“We live in a world in which lies, deceit, and violent anger are commonplace,” warned one 1988 Watchtower. “Satan makes full use of the media to put across this degraded mentality.” (w88 9/1 p.16 par.13)
The above statement is typical of the sweeping anti-media rhetoric Witnesses continue to hear from Watchtower, both in the publications and from the platform. A recent Awake! article slammed the media for its “misleading statements and outright lies about Jehovah’s servants.”
Witnesses are raised to believe that the media belongs to Satan. Anything reported by newspapers, news channels or magazines is therefore not to be trusted. Witnesses are to instead place their implicit trust in Watchtower publications, which promise that “in the new world, Satan’s propaganda media will have been removed.” (w97 4/1 p.17 par.16)
However, by condemning the media to such an outrageous extent, Watchtower has a problem. If the media is truly under Satan’s control, how are they able to use it so freely?
Consider the following paragraph from the latest God’s Kingdom Rules! book, which is being released at the 2014 series of conventions (bold is mine)…
“Coordinators’ Committee – The brothers serving on this committee oversee legal matters as well as the use of the media when it is necessary to convey an accurate picture of our beliefs. They also respond to disasters, outbreaks of persecution, and other emergencies affecting our brotherhood anywhere in the world.” – God’s Kingdom Rules!, page 131
The truth is, the Governing Body has become quite adept at “using” the media to get its message across when the opportunity presents itself.
Anyone who subscribes to Google Alerts for Jehovah’s Witnesses will notice that by far the majority of news articles that get flagged up by Google are positive in favor of the Witnesses. Many are written in such a one-sided way that you would think they were penned by Watchtower’s PR department.
Take, for example, a recent UK article on public witnessing in which my old friend Rick Fenton, the London Bethel’s up-and-coming “publicity officer,” was asked to comment.
Rick Fenton, a publicity officer in the movement, said: “It has been suggested in some media reports public witnesses have replaced the door to door work but it has not.
“It has been going on for the last couple of years on a much larger scale – it was piloted in New York City.”
In central London alone, 1,300 witnesses hand out about 160,000 magazines and 20,000 books in a typical month.
Mr Fenton said although the operation outside stations like Ilford, Redbridge and Wanstead is much smaller – the aim is still the same.
“The literature explains the bible’s message – this is what we are focusing our efforts on,” he said.
“Reading the bible initially is a bit like visiting London for the first time – you need a guide book.
“What the bible says is really practical for life in the 21st century.”
No former Witnesses are interviewed to give their perspectives on possible motives for the public witnessing campaign. Dubious or downright harmful elements of Watchtower literature, such as the stigmatization of higher education or the urging of Witnesses to shun disfellowshipped family members, are not discussed.
Harry Kemble, who wrote the article, seems to be only interested in getting Watchtower’s perspective, and gifting the organization the platform it sorely craves. The Ilford Recorder thus, albeit briefly, lowers itself to becoming just another cog in Watchtower’s PR machinery.
How any Witness can read this article and conclude that “ah, Satan’s media is at it again with its misleading statements and outright lies about Jehovah’s servants,” is beyond me. It should be perfectly obvious to anyone that there is some serious cherry picking afoot.
Watchtower cannot have it both ways. When the media gets it right about the organization and discusses issues such as blood transfusions, shunning or child abuse they cannot cry “foul” and blast everything as “Satan’s media” while simultaneously exploiting the same media as a PR tool when it suits them.
In reality, the media is mostly indifferent to Jehovah’s Witnesses. Three years of effort on my part to convince journalists to show more interest have convinced me that, if anything, the Witnesses are considered a taboo subject. Most investigative journalists seem to prefer to focus on easy targets such as Scientology or the Westboro Baptist Church – cults so small and outrageous that they can safely put the boot in without offending hardly anyone.
All the while Watchtower flourishes in a relative vacuum of media interest, where the media’s paranoia surrounding respect for religious freedoms allows the Governing Body to continue violating those same freedoms for any Witnesses who happen to figure it all out.
Further reading…
For ex JWs this comes as no surprise at all. The governing body are famous for speaking out of both sides of their mouth. It happens every time. That way whatever happens, they can find an article that backs up what they have just said. So if they need to comment about how unjust the media is to them, they will find an article about it, and if they want to show how the media can be useful they will show that as well.
