The "Preaching" Work As A Dead Parrot

by metatron 41 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  metatron

  Suppose some Muslim leaders said, " don't bother with '5 times prayer, a couple times a day is OK"

  or suppose Mormons were told, "you can lose the 'special underwear'. Or maybe the Pope says attending Mass every week in not a big deal.

  My point here is: why did they cut assembly days? why have they chopped magazines down to a pathetic 16 pages? why have they told people to print your own Daily Text and Calendar? A number of old timers are painfully aware of disaster looming because C.O.'s are becoming absolute monarchs. Indeed, that change may suggest a greed for property over any spiritual interest in publishers.

  This sort of stuff is Really Bad for Cult Maintenance. Fanatical religion is all about keeping habits going, not allowing them to decay/fade away.

  Superficially, it looks like they lack a long term interest in the future of their Organization. We will see....

  metatron
• 

  Apognophos

  Personally, I'd say that spinning down the publishing business is the most important thing they could do for long-term survival, don't you? Considering that it's becoming more costly as more people leave the business. I think they kind of know that many JWs don't read the whole magazine anyway, and now that they don't have the expense of all that printing, they can put more effort into putting enough new content on jw.org to keep the most fervent followers glassy-eyed with delight.
• 

  NewYork44M

  My point here is: why did they cut assembly days? why have they chopped magazines down to a pathetic 16 pages? why have they told people to print your own Daily Text and Calendar?

  Of course the answer to all of this is the money. Follow the money and you will find your answer. The field service used to be a revenue center - selling magazines. Now, it is a cost center - every magazine given away is a cost. Thus, the goal is to get rid of costs. Do away with anything that costs money.

  They have found the next cash cow - real estate. We see how the focus is now on selling old building at market prices and building with free labor. Great gig.

  To a point I attempted to make earlier - any changes to the preching activity will be driven by reducing costs and without consideration to how it impact the r&f.
• 

  metatron

  Exactly so. If are you are saying that money is all important to them (yes, mostly) then "all things are possible" !

  Our analysis of their future should not end with a pat answer about cuts to save money. Each cut they make, limits their options and narrows their future choices. They are tearing down what little infrastructure they have, as an elder friend of mine observed.

  And how - or to what extent- does this endless trend of money-based cuts go? Does it eventually reveal a dismissive contempt for the friends - or a detached weariness about managing them?

  Also, if they keep cutting in response to a lack of donations, what message does this keep sending to them, if they still think Jehovah is supporting them?

  I say, it's going in that direction. Plenty of companies freely give away calendars and small publications, without being skinflints about it.

  metatron
• 

  NewYork44M

  Met, I think we are saying the same thing but only disagree about the degree. I think it is "ALL' about money. It sounds like you suggest it is "mostly" about money. Time will tell.
• 

  Apognophos

  My stance is also basically the same, which is that they care about money insofar as it takes money to keep "God's organization" running. It doesn't require an insincere or openly con-artist attitude for them to care a lot about money, just a determination to keep the org. going through the last days.
• 

  cantleave

  rjharriis - everyone of your recent has been spamming your religious fantasies, it's getting rather boring now.
• 

  metatron

  I want you to be right, NY - and me to be wrong !

  An organization that is Totally About The Money would be more likely to drop the more obnoxious aspects of this cult.

  "It's all conscience, blood, joining the military, Christmas, whatever"

  Bring it on.

  metatron
• 

  NewYork44M

  Met, power = money and money = power. But in the end it is all about power. I am reading for the umpthing time The Fountainhead; our conversation has forced me to recount multiple times the Ellsworth Toohey speech to Peter Keating about how to rule the souls of people.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppgg_vF3Z-0

  If you don't see this as the playbook of the GB, I don't know what is.
• 

  SAHS

  “NewYork44M”: “The field service used to be a revenue center - selling magazines. Now, it is a cost center - every magazine given away is a cost.”

  It may appear that the magazines just represent a cost because of so many being given away, but don’t forget this: the WTS gets revenue from any donations received out in the field service plus donations for each of the magazines from the publishers in the contribution box labelled “Worldwide Work,” plus the funds deposited into the other contribution boxes, such as the ones labelled something sort of like “Kingdom Hall Construction/Regional Building Committe Fund,” and “Local Kingdom Hall Expense Fund.”

  So, the WTS certainly doesn’t depend on the donations from householders out in the field service. They already have things covered from all those other constant donations, or “contributions,” from each of the rank and file members.