by TheScientist 109 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
The 3 cornerstone policies the borg will never remove without collapsing in on itself are;
1) the evil blood policy
2) the shunning policy
&
3) the 2- witness rule.
The borg is bound to the hip with the above. There is no possible way they can now remove any of these.
I'll stand to be corrected though.
If these policies do not end or the rules are relaxed, so many "ifs" can be inserted that in practice they will have no effect.
Let's see, the issue of blood had so many "ifs" that today like fractions, if someone takes blood, they are no longer summarily disfellowshipped, etc.
In the matter of disfellowship, there are so many "ifs" such as if the person is at risk of committing suicide, if the person has been inactive for a few years, if the person threatens to sue, etc. In any "if" the JC is suspended. The two-witness policy itself can be reversed, not being used for pedophilia and being used to avoid disfelloship for other reasons. Perhaps there is no need for a formal announcement from the GB on the issue of DF flexibility, it is enough more policies to be silently implemented in the book of elders. And then just a few studies of The Watchtower, explaining the DF texts better, explaining the context and leaving it up to the congregation not to invite the person to theocratic activities as a form of censorship (which is more or less what the texts they use say) , but not avoiding to greet or force someone to cut family ties.
I see what you're getting at.
Perhaps a "softening" of the policies,,or along those lines.
Yes,,thats feasible.
The Borg is apt to finagle their way around policies.
Good post.
I do not envy the current crop of WT leaders, having to deal with all the blowback of their predecessors’ dumbass decisions.
(not that I sympathize, either)
😏
TheScientist - “…Perhaps there is no need for a formal announcement from the GB on the issue of DF flexibility, it is enough more policies to be silently implemented in the book of elders…”
Elderberry says that from what he can tell, that’s kind of already under way.
The trick is implementing the necessary reforms at a rate that isn’t so fast (and obvious) that they rock the boat and send people overboard…
…but isn’t so slow that they don’t have time to bail out the leaks as they plug the holes.
The service time and beard things dropped like bombshells… ten bucks says they served as beta-tests.
I do enjoy the prospect of old-school hardliners seething internally at the “permissiveness” of the reforms, after spending a lifetime enforcing the old rules…
…but that’s more because I’ve always disliked strict, uptight assholes just on general principle, more than anything else.
😎
Over on the Reddit forum.
There is a thread about disfellowshipping is the "linchpin".
I do believe that this policy is one of the ""glues"" or "'catalysts"" holding the borg together
Without it,,,all PIMOs everyone,everywhere all at once would make a mass exodus simultaneously.
Probably,,,I would venture to bet,,,that there are only 1 million hardcore,,or PIMI loyalists.
Removing dfing would be the silver bullet,,death knell for the Borg.
re. Beth’s post…
There’s a good chance you’re right.
It is possible, though, that the GB doesn’t fully grasp this, and DFing (or, really, the threat of it) is being held onto more as a tool to deal with dissenters than a means of keeping PIMOs from leaving.
I don’t think they realized just how many PIMOs there actually were until Covid made it so much easier for so many of them to fade.
I could be wrong.
Vidiot,,,you're totally on track!!!
I think the OP is right that the current harsh, hardline disfellowshipping policy creates a rod for their own back that they can't afford anymore. Violence begets violence, and the WT isn't in the position it once was where harsh discipline was an effective tool of terror to keep people in line. Previously, they were enjoying growth and could create an "us vs them", isolatory wall around the R&F that they were afraid of being on the outside of.
Things are different now. There are probably more exes and PIMOs than members and true believers. There is the internet. Anyone questioning anything can instantly find answers in the comfort and safety of their own home. And they also very quickly find out that they are not isolated and alone, the way the WT wants them to feel, but that there are support networks out there, for anyone who needs help.
Once they could rely on fear and compliance, but things have changed. MissDaSilva, far from quietly slipping out, feels confident enough to lob a grenade in her former elders' faces. If you live by the sword, you perish by the sword ⚔️, and the WT has created a class of angry warriors with nothing to lose, who would like nothing better than to see the Tower fall.
They're squeezing too hard in this day and age, and their harshness is coming back to bite them. So, logically, rationally, the best course is to end disfellowshipping, allow disassociation without consequences and try to support and strengthen the true believers still left in the ranks.
A brief footnote on disfellowshipping: the GB need to get straight in their heads the difference between sin and crime, and let the governing authorities investigate and sort out crime, which is their job.
