imagine a lot of folks would feel mighty dumb for sweating it out in streetwork or door-to-door trying to place them.
The blood issue, if they address it, would have to be crafted very, very carefully so as to avoid an avalanche of retroactive legal liabilities. It's a move I'm not sure they'd be willing to make.
Remote meetings? That could require additional investment--though it would come from the bottom up, of course. So its implementation would be slow-going, at best, in my opinion.
I may be wrong. I'd expect something more solid as far as the end of this system would be a more likely option to boost the ordinaries. Finding some other pivotal start-date for some momentous event would be a good call at this point.
--sd-7
Proselytizing on the internet? Not likely. Too risky - JWs can be exposed to unfiltered "apostate ideas" too easily. The Society continues to bash the internet in print and at assemblies. Last week's Watchtower study articles even had implied commendation for those who "decide not to have internet access in their home at all".
They've ignored "big" media outlets before. They have never even touched television, apart from a handful of test PSAs in very limited markets a decade or so ago.
Dropping the blood issue? Maybe. I still think they are hoping that an affordable effective entirely synthetic blood substitute will come along soon and get them off the hook scott free.
Remote meeting attendance? They already have this in the US, Canada, and much of Western Europe. There is a business that has sprung up supplying call-in numbers and PINs for JWs to call into meetings via telephone. Look at www.khconf.com for more details. However, the Society still very strongly discourages using this unless absolutely necessary.
Internet witnessing would be a massive minefield. Witnesses would be bombarded by links to outside sources which would start forcing them to "think" The GB wants none of that, they do the thinking for everyone.
THe blood deal is an albatross. Shedding it won't bring them in, and some would leave if it were suddenly eliminated.
They may as well set another date, 2034 is just a little too far off if you go with the 120 year Noah calculation. Its what locked so many in during the 60s' and 70s, so many of those peeps are still holding on today hoping for the big A.
Sd-7,
I hear what you’re saying, and here is why I disagree:
1. Of course the internet is loaded with bad things. But you can only keep its membership insulated so far and for so long. Inevitably internet use by Witnesses will be on par with everyone else. This inevitability will stir Watchtower to look for some way to use the growing trend rather than completely lose it to others. There is no stopping the up-and-comers. They will use the internet like we used shoes. It is unavoidable.
2. There is no basis in developed societies to successfully sue a religion for a teaching, no matter how dumb or dangerous. In the United States it is very protected territory. I have heard folks speculate about civil liability should Watchtower undo its blood taboo. But so far I have not seen anyone articulate a legal theory that is remotely feasible in relation to undoing the teaching. But, Watchtower need not completely undo its teaching. It can simply return to its pre-1961 position where the thing is not enforced under pain of shunning. This would, effectively, relegate the teaching to the past. Then it would disappear like a whisper.
3. Right now the rag among Witnesses is remote listening in of meetings held in distant places. This novelty has already gotten Watchtower’s attention. Eventually Watchtower will harness this to its own ends.
Marvin Shilmer
This is why I suck, and you don't, Marvin. All very good points.
--sd-7
Interesting article Marvin. My 2c...
1... I just don't see any internet strategy from the WTBTS. They are run by a bunch of middle aged / old men who probably don't even have their own email account and regard the internet as saturated with apostasy & porn. They even talk about positively about "brothers choosing not having the internet" in recent magazines. Rather than proactively using the internet as a tool , they just regard it as the enemy & useful only for reducing costs.
2... I remember speaking to one of the very few JW professional medical personnel in the UK who advised the WTBTS on blood matters who admitted that many high-ups in the society wished that they could get rid of the "blood issue" and regarded it as the last vestiges of the Woodworth / Rutherford medical madness of the 1940s but too many people had died & it would cause chaos in the organisation as well as numerous lawsuits that could bankrupt the WTBTS. sir82 is right that their strategy has been to hope that sooner or later medical research into artifical blood and cellsaver technology would bail them out and that their policy decision to allow of any fractions other than the fictional "4 major components" would give enough wiggle room for the average JW.
The next move , I guess , would be a downgrading to conscience status to allow storing & reinfusing ones own blood which the GB temporarily allowed a few years ago (and then about turned & ordered destruction of the blood cards that allowed this.) A further possibility is to quietly adopt a "don't ask , don't tell" policy on blood transfusions citing medical confidentiality (a bit like their policy on oral sex , adopted in the late 70's).
