The Reasons for Cart Witnessing (page 5)

Amelia Ashton

I never let on I'm an exjw when I approach the JWs on the cart but I wonder how many suspect that anyone coming up to them to ask a question is actually not a genuine member of the public but an apostate targeting them?

I have yet to see any of those supposedly responsible for sounding the alarm about God's imminent destruction of the world actually stop and warn a single person.

How they can call it "urgent work" when they just stand in front of a shop window idly chatting to each other not even attempting to attract anyone's attention to Armageddon is a joke.

moreconfusedthanever

Amelia Ashton I agree 100%.

If the end is nigh why are they not printing magazines with the warning on the front for their carts? Why are the magazines on the carts still about fluffy subjects such as Can you trust the news media or how to make your family life happy.

smiddy3

I agree with you 100% Amelia Ashton

dozy

I also think it is quite clever. It has been done at zero cost to the Society , who charge congregations for the carts. And by ensuring only "qualified" JWs have the "privilege" of manning the carts , it confers a fake prestige ( and very easy hours to the pioneers who mainly look after them - I have heard that they also can count the time transporting the carts to and from the location. )

And with the "door to door" work pretty invisible these days , it does present a tangible presence - even if hardly anybody takes literature.

I noted a couple of observations from the Guardian article below that relate very much to my own experiences with the carts. The writer observed that they asked for a pamphlet but the JW "sister" made no effort whatsoever to engage in any conversation - not even a simple question. And also that he watched them for an hour outside a very busy railway station and the only people that went up to them during this time were people asking for directions. It seems a very passive form of "witnessing" , if , indeed , it can be called "witnessing" at all. I kind of can't really imagine Paul and Barnabas hanging around a cart at one of the city gates , scratching their asses as people walked past until their "hour" was up and they could skulk off back home,

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/14/jehovahs-witnesses-evangelism-church-god-armageddon

OnTheWayOut

The real point isn't to recruit, it's to make life easier for JWs. Now they can stand and chat with their friend, have a coffee, not talk to anyone or make eye contact and still act as a walking billboard for JW.org.

I haven't read all the responses, so I hope this was covered already.

The organization doesn't give a damn about making life easier for JW's. They just didn't want to keep printing so many mags and books that those damned JW's would eventually put in doorways of not-at-home-householders.
Householders didn't pay for them. The JW's didn't really pay for them because they felt they were doing enough giving their time and money enough for the Kingdom Hall and Assembly Hall.

Cart witnessing was about filling the cart with literature then letting it sit there. Less given out means less printing of stuff nobody was paying for. If it happened to make life easier for some witnesses, then they see it as a win-win.

Diogenesister

DubsteppedHe sees it as a way to reinforce the us vs them complex by sticking these people out in crowds while essentially remaining invisible other than with their partner. So it reinforces both the us and the them.

"He's got it, he's got it....🎶🎼

By George I think he's got it!!"🎶🎼

Bungi Bill

The organization doesn't give a damn about making life easier for JW's.

For sure!

In his Crisis of Conscience, Raymond Franz quotes the late N.H. Knorr as volunteering exactly that - even going as far as to say that "the Mormons treat their people better."

Whatever it was that led the GB to introduce the literature carts, it wasn't the welfare of their Rank and File that they had in mind.

Amelia Ashton

I don't even know what to say about this.

redvip2000

Yes agreed. In some ways, it was a great move by the Org. It helps JWs increase hours because now all they have to do is stand there and talk to each other. Also, they don't really get rejected constantly, because they don't really call on people, this keeps morale up.

The drawback of the carts is that it now they are easy targets for apostates. Whereas before apostates had to hope that a JW would visit them in order to confront them, now they know that by going to the local train station of mall, they will find some to debate.

joe134cd

Yes I have wondered that as well if the carts have opened them up to apostates or people with different views. Also it’s a lot harder to get away from an apostate in a train station that what it is to write them down as a DNC.

The Reasons for Cart Witnessing

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