by blownaway 29 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Assemblies are like political rallies. They are designed to stir up the troops and make them feel special. A candidate (or in jw land a special speaker from NY) shows up and everyone is wow'ed. Bullsh*t is slung and everyone eats it up. Promises are made but nothing happens. Wash, rinse, repeat!
just saying!
No releases? Why attend?
True SBF, a book is a tangible "freebie" a physical keepsake of "Jehovah's blessing" you can hold and take a selfie with. I just don't want to underestimate the power of a slick propoganda video to stir people's emotions enough to stick their credit card in a machine or click on the donate button, after all, governments have been doing this for years.
Oh I agree the videos are powerful, no doubt about that. I just don’t think they are as likely to get people to donate as the old book handouts, which is a separate issue.
Unless they designed a video that specifically ended in a crescendo of “give your valuable things to Jehovah now” swiftly followed by some sort of collection. I don’t think I’ve seen that.
It’s striking that JWs don’t pass a collection. Most other churches do. JWs have traditionally disparaged it, but it’s an important ritual apart from anything else.
I think they are in the stage of trial and error with the videos trying to find the sort of topics and stories that appeal the most and get the most reaction and donations. I definitely think the begging tone of the videos will gradually increase and yes even having an infomercial style "show" dedicated to donating.
I agree that they wont stop. They still make money. Cities love the conventions. Richmond (a city in virgina, usa) throws discounts left and right and begs the org to come every year. These things still make money, books or not.
Yes, they make a lot of money at these wastefests. But they are after souls, not just money. And these a$$emblies are one way people in the jokehovian religion have to meet potential spouses. Take away the a$$emblies, you take away the one hope they had to marry, and the religion starts to look more like the defunct Shakers. And they manage to make people's lives more blah--you cannot find a spouse during the annual wastefest where Astaroth is dishonored around Easter.
Not to mention, do away with the a$$emblies, and those stupid Israel missions will be all they have to look forward to. This will send huge amounts of spiritual energy to the leading rabbis living there, and that is what they are really after (more so than money, which they take primarily because poverty is damaging to souls).
As to how long this might take remains to be seen. They might simply cut or reduce something--as they cut the Great Boasting Session (two days) to another Big Boasting Session (one day). They might simply drop one of those, and then the other. As for the Israel missions, they cannot demand exemplary standing to get people to attend these big or grand boasting sessions as they can for those doing those missions.
I think most members would just contribute once during an assembly. So we see how by cutting the number of days an assembly is held, can still generate the same donations, but will also cut down on assembly expenses.
We can always live in hope!
It's an interesting question to ponder.
I'm in 2 minds about it.
On the one hand it's a place to get the sheeple all worked up with doom and gloom. It's a non event where they can make a bit of money, which is their real god.
However, I wonder if they would just have more special broadcasts at the Kingdom hells to stop any possible leakage of money on renting facilities.
My over arching feeling is that they'll continue for the foreseeable future if nothing more than to keep the sheeple busy busy and not thinking.
