JW internal culture is destroying everything that makes a Jehovah’s Witness

by ukpimo 17 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  ukpimo

  The entire internal religious culture of the Watchtower Organization is harmful for its current members.

  The culture seems to traverse ethnic and national barriers. However, the worst of each culture all around the world appears to have a symbiotic relationship with the religion in an attempt to make the Org fanciful in every nation and locality. This is one of the most ingenious of all religions devised, a real estate business in the guise of religion and a former big publishing corporation masquerading as a worldwide religion, Jehovah’s Witnesses are the greatest con men on the earth. Now, Jehovah’s Witnesses are becoming an online religion.

  Why Jehovah’s Witnesses cannot see it baffles me. Kingdom Hall maintenance seems to have taken priority over the ministry. How can they not see rhus is now a very secular religion? Letter writing has replaced the house to house ministry in many areas in the UK. How can they not see jws have lost their sense of urgency? A quick search on reddit and scrolling through reviews on Kingdom Halls indicates that letter writing is having more of a negative impact on their ministry than the public witnessing carts ever did. You never see people posting photos of jw carts and complaining about them as much as I have seen with the posts regarding their letters. Many people are annoyed and almost half expect jws to send them hand written letters regularly, something most people on reddit are saying is very weird. Complaints on Kingdom Halls telling jws to stop isn't making any changes because poor old Ida who may not be in this system another 5 years is as obsessed with writing and putting out letters as are young jws posting photos on social media. Letter writing is a stupid zealous obsession. In my day, the over 80s and 90+ publishers went out in the freezing cold for about an hour ministry, crippled with arthritis, amongst other ailments, and they always got home alive. My generation and younger seem to be pathetic victims of their ailments, using letter writing as an excuse to not face real people in everyday life, then they moan when they don't receive replies to their letters. The point is, they should get their arses out there and stop whining. The current laid back culture is killing the ministry. Another aspect or the internal culture is the present aloof state of the congregation elders around Britain. They do not take their sheep seriously. Nothing will ever please them, and they continue to gossip about members not doing what they want despite them not setting the example themselves. I hear in many congregations only 3 or 4 go out in a group each time which is absolutely ridiculous. The zeal has gone. Obedience to the org is a must at all costs. But the point is this, if the culture is changing like this, how long do they expect to carry on in the next 50 years? In that time, I don't expect to see the organization as it is today. It will probably be significantly smaller and die out similar to the Rastafarian movement. I sadly won't even be alive probably in the next 10/15 years to see Watchtower's demise. Like the accounts of many here, my posts will stay as a memoriam for researchers to look back upon when Watchtower finally comes to an end.
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  Journeyman

  Some good points here, and as someone also in the UK, I can see similar things.

  There seems to be a definite slowing down in the sense of commitment and urgency to "the message", especially since the return from COVID lockdown.

  Ministry group attendance has collapsed. Even on Saturday mornings, which used to be the staple day for house-to-house work, few in each group turn up. I know of several congregations that now frequently combine their group arrangements, rather than meet as individual groups in different homes, because of low attendance.

  Elders seem to be less interested in keeping in touch with the congregation outside of meetings (not that this is entirely a bad thing - many used to harass the R&F with unnecessary contact).

  I do believe you're right that this sudden "turning down" of the heat of enthusiasm in congregations (what we used to call "zeal" - you hardly ever hear that word either now, from the platform) is very noticeable, and is likely to lead to an acceleration of the decline, especially in more secular countries like here in the UK, where religious enthusiasm has for a long time been seen with some suspicion or even fear.

  A combination of greater pressure from the "secular" world - need to earn a good income, cost of living, property prices, etc - has been coupled with the JW Org itself managing to sabotage its own foundation of "preaching" by so many changes to teaching and organisation in recent years, and by refocusing so much on property sell-offs and on video-based "teaching" to create a perfect storm of factors that is killing the "spirit" in the congregations faster than anything I've seen in the time I've been around - probably fastest since the debacle of 1975 (not that I was around to see that).

