Posted by Thes [Thesaurusx] on October 26, 1999 at 16:27:02 {c/rgKhj4NcrnQc.SC0UsqEZbwA6cGE}:
In Reply to: JUST WHAT IF . . .? posted by ros on October 26, 1999 at 12:24:48:
Hi Ros,
You know me from Spokane WA and Jesus Wit List. I have been watching this continued line play out here and I have been reflecting. Here is a snip from that reflection.
I just can't see any reason for the board of directors (who refer to themselves as "governing body") of the corporation (aka Society) to initiate wholesale change that might upset their customers (Jehovah's Witnesses). Their past record indicates that they only make changes "in reaction" and "just in time". There are basically only two divisions of all the issues on the table. Issue number one is beliefs. Issue number two is behavior.
Example: The Society had the published policy of not cooperating with (competing) religions, period! Conflict: California Supreme Court case involving Jimmy Swaggert and the issue of collecting sales tax on "religious publications". Watchtower Corporation solution: Bring in Watch Tower Society attorneys to write a "Friend Of The Court Brief" defending their best interests. Deviation from published company policy: To defend the Watchtower Corporation's best interests required the Society's attorneys to defend Jimmy Swaggert thus the (competing) Assembly of God religion. This was done, silently, with impunity. All Witnesses I have questioned about this are either ignorant that it ever happened or they will deny it ever happened. We know it did happen.
The blood medical treatment without ostracism arrangement in Bulgaria. Same sneaky tactics.
I personally, am not very interested in the publishing business' opinions on politics. Nor am I very interested, beyond morbid curiosity, in the Brooklyn, New York, billionaire's evolutionary ideas relevant to religion. What I am interested in is the individual group member's behaviors and the manipulation, intimidation, and coercion being used on those individual members by the group leaders, at every level, to influence those behaviors. I am also interested in the topic of full, open and honest disclosure. Honest disclosure to both potential as well as current group sympathizers.
I just don't see the hemorrhaging of numbers of door to door solicitors and sympathizers. They certainly have stagnant numbers in some areas and enviable numbers in others. Their construction projects are monumental and also do not convey the idea to me of a corporation in trouble. Quite the opposite. The accumulation of wealth, to me, has been impressive. Impressive especially while considering the tactics the Corporation has used on their own customers. Not too many manufacturing businesses have tried to see increases in customer base and production while intentionally "firing" 1% of the customers each and every year.
I can understand why a individual member would have a "crisis of conscience" and try to change the system s/he helped create. I can understand why a sympathizer would have a conflict and quit associating with the group. What I can not understand is why all associates of this group would not have a crisis of conscience.
Still I see no benefit to the Company's bottom line if the Directors were to make sweeping changes. I wonder if they wouldn't be far better off by sneaking in a compromise here and another shady deal there. All the while keeping their deals as quiet as possible and continue to kick out any who question them in any way. That shunning policy has worked very well for them in the past and I see no reason why it shouldn't continue to work into the future.
If the Corporation directors' past behavior is any indication of the future, and I think it is, the revised policies and behaviors will be more rigid and more exclusive that present. Seems to me a witch-hunt must be overdue. That is what the group leader(s) have done every single time they perceived loss of control in the past.
These guys are hard hearted, big business, billion dollar, corporate business executives with an empire to protect. And my guess is they will defend it.
Thes