In view of that, starting from January 2006, Awake! will start giving more emphasis to the Kingdom of God. It will encourage readers in a more direct way to cling to the Bible for a solution to the problems, and will stress more clearly the biblical explanation of current events.
Observe the pendulum swinging; the Hegellian dialectic at work. With the members of the GB slowly becoming extinct, maybe there's some fear that the JWs as an organization will lose their focus. People have been saying for months, even years, that in order to survive the Organization needs to become more secular. More Awake! This could be a last-ditch attempt to preserve the Society's "spiritual integrity" by reshifting the focus back to the "fire-and-brimestone" approach of the Watchtower. Big mistake.
Someone said that Awake is the least read publication put out by the Organization. The only reason the Watchtower is more read is because of the compulsory Sunday Watchtower Study; the Awake is read more willingly.
We make fun of the Awake, but as a religious publication it's pretty benign. And not much more biased than your evening news. That's the one everyone tries to place. That's the only one people read if the article catches their fancy. Admit it; if you are into astronomy and the Awake has an article on the Hubble Space Telescope, would you read it? If you want to visit Prague, and they have an article on Prague, would you read it? If you've been thinking about repainting your living room, and the Awake has an article on painting, would you read it? Now, who here wonders about Meshibosheth on the plains of Moab and how that factors into our day? Who wants to read an article on Oholiab's journey to Kiriath-jearim and how we should follow in his footsteps?
That magazine became an invaluable tool in the preaching work. Why? Because it was designed especially for the public. The case of Watchtower was different, as it was viewed for many as designed for the "little flock".
So, if the focus is shifting from the "public," placing magazines with them is no longer a top concern. It's going after the Memorial attendees and securing baptized Witnesses, the modern day "little flock." So they know that their door-to-door approach is a lost cause, and arew aiming to keep the membership that they have. Well the younger generations are leaving, the older generations are dying off. Unless the pendulum swings back, which it probably will, I don't expect there to be a Watchtower society a century from now.
