Mass JW exodus

by stockholm_Syndrome 64 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  freddo

  They won't all wake up at the same time - but this is my belief over the next few years.

  No more growth. Sure, the numbers will be fudged to show a half of one percent or whatever, but in reality, it's stopped. It's dropping.

  Dropping meeting attendances. The 90%/95% of Publisher figures has softly descended to 60% turning up with another 10% sitting at home with the phone plugged in.

  Dumbing down. Good God! Have you actually read a paper copy of Awake lately? Not enough paper to wipe your backside and not enough "meat in due season" to feed a weasel.

  Ministry. Hours reported will stay at about 8 average but how productive is it? Plodding, driving about with four on board sharing out return visit magazine routes, not homes and coffee stops. And Pioneering = cart minding.

  There is just enough "activity" to fool the leaders that they don't need to change.

  Just go to your nearest kingdom hall and look at the non born-in bible studies - old lonely women, whackjobs and losers being lead along by mental or depressed fools.
• 

  dozy

  Not many JWs actually read the magazines so I would imagine few will "clock" the comment & even fewer will think it of any significance. There will always be "Awake JWs" ( like us ) who smell the coffee & move out but like in most similar cults / groups - it's pretty marginal - most just plod on , as other posters have said.

  I remember being the Watchtower reader during 1995 when the Society scrapped the 1914 generation teaching & being quite stumbled at the time - looking around at the audience to see if there was anyone else with concerns. Frankly - nobody seemed even to notice the significance & the relevant paragraphs were just dumbly covered & skipped through. Babies were crying - people were sleeping - guys were surreptitiously eyeing up Sister Hot in row 2 - people were as ever just sitting bored glancing outside at the sunshine & wishing the meeting was over. It's a social organisation essentially. Nobody cared then about doctrine - nobody cares now.
• 

  Magnum

  dozy: I remember being the Watchtower reader during 1995 when the Society scrapped the 1914 generation teaching & being quite stumbled at the time - looking around at the audience to see if there was anyone else with concerns. Frankly - nobody seemed even to notice the significance & the relevant paragraphs were just dumbly covered & skipped through. Babies were crying - people were sleeping - guys were surreptitiously eyeing up Sister Hot in row 2 - people were as ever just sitting bored glancing outside at the sunshine & wishing the meeting was over. It's a social organisation essentially. Nobody cared then about doctrine - nobody cares now.

  Yeah, I was there for that 1995 Watchtower study, and it was the same in my area. Most of 'em just don't get it. My mother's been baptized for over 50 years, and she has no idea that the org ever said that the end would come within the twentieth century. I recently complained to her about my lot in life due to having been a JW. I mentioned the 1969 Awake! article that stated that young people of that time would not grow old in this system and would "never fulfill any career that this system offers." She said in disbelief and with an air of arrogant doubt: "I want to see that." (Can't wait to show it to her.)
  
• 

  Finkelstein

  There wont be an mass exodus from the JWS for there's too much mental indoctrination (brainwashing), fear, ignorance and social ramifications to those that leave.

  The psychological indoctrination goes very deep in this religion, its " The Truth " after all.
  

  Well certain enough of " The Truth " than any other Christian organization.

  " We expect are lives to be saved by adhering to this organization because its appeases Jehovah so much "

  " We may have been wrong in the past but we keep on receiving New Light every day."
  
• 

  Simon

  The reality is that for a mass defection to occur it would require some huge incident to happen and that is unlikely for such a conservative group.

  Even then, many don't abandon a group - they overlook and forgive and make excuses.

  Just as people join for personal reasons, people leave for personal reasons and don't leave until they are impacted directly even though they may be aware of information that proves it's false - they are there for the community and the connections.

  Look at it this way - if a mass exodus was somehow likely, because they change some doctrine perhaps, then surely a mass conversion is equally likely? They make a change and millions think "OMG, it's the TRUTH !".

  Of course that doesn't happen. Massive number changes only happen with smaller groups and the larger you get, the more things are driven by births and deaths rather than recruitment and leaving.

  There's nothing on the horizon that suggests there is likely to be any mass exodus. Even the coverups of child abuse will be excused as the result of imperfect men who failed the organization.

  It's called "belief" for a reason, but rarely includes any "reasoning".
• 

  OUTLAW

  Look at it this way - if a mass exodus was somehow likely, because they change some doctrine perhaps, then surely a mass conversion is equally likely? They make a change and millions think "OMG, it's the TRUTH !".....Simon

  That`s already happened..

  ......................
  

  "1914 The generation that will not pass away" is replaced with ..
  

  "OVERLAPPING GENERATIONS"

  
• 

  fukitol

  ...Of course, Jesus did not tell us that his faithful slave would produce perfect spiritual food ‘Watchtower Feb 2017”

  Classic strawman. Arguing from what wasn't said by Jesus.

  What does "perfect spiritual food" even mean?

  No, Jesus didnt say that but obviously all food that is served by the slave should be scripturally correct and never harmful or deceitful.

  You can find any number of quotes down the years where they arrogantly praise their own spiritual food as nothing but wholesome and beneficial, spiritually pure and the right stuff at the proper time like manna from heaven compared to Christendoms filthy dishes of junk food, and now here they are admitting in one little flip sentence that will be hardly noticed by anyone that after 120 years they have dished up junk or unhealthy food.

  But JWs dont know shit from shovel when it comes to telling what food slopped up is perfect or barf material. If mother serves it up, it must be swallowed.
• 

  Simon

  There are countless examples from the bible they can pick from where the JW-backed leadership made mistakes (committed outright crimes) but were still considered god's representatives, e.g. King David

  Also, even people doing "right" were "wrong" for going against the leadership, even when they were violating commandments, e.g. how to transport the ark of the covenant.

  The bottom line is, it's not difficult at all to come up with things that smooth over the cracks and are enough for current JWs who are looking for the cracks to be smoothed over.

  No, they don't convince people who have already woken up ... but then they don't need to.

  It's a fundamental reason why trying to convince current believers that their belief is false is so often doomed to fail.
• 

  Vidiot

  David_Jay - "A case in point: leadership in the LDS church (the Mormons) recently adopted critical analysis of their religion's history. Over the past year or so they have published official statements backing up Mormon-apostate claims such as Smith having had a large number of wives, 40, including one as young as 14. They also affirmed that Smith never used the spectacles he claimed were hidden with the gold plates to translated the BoM but instead used a 'seer stone' that he dropped into a hat as he sat hidden behind hanging bedsheets while dictating the contents of the plates to a scribe. They also officially admitted that the Book of Abraham cannot be imediately translated from the Egyptian papyri Smith claimed was the source, as well as formally acknowledged that the events detailed in the Book of Mormon may not be historical. All these points, once the fodder of Mormon heretics is now official LDS teaching. The result? Mormon growth has declined lower than it may have ever been in its history, with a significant drop in current membership especially among Mormon men."

  A credit to their honesty, despite the consequences. It took a fair degree of intellectual courage, IMO.

  I suspect the exposure of the LDS's involvement in Proposition 8 - in part - shamed them into it.
• 

  Vidiot

  Simon - "The bottom line is, it's not difficult at all to come up with things that smooth over the cracks and are enough for current JWs who are looking for the cracks to be smoothed over."

  Agreed. I was one of them.

  

  I think a better question might be: "are there fewer current JWs looking for the cracks to be smoothed over these days, or more?"