Posts by JWD

95

Org. Re-orging in JAPAN

by JWD in

jw
friends

for those of you who haven`t been following it,the wts is in a downward spiral here in japan.fs hours are down,memorial attendance.

is down,pioneers are down,studies are down,donations are down,number.

of congregations is down and the number of publishers continues to.

Don`t know if I mentioned in but the org. has built several assembly
halls throughout Japan. On at least one occasion, they kept the plans
very secret and even listed the project as something other than what
it was so that the local people didn`t get wind of it before they got
under way. The reason is very likely the fact that on many occasions
there have been grass-roots level community movements to keep the JWs
out of their town. On one of those occasions, things got carried away
and the locals used speaker cars to `harrass` the JWs during meetings.
It ended in a law suit claiming that the locals were interupting the
local congregations freedom of religion rights. The part of the incid-
ent which isn`t spoken about among the JWs is the fact that the congregation had promised not to build a KH in that small town, but
later reniged on the promise and built it anyway.That really got the
local people pretty hot.

JWD

95

Org. Re-orging in JAPAN

by JWD in

jw
friends

for those of you who haven`t been following it,the wts is in a downward spiral here in japan.fs hours are down,memorial attendance.

is down,pioneers are down,studies are down,donations are down,number.

of congregations is down and the number of publishers continues to.

JWD

OutNFree,

The form which you described is the same as the Japanese one I
refered to. I also received an e-mail from the Japanese doctor
friend of mine who is very informed on the JW blood issue. The
e-mail said that he has a copy of the Japanese directive on blood
in front of him and although formated to fit Japanese law, it is
essentially the same content as the one used in America.

On another totally different subject there was some interesting
legal manuvering of late. The WT brought an official complaint
before the national board for lawyers (Nichibenren). It was a
request for the lawyers to officially chastize a protestant minister
who has been heavily involved in exit-counseling JWs. At times the
families have cohersed their JW family member to stay and listen to
the pastor even when they didn`t want to. A well known university professor sided with the pastor saying that since `cultists` were
trained to listen to NO critical information, in some cases families are justified in using extreme measures to try to inform their loved one with information outside the Watchtower. The pastors lawyers
filed a counter-complaint against the WT demanding that they tell their believers to `listen to the arguements of concerned families` in the name of freedom of information. It will be very interesting to see what kind of official statement is issued by the national lawyer`s board (Nichibenren). The opinions they render carry a lot of weight here in Japan. However, legal matters move very slowly,so it could be a couple of years before any action is taken. If something happens I`ll let you know. JWD

95

Org. Re-orging in JAPAN

by JWD in

jw
friends

for those of you who haven`t been following it,the wts is in a downward spiral here in japan.fs hours are down,memorial attendance.

is down,pioneers are down,studies are down,donations are down,number.

of congregations is down and the number of publishers continues to.

JWD

Sorry I haven`t got back to you regarding the `No-Blood` card.After
logging off last time I pulled it out of my drawer and looked over it
again.It is a 4- page 8 by 10 inch document which I believe is to be
folded and put in the case which JWs here wear around their neck.It
has a 4 page explanation accompaning it.Both of those documents contain much medical terminology.I contacted an aquaintance of mine
who is a doctor and is very familiar with the JW blood issue.He is
a Japanese man.I asked him to comment directly on this board and
trust he will in the near future. If that`s not possible, I will try
to give a synopsis of the contents. I`ll get back to this subject
later. Thanx for your patience. JWD

93

Position on College Changed?

by Maximus in

jw
friends

several have made outright statements and others have suggested that the society's negative position on higher education has changed.

'the society does not discourage higher education where i live.

' worse, 'apostates have made it all up--the society has never discouraged education.

JWD

Let me interject another thought about why the org. is down on higher
education.Without a doubt all the comments regarding learning to
think critically,etc. are the heart of the matter.But, I think there
is another facet which is much more practical.That`s the area of free
labor. Most of the work involved in running a printing operation are
skills which can be learned on the job.What the organization needs
more than anything else is young, strong, submissive, FREE labor.
Free labor is without a doubt the key to the orgs. existence.It allows
them to be financially successful regardless of what happens to the
economy at large.

For 7 years I worked in the printing field in a couple of companies
in the Midwest. By far the greatest cost is labor cost. The materials
involved in making a book or magazine only comprise about 10% of the
cover costs.The remainder of costs are labor and sales.If you could
get rid of labor costs, well, any company could succeed famously.
(In the case of the WT distribution costs and advertising costs are
virtually non-existence and sales are guaranteed.A situation which
doesn`t exist in the real world). The upshot of all that is lots of
disposable income available to be used to increase the `Kingdom`
i.e. new real estate and buildings.The growing physical presence of
the WT organization itself lends creedence to the mantra `Jehovah is
blessing us.` But,it`s not Jehovah`s blessing...it`s free labor.

I saw a very similar situation in another religious organization
which I became very familiar with.I`m not free to mention the name,
but this organization was set up structurally very much like Bethel.
They also had a large publishing/printing branch which was staffed
with communal living free labor.For years this organization was very
successful.It was always said to be `God`s blessing`.Then one day
due to tax laws and various internal pressures they changed the
system and started hiring people,setting up pension plans,etc.In
short, they began to operate responsibly towards their workers and
the result was... corporate savings were eaten up and assets had to
be sold off to maintain operations. For nearly 30 years they had
attributed financial success to God`s blessing, but when they started
to actually pay workers...suddenly the `blessings` dried up.

I personally believe that the strongest single dynamic driving WT
policy is MONEY and the thing the organization fears more than any-
thing, even more than `apostates` is TAXES and new laws affecting
operations.