So it is totally hypocritical of course, but that is how they work.
Agreed. I also think the [sad] truth is that the media simply sees the JW org as grey and dull. I can imagine the editor’s conversation now… “They’re nice guys, they keep their heads down. Where’s the angle? Find me a Scientologist – or better still an Armish instead!” But in fact the media should call to mind the old adage: ‘It’s always the quiet ones you need to keep an eye on’.
We shouldn’t worry to much about the hypocrisy and double-talk, and be glad the Watchtower is shooting itself in the foot by now promoting it’s internet website so strongly (www.jw.orgy), because as we know, there is no growth in the western world where the internet information highway is well established, so this current internet focus is encouraging those in the third world to hurry up and by their PC’s and IPADs, where they will quickly discover all the Watchtower filthy dirty laundry and lies by a quick Google and curious peek at websites like this. Hooray!
John,
An excellent logical, coherent argument!
The WTBTS are saying, “the media is Satan’s tool, except when it’s ours!”
What do you think is the next step for us? I want to help.
Peace be with you
Excelsior!
Please take notice how the devil in the photo at the top has a goatee beard. Now you see? Beards ARE bad! Only bad people have beards!
On a serious note, thanks John!
I am surprised more media has not picked up on the child abuse issue.
I think a lot of journalists pretty much consider Jehovah’s Witnesses to be harmless, weird, but harmless.
I think one of the reasons the media focuses on the cult of Scientology is because of their celebrity members. As for the Westboro Baptist Church, they really put themselves out there by utilizing some very extreme measures, protesting at the funerals of fallen soldiers and picketing outside of schools and other institutions that homosexuals attend holding up signs that read “God Hates Fags” and “God Hates America,” stirring up controversy which I believe the media just cannot ignore.
The court victories of childhood sexual abuse survivors against the WTBTS, if these are history making cases, (i.e. Candace Conti v. WTBTS) and the monetary awards that are granted to these survivors, if they are large, (i.e. the $28 million awarded to Candace Conti as reported in the New York Times) is the only thing that will seem to be newsworthy to journalists and the media at large concerning Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Lately, I’ve come to suspect that one of the main reasons the post-Rutherford regime promoted the WTS’s vaunted “neutrality” to such an extreme degree was to ensure that – because they didn’t make political or cultural waves anymore – they’d be left alone enough to internally run the Org as authoritarian as they wanted.
If satan controls the media, why should they worry ? – If
God controls their organization , it’s no contest, Their
problem is , they are so easily exposed, so many failed
end time predictions, doctrinal flip flops, ( what is truth one
year is false the next,) and many practices that are
abhorrent to the media using public as a whole.
Should it surprise us they’re, willing to use the “Satan
controlled media”, They had no qualms about joining the
U,N, (Satan’s Counterfeit kingdom), for ten years, until the
Guardian Newspaper exposed them, causing a hasty
withdrawal, One has to ask, If God’s real Kingdom has
been here since1914 , why did Jehovah allow his own
Organization to become involved with Satan’s counterfeit,
It’s just a muddle isn’t it.
The medias main focus is on celebrity, and sport, I think the
Org, would be glad of a bit of publicity, even negative publicity,
they could then claim persecution,( The whole worlds against
us, it proves we’re the.true religion), The machinations of Satan
being directed against them only, is a constant theme.
In their present form their days are numbered, their ideas are
screwy and very few people are going to fall for them,
Now there are thousands of ex J,W,s who have a voice
via the net, we know what goes on what this organization
Is all about, no wonder they’re warning people off us.
Old World JW thought: Satan is behind every fence post and hiding in that potluck dish you brought to an unsanctioned (by elders) “get-together” where you played unapproved (by elders) music and tapped your foot (provocatively) [wags head in disgust].
New World JW thought: hmmm, give me a minute, I’m still thinking..
