JWdotORG, JW Broadcasting, tablets instead of books, carts instead of door to door, real estate and fund theft, the FDS being exclusively the GB to centralize power, the move to Warwick, the acceptance of Christian rock and other pop styles previously viewed as inappropriate, the overlapping generation being elaborated and cemented, dancing to pop songs in the Hall, putting on Broadway style plays, having red carpet events and other over the top attractions at international conventions . . .
Has Anything Really Changed For JWs In The Last 10 Years?
by minimus 40 Replies latest jw friends
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BluesBrother
Significant changes? No ....
what was bad about it has got worse ,what used to be good seems further away and the rate of growth is ,in real terms, stagnating
Happy New Year
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ZindagiNaMilegiDobaara
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
Please do not forget there are so many protest and activism being done during assemblies and regional conventions. Thats is truly a significant change worth mentioning.
Other than that Naah!
Proverbs 26:11 As a dog returns to its vomit,so a fool repeats his folly!
Zing
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slimboyfat
I’d say there have been more significant changes in JW land in the 2010s than in any decade since the 1940s.
Allowing for inclusion of some details that fall slightly outside the decades concerned, here’s an incomplete set of lists for the two decades respectively:
1940s:
Rutherford dies
Publications become anonymous
Gilead missionary school established
Theocratic ministry school established
Blood ban introduced
Disfellowshipping and shunning developed
New World Translation produced
Era of worldwide expansion and new branches
Phonograph and radio ministries discontinued
Print publications and translation emphasised
2010s:
Ted Jaracz dies
Book Study groups discontinued
District overseers discontinued
Many branches closed
Print publishing downscaled
Revised NWT produced
JW broadcasting introduced
GB members become more prominent as result
Tablets replace print publications
Videos become common at meetings and conventions
Gilead stops training new missionaries
Obedience, anti-education, and shunning confirmed and emphasised
Theocratic Ministry school renamed and downgraded
Witness carts/trolleys introduced
Website promoted and online translation ramped up
Headquarters in the US and branch in UK relocated
What else did I miss?
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The Fall Guy
Slim - the cult's master-plan: "maximising auditorium capacity." The WT's scam to sell off countless KH's which the sheep paid for with their own fleece, forcing JW's to travel further to receive their weakly (yup!) spiritual food from videos.
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minimus
Let’s not forget also the definition of the faithful and discreet slave changing. For many many decades the faithful slave was defined as all anointed ones totaling 144,000 who were on the earth at a given time in history. Now, it’s simply the Governing Body.
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Number 6
I started a thread a few months ago about how utterly unrecognizable the religion of my uprbringing is now.
I have been out since late 1990, just before my 21st birthday and even after not getting online until 2000 I did still recognise it. Not any more.
In a matter of days, people born in the 1970's will start to enter their 50's. Me among them. When I was growing up, to make any kind of reference to the world being around in 2000, let alone 2020 would have been considered extremely weak. I lost count of the times in the 70s and 80s people used to say to me at meetings that I would never finish school. Better to pioneer and fulfill my potential that way for the short time remaining.
Now... my horizon is filled with things like my grown up daughters having kids and planning their weddings. And for myself planning retirment within the next decade. Far from not finishing school, that event is now some 30+ years in the past!
To answer your question what has changed? Style over substance certainly, but ultimately just the same old religion with its "end any day now" mantra.
They'll still be at it when I'm long dead.
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iwantoutnow
YES! As they have said many times now "It's time to circle the waggons", or "close ranks".
The Us v Them is at the highest point ever, and more fear based tactics are being used now more than ever.
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careful
SBF: "What else did I miss?"
Financial woes due to one thing you touched on, the "Print publishing downscaled" but with the detail that previously it had become free to all (= the loss of long, well-established income from printed matter sales), because of the org's fear of taxation (really opening their books to Caesar via tax audits)—that is, if all this is not just another of their PR stunts. There are those broadcasts where GB members claim such financial woes.
Related to the above: the constant pleas for MORE MONEY.
A big one that the GB are so interested in keeping from the R&F:
the child sexual abuse lawsuits/coverups/disgraceful policies
Some of your points were mentioned by others, some were not. Perhaps you didn't want to repeat them? neat blue dog made some good ones which I quote, but in a list format:
the acceptance of Christian rock and other pop styles previously viewed as inappropriate
the overlapping generation being elaborated and cemented
dancing to pop songs in the Hall
putting on Broadway style plays
having red carpet events and other over the top attractions at international conventions
While on the music: the constant reworking of the songbook and new ones dribbling out in electronic release
I must have missed some too...
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minimus
Could somebody please elaborate about dancing in the kingdom hall to pop songs? Thanks