Field Ministry is like 1980 Milk Carton Missing Child

by LevelThePlayingField 6 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  LevelThePlayingField

  Imagine going to the door today and showing the householder a milk carton from 1980 with a missing child on it and asking, "Have you ever seen this child?" The householder looks and quickly says, "No I haven't, sorry."

  Then the next door, same thing. Then at the next door the guy says, "No, never seen her. But you're doing a fine work and nice suit by the way..." and off you go to the next door for another irrelevant question to be asked to another person who simply replies, No, haven't seen him/her...and so on, and so on.

  Today, I think the ministry of JW's is just like walking over to your neighbors house with a milk carton from 1980 and asking if you've seen this 7 year missing girl. The household is thinking things like, "What the hell are you doing showing me a milk carton of a missing girl from 38 fricken years ago. She's probably either dead or like 50 years old now!! What's the use?!"

  And if you think about it, isn't their message pretty much the same, "What's the use?"

  They preach, what, that the end will come when? How do you even explain it now a days? That the end will come in "an-overlapping-generation from now? How do you even begin to explain that to the guy across the street? He'd be like, um, well, a generation to me is like when I have kids, that's the next generation. What the hell are you talking about?"

  The urgency is completely gone. Completely. Back in the 80's and early 90's when Witnesses went to the door, they eagerly and excitedly showed people at the door the quote from Matthew, "this generation will by no means pass away..." from 1914 onward, that generation is like almost completely over, so NOW is the time... and many householders would get the point.

  But now???? Where's the drive? Hey, folks, it's gone.

  Just think...remember the milk cartons from the 1980's with the missing children? Well, they are now in a landfill covered by about 50 feet or so of other landfill material. Many decades of daily life heaped upon it.

  Everybody, keep your chin up. One day, the JW religion will be just like that 1980's milk carton.

  Peace out. :)

  
  
• 

  stuckinarut2

  Interesting thoughts!

  Thanks for sharing.
• 

  Juan Viejo2

  I think "...PlayingField" has a very good point. Back in the 1950s when I was growing up and very active in the door-to-door service, we were all under the impression that "the End" was literally coming within just a few years - if not months. All of our Sunday "public" talks (which were a full hour long in those days) - no matter what their advertised subject was - all ended with an admonishment to "stay awake and stay active" as "the End" was so very close.

  Not only were the Witnesses preaching "end times" - but several TV preachers were pumping the airwaves full of "the end is just around the corner" and "the King of the North (Russia) will soon attack the King of the South (USA and Great Britain) and start Armageddon." Some still do - but for most of those who listened to their prophetic ministry - their end has already come - not due to Armageddon, but from natural causes, disease, old age, and accidents.

  Every public talk and every "assembly" or "convention" set aside some amount of time to remind us all that Armageddon was coming very soon. I remember one "circuit servant" who gave the Sunday talk at our Kingdom Hall actually stopping briefly and asking all the children under 10 years old to stand up briefly and stay that way for about 5 minutes while he counseled us to "be very, very good. Obey your parents and the servants in the Kingdom Hall always and never question their authority or wisdom." He then spent the rest of his talk describing what Armageddon might be like and then reminded us that "it will surely come before most of you in this room will die from natural causes - especially you children."

  I had nightmares for weeks after that talk.

  And now, well over 50 years have passed and the world is basically unchanged for most of us.

  Wait! That's not quite true - we've all gotten older, some of us have died, and now our grandchildren who are now Jehovah's Witnesses are teaching their children the same thing - that Armageddon will likely come in their lifetimes - literally right around the corner.

  What has changed is much of what the Watchtower taught in those years is now obsolete and they are literally telling the local congregations to start tossing almost everything published before 1990 and some things published since then. The Watchtower wants the evidence of their lying and misinformation to disappear from Kingdom Hall shelves and the bookcases and headboards of their rank and file members.

  I can assure everyone here that as a JW child and young active Witness, I truly believed that the Watchtower knew what they were talking about. Now as an old man grown tired and gray, I truly believe they were just selling us hogwash and bullshit.

  The new Governing Body is even less informed and Biblically knowledgeable than the leadership that existed in the 1950s - through the 1980s. They've even admitted under oath that they are not experts in most of their own rules and teachings - note their testimony of Geoffrey Jackson during the Australian child abuse court hearings. Every one of those who were in power (including that Governing Body member) and others in management positions testified to the court that they were not experts on either doctrinal or organizational issues - but they were still in authority.

  I believe in my heart that the Watchtower will still be here in 2040 in some form. By then they will have already erased most of their history - including what they are doing and teaching now - and still be blaming the rank and file JWs for "misunderstanding" the "truths" that failed to work out or happen as the Watchtower prophecied. They will deny that they published and taught the "truths" they are now pushing upon their followers. Their main goal will still be to collect and hoard the millions of dollars that their followers contribute every year - and will likely have sold off their present New York properties and those in other countries for billions of dollars to send off to their Pennsylvania based corporation to distribute to the hidden real owners of the Watchtower corporations.

  JV
• 

  Magnum

  I completely agree.

  "How do you even explain it now a days?"

  I've often wondered the same thing. What do they even talk about now in the ministry?

  "The urgency is completely gone".

  I agree. So, what is their message now? When I was at my peak as a JW, there was a sense of urgency. In the ministry I stressed how lives were at stake and the end was near. I figured that if I woke somebody up on a Saturday morn, I'd better have something important to say.

  I can't imagine being a JW today. I couldn't engage in the door-to-door work as a JW the way it is now.
  

  [Juan Viejo2 - I agree with your post, too.]

  
  
• 

  LevelThePlayingField

  I remember going in the field ministry, I think it was for the second time and the elder I was with stuck his foot in the door and told the householder, "you're putting yourself in very precarious situation by doing that". That elder died about 2 years ago, and I'm sure the old man he was talking to is dead also.

  Yikes.
• 

  SouthCentral

  Great post! I remember going door to door in the 80s and you were absolutely correct! The generation of 1914 could not pass away!

  If anyone knows, please share what is the current pulse of the organization. I would love to know what motivates people today.
• 

  eyeuse2badub

  Field Ministry is like 1980 Milk Carton Missing Child

  Great analogy of a milk carton. And the message of jw's is like the milk in that 1980's milk carton. Sour, spoiled, rotten, and it stinks!

  just saying!