this topic i digress about why the watchtower relaxing the rules of disfellowship is essential for its survival.
many things i'm going to say are not my ideas, some are, the point is, i'm condensing everything in a logical and concise way.. the first thing we have to keep in mind is that the wt's main objective in instituting disfellowship has always been not to lose members because of the damage that a dissident could do, or to avoid gaining new members because of the bad reputation of a confessed sinner in the his/her region.
in the end, the more active members, the more money to the coffers.. in this case of disfellowship due to apostasy, to avoid any spark, texts were sought out of context that even prohibited saying "hi".
“Camouflaged dissent”… I like that.
I don't know how this expression sounds in English... :-) But I use this term to designate people who blend into the environment, making them appear to be part of it, but in reality they are not. Like a camouflage..
someone asked me recently when did i start to have doubts as an elder about what i was teaching from the platform.. i have given it a lot of thought and i can say that it was when i was delivering a public talk about the book of hebrews.
so i paused and read it again.. i looked at the audience and said to them let's look at the cross-reference for this verse which is hebrews 12:22 and i read that verse.
after which i remember saying "and this is how the outline puts it.... " and i read from the outline verbatim.. abraham was not looking forward to an earthly kingdom hope.
Guys, understand one thing: the point is not who goes to heaven or who lives on Earth..
The point is this:
"Hold on, that's not what the verse says, read it again".
WT was lying to the audience and he realized this and it was the starting point to question more things.
this topic i digress about why the watchtower relaxing the rules of disfellowship is essential for its survival.
many things i'm going to say are not my ideas, some are, the point is, i'm condensing everything in a logical and concise way.. the first thing we have to keep in mind is that the wt's main objective in instituting disfellowship has always been not to lose members because of the damage that a dissident could do, or to avoid gaining new members because of the bad reputation of a confessed sinner in the his/her region.
in the end, the more active members, the more money to the coffers.. in this case of disfellowship due to apostasy, to avoid any spark, texts were sought out of context that even prohibited saying "hi".
But sorry, I do think it is faintly ridiculous to be talking about Watchtower battling for “survival” at this point, when compared with most other churches in western countries they are in rude health to put it mildly.
The first thing you have to keep in mind is that the overwhelming majority of those attending a Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, etc. churches are generally there because they are believers in that religions. This is not the same as what happens with JWs. The practice of disfellowship creates camouflaged dissent (PIMOs), which is what I already said in my initial post. Then you see the numbers of WT publishers and judge them all as JW, but no, not everyone there is JW (some would like being out from these numbers). DF creates this distortion. There is a lot of fake reports! And now with the new light on not reporting time, the number of publishers tends to increase even more, it's just mark an X in that field. I have no idea about the percentage of PIMOs, no one does. But I believe that if there were no shunning, these numbers would be smaller.
This weekend my uncle, who is a PIMO, sent me a video of his assembly (in Brazil): more than half of the seats were empty, people had to be spread out to hide their shame. Now imagine the same congress without the PIMOs: perhaps the audience would not be so different from what we see at one of such churches.
this topic i digress about why the watchtower relaxing the rules of disfellowship is essential for its survival.
many things i'm going to say are not my ideas, some are, the point is, i'm condensing everything in a logical and concise way.. the first thing we have to keep in mind is that the wt's main objective in instituting disfellowship has always been not to lose members because of the damage that a dissident could do, or to avoid gaining new members because of the bad reputation of a confessed sinner in the his/her region.
in the end, the more active members, the more money to the coffers.. in this case of disfellowship due to apostasy, to avoid any spark, texts were sought out of context that even prohibited saying "hi".
If these policies do not end or the rules are relaxed, so many "ifs" can be inserted that in practice they will have no effect.
Let's see, the issue of blood had so many "ifs" that today like fractions, if someone takes blood, they are no longer summarily disfellowshipped, etc.
In the matter of disfellowship, there are so many "ifs" such as if the person is at risk of committing suicide, if the person has been inactive for a few years, if the person threatens to sue, etc. In any "if" the JC is suspended. The two-witness policy itself can be reversed, not being used for pedophilia and being used to avoid disfelloship for other reasons. Perhaps there is no need for a formal announcement from the GB on the issue of DF flexibility, it is enough more policies to be silently implemented in the book of elders. And then just a few studies of The Watchtower, explaining the DF texts better, explaining the context and leaving it up to the congregation not to invite the person to theocratic activities as a form of censorship (which is more or less what the texts they use say) , but not avoiding to greet or force someone to cut family ties.
fyi, i posted this prediction on my facebook page last night and it has received 224 likes and there have been 83 comments made.
many of the comments are hilarious.. .
a beard prediction for 2024:.