3... 1914 is already being phased out & mentioned less and less - I notice generic references to "the last days" rather than focusing on 1914 as the start date. Post 2014 when it truly will seem ridiculous I just don't see it being mentioned - maybe it will be ditched like 1935 was or maybe just occasionally referred to. There will always be enough earthquakes , wars etc to keep the pot boiling.
My guess is that at some point the WT will have to relent and start supporting Internet use. In the not too distant future I'm sure it will be impossible to buy a plain-wrap cell phone; all will have to be set up for a minimum level of Internet access. My Droid all but requires that you have an email account, preferably Gmail, so that you can load your contacts and their basic information.
More and more government agencies (DMV, business licensing, etc.) are requiring that you provide an email address. I can see elementary and secondary schools requiring Internet access via laptops or iPads for grades 3-12, just like most colleges and universities do now. Each child will either have to provide or be given Internet access in some form. But look at the benefits: eliminate school books, references, and school libraries. Let the kids learn to use the Internet to access approved texts and required research material.
The Watchtower already recognizes the power of computers and the Internet. They have at least 3 fully WT-approved websites of their own. They issue CD-DVD disks each year with the WT library. Why not put all of that on the Internet and let everyone access it via computer?
Printed materials? They're down to the point that WT and Awake! magazines are barely pamphlets, not the substantial mags we had from the time of Russell and up through the early 1990s. Why not point interested persons to the Internet to read current magazines (that are already available online from the WT) and then, for those without Internet service, allow the brothers and sisters to simply print a copy of the PDF version of the magazines and give copies to the interested householders?
New wide-screen TV sets come with built in Internet access. TV "no worky" unless you are connected to some sort of Internet access, either broadband cable or via satellite. To think that JWs will completely abandon their TV sets is a ridiculous idea. I doubt the WT could ever maintain that level of control, especially on the under 50-year old members.
I've been on the Internet since 1987, even before the "WWW" (world wide web) made its appearance. I've seen things progress so fast that even I, a pretty savvy webmaster, am having difficulty keeping up with all of the advances.
I think that the next generation of GB members will have to recognize by 2015 (2020 at the latest) that they will need to move from being a hardcopy printer/publishing company to an Internet online information provider. In fact, why should they spend all that money on foreign language versions of the magazines? I ran a quick test of one PDF copy of a recent Awake! magazine through the free online Google translator - and it was over 80% correct. By using minor adjustments in sentence structure and simpler word choices could probably get the accuracy up and over 95% (they are already doing the "simple" thing now).
I think they'll have no choice. If the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and the London Times have all read the writing on the walls and eliminated the bulk of their print versions, then eventually even the WT will have to give up and go completely online.
And when they do, watch out! Nothing will be able to keep the flock in the pens. People need to learn and explore - it's built into our genes. If you type in "Jehovah's Witnesses" or "Watchtower" in Google search, half of the entries could be apostate or JW critical websites. They only have 3! So what will the other 7 front page entries be? How will they be able to prevent their followers from checking out those other sites?
Many JWs will access and explore those other sites, discovering bits of truth along the way. Only those who have been so brainwashed or full of WT kool-aid will not venture to those other sites. Hopefully the bulk of the next generation of converted and born-ins will have that exposure and will be able to clear their brains of the WT garbage.
A good day is coming...
JV
They are run by a bunch of middle aged / old men who probably don't even have their own email account and regard the internet as saturated with apostasy & porn
--Don't disagree with that, but I think we're getting to a point where age is not much of an excuse for that attitude. Maybe I'm wrong, but several of the GB only look about mid-fifties to me, which would put them in the generation that brought us the PC and internet in the first place.
Another option with the blood issue is to reduce the scope of the prohibition to only whole blood. They could very easily and truthfully observe that every mention of blood in the Bible was a reference to whole blood and fractions therefore cannot be argued from the Bible. -Period. Fractions and components of all types would be a "Grey area"
I believe that they will completely revamp their disfellowshiping policies, and make it much easier for disfelloshiped ones to return to "the fold." They have already made it somewhat easier to be reinstated. But I think they may do away with this practice all together... What do you think?
