Ok, we're all used to seeing the annual report in the yearbook etc of the Societies so called increases in certain countries and lands. Is there any way to independently authenticate the WT claims as true or not?
Take 'hours' submitted in field service reports etc. What ratio of the worldwide congregations publishers and pioneers 'deceive' truthfully the amount of hours preaching they actually put in? We understand the pressure, we did it ourselves once, but how many bend the actual figures, or put another way, what surrepticious devices did you employ to bump up your hours submitted?
Many other factual citations in behaviour I could prompt, but essentially, increase / decrease, whats going on really?
since zero or negative increase was reported in 75 countries, I imagine at this point that Watchtower is being more or less truthful.
Watchtower sneaks in other ways---the reporting of 'peak' publishers, the change in reporting your time to the bookstudy overseer (your time can get turned in FOR you this way) and the 15 minute reporting change.
aaahh, RUN WATCHTOWER RUN they are coming for YOU...
That's one intriguing aspect of the JW mindset.... As duplicitous as they are in many respects; i.e. idealizing their history, making lying a virtue by their ``Theocratic War Strategy,'' etc., it seems that they are scrupulously accurate in their tallying and logging of field service statistics. The furthest they go is a liberal rounding off.
It's almost as if they venerate these numbers and regard them as sacrosanct. They seem almost superstitious about fudging them, even if the results are disappointing to them.
Cheers Somebody, very useful link and Mac Hislops post was excellent. (I thought as much, had to laugh though at his reasoning on the missing publishers).
No doubt there is much 'righteous fudging' going on- when I was 'in', I knew some who didn't want to be labeled 'inactive' who turned in something, anything for call backs/rv's & their family studies.
Of course, the tallying of hours spent in preaching keeps the rank & file marching in unison, feeling they are fulfilling the prophecy of Matt 24:14/28:19, 20. And the hours reported each yr MUST increase, hence the fudging.
I always wondered, why is the # of hours so important anyway? Yes, this promotes status in the cong, displays your spirituality for others to see & be envious of [wow- she must REALLY luv jah, she's a PIONEER!!!], but really- now they account for time to the 15 minute mark?! Who really cares how many hours they put in?
I never lied on how many hours of service I put in. I should have written in the that report that every hour I did go out, I was forced to by my parents. Raising 7 kids, I guess they needed their breaks from us. The society probably would have counted those hours that teens were forced to go out just to puff themselves up with pride some more though. Even if every teen wrote that they had no choice but to go.
What I used to do is dump the mags in the trash can in the ladies room of wherever we went for coffee breaks though. I then wrote them down as placements, and paid for them myself. That was back before the society sided with Jimmy Swaggart in court and through the results of that, the donation arrangement was put into effect by the WBTS. I think they were 10 cents a piece for the mags back then.
One clarification: When I referred to the JWs as being ``scrupulously accurate'' in tallying the field service stats, I meant the tabulations that are made at Bethel, not at the local level.
Along with dawdling, foot-dragging, coffee-breaking and desultory driving about from one end of the territory to another, grass-roots local JWs are notorious for their overstating hours spent in service and ``fudging'' their report slips.
Why? Because I was always told things like: "If you don't become a Ministerial Servant by such-and-such a date, I will give up on you"- (the PO)....or....(When my brother was appointed as an Elder at the age of 28, my book study conductor said this): "I expect you to be an elder by the time you're his age!"....OR...."You're out regularly but your hours are low" and "Your hours are high but you're not out every Saturday".
In other words, they created me. They put that kind of pressure on me.
