How much damage has internet done against the The Watchtower Society ?

by opusdei1972 42 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Simon

  It's a double-edged sword.

  They were slow to react to the internet and saw it as nothing but a threat but hopefully a passing fad. It wasn't and the internet because the domain of apostates.

  They are now realizing the recruitment potential that it offers and and going full speed to using it as a sales and marketing tool.

  There should never be a situation though which was prior to the 90's where getting information about the WTS is difficult and people are isolated and know of no other people who have left.

  The Real Truth is just a Google Search away.
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  freemindfade

  The "dangers of the internet" they've protested about were not dangerous to the member. They were dangers to then. And the dangers were not porn, etc. It was knowledge and truth. Any group describes knowledge as dangerous is in fact themselves dangerous.
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  ShirleyW

  Of course the internet has turned the heads of many JWs, why do you think when the internet came out and got so popular that they were admonishing their blind followers to stay away from the internet? Taking into account that they already had a website on the web at the time.
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  Crazyguy

  Its just plain go old information period that's killing the WT. I did not go to any apostate websites when I was waking up and doing research. I read their information via their wt library and websites but I did find some opinion's on a few subjects on a bible translation site. Being introduced to another point of view helped to put the nails in the coffin. We have also read here about ones doing research on a part or talk they were working up and going to the internet while doing their research. This woke those people up, so its not only about apostate web sites it about knowledge. When one obtains it the lies fall away.
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  Brokeback Watchtower

  We can only guess about the damage done to the WT corporation by the internet because it is on going and will never go away. The Governing Body old fogies took a typical head in the sand approach to it perhaps hoping that armageddon will come or that it would just go away some how. They were very late when it came to using the internet because of their demonization of it.

  They are a reactionary Cult and so don't have any real good plans to look at a situation and make appropriate moves to really take advantage of the internet all they can do is disfellowship those members who found out the truth about the truth to avoid a mass exodus how long will they be able to keep this up with any meager success time will tell. Also they may be forced to capitulate on this disfellowshipping form of information control in the future as the courts call them to accounts for some of their cruel behaivor be it through loss of Charity status which could force them financially to give up this not to mention all the lawsuits that have resulted from they way their in house Judicial system handles pedofiles and innocent victims.

  I think the damage done is huge but hard to see the present results as many fear disfellowshipping and prefer to remain quite about what they are learning for obvious reasons. To me the problems the internet is causing the WT is like a snow ball rolling down a hill getting bigger and faster as time goes on.
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  Half banana

  I agree Brokeback, it’s a bit early to determine the real cause for the decline in expansion of the WT but surely the proliferation of negative information on the internet must be involved. With few new members coming in, the rot will start showing and discourage the existing members who will be mainly “born-ins”.

  The folly of the governing body is imagining that Big J is going to bless their work whatever medium they use...”God is richly blessing his people, just look at all the honest hearted ones coming to his holy organisation” (pause for vomit). I hope the internet with its openness and ready access to universal information will demonstrate this to be a myth. I hope that the internet will be the death of them and the sooner the better.
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  James Mixon

  The internet have opened a lot of folks eyes. Today if you receive a unknown

  phone call, bring the number up on the internet and what will you see, scam,

  survey, trip you won to some place that you never enter the contest. If I need

  any info on any group, product or service I will check the internet first.

  How many people have check the internet about JW's and what do they find.

  It's not a case about a few disgruntle individuals, but thousands.

  The negative comments that one will find, Holy sh---t this is a cult or they

  are a bat sh---t crazy religious group, confirming people suspicion. We all

  know that JW's have always been looked upon as a odd group, a little weird.
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  umbertoecho

  It took being treated very badly by study conductors and the haughty elders to make me wonder at the reality of this "Spiritual Paradise" we were supposed to be living in.

  I noticed how nasty they were to certain members in the hall. They were nasty to a guy who was gay although he was inactive in that sense. He tried so hard. They were cold toward a woman who's husband had died, saying that she was a winging miserable person. The whole place was filled with this nasty judgement. I could not reconcile it with what I was told to believe.

  It was then I went to the internet. Everything changed, books were recommended, sites were there to explore the real problems of the WT. It was there that I found so much out that I could not blinker myself to the facts.

  The Internet is the WTs worst nightmare. Of that I am completely sure!!!
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  Vidiot

  Billy the Ex-Bethelite - "Now that all those brothers have WT-approved tablets and browsers that provide 'private' Internet browsing, they can be hardcore porn addicts and remain pillars in the congregation."

  You mean they couldn't before?:smirk:
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  clarity

  The internet is eroding watchtower lies. With all their early warnings about the evils & deception of the net ...it made me determined not to have a computer. I felt so righteous every time they spewed propaganda about some bad computer experiences from the platform. Then ........I got a computer ........omg within a month I was on my way OUT!

  clarity