by cofty 74 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Comatose: The WT stresses obey even if you don't understand.
And even if you don't agree!
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Shirley said- You lost all credibility (if you has any to begin with) when you made it crystal clear you play dumb just to pick fights and keep them going. You are so self-contradictory it's dizzying, and, coupled with your constant disingenous flip flopping, anything you say is just so much bovine residue. I've scraped you from my shoes and have moved on.
It should be trivial to prove it: give ONE example to back up your conclusion, since the most-basic principle of skepticism is to accept premises (allegations) which are backed up by verifiable evidence, only.
Until you do, the assumption remains you're talking smack (shot-gunning groundless accusations) to distract readers that you're out of facts, but want to protect your cherished beliefs even DESPITE evidence to the contrary. You have your conclusion already in mind (an analog to the JWs, "these endtimes are getting soooo baddd!"), so let the counter-evidence be damned.
On this:
Shirley said- Post your long-winded nonsensical diatribes if it makes you feel better, but I won't read them.
Hmmm, that sounds suspiciously like a JW discouraged from reading apostate literature, in the name of 'protecting their faith' (it's actually called 'dogmatism' in other arenas). You still 'protecting your faith', except for your current cherished dogma?
The beliefs everyone MOST should be questioning are those they most WANT to be true, since that's what leads to dogmatism and confirmation biases. The fact you see the questioning process (the willingness to examine the other side) speaks spades, since that's the rationalist's approach. It's why debate teams argue BOTH sides of the case: it forces one to not get in a mental rut.
To address a point raised a few pages back about last years "new light" on FDS and "anointed class":
The anointed class has never been officially recognized as exerting any influence over the GB to help out with 'spiritual feeding'; to the contrary, any attempts to organize such groups has resulted in such 'annointed ones' being slapped down, with some DFed for apostacy for getting too big for the britches.
The whole 'anointed class' thing has been a paper tiger, only, giving some the ability to feel better than the hoi polloi in the KH to attempt to exert power locally, but largely pointless (since $3.95 and claiming to be anointed will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks, but only if you have $3.95. One 80 y.o. senile bitty in the KH claimed to be anointed, but then (1960's era) as now, the elders rolled their eyes when she tried to exert any influence over them.)
So the recent moves to officially disassociate the 'annointed class' from the FDS are symbolic, only (esp since members of the GB claim to be anointed, eg Sanderson, thus offering the appearance of annointed representation on the GB). Since there's no channel to exert control, it's not an actual change in power or authority, since the 'annointed class' cannot lose authority or representation they never even had.
To add to the 'less-authoritarian' column, I don't think there's ANYTHING that matches the example of Rutherford's smear camaign and public character assassination of the reputation of Olin Moyle (a lawyer who worked as general counsel for Society matters), carried out in the pages of the WT for all to see (Moyle later sued WTBTS for libel, and won his case).
Leolaia wrote a lengthy thread on the story last year, showing the bald-faced arrogance of a man drunk on not just booze, but his sole authority and power, proven in the way he responded to any perceived challenges to his limitless power:
This is the year 2014.
It is not 1879. It is not 1930 or 1940.
The world has changed and so has the Watchtower Society.
Contributions are slack. Subscriptions are gone. The Society has to discreetly allow downloading porn off the internet because if they came down too hard, elders and MS's would be largely wiped out.
There used to be hope in this organization that things would get better, kinder, more considerate of the friends. All that ended after the Ray Franz debacle.
When the elder arrangement was announced, there was a widespread desire by brothers everywhere to 'reach out' and become older men. That's evaporated. Two Awakes per month became one - and then 1/2. 90 hour pioneers became 70 hours.
No more books against Evolution. Almost no books, really. They're shutting down branch offices and selling them off. They laid off old Bethelites.
Shall I go on?
You can talk about authoritarian rule all you want - and even be correct in a limited way. But... they are fading away into irrelevance.
metatron
Welcome back committeechairman. As a longtime lurker you always had my favorite posts and are the reason I was motivated to finally post. It was good to see that another insider was as uncomfortable as I was.
In WT always had forces that were either conservative or progressive. As totalitarian, reactionary organization, the conservative forces seem to prevail. Currently, entire organization is in crisis as it reached a plateau in many countries to entice more members. The leadership turned into gerontocracy where men care more about maintaing the proper level of sugar in their bloodstream instead envision processes for another 20, 30 years. They were not prepared for it as they believed that the big "A" is just around the corner. I see that the same elders and CO that I had in the 1980's are still running the show, they were were old men back then and they turned into very old, senile men some of them approaching mid 80's and 90's. The next 10-15 years will be a real power struggle for the control of the organization between the very old and the old born in the postwar era. Once the sturggle will be over, they will again turn into regressive society with one goal to control their flock.
However, WT is fighting two major liabilities, one is the 1914 nonsense, and second is the division of the sheeps on annoited and the Great Crowd. Any significant changes would lead to exodus. Thereofre, they will have to come up with some phasing of the old doctrines and replaced them with new ones. Once this is established, the reactionary pressure followed by purges will follow. I don't get fooled that WT got less authoritarian.