New leadership is still doggedly trying to polish the bisho–image!–of the Watchtower. A few choice “leaks” (press releases) to the media and its striving to “influence”/divert the conversation from scandal and controversy to sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows (Lesley G.). It reminds me of those film noir where a slap-happy tune plays as ambience while a sinister act unfolds visually, because this slap-happy tune plays as the Watchtower scoots focus away from its verbal, sexual and physical abuse of its rank and file members, especially the children. Pay no attention to that scandal behind the curtain, we are the great Organization!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8aFVAOwlXI
Old World JW thought: Satan is behind every fence post and hiding in that potluck dish you brought to an unsanctioned (by elders) “get-together” where you played unapproved (by elders) music and tapped your foot (provocatively) [wags head in disgust].
New World JW thought: hmmm, give me a minute, I’m still thinking..
New leadership is still doggedly trying to polish the bisho–image!–of the Watchtower. A few choice “leaks” (press releases) to the media and its striving to “influence”/divert the conversation from scandal and controversy to sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows (Lesley G.). It reminds me of those film noir where a slap-happy tune plays as ambience while a sinister act unfolds visually, because this slap-happy tune plays as the Watchtower scoots focus away from its verbal, sexual and physical abuse of its rank and file members, especially the children. Pay no attention to that scandal behind the curtain, we are the great Organization!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8aFVAOwlXI&w=1280&h=720%5D
no spam
There has never been any media reporting on the Conti case in Australia, strange as here they are still having a Royal Commission into child sexual abuse and other abuse of children in homes and religions.
Excelsior, would it be possible to organize ourselves to have a mega lawsuit against the watchtower for all the mental suffering they caused all of us through their murderous and insidious “laws”?? It could be hundreds of us against them. Just a thought.
It also surprises me that the news media has not picked up on the child abuse issues.
Nancy Grace is usually all over stories dealing with sexual abuse cases. I never heard her ever mention Candice Conti case.
John,
Your victory will never be in the old media where finding an audience based upon what sells the most ads is the criteria for publishing articles. Your victory is, as you state in your website, your honest articles that you post that represent silent majority. I am certain you know that, because of the amount of work that you do and the fact that you do not quit. This victory is one person at a time until more voices are raised from the grass roots. You are helping many to raise their voices from bondage to freedom.
More importantly, I wanted to say thank you to you for all you do. WT and media outlets are failing those who look to them for real leadership. A true leader never compromises truth for profits or fame. Stay up front John the battle has only just begun. We are watching your backside so you can continue to lead the charge.
Thanks tiger123! As Patrice mentioned I don’t think of myself as a leader, but I know what you mean. You’re very kind! :)
@tiger123
I’m sure John would hate to be thought of as a leader.
That scares me because I spent too many years being led.
I think he will be watching his own backside. I will be watching mine. I know it is highly unlikely, but if I felt this was turning into ‘a following’ I would be ‘a leaving’
No offence meant but your comment is a tad worrying.
The message from the GB is simple here: Anything you hear about the WT that is good is true, anything bad that you hear is a lie from Satan, whether in the media or anywhere. They already know the rank and file are not thinking (maybe can’t think in some cases?), after all, they have swallowed the over-lapping generation teaching, which is beyond ridiculous. So much for checking every inspired expression.
Right now they are basically standing on the roof top shouting who they really are by their actions. If you knew a person who loudly insisted that only the good things you heard about them were true and the bad things were all lies from their evil slanderous enemy, you would most likely not trust that person. Sadly such simple logic doesn’t apply here.
@Patrice
Weird interpretation. Quite frankly perhaps the oddest thing I have read on here in a while. Are you John’s family? Why do you choose to speak for him as to whether or not people should support him in his endeavors?
By the way the way I did not say John was a dictator, I said leader which is vastly different. Leading can be as simple as setting a good example of journalistic integrity. Quite frankly I find it absurd that you acted as if you knew what I meant without first asking for clarification. Whatever the case may be, my comment was not directed at you it was merely an attempt to show gratitude for another man’s hard work.
You read the article and you chose to rudely assert your opinion on a comment that had nothing to do with you, nor did you state anything of value other than to try and bend my comment into some odd cultish view of Johns reporting and an offer of solidarity that you twisted into something truly strange.
