Could the Watchtower Get 'Too Stupid to Live'?

metatron

It's a fair question!

At some point, there has to be a collision between decades of Theocratic dumbing

down and the actual needs of an international organization that must cope with

politics, legal challenges, and rapidly advancing technology.

If the only way your Witness faith can survive is by deliberately isolating your

mind and whoring your God-given powers of reasoning, in what way does that

enable the survival of Watchtower, Inc.? Somebody has to think! - and somebody

has to be certified or licensed or the product of a graduate school.

So far, they survive by stubbornly clinging to sterile ( and almost satirical)

anachronisms.. At assemblies they deliver long windy 'resolutions' that engender drowsiness

and still have a Sunday "public talk" - during which attendance often drops

because , without handbills or placards, they forgot to tell the "public".

I can't converse with most adult Witnesses anymore without part of me feeling

that I'm talking to a five year old child - or someone trying to reason as such.

A stroll thru the ocean of Kingdom Hall souls would scarcely get your feet wet.

Take a good look at recent Watchtower events and I think you start to notice

the effects of amateurs trying to maintain their audiences' sense of mystery

while downsizing, cutting back, dissembling, lying, or just stumbling around

(Armageddon is Soon! but we need a new factory at Wallkill, folks). If religion wasn't

constitutionally protected, these self important bozos would have wrecked

themselves years ago. No "worldly" corporation would ever be permitted to

commit such fraud ( "You promised a Paradise when????")

It's truly amazing to think that what little scholarship they possessed is actually

in the past. They just can't crank out a worthy defense of blood or a deep attack

on evolution and so must rely solely on their audiences' prejudices instead.

So, they cast evolution or the internet or whatever in dark terms and fearful

warnings while too impotent to debate any of it.

I'm really interested to see just how far they can get while plumbing the depths

of willing Witness stupidity. We might all be surprized. At least, so far, I am.

metatron

freedom96

I would love nothing more than to see the WTS go down.

One of the challenges however, is the fact that the religion feeds on cultish actions. When the rank and file are brainwashed to the extent that they are, then they will accept almost anything that is told of them. They will believe the excuses, and the justifications of everything that they do.

I have a good friend of mine still in the organization. Very, very bright, but has been brainwashed into believing everything the WTS says. As smart as he is, he will justify the organization no matter what.

Just being smart doesn't excuse one from the power of brainwashing.

The way to end the WTS is to help people get away from being brainwashed. And that is very difficult, and usually one needs to be removed from the situation to realize what is going on.

Those with the most hope are those "rebelious ones" who tend to think for themselves, and those who's curiosity gets the best of them and they go on the internet to find out the real truth.

No Apologies

Metatron,

As always you make some very astute observations. My guess would be that although the org is getting (for lack of a better word) 'dumber', it is also becoming more mainstream and somewhat less controlling. Therefore although it gets less reasonable for the next generation of dubs to stay in the "truth", there is also less pressure for them to leave. In most congs, it seems like as long as you show up for a couple meetings a month and write down one or two hours of field service, you can do whatever you want outside the hall.

metatron

If they can just dump df'ing quietly, things might be fine. I sometimes wonder if the Theocrats really believe in their own

doctrines anyway.

metatron

Dansk

Metatron

If they can just dump df'ing quietly, things might be fine.

No they won't. The Borg, at least in my old congregation, seem to be less into disfellowshipping these days. Is this a loving move on their part? Like hell it is!! The only reason they're not DFing is because of all the bad publicity they're getting, so they use more subtle techniques to have one effectively disfellowshipped without actually having to announce it from the platform - they use shunning!

I'm known as an apostate, that's serious grounds for disfellowshipping and yet - nothing! From the platform they merely give a warning to be wary of those who no longer associate, that they should be considered as dangerous apostates. Isn't it amazing, it doesn't take the Dubs two minutes to work out who is being referred to - and yet it takes them years before they realise they've been conned by Watchtower!

They get everyone to walk past my family and I without their acknowledging us. My own daughters still shun us. Believe me, disfellowshipping is alive and well but under a different guise!

Dansk

badwillie

Dansk,

you're 100% correct. I am also a known apostate/opposer of "the truth". Never disfellowshipped even though others have reported me for having birhtday parties, Christmas, etc. The cong must be puzzled over the fact that technically I am still in good standing. However I and my family are avoided like the plague.

Dansk

Nice to meet you badwillie,

How's this for another example of hypocrisy: I'm shunned right, left and centre and yet, to my knowledge, I'm still a ministerial servant

Dansk

RunningMan

The dumbing down of the Watchtower is resulting in fewer converts. As goofy as their earlier ideas were, they at least had some appeal. 1914 is getting awfully hard to sell these days.

For many years, I have noticed that the ones getting baptized were 80-90% witness kids. No one is attracted by either their doctrines or their society, anymore. And, not only is their birth rate low, but they lose half of what little youth they have. A quick check of old assembly programs indicates that the total number is half of what it was just a few years ago.

Based on the current baptism rate in western countries, they will lose between 1/2 and 1% of their total membership every year. But more importantly, the average age is rising. In another generation, there will be very few elders and MS's willing to serve. As well, their retention of youth will get even worse, as the organization loses what little social appeal it has.

I believe the Watchtower is slowly heading toward a crisis - a crisis that they are too stupid to see.

unique1

As long as people believe that the FDS (anyone else notice that stands for Feminine Deodorant Spray as well as Faithful and Discreet Slave?) is gods direct channel, they will believe whatever they say. It is sad but true. JW's wholeheartedly believe that the FDS is speaking for God. As long as that is the case, people will still believe.

concerned mama

Dansk, interesting you mentioned publicity. The convention was in the city where I live last weekend, and there was a glowing half page article about the convention in the front section of the paper. It emphasised the "warmth" that the teenager felt that got baptized, the large number of people attending,and their strong faith. My husband had heard very positive news items before the convention on how great a job they did cleaning the Skyreach centre. It certainly downplayed any controversial issues. In view of the negative publicity of the Bethany Hughes case in Alberta earlier in the year, I wondered if they were making a deliberate effort to get some good publicity.

As far as dumbing down, I have no idea, I'm not JW. The only JWs I know are smart as anything, yet remain firmly controlled by the WT, no matter how little sense that cult makes.

Could the Watchtower Get 'Too Stupid to Live'?

Share this