I have been giving a lot of thought about why the baptism of children is being pushed so strongly by the WTS. I have held the belief that baptizing children has something to do with defining the children as 'members' to take advantage of the "confidential information" privilege in communications with the elders.
That may be possible, but, after considering all the other changes that the WTS is making that reflect the pressure that the taxman is putting on them to fall into line of being a non-profit rather than a profit making enterprise, I now think that the child baptism is another indication of the taxman's pressure on the WTS.
The WTS needs to show a member base to the taxman to account for the donations that are required as the primary income source, in order to retain tax free status. The WTS is short of members. And I am not speaking of their worldwide growth - each and every congregation has to have members.
Just ordinary members, not clergy and not the 'minister' class that is sent out to do measurable volunteer work (the pioneers who man the carts). The elders, who used to be classified as 'members' are now the clergy. The pioneers are the volunteer work force. Those distinctions are necessary for presenting to the taxman that the JWs are a 'religious order'.
But the membership numbers are too small to support the large amounts of donations required to keep the cash cow afloat - not that the donations are necessarily too small cash wise (we don't know anything about those BIG donations that make their way into the WTS coffers) but the donations have to come from the general membership. The taxman wants the organization to be supported by the members themselves.
But first, they have to convert the children into members in order to get their membership count up. And then, they have to show the taxman that those members contribute donations. Hence, the ice cream money.
And why would they convert children instead of doing it the way they did before - look for converts door to door? Because the door to door work is ineffective - it doesn't increase the membership rolls as fast as baptizing children does.
An unbaptized publisher is not counted as a 'member' but a baptized child is.
The tax man wants 'membership' and the WTS is trolling the waters of childhood to find it - the children are yet another component in the whole tax free status game that the WTS is playing with the taxman.