Just my thoughts...feel free to comment. JWD

93

Position on College Changed?

by Maximus in

jw
friends

several have made outright statements and others have suggested that the society's negative position on higher education has changed.

'the society does not discourage higher education where i live.

' worse, 'apostates have made it all up--the society has never discouraged education.

JWD

Auntie Lindy,

It was probably one of my pieces about the situation here in Japan that you are refering to.I mentioned that the headquarters in Ebina
had developed a legal dept. lately and two of the five lawyers on
staff were second generation JWs.One of them is the son of an elder.
He is absolutely horrible as a lawyer (I`ve seen him in action in the
court room on several occasions).He sounds like an overgrown boy
reading from a pre-written WT script.The other JW lawyer is somewhat
better.
I believe these two guys are an exception and more precisely an
example of double-standards in the organization.

One elder who was in for over 40 years worked as a public school
teacher.Prior to 1975 he and his wife donated a large sum of money to
be used for KH building in view of the fact that the end was so near.
Despite that fact when he decided to send his children away to college
he was berated as a `bad example` and removed from eldership.

One other interesting incident involving the education matter here
in Japan had to do with child custody.A man in western Japan,living
in Shimane prefecture got divorced from his JW wife.They had a legal
battle over the custody of the children and the fight went all the
way to the supreme court of Japan.The final verdict gave the father
custody of the children and stated that the wife`s religion was a
detriment to the welfare of the children.It is very,very rare for a
father to win custody in Japan.

JWD

95

Org. Re-orging in JAPAN

by JWD in

jw
friends

for those of you who haven`t been following it,the wts is in a downward spiral here in japan.fs hours are down,memorial attendance.

is down,pioneers are down,studies are down,donations are down,number.

of congregations is down and the number of publishers continues to.

JWD

I`ll get on it today or tomorrow... JWD

93

Position on College Changed?

by Maximus in

jw
friends

several have made outright statements and others have suggested that the society's negative position on higher education has changed.

'the society does not discourage higher education where i live.

' worse, 'apostates have made it all up--the society has never discouraged education.

JWD

The Japanese June Kingdom Ministry had the same insert and the same
article about higher education. Sounds like they need more free
labor to insure Jehovah`s continued blessing... JWD

95

Org. Re-orging in JAPAN

by JWD in

jw
friends

for those of you who haven`t been following it,the wts is in a downward spiral here in japan.fs hours are down,memorial attendance.

is down,pioneers are down,studies are down,donations are down,number.

of congregations is down and the number of publishers continues to.

JWD

Moxy,

Thanks for that link for the Stand Firm Canada site.It was interest-
ing that they say `it is not a religious presentation` and `It is
sponsered by a group of volunteers`.They also have a bit about
`tolerance`. Makes one wonder if tolerance is always a one-way
street. I don`t remember the WT being terribly tolerant of other groups...

Here in Japan the info I saw listed several other groups which were
persecuted by the Nazis.The list included homosexuals.It was curious
to me that the WT would be willing to put homosexuals on the same
`victims list` as JWs.That`s obviously for external consumption in
order to perhaps make the WT seem `open-minded` and sensitive to
other suffering `minority` groups.

JWD

95

Org. Re-orging in JAPAN

by JWD in

jw
friends

for those of you who haven`t been following it,the wts is in a downward spiral here in japan.fs hours are down,memorial attendance.

is down,pioneers are down,studies are down,donations are down,number.

of congregations is down and the number of publishers continues to.

JWD

I`m not sure if I mentioned it before,but when they started the Stand Firm exhibit here in Japan they went around to various media
agencies (newspapers,etc.) and asked for permission to use their
name as `sponsers`.Several media organizations, believing it to be
an education exhibit, allowed their names to be used without knowing
that the WT was behind it.The `Stand Firm` board members are all
elders, but they were apparently hand-picked because of their
social status.The list includes teachers,former police chief and
others who had some position in society before they became JWs.
When the media organizations found out,after the fact,that it was
actually an `arm` of the WT several `spsonsers` expressed great
distress that their names had been used to lend authenticity to
the exhibit.
JWs were told to go to the exhibit near their home, but not to refer
to each other as `brother/sister` while there as it would sound starnge to non-JWs who also went.
I obtained a list of the `branch offices` of the Stand Firm exhibit
and the address were all the addresses of Kingdom Halls throughout
Japan.

In January 2000 the most popular news program, a program entitled
`News Station` had a special on cults during their prime time show.
They had one of the leading cult experts in Japan,a professor named
Sadao Asami on as their guest. Professor Asami is the man who translated Steven Hassen`s book `Combatting Cult Mind Control` into
Japanese and is nationally known. During the program they focused on
four `cults`.The four included `AUM`,the Japanese group which did the
nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway,Life Space(another indigenous
group) , the Moonies and the Jehovah`s Witnesses.That one program in
itself did great damage to the WT`s public image and it seems they
have been trying to remake their image ever since.

JWD

95

Org. Re-orging in JAPAN

by JWD in

jw
friends

for those of you who haven`t been following it,the wts is in a downward spiral here in japan.fs hours are down,memorial attendance.

is down,pioneers are down,studies are down,donations are down,number.

of congregations is down and the number of publishers continues to.

JWD

The Japanese June Kingdom Ministry had a banner with the words
`Stand Firm,Stand Firm,Stand Firm` repeated 3 times accross it.
The short article under the banner refered to the Nazi`s persecution
and tried to parallel it to what modern JWs are experiencing.
It seems that using the `victim card` has increased as the numbers
continue to drop.

Is the `Stand Firm` exhibit used in other countries? For about a year
the WT carted the supposedly historical exhibit to various public
community centers around Japan.

JWD