by slimboyfat 204 Replies latest members private
I send a PDF of the elders letter announcing the cutbacks to a recently exit-ed elder. His opinion was they they're definitely running out of money, likely from paying off all those child abuse victims. And lets not forget they also pay a couple of grand a day to keep their list of child molesters out of court.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0lRCkb90Ch5SXRGdmdPd2RMZWc/view
"I actually feel a bit sorry for the GB too."
Really?
Dunno why they need to print so much stuff anyway. I've never seen anything printed by the Church of England. Maybe they'll just fade into a very minor but bordering on mainstream religion like the Christadelphians.
A truly interesting prediction SBF.
If it is / becomes true about 200,000 or so Philippinos will be disappointed not to receive their silver sword in Tagalog.
JW org shows new buildings in the vicinity of Tacloban (hit several years back by category 5 typhoon Haywain). I could envisage a digital copy being released, but as you say, financial pressures may mean the bible hard copies gradually disappearing.
The Christadelphians are a tiny religious organisation. Likely even fewer than the 50,000 they claim.
http://www.ex-christadelphians.com/2015/05/how-many-christadelphians-are-there-by.html
How many actual functioning congregations have they got? There seems to be a handful active congregations in Scotland. How active I don't know, as their website says actual meetings are "subject to the will of God". Which I guess means they are all pretty old and often nobody turns up.
Slim, i agree bibles are the next to go. I noted however that you came up short of predicting imminent collapse... why is that?
Stopping bible printing is simply the next step in going all digital. Its logical. Newspapers are doing the same. Mainstream magazines. We could list on and on all things we used to know as “hard copy” only that now have a duel presence and are moving to virtual only. When was the last time someone bought an actual CD instead of just downloading the music? It dosent signify the collapse of the music industry.
So lets have it slim. WHEN. How long do you now predict before the org collapses? A month after bible production stops? A week? A year? Dont play wt games and say “soon... any day now bretheren!”. Be a man of integrity and stand beside your claims of collapse and give us a time frame. Im standing firmly behind mine that they arnt going anywhere.
SBF - I agree with you. I've wondered the following:
1. Will the corporation put the PDFs on-line and expect the local congregations to use a professional printing company (at the publishers own cost), to print their propaganda. Meanwhile, these are 'approved by the GB' printing companies and the GB get comission on this too.
2. They'll get the jobos to pay for and build a$$emb£y ha££s then say, 'we don't need them because....' Sell them and the WBT$ will get the money that was all from the publishers pockets and time. (a bit like they're doing with the kingdom he££s).
Kim and Mikey in their recent video (if you haven’t seen it check it out) said that with all the cutbacks on the magazines, there will be little to no need of a writing committee or an editing or art department; many of the material in the magazines will be recycled, so it’s possible to see more cutbacks with Bethel staff as well. Honestly it’s something I hadn’t thought about when I first heard the announcement.
Something of Note: While it is true that they are drastically cutting back on the literature production, they are in fact INCREASING many fold the video production aspect of the religion. I have heard that upwards of 400 videos are being produced, right now!!!! That takes a lot of man power, time, technology, and of course - MONEY. They have seen what Scientology has done, and they are going to follow that model. A few years ago it was reported that the WT had a special "Translation department" operating down in Clearwater, Florida. Why Clearwater? Why, that's where the majority of the Scientology videos are produced. WT was clearly spying on them and checking out how it's done by true con-artists. Then, they copy the model and run with it. Case in point: The WIfe of Lot video.
Physical book sales are increasing in terms of volume and value while Ebooks have stagnated.
Newspapers on the other hand are in terminal decline, but that is a separate market.
Why are physical books still so popular? Not sure. Different explanations have been offered. Whatever the explanation, it is a fact.
So Watchtower isn't ceasing book publication as part of broader societal trends. It's ceasing publishing despite robust book sales generally, because of their own financial difficulties.
Did people notice they even announced reductions in their online content? Things must be so bad they are even having difficulty doing that.
I don't know how it will play out but I think there may be some sort of crisis/splinter/disintegration within 5 years or so. Unless they can think of some way out of this mess.
Mark claims that Watchtower has paid out $200 million and counting to victims of abuse in the United States alone. Does anyone know if that's remotely accurate? If so there goes a quarter of the Brooklyn property profits right there. Plus the cost of Warwick, plus the fact they have a running deficit. Does anyone really think they're not in trouble?
