Reaction to GDPR / field service letter

by sir82 62 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  LongHairGal

  SIR82:

  Sorry to go a little off topic but I think this GDPR thing will have the unintended consequence of emptier kingdom halls which will force the sale of MORE halls.

  This will impose a hardship on whatever faithful Witnesses are left by making them drive far away to ever fewer halls. Who knows where this will end? Not that I care, of course, since I am out. I would never have driven to a far away hall. But, it’s not just the faithful JWs who can afford the gas but ‘needy’ types as well. They are somehow going to need to show their faces at the hall or nobody would ever help them.

  I see it getting to the point where it will be like a game of musical chairs, where a chair is taken away each time and somebody left standing. Well, substitute a hall in place of a chair. Another hall taken away.

  Is the religion going to do a disappearing act or something close to it? This would be sad for all the faithful Witnesses who would be abandoned if this were to occur.

  I’m sorry for anybody still there.
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  TheWonderofYou

  Streetservice report from today morining, Elder said: "The list is another sign for the end, This makes it harder to preach for us, we will have to keep everything in mind". Me: Of course it will be hard to work in a territory. However I cannot image that Jesus and the Apostels would go from house to house and make notes after their visits like businessmen." ...Then it would more likely that the nuclear power that could destroy the whole planet and the deathrate from snakebites and the wild beast's activity would be a sign, what he also mentioned. The most time we spoke however about arguments how the church is worse in handling abuse and falsehood than JW, both two big organisations, if anything false happens in a big organisation now this would of course be also a sign of the end.
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  joe134cd

  When I mentioned this to my father. He blamed it on Satan trying to put a stop to the preaching work. I replied by saying “all that I am doing is simply passing on information about the situation in Europe.
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  slimboyfat

  Can report general confusion. An elder reading out the letter added a comment to the effect: “at this stage the elders don’t know any more than you do about the new arrangement, or how it is going to work”. Elders meetings followed the meeting. One defiant pioneer sister commented, “this will turn out to our benefit”, with no explanation how. Some others showed little interest.
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  slimboyfat

  Sir82 hit the nail on the head. When laws affect the life and liberty of ordinary JWs then Watchtower is bravely defiant. (Germany, Russia, Malawi, South Korea, and so on, the list is endless)

  But when laws threaten loss of Watchtower funds or property then Watchtower can be incredibly flexible and amenable to changing their practices to avoid financial loss.

  Do JWs notice this double standard? Does it disturb anyone in terms of their priorities?
• 

  dozy

  SBF ( above ) ^^^^ makes an excellent point. An obvious example of this is changing the registration of JWs in Mexico from a religion to a "cultural organisation" and maintaining this false registration for decades and making compromises to maintain ownership of Kingdom Halls.Ray Franz goes into a great deal of detail in his books about this - brief precis from docbob.

  http://www.docbob.org/wordpress/mexico/
  

  Back to topic and my personal view re the Society letter & GDPR enforced changes - this is very much a "covering our ass" action by the Society. In practice , publishers / pioneers will still keep some sort of record on "interested people" , even if this isn't officially allowed. The Society are off the hook because they can show that they sent letters and informed the congregation.

  Regarding recording and then working "not homes" - clearly this has now died ( though it was done very much on an ad-hoc basis anyway - I lost count of the number of scraps of lists of not homes I dug out of the bottom of my bookbag or in a jacket pocket ). I once helped an middle aged pioneer sister to move house and she literally had a shoebox full of them , dating back years , very few of which had even been done once ( for some reason she couldn't bear to throw them away. ) .

  So much for the effort to "reach everybody on the planet" - killed by EU GDPR regulations.
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  Simon

  The very first thing they are doing is absolving themselves of legal liability. If anyone makes any claim, they can point to this letter as proof that they said not to do the thing.

  Expect some verbal-only instructions in future for local groups to preach in their local area with hints to make sure they cover it regularly and evenly and following up on any interest shown which implies keeping some records.

  But no paper trail back to HQ where the money is.
• 

  blondie

  The WTS has a walk around for every person on earth having to have a personal witness:

  https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2000042?q=personal+witness&p=sen
  

  2000

  Nevertheless, the Bible does not state that Jehovah will wait until every individual on earth has received a personal witness. Rather, the good news must be preached to Jehovah’s satisfaction. Then the end will come.​—Compare Matthew 10:23.

  2009

  *** w09 1/1 p. 20 How Far East Could Missionaries Go? ***
  

  LESS than 30 years after Jesus’ death, the apostle Paul wrote that the good news was being preached in “all creation” under heaven. (Colossians 1:23) His statement is not to be taken literally, as if meaning that every person alive at that time had heard the good news. Even so, Paul’s point is clear: Christian missionaries were preaching extensively in the then-known world.
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  truthlover123

  I doubt the Muslims and Chinese and Russians will allow that to happen. Preach in their locations that is..
• 

  sir82

  Small update:

  General reaction after the first meetings for field service is "Well, somehow Jehovah will make sure that those who are interested will have the opportunity to learn the truth".

  "Somehow Jehovah will..." is pretty much the standard JW response when confronted with any situation which is clearly in contrast to the organization's well-being.

  Oh, and a few "well, the change to a 'warning work' must be close now, those who are interested will have to exert themselves to show that interest, and (wait for it....) they don't have much time left."