TV Ministry a No Go for Watchtower Society....ever wonder why?

by Terry 42 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  BluesBrother

  "if you asked one thousand people what Jehovah's Witnesses believe....you'd not find more than five who could tell you with any accuracy."

  They are the masters of obfuscation, hiding the true nature of what they believe until a "Bible Student" has progressed far enough into it so as to accept the tougher teachings . If they went to the door and told them that the householder had better listen, or die at Armageddon - nobody would have it and they might even get banned. I heard a C/O actually say that in a recorded talk once "We know that it is true but we don't tell them" Even reading their website shows that they do not own up to the public what they really believe.

  Anyway if they were on the T V they would have compete with the slick presentations that are on there. They would not hold a candle to the preachers on the God Channel, or Joseph Prince Ministries that comes on CNBC on Sunday mornings. I do not agree with all he says either, but he knows how to put it across...
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  DATA-DOG

  This thread has given me an idea. As long as I am still physically in the organization I might as well have some fun. My first plan has been to stop all contributions from my household. So far, so good. I also may check out a private territory and take an informal poll in my neighborhood to see what people actually know about JW's. BTW I spent 1/2 hour in a meeting for service and another 1/2 hour in a Starbucks. Then about 1/2 hour of driving. Probably another 1/2 sitting while others took their turn at the doors. The remainder of the time was spent going to 4 houses with 0 persons home...
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  Balaamsass

  Some good points here. While the governing body talks a good story about "preaching", when it comes down to it they rarely do it themselves. How often have you SEEN a GB member in front of a camera? Prepping for a REAL interview, answering hard questions, doing multiple takes for a show would be too much like work for the current crowd. THINKING and developing a TV show -even a midnight info- mercial would be a lot of work..better the worker bees do door-to-door and for them and prove their loyalty.
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  LostGeneration

  Excellent history lesson! Thank you very much!

  When leaving, one of the arguments I got into with my still JW father was "Why doesn't the WT society use some of that money to run a TV or radio ministry, I mean lives are at stake, right?"

  I got the usual "only we preach door to door" bullshit line. So what? If you can't find anybody, and the ones you do find are put off by you bothering them, you gotta do something $%*)$%)($%*#) different!

  If they really wanted to warn people, they would run infomercials night after night, or start their own station, and get it on cable and satellite. Offer free bible studies and an outline of their beliefs. Then send the locals in to study.

  But they don't really want this, because it would cause a real, and widespread examination and evaluation of their beliefs.

  -God's gonna kill you all if you don't join us

  -No blood transfusions - fractions are OK!

  -Two witness rule - Pedophiles can hide

  -And all the doctrinal issues come next!

  Not only would few people join, more active JWs would be questioned about their wacky beliefs. More would leave!

  So they can't promote their beliefs in a format that reaches everyone (a la Russell and Rutherford as the OP mentions, cuz basically they would get their asses handed to them on a silver platter)

  Instead, they have to brainwash their young, and pick off lost souls one at a time and indoctrinate them slowly.
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  Apognophos

  A mainstream religion can go on TV because it doesn't have any crazy cult doctrines to be exposed and villified publicly and scare away new victims.

  Ironically, the main difference between the JW's "crazy cult doctrines" and mainstream religion's doctrines is time and familiarity ;) Imagine if, as Witnesses, we had preached that back in the early 1900s, a man named C.T. Russell died and was brought back to life by God, but only a few of us saw him before he floated into the sky. We also asserted that Russell had done a lot of miraculous things that no non-Witnesses had bothered writing down. Speaking on a broad level, the claims made by new religions are no crazier than the original claims of Judeo-Christianity. Imagine if we had access to all the earlier versions of the Hebrew manuscripts that became the Bible. We'd be filling forum pages with criticisms of "old light" and flip-flops based on that instead!
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  moshe

  A Jehovah's Witness Podcast officially approved by the WT is at least feasible.
  The interest in actually publicizing what they teach is obviously NOT what the GB really wants.
  They could not admit to this, certainly.

  Terry, I agree-- they certainly got burned on that deaf masturbation video! I am sure that experience has cast a pall over any substantive WT educational video productions for the forseeable future.
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  Terry

  Deaf masturbation is unheard of...........................................................badda boom!
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  redvip2000

  Broadcasting on TV has a few drawbacks for the society - mostly financial

  The first is that it costs money and brings no palpable financial return. Yes, the society could ask for donations as part of the broadcast like others do, but the organization has always taken pride in the fact that it does not openly asks for money. This would also probably damage the image of the witnesses uniqueness, and instead put them in the same pot as all the other TV evangelists.

  Starting TV broadcasts would gradually make J-dubs think that maybe they don't have to do as much in field service, which leads to the biggest issue: The society, for all intents and purposes, sells a product which is printed material. But in it's business model, the sales reps (publishers) are the ones who actually buy the product, which then give it away (mostly) to the public. Why would the society want to give up this easy and guaranteed business model? They wont.... If Coca Cola sales reps worked for free and bought all the product that the company makes, they wouldn't give that up either.
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  Apognophos

  @redvip2000: Ever since I started placing literature in the '80s, I never bought or sold a publication. Get with the times

  To give a more serious answer than my previous post, I think that, besides the reasons mentioned, a major reason why there is no TV program is that it's much more ignorable than people knocking on your doors. Love them or hate them, JWs interrupting people's lives are a large part of the reason why they are so much more well-known than, say, the (other!) splinter Bible Students groups. And as was mentioned by a couple people already, TV programs just can't convert people -- only one-on-one interactions can influence a person to change their beliefs. When was the last time an argument was settled on the Internet?
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  MrFreeze

  Maybe they need some billboards like the Mormons.

  I'm a window washer. And I'm a Jehovah's Witness