Thanks Simon, cheers mate! 😃
Do you think the general public cares about former Jehovah's witnesses?
by Christian Gutierrez 66 Replies latest jw friends
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poppers
Yeah, I care.
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steve2
If I had no family in JW organization, I would have dropped it - and any "concern" about those inside - like a hot potatoe decades ago.
I "envy" those who leave who either have no family inside or whose family leaves with them!
Sometimes people think a support group or outreach has to be of relevance to the general public as a warning. I disagree.
Support forums are first and foremost important for those who have in some way been affected by JW organization and who feel the need to communicate about it and/or hear from others who've been through it.
Where I begin to have eye-rolling moments is when others try to find ways to extend the "interest" to the general population who are non-JWs and who probably don't give a tinker's cuss about religious groups.
Even Waco, Texas had a limited shelf-life in terms of public interest. And if we have to resort to sensationalism or catastrophizing to make our point against JW organization to the general public, we will likely have the general population not even differentiating between us and others on nutty bandwagons of one sort or another.
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Brokeback Watchtower
I can imagine a massive sell offs of properties around the world and the legal battles the might face for taking money out of a country. I think in the USA we should be seeing some legal battles as sell offs pick up the pace, I'm contributions continue to nose dive even with a forced pledge written on a piece of paper a year or more ago. People especially younger internet fluent people are leaving in droves and so all you see is old people that don't have much else left to do in life are the only ones attending. They are becoming less and less significant and so the cart bull shit trying to give them a public presents a miserable failure and the carts remain unmanned for the most part by some publisher trying to get he mandatory time in while not being too noticeable by the general public.
Menlo Park here in Cali had some unwanted publicity from the removal of elders unwilling to comply with orders to sell their meeting place by WT corp. Maybe even some fraud charges and books being audited because of complaints by informers or members in the near future as they get pushed just a little too far by this greedy corporation.
Now something like that would all of a sudden cause a lot of media attention, portraying them as evil, unloving, and money grabbing despots that rule with an iron fist over their duped members.
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Simon
but if a Jonestown or Waco Tx, type of thing happened then that would make the news and the org would be toast. Just saying a what if scenario or something comparable.
But that's the point - it doesn't happen and there's little reason to believe it ever would - they simply aren't that type of cult
"what if" scenarios like that can be applied to anything but at some point sounds a little like wishful thinking and isn't going to be convincing to someone. Most people who know something about the JWs probably recognize them as at least law abiding and respectful people.
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Old Navy
Times have certainly changed! When I first became involved with the witnesses back in 1957 they were a very hot topic in the MidWest. Once it became known at school that I was involved several of my teachers tried to warn me; my Chemistry teacher, my Latin Teacher, my Biology teacher and my Principal. Additionally my two uncles who were WW2 Navy veterans tried to warn me as well as their parents, my Grandpa and Grandma. The witnesses were greatly despised because of their pacifist beliefs, their strange Christian beliefs and of course, their cult behaviors. My Pastor at our rural Evangelical United Brethren church talked with me several times very lovingly to warn me as well but it was all for naught. I was very much basking in that initial state of "spell" which we all experienced, so none of their cautions or arguments phased me at all.
My Father was especially angry and fortunately, now that I am able to see more clearly, forced me to stop attending meetings (although I did manage to attend most by stealth) and to continue in my high school athletics. I wanted to drop out of the Varsity Football team in my senior year but my Dad would have none of that. The coaches informed our local newspaper sports reporter of my "decision" and it was included in an article about our new high school athletics program and first ever Senior Football team. So I stayed with the team and even participated in Track the following spring, talking my witness friend into coming out for Track as well since the scheduled meets didn't conflict with any meetings at the hall. I don't believe he told his parents as he had his own car and was very independent so his devout family trusted him greatly.
By this time I was already baptized (back then they were generic Christian baptisms) and a "brother." A year later I was in the Navy and moving out of their World. The cautions and warnings began to take effect and I knew the best option was to get far away from them for several years.
As I read others experiences here and at the various XJw sites it seems I was one of the very few "lucky" ones who escaped before becoming the typical borg robot. Needless to say, I'm very, very grateful that so many of my respected adult "role models" devoted so much effort to waking me up. While I pretty much disregarded their warnings, they did plant seeds very successfully.
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smiddy
The general public dont care about active Jehovahs Witnesses , so why would they care about former Jehovahs Witnesses.?
If you did a survey of all the people in the street where you live and asked them the question ",What do you know about the beliefs of Jehovahs Witnesses ?"
The answers you would recieve are most likely : 1.Idont give a f***k what they believe 2.they dont believe in blood transfusions 3.They dont go to war . 4 They wont salute the flag. 5.They are collecting money selling the Watchtower and Awake magazines for their religion.
Not one of them in a thousand ,I believe , would answer : They are Advertising Gods Kingdom of a Thousand Year Reign Under Christ Jesus .
This despite the fact that they have been preaching this message for approximately 120 years going from door to door.
That is the long answer to your question
The short answer to your question is NO