JW Response to COVID (page 2)

optimisticskeptic

Agreed, ThinkerBelle. I think being in NY prob contributes to how seriously they're responding globally. And I agree that all of the Zoom meetings makes it easy to do the minimum while making it seem like you're doing more.

sir82

The latest broadcast message from Anthony McCallan, er, Morris, insinuates that Zoom meetings will continue for another full year, minimum, and he drops the possibility it could extend even longer (he specifically mentions "2021 or even beyond").

That's 1-2 years, or maybe even longer, of electronic meetings and no door-to-door or cart witnessing.

I think financially they could continue this model indefinitely, but they aren't in it just for the money. More valuable to them is the control the exercise over, and the adulation they receive from, their adherents.

You can't get that with no elder visits and no meetings at a central location, so eventually they will return to something like they did before. The questions will be (1) how many of the post-COVID changes will stick as permanent and (2) how do you motivate JWs used to years of "letter writing in your pajamas" counting as "field service" to get back to dressing up and trudging around to knock at empty houses while either staining their dress clothes with sweat or subjecting their toes to frostbite?

Vidiot

sir82 - "More valuable to them is the control the exercise over, and the adulation they receive from, their adherents."

To a degree.

Far more so, however, it's the Concept that they're Captive to...

Ray Franz - "...the strongest force is their devotion, even reverence, for the concept of organization, and of the Watch Tower organization’s claim to being exclusively God’s channel..."

Everything they say and do...

...everything...

...is in service to maintaining and reinforcing that fiction.

sir82

Oh I agree with you, but they can continue fantasizing that they are "God's channel" and "Christ's viceregent" while squirreled away in a lakeside compound and shooting out videos every couple of weeks.

But...

They can't feel the drug-like rush of "life or death" power of [to-disfellowship-or-not-to-disfellowship] remotely. All JW judical meetings are to be "held in abatement" per GB directive until it is possible to meet in person at a Kingdom Hall. They have a pathological need to know they are in control, they need to feel it. If no one can be disfellowshipped, that need is not being met.

They also can't feel the adrenaline rush and ego boost of having 10,000 or 50,000 or 100,000 adoring adherents hanging on their every word at a convention, then bursting into long rapturous applause, then seeing the hours-long greeting line of swooning JWs who just want to touch the fringe of their outer ill-fitting garments....

Eventually those primal desires will drive them to return to "normalcy" as soon as they can do so without appearing to be stupid or careless.

Vidiot

Fair points.

I would argue, however that the ruthlessness you describe is - in and of itself - primarily a means of snuffing out any dissent that would ultimately call the Concept into question.

sir82 - "Eventually those primal desires will drive them to return to 'normalcy' as soon as they can do so without appearing to be stupid or careless."

Don't sell them too short.

When you've spent as long as they have in the company of people who are never allowed to disagree with them, appearing stupid or careless kinda becomes "normalcy".

Vidiot

Seriously, though...

...I suspect the adaptations the Org has made as a result of the Covid shutdown serves their long(er)-term plans more than hinders them.

At the very least, the rank-and-file is now far more primed to transition to a primarily internet-based religion with a minimum of fuss, and the revenue from ~~family silver~~ property sales will stave off falling into the red.

For a little while, anyway.

Rattigan350

Kingdom Hall costs are down to nothing. That is one reason they will keep meetings closed. And what about magazine printing. With no field service, there is no need for printed publications. No public Watchtowers or Awakes. No Study copies. Everything in Pdf.

Any word on literature production?

RubaDub

loyal JW seniors who are the most vulnerable in this pandemic! Once these people are gone, that’s it.

@LongHairGal ...

I totally agree. That is where the money is coming from, especially from people who have homes that have appreciated in value for the past 30, 40 or 50 years.

Vidiot

Not to mention that only a third of young people "raised in the Truth" actually stay, undercutting the Org's future membership even further.

LV101

So many JWs out of work and nothing but time to 'dulge around with Zoom and thank gawd for the extra pay they're receiving through +unemployment. Oodles of free grub being handed out via AG dept/food banks. They must 'think' they're in Paradise not racing around to the cult's demanding schedule - not good if they're still dressing up!

I think some JWs without good secular jobs have it harder right now - many people are afraid to have housekeepers/handimen/window cleaning in their homes during COVID but they should receive state aid - Medicaid benefits or welfare assistance which is probably hiked up.

Acerbitous

Back in May, I stopped at the local closed up KH and taped a printout on the front door -- the 1984 WT cover about the 1914 generation never passing away- I hand wrote my gotcha-

1914 to 2014 , celebrating over 100 years and nothing has happened yet!

32 years out of that cult now- there is no hope for most of them. Let them leave under their own steam, like I did= the door is open, the knowledge to achieve that freedom is a mouse click away, 24 hrs a day.

After a few years in that religion, I think it creates a form of mental illness in their brains and like a hoarder who can't seem to clean out their trash, the JW is addicted to the WT trash & meeting routine that has filled up their brain- smothering the spark out of the life they were meant to live. .

I have watched the former JW elders I knew going back to 1972, all get old and start dying off. They never expected to be in an obituary, either.

I will say this- when my small cong was without a KH in the mid 1970's , as we had sold the old one before the one we were building was complete, it was decided to do away with Sunday meetings for six weeks to try and finish the bldg- NOBODY complained about not having a WT study or book study or that god forsaken ministry school. Perhaps some JWs will find their way out of the darkness as a benefit of the Cvid-19 KH closings.

JW Response to COVID

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