by vitty 77 Replies latest jw friends
From the Canada Census 1991 & 2001.
Note that the biggest drop (-40%) is in the 0-14 year age group, many of which would be the children of the 25-44 year age group (-18%).
It is easy to argue that the most worrying drop for the WTBTS comes once their members are not living under their parents roof.....
.....and they are taking their children with them.
This does not bode well for the future.
i think it'll be around a while longer simply because the "good " jws are kept too busy to be seeking info. and are way to insulated for info to reach them.
the presiding overseer in a relatives hall (after i mentioned the UN thing) told her that he looked into it and found out it was NOT true and that it was an apostate lie , that the apostates " create" fake web pages to make it " appear" they got an article off the UN website.
i was told by the relative not to mention it again or they'd have to shun me as an apostate. even if i wasnt df'd. so i shut up.
so....if they are worried enough to ask , they are either told its lies or risk bein accused of being apostate themselves.
they cant spend much time worrying about it, they gotta get their hours in, read the text, study for the meetings, do their daily bible reading, do some phone witnessing, turn their time in, hopefully find time to take a shower.
To me it's like WINNING THE LOTTERY.... There are the perpetual hopefulls that just KNOW that they will WIN big time someday... so they continue to buy their ticket.
Not that there is anything wrong with the lottery... it's just that you can't base your whole life on the idea that you will win. Get a job too, just in case that lotto thing doesn't work out.
I think the future of the soceity is in the young people. I think it will die off or at least change drastically when the older generation dies off. It's so illogical and irrational, the youth are leaving the Amish, the Mormon, and the JW faiths. I feel sorry for the folks like my mother who have spent years of their life waiting... and have nothing to show for it, they didn't need to plan for a future because the end was too close, I feel a lot of sympathy towards them.
I have to admit that I live in a regular neighborhood in a regular town, and haven't seen JW's in the 4 years I have lived here.
I have to admit that I live in a regular neighborhood in a regular town, and haven't seen JW's in the 4 years I have lived here.
I had to laugh at this! I remember that while I was in they started coming up with new stratagies to find people at home. Go in the early morning, go in the evening, etc etc... most people came up with excuses galore to avoid those types of service, I never wanted to actually talk to anyone I PRAYED for Not at Homes!...
"This organization has no infrastructure!". They have no hospitals, no college, no formal charities to speak of, no school of theology, no day care, no weekend basketball,
Metatron is right this is why the Catholic's have survived and the JW's won't. Catholics went into goverment ASAP they became major employers and established a huge power base that has lasted for almost 2000 years! Its a lot harder to leave a religion that will not just shun you but you won't be able to go to the hospital or work or vote or live in peace (not to mention that could kill you as a heretic!) Jw's havent' established that kind of base so when things get hard they will fade away or break into a bajillion pieces!
But that wouldn't be possible because the whole philosophy is to be "no part of the world" of this world, but no part of it. Humph, doesn't make sense.
I did discover one thing being involved in SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), that Catholics who go up against the Catholic Church regarding sexual abuse are shunned by the Church and family.
Remember the WWCOG is not a Catholic organization known for its hospitals or similar charities but is a Protestant group.
No matter how you look at it, the WTS will be here in one form or fashion. In its earliest history there were 6,000 worldwide and even less during the WWI years. Small or large the WTS is a cult and damages its members whether 6,000 or 6 million.
While I don't have the Bethel insider contacts some do or did, I can tell you this from the viewpoint of someone who worked in banking investments, eventually their holdings to a degree have become self-sustaining, interest, investments, sale of property that increased greatly in value from the time of purchase. Based on what knew of individual donations, the WTS would have gone under long ago if they depended on that. Many congregations can barely make their monthly expenses.
The best way to deal with the WTS is to educate people to the reality of their "truth," not the PR image but what we have seen in the congregations.
I recommend again reading Steve Hassan's books on helping friends and family get out of a cult.
Blondie
eventually their holdings to a degree have become self-sustaining, interest, investments, sale of property that increased greatly in value from the time of purchase.
Good! So they can afford to pay us a lot more when forced by the courts due to all the hurt
As a further problem, they consider organized internal efforts of charity to be a form of apostasy!
Anyone who would suggest pouring manpower into such efforts would be accused of trying to undermine the "preaching"
work. This rationale developed after Ray Franz got booted - that he was trying to do away with the field "ministry" by
suggesting "Kingdom Service" in general support of the organization. They would have to do a complete 180 on the subject
and ignore comments by Jaracz! ( "You're not trying to pull a 'Ray Franz', are you Brother?"). This also goes back to
precedents set after WW2 in which Knorr came down hard on various non-preaching activities that brothers got involved in
during the war. ( like Australia).
Without an internal infrastructure of care, congregations will slowly wither away, under the sterile ritual of long repetitious
meetings and a ministry that produces nothing but 'time served'. Last night, I was struck by how the Theocratic Ministry
School is simply a ritual - it doesn't reflect anything real in the field ministry, it's just poor quality play acting by adults.
Likewise, the Service Meeting can be skipped entirely simply by reading the dumbed down text of the Kingdom Ministry.
At some point, the limbo bar of dumbed down repetition can't be lowered anymore. Long before that happens, a lot of
Witnesses will have drifted away, unable to justify the waste of time any longer.
I hope they never reform. Without change, they'll lose the next generation of Witnesses and that'll be that.
metatron
