by metatron 28 Replies latest jw friends
I don't know if it would be possible. It reminds me of the saying. "Scum rises to the top." It seems that the "higher" men rise in the WT organization, the smaller their ethical base. They become more scumlike as time goes by. Some times you have to face the fact that if a house is in such bad repair, that you have to tear it down and start over.
Blondie
that if a house is in such bad repair, that you have to tear it down and start over.
AND THAT AINT GOING TO HAPPEN
Never say never.
Thing is - I now think that more than reform is necessary - the whole organization needs a radical overhaul - and I mean RADICAL
Duplicate post
No coup will eliminate the WTS.
The history of religion proves that.
Like it or not, the WTS is here to stay, and even in a "reformed" state it will be nothing much different than the catholic church has changed since its inception 2000 years ago.
For a possible direction that the watchtower might go look at seventh-day adventists. At one time they were a group fervently focused on the end (or the advent). Increasingly, they've become more ecumenical and open to communicating with other faiths. Older, stricter adventists have periodically split away from the "mother" church in protest at the seeming liberalization. The adventist's literature has become pretty warm and fuzzy too.
The problem is not change but chage to what? One thing the watchtower has always had was it fanned the flames of relevant paranoia of wannabe theologians. The watchtower like many corps has become gun shy about public image. You can't preach the gospel of "no comment". They had toally given up on keeping JWs informed about armageddon which was suppossedly their masthead. THey like it or not have become part of "babylon the great again". THey have no more message to preach. in other words the preaching work has ceased because it continues to place magazines which contain no message. How will they gain new people?
You can't give talks on how to give talks, or place literature on how to places literature and win new bodies. THe reason the majority of watchtower material is so irrelevant is because they realy don't have "brass" anymore. It is easy to recycle experiences about how one person used a technique to place a book than to write a book that stirs the soul or the mind and places its self. In short the watchtower needs a new minifesto. Oddly the scientologist and LDS are more of a church than the watchtower. THey have holy books such as the book of mormon or dienetics that will appeal to people for centuries and contain the brand dna of those religions. The watchtower deliberately or not has no manifesto to atract people. Nobody knows what JWs are about or stand for. Nor does the wts want to say what JWs is about either. As much as they claim to stand out they deliberately are bland. Even snake handlers have a public image that attracts people to the church. Islamic terrorist cults have a market that is drawn to their retoric. THe watchtowers only market is jws.
THe reason the majority of watchtower material is so irrelevant is because they realy don't have "brass" anymore.
THe watchtowers only market is jws.
These are excellent observations.
I recall when JWs had a distinctive and missionary-like role. Like their teachings or not, the JWs had "balls": They sought out occasions for vigorous debate and went out of their way to find answers. They did not continuously deflect attention from questions by saying, "Why do you want to debate this issue?" and "Leave it in Jehovah's hands" - cop outs of the first degree. They had answers and they sounded well-informed and convincing. Their literature loudly proclaimed the urgency of the message and, in very clear tones, served warning on the religious and governmental institutions of the day. And to back it up, who can forget those graphic depictions of church buildings rent in two by divine ligntning with the huddled masses freaking out as they contemplate the destruction of all around them?
The churches were also worried because the JWs were growing rapidly and making inroads into established church membership. This led to the churches publishing ill-informed pamphlets with hysterically inaccurate accusations against the JWs. Now the tables have been turned: The JWs, in true knee-jerk fashion, make all manner of unfounded accusations against those who have left. Poetic justice!
Nowadays, the JW literature consists of a regurgitated and bland diet, focusing mainly on problem-solving daily life as it continues across all developmental stages from birth through to old age. An organization has to attend to these sorts of issues because the end has not come and ordinary problems need to be solved and cannot be ignored any longer.