  My generation and younger seem to be pathetic victims of their ailments, using letter writing as an excuse to not face real people in everyday life, then they moan when they don't receive replies to their letters. The point is, they should get their arses out there and stop whining.

  The one thing I would say is that this point seems to apply to society in general. This is just the JW manifestation of it. For example, in the last couple of weeks we've had two or three "storms" cross the British Isles. Some medium winds and bursts of heavy rain. A couple of decades ago, that would warrant just a brief comment in the weather forecast to remember to wear a good coat and boots. These days, it leads to "amber warnings" about the weather, and advice "not to travel", etc! Society seems to have become averse to just living normally, perhaps because we've got so used to being cocooned from the "real" world in our centrally-heated bubbles with food delivered to our door and any entertainment we want at the click of a button via the web.

  Any form of discomfort or inconvenience is seen as bad and to be avoided at all costs.

  Other aspects of some of the things we've mentioned have also changed outside JW-land in the real world - for example, that so many people seem to expect more returns for less effort in whatever they do, such as academic study or secular work - but those very changes within society themselves are in turn working against the JW culture and mindset, making it less and less likely that the Org would attract new people who have any real "staying power". Sure, they may get temporary new "recruits", but how many of those will remain dedicated converts for decades, even the rest of their life, as used to be the case in years past?
  
  When the "going gets tough", few people want to really bother, and especially for an organisation with the recent pattern of behaviour of JW Org.
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  Journeyman

  On the subject of letter writing, these days receiving a letter is so rare that most people - whatever their age - would probably only expect to receive a hand-written letter from someone they know very well. That's probably why so many people are finding it weird that many JWs are sending hand-written letters.

  Also, from a lot of the letters I've seen being produced, many JWs are trying to make them more eye-catching by adding pictures, using pre-printed headed paper with flowers, animals, etc. The problem is, this makes them seem even more "personal", like a letter from a lover or a child in the family! That must be creeping some people out too. And of course, these days hand-written letters are more likely to be poorly structured, with grammar and spelling errors, etc (not just from JWs, but in general).

  If you must send letters, at least keep them formal and professionally written, since people are more accepting of such correspondence, it looks less amateur, and it doesn't assume a creepy level of personal familiarity, which most people do not feel comfortable with.
• 

  DesirousOfChange

  The old JW culture as we knew it IS GONE!

  JWs meet at the KHall for Field Circus preparation -- NOT! They meet to have letter writing groups. It's like a church quilting bee even with coffee & snacks. EXCEPT, no one gets a quilt. NOTHING is really accomplished. But at least they are not burning up $3.00-$4.00/gal gasoline.

  The other "ministry" is the Cart Ministry.

  OH WHAT A PRIVILEGE TO STAND AT A CART AND GOSSIP!
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  blondie

  DOC, there must be some meetings for field circus at the KH, we drive by one every day and see groups meeting in person for that.
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  Vidiot

  ukpimo - “…how long do they expect to carry on in the next 50 years?”

  They don’t.

  The changes are all stopgap measures to stay in the black and continue to exist until God bails them out with Armageddon (any day now).

  True believers, all the way up.
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  blondie

  When the "overlapping" generation runs out, a good deal of the GB will have died, and the remaining young ones will have to punt, and hopefully there are "qualified" male anointed to replace those on earth. I probably will be long gone myself.
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  Beth Sarim

  They were talking about this on EXJW critical thinker the other day.
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  DesirousOfChange

  Blondie, I'm sure there are still some self-righteous, hard-liners that still go door-to-door (or at least drive around all day between their Starbucks coffee break and their early lunch at McDonalds) and if she is still alive, I'll bet old Sister Dyhard still does her Magazine Route every Saturday.

  

  Good bless her!

  Vidiot has it right -- they're just making busy work until Jeehover bails them out very, very soon.
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  Beth Sarim

  JW hardliners.

  How depressing.