by minimus 23 Replies latest jw friends
They don't want you bettering yourself. They hate college education.They applaud you if you quit full time secular work and instead, "pioneer". They cry that they have money problems.
I think they shoot themselves in the foot, in the long run. If they had members with better paying jobs and if they became more mainstream, they might be more attractive to people who might still be easily persuaded.
I agree with the OP. There will always be some segment of the population who are attracted to the idea of living forever on earth & social aspects of witness lifestyle.
If they gave up the 'high control' BS and just let people come and go as they wish and exercise their own conscience, they might actually do better in the long run.
I think telling people to skip college and encouraging people to become dishwashers and rug cleaners may finally be catching up WTS. You can’t survive on min. wage and really what is the average income of a JW.
Plus, who the hell wants to donate to some global pedophile defence fund. Awake or not, I think more people are aware of what is going on and just taking a stand with their check book.
It would have, but it is too late for that. Nothing about them is close to mainstream, nor could it be at this point.
The WTS is a an end-times religion, they made that bed a long time ago. For an end-times theology to work, certain things need to be in place. All of those things center around high control, (including the end-times theology itself). The control is needed because people will not remain believers in that type of theology very long once they experience a sufficient level of success in life. End-times theology is about hopelessness.
Successful JWs stay in because they have acclimated to the social environment, and the cost of leaving is too high. The control mechanisms are what keep that cost high, since loss of one's social environment in the form of lost friends and family is very expensive, no matter how successful a JW is. Take away the control, (which includes the social price of leaving), and most successful JWs would walk overnight.
d4g
Their initial unique selling point was the non-establishment / amateur approach they had. They were anti big-everything - religion, business and education got swept up in that (I guess from the "career" perspective).
I think it's all changing now - they openly advertise for people with college education qualifications. Like many things though they won't come out with a "we were completely wrong" headline. They will gradually change over time.
But they will end up competing for the same market segment / customer base with Mormons.
Simon, you may be correct that they are trying to mainstream in some respect, but they would have to give up end-times. I don't see how they can do that. As long as they teach we are in the "last days", they will end up chasing their tails with that any effort to mainstream. It will always come back to having to control folks in such a way to keep them "barefoot and pregnant". The Mormons, (no matter how strange and ultra-conservative), don't have a similar end-times theology, which is why they can have their own universities, political groups, etc. They are not dependent on the same level hopelessness as the end-times groups are.
d4g
