Why Do JWs Only Preach In Poor/Middle Class Neighborhoods?

by Latin assassin from Manhattan 30 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  stillajwexelder

  Well when I was in NYC last summer, I was outside the New York Stock exchange on Wall Street and there was an african american sister and she was trying to talk to people and place the WT/Awake -- now I may be ignorant -- but there is no place on earth -- including the City of London where there is so much wealth and affluence as Wall Street - so I still do not agree that JWs delibeartley target the less affluent/poor etc.
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  Funchback

  I live in a suburb of Philadelphia. I've knocked on some doors that range from $500k to $1 million. Believe you me the dubs in this area are equal-door-knocker-opportunists.

  Usually the high-class homes are considered "driving" territory. You usually had to drive your car in their driveway (at least 25 yards long) and park near their front door, get out (while the other two or three dubs would wait in the car) and knock on the door. Geez! It was SO embarassing!
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  wannaexit

  Those are some interesting thoughts.

  Where I am from they do preach in the more affluent areas. They are a little more intimidating for the average Jw.

  The bible studies and return visits are found mostly in the poorer areas and among the foreign language population.
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  PurpleV

  I live in NYC too. I see them a lot during rush hour in Grand Central Terminal hoping people will buy take the mags to have something to read on the subway.

  I've seen them in Penn Station, and handing out WTs to students on their lunch break outside of Baruch College on Lexington Ave.

  They're limited in great part to this in Manhattan, because none of them can get past the doormen!! Since most people live in apartment buildings they often can't get in there and are persecuted chased out if they do.

  When I lived in Staten Island I believe all neighborhoods were worked pretty evenly. I remember my mother hated preferred not to go in car groups and would always get an individual territory and drag take me out to them by ourselves. She always tried to get the "better" neighborhoods.

  Guess it just depends.

  --PurpleV of the "I love my doorman" class
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  coffee_black

  We went door to door in some pretty affluent neighborhoods. That's when we got to pick out the homes that would be ours after the big A. Coffee
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  worldlygirl

  I recently asked my JW husband about this, because I had made the same observation in our town. His response? "Blah, blah, blah... all areas are treated equally... blah, blah, blah.... however, it is sometimes harder to reach those who already have their own paradise... blah, blah, blah.... the well-educated and affluent see the JWs as uneducated and ill-informed.... blah, blah, blah.... don't forget - the Scribes and Pharisees were also well-educated... blah, blah, blah.... easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle... blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.................. Sorry, I sort of zoned out after that, but I'm sure there were more excuses.
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  NeonMadman

  When I was a pioneer (not in NYC), we used to prefer to work the more affluent areas. The poor sections had too many stairs to climb in the tenements.

  I noticed recently that the KH that's almost under the Brooklyn Bridge in Manhattan (Water St., I think?) actually has a window display giving info about the organization (not the Bible, mind you, but the organization).
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  NeonMadman

  Hmmm...seem to be a lot of us within shooting distance of NYC - when we gonna have an apostofest?
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  Gopher

  I worked as a "territory servant" in a congregation whose territory stretched from the very poor inner city (complete with migrants and refugees) to the nice big suburban houses with a lake view.

  All of our territories were on an equal rotation. When a publisher, pioneer or elder came down to the desk to request a territory, I would give them 2 or 3 choices amongst what hadn't been recently worked.

  I never received any instructions to send out the poorer territories more frequently. And the circuit overseer checked the records each time, so if he was paying attention he would have noticed the even coverage of our territory.

  Now as for HOW THOROUGHLY each territory was covered -- and whether the publishers worked harder in the "friendlier" territories, that I cannot say for sure.
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  Utopian Reformist

  We did preach in several upper middle-class neighborhoods, gated communities and some private developments where the homes did reach the 7-digit price range. I remember disturbing a middle-aged man on his way out to golf on a saturday morning. His front door was ajar, and he kept coming in and out loading the trunk of his expensive car with equipment. He was trying to be very brief and was in a hurry, but I kept pressing to leave the magazines, so he quickly snatched/grabbed them from my hand and drove off. I remember talking to the brother I was with and saying in an arrogant, self-righteous, cocky manner that someday the whole earth would be a giant golf course and it would be ours, but that man would not be around to "tee off" in the new system. What a jackass!