Lastly, I waited a long time before ever choosing a website to comment on. The reason I waited is, because of comments like yours. I see criminals every day where I work. They try to be slick and take advantage of others and see others suffer even if it brings them no gain. Your attempt at making my comment look bad is at best an attempt to make yourself look wiser than me and at worst you get pleasure out of restating other peoples comments out of context so as to create conflict that isn’t there.
My apologies to everyone who had the misfortune of reading this exchange, including this comment.
All logic flies out of the window when it comes to what the witnesses will believe in relation to anything that comes forth from the GB. During my time as a witness, I observed individuals who hung on every word printed in the Watchtower and who were so excited when “new light” would come out. When I would speak to my friends or relatives who were still witnesses about the problems that I saw within this organization, all I would get was blank stares and an underlying sense that I was endangering their spirituality. I believe that any negative media coverage would be viewed by many of the rank and file witnesses as an attack on them personally and they would not see the real story. Notwithstanding this, I still think that the media should report on any improprieties/problems/human rights issues/scandals which come up within this religion
tiger,
Patrice simply misunderstood your comment. I am sure that she understands now that you have added to your comment.
Sadly, Patrice has been badly hurt by the WTBTS. She has my deep and sincere sympathy for her pain and suffering. She is rightly concerned with being led by people again.
Patrice, it is patently obvious that Cedars is not our leader, and this is not what tiger meant. He has no desire to be a leader of people, he is simply a good man trying to help us all.
Patrice and tiger, I appreciate both of you very much. Both of you have commented many times on this site, and your comments have been positive and of great help to us all.
This is simply a misunderstanding, and I am sure that you will both appreciate this now.
I look, forward to many more wise and interesting comments from both of you in the future.
Peace be with you
Excelsior!
Thank you excelsior, and you are right. The comment made me go into overdrive at a time when I am trying still after twenty years not to feel controlled. I apologise sincerely to tiger123. My comment was never meant to insult. I would hate to lose the support of this site. As I have said before it has “set me free…really free”
Forgive me tiger :-( I am truly sorry.
Picking up on the W,T, comment, “Violent anger is
commonplace” “Satan makes full use of the media
to put this degraded mentality across”.
Their own literature expresses a great deal of violent
anger, indicating the degraded mentality of the
writer and those who approve it for publication
W,T, 15/7/ 1955, p436. Fields can be sprayed killing
only weeds but sparing the crops, Too bad they cannot
spray cities with bombs, that blow the bad. to bits but
leave the innocent intact.
Have these people ever seen the reality of a city sprayed
with bombs, as people in London, Cologne, Hiroshima,
and many more cities did during the 1939-45 war.
And who are the “Innocent” who are to be left intact,?
It’s certain that those with such a callous indifference to
human suffering don’t qualify as innocent.
The Watchtower also says the Wall Street is in the hands of Satan, that doesn’t stop them from investing in Hedge funds which are into armaments and drug laundering.They use the media just like they use Wall
street.
All they are doing is preparing the sheep of the flock to see the Candice Conti case “which should be resolved shortly and they know it” as Satan pursuing the chosen one’s. In fact, when this news comes out the members will see how the GB in the Watchtower is giving good food at the appointed time.
They will try to turn the news around and portray themselves as prophetic. After the Candice Conti case is settled I look forward to the next time a witness knocks at my door so that I might say “how do I know if you are not a child molester or protecting one”.
The Bible says somewhere that for everyone that questions you, you must have an answer. I wonder how many publishers after the Candice Conti case is on the nightly news will be forced to defend the polices of the Watchtower in their door to door work. I think a lot of them will end up be ashamed defending what is indefensible, and rightfully so.
Hedge funds invest in media companies too.
Thank you Patrice and excelsior
Patrice I too am sorry. I hope you will forgive me.
When I was first starting work a very wise old guy said to me, “Around here, the rules only apply to you and only when convenient.” Keep that in mind with the GB. This includes using the Satan card, new light card, faithful and discrete slave card, eisegesis from the bible, creating a bible verse collage story to justify a ‘moral’ position, on and on. Blaming a vague pet devil here and there is just another tool in their brainwashing arsenal.
BTW: The guy in the red suit is kinda funny looking. Not my idea of the patron saint of hell.
I love your graphics. They are a “hoot”!
