by freddo 10 Replies latest jw friends
Does anyone here who goes to meetings know of anyone who comes to their meetings after being contacted on the trolleys? Anyone hear of a real bible study from these carts?
Exaggerations from the assembly platform or jw urban myths do not count!
Personally I know of none.
Trolley cart "witnessing" has got to be less successful than even the pathetic DtoD efforts, simply because they just hide behind the near-invisible carts and do not make any effort to sell their brand of Crazy.
The only one I have observed was tucked away so well I was actually looking at that section of Street for several minutes before I spotted it. People passing by did not notice it. The old boy manning it struck up a conversation with a lady who sat on a public bench next to the cart, I heard her refuse the literatrash.
@Mad Irishman
Did the studies "progress"?
The trolley carts might not be effective for actually making converts. But, the trolley witnessing is effective in conforming to laws in countries where "preaching" is restricted.
In Russia, it was the trolley witnessing that got JWs acquitted in court.
http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2100
By contrast, at least two of the eight Jehovah's Witnesses stopped by police as they offered religious literature to passers-by on the streets of Simferopol on 2 July were acquitted in court, according to court records.
Police stopped the Jehovah's Witnesses as they were offering religious literature from mobile stands, according to court decisions seen by Forum 18. Officers claimed they were violating Russia's June 2004 Demonstrations Law. They drew up records of an offence under Administrative Code Article 20.2, Part 1. The cases were then passed to court.
At separate hearings on 30 July in front of Judge Aleksei Tikhopoi at Simferopol's Kiev District Court, both O. Shchelokova and E. Lyskova insisted that their right to offer religious literature is protected by the Russian Constitution and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
Shchelokova's lawyer told the Judge in her case that "during the religious activity, no slogans or calls of any kind were made, no agitation, propaganda or imposition of any religious views or ideas was conducted, banned religious literature was not distributed, no financial collections to support a religious organisation were undertaken, and no loudspeakers were used. The activity of her client did not form a danger to those around, and did not create a real threat of harm to the object being protected."
In choosing to acquit Shchelokova and Lyskova of any wrongdoing, Judge Tikhopoi specifically acknowledged individuals' right to freedom of religion or belief laid out in Article 9 of the European Convention.
Effective? Yes. In certain countries, trolleys are the only effective way that the WTS can establish a presence.
It's a numbers game, no matter whether you're offering free home bible studies or selling white washed graves, if you put it out there for the public to see and you keep at it long enough, somebody's gonna' bite. Just look at the Pontiac Aztec....one of the ugliest cars ever made yet they sold millions of them.
And this is all the more so true when you are using the free labor of 8 million people as well as their donated money, to keep the whole thing afloat.
Pete Z I agree with you except being the other side of the pond, I've no idea what a Pontiac Aztec looks like.
A friend of mine who attends the Kingdom Hell tells me that the rumour on the inside is that people are pouring in from the cart witnessing. I suspect this is an exaggeration but even if they get some newcomers they are going out the back door either vertically or horizontally at the same rate.
