Dateline---That was It?

by Lindy 34 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Lindy

  Well, I am bucking the general consensus here that everything went well on Dateline. I thought it was fine as far as it went but looking at it through the local Jw eyes it will not get what you all and I hoped for. The show didn't put proof on all the cases we all know about. One half hour is all it got and on top of everything the last thing said was that all these ones involved were looking at a possible disfellowshipping. The local JW will view these people as apostates and as the WT called them, "dissidents." The JWs will close off there brains and all thinking process and consider this whole thing as an attack on Jehovah by Satan and a sign of the times of the end, which after this, must indeed be coming soon. It will make a few think, but I thought this show was going to expose much more than a couple of people and a couple cases. I thought that there was going to be more on how many people have stepped forward and many more interviews. Instead it was so short that I was amazed given all the information that was provided to Dateline and how long Dateline has been working on this.
  I know most here see a victory, and it is of sorts, but I can't see how this is going to turn the organization to running with it's tail between it's legs.
  When you were a JW and someone talked about the Organization negatively what did you think? When someone was causing trouble and you were told not to listen, what did you do? When someone tried to give to literature that was designed to question your JW thinking, what did you do? Well...most JWs are going to do what you did. They will go into denial mode and "wait on Jehovah." They will do anything but admit that the holy "Organization" could allow any such wrong doing as these "horrible" people on Dateline acussed "Gods people" of doing.
  I am afraid Dateline will have to do much more to convice any but a few JWs that anything is amiss.
  Personally, with all the info Dateline had they didn't even show the Silent Lambs website long enough for the average person to even notice it and Bill's accumulation of personal accounts in the high hundreds was so quickly dismissed by them saying that most of these persons were not even confirmed cases. JWs will say it is all a bunch of disgruntled JWs trying to make trouble.
  I personally don't expect this show to do more than a mild breeze through the JW community. Too bad. It could have been so much more.

  Lindy
• 

  Cygnus

  Lindy,

  : The show didn't put proof on all the cases we all know about.

  Are you nuts? Do you know how long a show that would have to be?

  The only thing I would have liked to have seen was more recognition and advertisement of watchtower.org and silentlambs.org URLs. And jehovahs-witness.com. :-)

  My concern is not that JWs will or will not leave the organization. My concern is that the truth come out and let the chips fall where they may. And that is what is going to happen.
• 

  myself

  If I had one(male) coming to my door I wouldn't hear what he said I would be wondering if he were lusting after my young daughter. He would have to leave immediately.
• 

  Realist

  what exactly was the point of this show? that the WT didn't report the cases to the police? and don't forget that was based on scriptures.
  i think this show will not convince a single JW to leave that cult.
• 

  Kay Francis

  I just spoke to my mother (an active JW), and she indicated that she told several JW's to watch the show. When she spoke to them after Dateline went off the air, they told her that they were so hurt for the girl that was raped, that they actually cried through the show. So I definitely believe that if a JW has the right heart, and can see through the lies, they would know where the real truth lies. Also, my concern is that other people don't get involved with the JW's. Anyone studying with them and contemplating joining the org, can now take a second look and do some investigation of the religion before joining. Can you imagine the number of non-JW's that watched the show that can now warn others from getting involved in this religion.

  I really think that for starters this Dateline show really HIT THE MARK.
• 

  Pepper

  I personaly have not seen it as I type this, I am in the moutain time zone. But I do not remember much of nay news of the Jehovah's Witness in my life time as a witness other than distric convention coverages which seems to give all the friends butterflys in the butts.
  So I look at this as a small snow ball as it begins to roll ever so slowly untill its moves a mountain. Pepper
• 

  Sam Beli

  It was an excellent show. Getting ½ hour on national TV is a huge task in itself.

  I agree that most JWs will not leave the WT, but we already know that most of them are brain-dead.

  It very well may make many viewers think much more carefully before accepting a bible study from a JW in the future.

  Sam Beli

  "...religion opposes the commandments of Almighty God." Violence by J. F. Rutherford 1938
• 

  lightbearer

  The Dateline show was excellent. The fact of the matter is: when under the mind control of self denial, that is, the fundamental lampost that one needs to lean on for strength and balance, there can be nothing that convince one otherwise of standing apart from the interior walls of security that exist much further than reality reveals. Anotherwards, for us and the world, this Dateline presentation was very well done. But for the neurotic that lives within the interior castle walls of his or her security, we can't ever expect a one time television segment to suddenly break down all barriers that have taken both years to build and have been used to bring a limited courage of self, but nevertheless, a courage to of being.

  "Ignorance, No Matter How Sanctified With Pious Words, How Buttressed by Scripture Quotations, Is Finally Still Ignorance" - John Shelby Spong
• 

  Lindy

  Cyg,
  What I meant by not showing all the cases, was not details, but more enphasis that there were so many more. They did just a light touch on that point and then there was a qualifier that they were not confirmed. In a JW mind that was a disqualifier. I know that many will be affected in or out of the Organization by this show and in a good way. It will at least make some JWs think and some "worldly" people question entrance into the WTBTS. I was just a bit disappointed more wasn't covered and that they didn't fill the hour. They certainly had the information to do so.
  Lindy
• 

  Dutchie

  Hi Lindy, did we see the same show? The Dateline I saw showed me that people who are proven and convicted sex abusers are protected in the congregation and the innocent victim is ostrasized. It showed me that Jehovah's Witnesses are an insular religion and that one of its teachings is that everyone who is not a witnesses is going to die. It showed me that people who want to speak out are told not to, to forget it, to wait for Jehovah. The show I watched showed me an organization who when asked for an interview sent a pr video. All in all, I saw a powerful program!