:-)
Back when I was a witness, the Soviet Union was still going strong. David Shipler, a New York Times correspondent at the time, referred in his book: Solemn Dreams, Broken Promises, concerning the communist system, to “carefully constructed truth”. They controlled all the media they could at the time, much like the Witnesses have for years. It really got me thinking about the parallels……..
What am I thinking of! The U.N. is of Satan the Devil, but did that stop the GB from becoming a NGO secretively. What jokers and hypocrites.
JBob, that was awesome, you didn’t just hit the nail, you obliterated it. Let’s be honest post the 1914 and 1975 debacles the Tower needs Satan fear as their new niche. They can’t no longer hang out the “Want to survive the Tribulation?, come inside”.
Oh yeah….. you chuckle…….I don’t think it’s funny…..I think it’s disgusting
That UN hypocrisy, the stain that can not be erased. Of course the Judge’s letter kissing up to Hitler, hasn’t helped much either.
So right! I remember how I was convinced by these arguments from the GB/Society.
Somewhat off topic, but I have to say; it would be VERY interesting to be a ‘fly on the wall’ in the room where the GB formulates their crafted messages to the elders or rank and file. Could you imagine what they would say? “We said this and now we need to say that without messing up this and that.” “Who or what can we blame for our last pile of poo we made and said it was new light?” “Oh no! We can’t retract the blood ban! There will be numerous lawsuits to follow!” Blaming the devil on news media stories and internet sites that exposes their conspiratory ways is just another way to cover their predecessor’s tracks. I bet it’s a hard task to manage after all the slip-ups and dogma they have created over the years. Serves ‘em right!!!
Searcher, your comment made me laugh…thinking about how many spin-doctors they need just to keep up with all their “new lights”!!!
http://wiki.jw-archive.org/Timeline+of+the+%27Light+Getting+Brighter%27#x-Doctrines
They might need to use that site.
@ searcher
Good comment.
I was thinking the exact same thing myself, but concerning the two witness rule.
The GB cannot backtrack on this or bring a new light. If they were to say “we realise this could never have referred to child abuse” they could have lawsuits on their hands. Niether can they say “Jehovah has got this wrong” ooops apostasy. They would feel the full force of Satans tool ‘the media’ once everything hit the fan. But how on earth can they use the very tool they condemn, too talk their way out. I’m finding it a bit hard to express what I am trying to put over here. I hope its not too muddled.
Any brother who is a publicist for this organization,
If he is a person of integrity, must struggle with his
conscience in trying to present a pristine image,
Which requires, defending the indefensible.!
How do you defend, the unreasonable rule of needing
Witnesses to a pedophile assault, the severing of
family contact, for exercising your legal right to
withdraw from a religion you can no longer believe in,
How does his conscience square with the use of
euphemism’s, ( Disassociation, instead of,
Disfellowshipping,) Used so they can deny that they
disfellowship people who accept medical treatment
Involving a blood transfusion, when he know’s the same
harsh treatment is handed out in both cases.
His job as stated is to, “To convey an “Accurate picture
of our belief’s.” If he were to do that his employment
would be terminated, But I’m sure he would sleep a
lot easier.
Every time I hear “new light” I cringe–thoughts of David Koresh’s “new light” revelations that led him to take all the women as his (and little girls) wives. Far away from that at this point, but the ease with which the Wt Soc spins/justifies a new ideology while furiously throwing up smoke-screen of “we’re just normal/average door-knocking people” is disconcerting.
@Ted, take a closer look at Cedar’s allies and mentors, they WERE at the top strata of Wt Soc corporation and JW structure. This sort of dissonance does wear on the conscience of “righteous” individuals who do not hold to the “right-minded” ideals of “the Society” and believe in fairness and justice.
JBob, Thanks for that info, Does me good to
hear it.
When I lived in London, I attended the same congregation as Rick Fenton (Stoke Newington). When I first saw his picture in another article on this site I thought -‘he was quite nice, as far as elders go’ – but now I’m thinking he’s a very clever man and obviously good at lying. I know of some very dodgey things that went on in that congo. No way he doesnt know either. Yet he’s happy to defend and lie for the society. So sick of this bogus religion.