What are the negative and positives of this whole affair. Will they be able to make some positive changes that will insure their survival for say 5 decades? Will they survive the public scrutiny that the information age has brought upon us? Will their ignorant population base shrivel to 0 as information becomes available to the entire population? Will the big child molestation scandal that is now immerging sink them financially and cause them to lose all popularity?
The Watchtower Corporation Ability To Survive In A Changing Society Following The Edicts Of A Bronze Age Moral Code
by Brokeback Watchtower 5 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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DesirousOfChange
The the child abuse scandal totally sink the Catholic Church? No. Neither will it JWs.
They will adapt to survive.
If you don't think so, you should review the past 100 years of changes.
Doc
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Makemeanunbeliever
Yep halls are still crowded and growing. -
possum
Just makes me more determined to keep white-anting the bastards!
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Boeing Stratofortress
Apples & oranges.
The Catholics don't shun & break up families. They don't disfellowship for minor wrongdoings. They're a huge religion, the JWs are small fry by comparison. The catholics are hierarchal, but they're not nearly as high-control, or authoritarian as the JWs: for example, a Catholic service in a church in Omaha, Nebraska will cover different topics, and different songs compared to one in say...Flint, Michigan. Not so with the JWs. The J-dubs march in lock step, with every little detail of their worship spelled out, literally, by the powers that be. In other words, the Catholics are not a full-on cult, as are the J-dubs.
I think that a governmental equivalent might be the Catholics as the old British Empire. They lay the groundwork for parliment & provide a general template for running things, but they don't micromanage every detail. The JWs on the other hand are North Korea.
Hence, the JW religion would simply implode if not for the Governing Body. There's no room for autonomy or self-governance, should the Governing Body disband and move their assets elsewhere...say, to Belize.
I'm thinking that the JWs will end up splintering into subgroups, each with it's own level of strictness. Some hardcore, others not so. It's happened before. Look at the Wordwide Church of God. Yep, me-thinks the Watchtower is basically screwed.
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Coded Logic
What do you mean by "survive"? Are you talking about every kingdom hall sold off the head quarters boarded up? Or do you mean they wont be able to continue their growth? Or do you mean that the Organization will become so different and change so much that we wont be able to recognize it anymore outside of its name?
The Borg's growth has been contracting more and more and I don't think it will be long until they start posting some negative numbers. I think in two or three decades they will be as different an organization as from the one they were in the forties to now. But I doubt the brand will entirely disappear. They will just continue playing a more and more marginalized role as less and less people pay attention to them.