I was so stupid in thinking they were going to offer me assistance for what I was going through. Boy, I was dumb!
You were not dumb! You just thought what a normal people with empathy would do for people on your condition. I'm so sorry you had to go through this situation.
this topic i digress about why the watchtower relaxing the rules of disfellowship is essential for its survival.
many things i'm going to say are not my ideas, some are, the point is, i'm condensing everything in a logical and concise way.. the first thing we have to keep in mind is that the wt's main objective in instituting disfellowship has always been not to lose members because of the damage that a dissident could do, or to avoid gaining new members because of the bad reputation of a confessed sinner in the his/her region.
in the end, the more active members, the more money to the coffers.. in this case of disfellowship due to apostasy, to avoid any spark, texts were sought out of context that even prohibited saying "hi".
To stop the shunning would mean getting sued out of existence. Just not an economically viable option.
???
Keep shunning also is not an economically viable option.
this topic i digress about why the watchtower relaxing the rules of disfellowship is essential for its survival.
many things i'm going to say are not my ideas, some are, the point is, i'm condensing everything in a logical and concise way.. the first thing we have to keep in mind is that the wt's main objective in instituting disfellowship has always been not to lose members because of the damage that a dissident could do, or to avoid gaining new members because of the bad reputation of a confessed sinner in the his/her region.
in the end, the more active members, the more money to the coffers.. in this case of disfellowship due to apostasy, to avoid any spark, texts were sought out of context that even prohibited saying "hi".
Does anyone actually think what is happening in the Org indicates strength??
Exact. We even don't need numbers to see the disaster coming to it, it's just interpret the WT actions. The boat is sinking and they are trying to remove the water with a mug (no time report, allow beards, etc). Maybe more big changes like relaxation of commemorative dates, blood and finally disfellowshipping, could keep some young people and attract new people.. Maybe... They have no alternative but to try. 2024/25 will be years of big changes...
this topic i digress about why the watchtower relaxing the rules of disfellowship is essential for its survival.
many things i'm going to say are not my ideas, some are, the point is, i'm condensing everything in a logical and concise way.. the first thing we have to keep in mind is that the wt's main objective in instituting disfellowship has always been not to lose members because of the damage that a dissident could do, or to avoid gaining new members because of the bad reputation of a confessed sinner in the his/her region.
in the end, the more active members, the more money to the coffers.. in this case of disfellowship due to apostasy, to avoid any spark, texts were sought out of context that even prohibited saying "hi".
As I said, the end of WT won't be in a few years but some decades (if the numbers keep as are). Today JW is not in a steep decline like Protestant churches BUT as current publishers die in the next decades, you will see a steep decline because the 1x1 replacement rate is not happening. There will be more JW dying than new JW entering the sect, making the number of publishers keep pace with the mortality rate! Here's your steep curve...
this topic i digress about why the watchtower relaxing the rules of disfellowship is essential for its survival.
many things i'm going to say are not my ideas, some are, the point is, i'm condensing everything in a logical and concise way.. the first thing we have to keep in mind is that the wt's main objective in instituting disfellowship has always been not to lose members because of the damage that a dissident could do, or to avoid gaining new members because of the bad reputation of a confessed sinner in the his/her region.
in the end, the more active members, the more money to the coffers.. in this case of disfellowship due to apostasy, to avoid any spark, texts were sought out of context that even prohibited saying "hi".
I have to say it again, the age demographic pattern of the Society is the only proof that anyone needs, to see how critical their situation is. And quite frankly ... any organization (or country) that does not have a growth rate of over 2.5%
You got the point! The situation is critical. And WT knows that (they are good in numbers). They will announce several new lights in a short time to stop the bleeding, but without the guarantee of good results. But there is no alternative.
this topic i digress about why the watchtower relaxing the rules of disfellowship is essential for its survival.
many things i'm going to say are not my ideas, some are, the point is, i'm condensing everything in a logical and concise way.. the first thing we have to keep in mind is that the wt's main objective in instituting disfellowship has always been not to lose members because of the damage that a dissident could do, or to avoid gaining new members because of the bad reputation of a confessed sinner in the his/her region.
in the end, the more active members, the more money to the coffers.. in this case of disfellowship due to apostasy, to avoid any spark, texts were sought out of context that even prohibited saying "hi".
This chart shows the number of batized (red) x publishers (blue) from 2001 to 2022:
https://uploaddeimagens.com.br/images/004/479/758/original/Grafico3.jpg?1684960272
If the current JWs die, there are no more newer JWs to replace them in 1x1 rate. And WT knows that. Because this, WT is leaving the sect lighter. They need at least a 1x1 replacement rate or the sect will end in some decades.
