by doinmypart 56 Replies latest jw friends
It is a religion made up of congregations of damaged, desperate people who want to have ALL the answers, even if they are not right.
Those kinds of people make up a good part of humankind - so I don't see them leaving anytime soon.
The scriptures say there are those that will desire to be "under Law".
Many of these will be Jehovah's Witnesses and similar cults.
-ithinkisee
I hope there is a huge shake up, and a few truths come out about them. After then I dont know........
As an organization, they will stay, but it's the individuals that come and go.
SNG - "...the entire suite of arrogant, scornful, legal-minded views that does them in. And this, I believe, will be almost impossible to change, even if they wanted to." You're correct. The leaders are so toxic and adamantly believe they're God's chosen...their attitude and resulting behavior is going to be a difficult thing to change. Not to mention they've painted themselves into a corner, how could they change even if they wanted w/o disrupting everything they've built.
Gary & ithinkisee - I look at older ones in the congregations and see that many of them are complicit with the WTS' agenda. I think they have too much invested to believe they have been duped. They would accept change, or accept the status quo as long as the WTS is "there for them" as a crutch.
Blondie & GBL - The WTS certainly isn't the same as it was 50 years ago, and if it is around in another 50 it will be different than it is today. If they're around in 50 will we see GLBT accepted among the R&F? women in lead roles? other forms of ministry incl. charitable acts? bearded brothers (gasp)?
Frankie & Jula71 - I don't know if the death of Ted J et al would be significant. It seems to me the GB have handpicked brothers in responsible positions who think the way they do. The WTS HQ is a relatively small group of individuals, working together & thinking alike since the days of Knorr. Everyone is basically a clone. Is there really an individual or individuals that can truly transform and revitalize the Org? I think changes in certain policy will come about due to regulations & court cases, but not because someone truly cares.
Listener - Yep, unlike the R&F who believes the WTS cries about the Internet. Householders will "google that @$$" ha ha! I've told a lot of my non-JW relatives and friends to check out the Internet in this regard. I just had a thought...I still go in fld svc once or twice every two months. I think I'll put a Post-It note with JW URLs inside tracts and leave the tracts at Not at Homes. The publisher I'm working with would be none the wiser. I think I'll start a separate thread on this.
Doogie - True, there is always someone that will believe something. My hope is that the WTS will become so strange & hardlined that the majority will exit. But then too this may not work (see Gary's post).
Even though I WISH the internet would kill the witless religion I doubt that it will, simply because some people are TOO LAZY to look anything up ... myself included
Case in point:
Do I believe in God: yes, do I believe in the God of the bible? NO, why, cause of something I read on the internet, but have I done the research myself? NO. Why not? lazy, don't have time, would rather just read JWD and get to that stuff later .
In the meantime ... life is just sooooo much better being free to do what I want, when I want, IF I want.
(tamtam of the 'and I still have love for God' class and I try to be good to people cause it's the right thing to do ... I don't need no damn list to figure the sh*t out')
"There's one born every minute . . ."
P.T. Barnum said it best. As long as this remains fact, the Jehovah's Witnesses, Church of Scientology, and other cults that ensnare the mentally vulnerable will continue to prosper under the guise of being "religious organizations."
Don't hold your breath. The legal system won't be stopping the JWs, and, regardless of how fascist, brain dead, reprehensible, and truly despicable the current governing body is, folks will still join this cult.
It's really sad. Oh well, time to crack a beer.
The WTS will continue to be what it is: A legalistic religion that is constantly adding rules on top of rules. A religion like that has two possible endings:
I'm inclined to think the WTS will follow path #1.
The WTS or a version of it will continue to exist for a very long time, however it will never achieve a growth rate like it did in the past simply because it is resistant to significant changes.
Right now its Achilles hill is its refusal to accept legal responsibility for the actions of its members. So long as it refuses to legally acknowledge that Jehover's Witnesses are agents of the WTS, it will be doomed to sticking to the failed donation arrangement, which is draining its financial assets.
An example of this is the way the WTS does not have Jehover's Witnesses go in the ministry work with name badges. Using name badges would be a clear legal acknowledgment that the individual JW is working for the WTS and would open the WTS to legal and financial liability to any screw-up the individual JW might get himself involved in. Right now when a JW is sued, the WTS denies any association with the JW and says that the person was acting on his own. This is how the WTS is currently beating the child molestation cases and other liability law suits.
Another example of this is the way the WTS is stubbornly sticking to the "donation arrangement". If the WTS were to start selling their literature they would have to charge sales tax. In order to do this they would be forced to legally define JWs are employees. (Barns and Nobel cannot sell books using non-employees and neither can the WTS.)
The simple fact that the WTS is so adamant against accepting legal responsibility for the actions of their people tells me that they are currently dodging an enormous amount of liability that would otherwise drain their financial assets more quickly than their failed "donation arrangement".
In the end, the WTS will continue to use the "donation arrangement" until it finally shrinks to a sustainable size and an empty shell of its former self. Yes, it will continue to exist for a long time, but at a scale that is nothing like it currently exists.
elsewhere ... I don't understand how they can shirk their responisiblity for their members actions when: 1) They have the names and addresses of all members on FILE 2) They require the members to go door-knocking 3) They require members to report themselves to the local elders if they violate the WTBTS rules. Seems like their totally responsible to me. Oh, and let's not forget that the elders will show up at the hospital IMMEDIATELY if one of the members are critically injured in order to ensure no blood transfusions are administered. Sheisty sonsofbitches.
They will slowly change to avoid dying out
Perhaps we're missing a key point. They may not need to change since their membership is continually renewing itself. Their turnover rate is very high. The ones that don't turnover have so much time invested that the doctrines aren't that important anymore. They will wait until hell freezes over for the new system regardless of the various doctrines of the society.
Rather than the society changing (to accomodate members thoughts) they will change members to accomodate the WTS' thoughts.
