Is going door to door really the best method of preaching?

[RadarKat73080]

I hated going out in field service!

[WWZenaDo]

That supports my suspicions... :{

[WWZenaDo]

"Why would you [Watchtower Society] use the WORST possible method to preach to people?" Perhaps it's just my perception, but I always had the impression that the Watchtower boys were looking for lower-class, gullible people - hence their frequent edicts against college educations... The "door-to-door" method is most effective on the stay-at-home housewife with several screaming kids, the school-age kid who isn't doing so well in school [or else they'd be there...], or the unemployed dad...

[SmokingNtheGraveyard]

of the few time i went door to door, more people answered and talked to us in poorer neighborhoods.

[WWZenaDo]

That supports my suspicions...  :{

[WWZenaDo]

Yeah, under 'da Judge' Rutherford, they had a radio station... Don't remember exactly where - either Pennsylvania or New York, sometime after 'da Judge' got out of prison in 1919... I seem to remember that 'da Judge' used the airwaves primarily for rants against "Babylon the Great, the Great Harlot"/Christendom... (I always liked the way that lady dressed, in the JW book illustrations...)

[ChipZilla69]

One of the most powerful arguments I have heard on jdubs for some time. When I was growing up as one if felt like we had some secret knowledge and everyone else was wicked and had no clue. Now I'm out it's so clear to me that I was in a cult.

[enhanceUK]

Indeed a very good point!

[DblOSmith]

Yeah, they used to have a radio station if I remember correctly.

[DblOSmith]

They should totally buy a superbowl ad. Can you imagine? That'd be some funny shit.

I literally saw a few old bitties pacing back and forth on the same block.  Holding awake magazines. So sad.

[ymaify]

haha a jw tv channel what an idea!

[YAHWEHtoHELL]

Yes yes!!!!!

It's perhaps just another way to keep their members distracted from the REAL truth !

KEEP ACTIVE IN JEHOVAH'S WORK....(So you don't have time to think of OPTIONS)

[guitaro5000]

Maybe that's part of keeping the people so extremely busy they have time for nothing else.

[TALIAFERRO69]

Why would you pay a radio station to broadcast your message when you can get the sheeple to use there own gas and vehicles and time free of charge. The sheeple are dumb!

[JBSauce]

Smokey, they did have two stations: WBBR and WORD. From the brochure "Jehovah's Witnesses in the Twentieth Century," page 8:

The radio was used extensively in the 1920s and 1930s. By 1933 the Society was using 403 radio stations to broadcast Bible lectures. Later, the use of the radio was largely replaced by increased house-to-house visits by Witnesses with portable phonographs and recorded Bible talks. Home Bible studies were started where there was interest.

[poconoporker]

Smokey, they used radio many years ago.

The main reason they won't use the media is because they'll lose CONTROL on it's members if they're not going out to 'preach'. Preaching, keeps them in line.

I'm so glad I live in a gated community. These assholes have NO chance to come in. And if they did, security will chase them out. = )

[51cacheton]

Type in your browser "Jehovah's Witnesses of England donations on line" and now they are involved in charities

[51cacheton]

They had some advertising for a while in this Spanis TV Station Univision

[poconoporker]

The WTS? JW's? I doubt that highly.

[51cacheton]

Yes, I was watching some time the Spanish TV station Univision and they have an add for a minute about this young kid and his mother was talking to him and at the end it says Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses

[poconoporker]

Hmmm.....I'm going to look into it.

Thanks

[51cacheton]

The Governing Body do not go door to door

[beardfreak1969]

Seems a bit pointless in light of ...

John 6:44

Shrug.

[escapethetower75]

A ministerial servant actually (raised as a JW) told me that if someone came to his door to convert him, he wouldnt listen and thats why he believes hes lucky to be raised a JW. Because he realised he would Never convert if he was WORDLY.

[sundaymorningsleeper]

Training people for the field ministry takes up a lot of time in their congregations, skipping over that and going straight to television would definitely reduce brainwashing time don't you think? Hahah. Likely they don't do it because they like to remain somewhat secretative because their policies are questionable, and because it doesn't say in the bible "Go therefore and use t.v!", but there is a lot of stuff they say that isn't in there either so that doesn't work.

[Obasiliasfilosofos]

Were as Russel would tour around the country baiting people to go to his sermons by dangling attractions like the "photo-drama".

A big difference between Russelism and Ruthfordism, 90% of the restrictions didn't exist and members didn't have to go door to door or exist in a closed community that shuns those who exited it.

Russel may have been a adulterer that preached quackier , He notably was not totalitarian like his successors.

[happypranksgiving]

He also taught that all would be resurrected for a second chance, not just his fellow believers.

[SmokingNtheGraveyard]

exactly my point. It's not about reaching people, it's about money. If they really thought the end of the world was near, then what good would money do them? Its obvious that they dont believe in their own BS.

[PurpleHoneyBear]

They're a non-profit. I think it's sort of a psychology of hierarchy where you've got Bethelites basically working their way up in the ranks until ultimately they get a chance at power. Whether that's being a district overseer or a Governing Body member - there's always a new status to achieve. So what happens is you just get people running in a theocratic rat race that is perpetual.

It's just what humans do. They exist in a sheltered and focused world, exposed to little of what's outside.

[Obasiliasfilosofos]

@PurpleHoneyBear

Sounds like a corporate ladder.

[PurpleHoneyBear]

It would give people an excuse not to go, which means they would lack the holy spirit, which is apparently only possible to obtain through meeting attendance.

I hate answering the phone too. I don't want anyone coming to my door, phoning me, or any of that nonsense. In today's market, you have to advertise WITHOUT MAKING PEOPLE WORK FOR IT.

They are so inefficient, it's hilarious. At least put out more ads.

[SmokingNtheGraveyard]

gag...phone witnessing... dont get me started

[PurpleHoneyBear]

Recently my brother came to preach to me in a blizzard. So you see a guy walking to the door in what is practically a whiteout. It's zealous, but insane.

I think one of the reasons they don't have a television station is because they want to get a hold of you one-on-one and then continue the hands-on approach, instead of preaching to people through television, which would contradict their doctrine of not forsaking the gathering of yourselves together.

[PurpleHoneyBear]

They did a commercial which was a blatant ripoff of the Church of Latter Day Saints ads. I actually thought it was a step in the right direction, but that was the first and last.

People would much rather you come to them through radio and television rather than having to pry open their door in -20 celsius weather so you can give them more paper to recycle.

I'm shocked that you don't find folks frozen in the snow ala The Shining what with the zeal with which the work is carried out.

[Obasiliasfilosofos]

C.T.Russel actually wrote columns in a New york newspaper, He also spent 6 million worth of today's money on the production of the The Photo-Drama of Creation using cutting edge technology that made it the first major screenplay which incorporated synchronized sound, That was a big attraction back in the 1910's.

There was a Radio channel during Rutherfords time.

[SmokingNtheGraveyard]

hmmm its like the JWs are going backwards. The more advanced the world becomes, the less they try to use what's available to them.