Watchtower tricks and deceptions

by slimboyfat 24 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  slimboyfat

  One of the first things that shocked me when learning the truth about the truth was how the organisation uses tricks and deception to fool their own membership. I guess we all have our own favourite examples, like the quotes in the publications that make outside sources look like they oppose the Trinity/support the NWT/disprove evolution, when in context the intent of the original source is quite different. Or the grossly exaggerated experiences delivered at conventions: if we happen to know the person or were present at the events described we know it's often garbage what they say on stage, more closely resembling a desired script emanating from headquarters than anything that actually happened to real Witnesses in the circuit or district.

  But there is another example I seem to recall, I thought was quite interesting, and I am looking for corroboration.

  Another deceptive tactic Watchtower writers have used is to quote themselves without telling the reader that's what they are doing. For example when some encyclopaedias are compiled they may ask JWs at the branch to provide information for their own entries. Hardly a great practice for a supposed impartial reference work, but apparently it does happen. Which is how you end up with The Encyclopedia Canadiana saying something like this:

  "The work of Jehovah's Witnesses is the revival and re-establishment of primitive Christianity practised by Jesus and his disciples ... All are brothers."

  Which JW writers then in turn quote in the publications, such as in the Kingdom News tract called "Will All People Ever Love One Another?" And regular JWs think: "wow, even secular writers and authorities recognise that about us, it must be true!" Not realising it was actually a brother at the branch who wrote the glowing comment in the first place. Pretty sneaky if you ask me.
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  AnnOMaly

  I only know about the Il Piccolo quote in the late '70s about earthquakes and seismic activity, discussed in Jonsson's and Herbst's (Persson's) Sign of the Last Days book.

  It was a funny one. The Italian journal Il Piccolo used stats and info harvested from a recent Awake! in one of its articles (one by Geo Malagoli) , then the WTS periodically quoted the info from Malagoli's article as if it was a neutral/independent source.
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  Phizzy

  Is this an even earlier example, fromChazzer Russell himself ? in Studies in the Scriptures, the Pyramidology one, he uses the phrase about the great Pyramid :

  "The Bible in Stone", in later pages he says, of the Pyramid , "Often called the Bible in Stone".

  I have a sneaking suspicion no one else used that phrase apart from Russell, until it was picked up by later loonies who still use it today to put forward the same tosh as Russell. There are loads of web-sites dealing with it. Nutters.
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  Fernando

  Maybe they reason the end justifies the means - since God supposedly had no choice but to appoint them.

  However, if God refuses to use deception, no matter how noble the end, where does that leave the spiritually blind, confused, inebriated and insane Watchtower "ruling religious clergy class"?
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  Bangalore

  Here is an example of that,SBF.

  http://www.docbob.org/wordpress/wt-misquotes-keiiti-aki-and-quotes-itself

  Bangalore
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  Oubliette

  I had only heard of the Il Piccolo example before.

  The WTBTS will go to great lengths to produce more propaganda about itself.

  It never ceases to amaze me!
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  slimboyfat

  Yeah I remember that one Ann. I think I remember another similar example where the Watchtowerr estimated that as many as 5,000 Witnesses died in Nazi Germany, a secular source picked up the figure and used it, and later Watchtower publications cited the source as if were an independent source for the figure. Later research revealed a much lower figure.

  I really wonder if these sorts of situations are the result of carelessness and stupidity or genuine disregard for integrity and scholarship. On the one hand it is easy to imagine a naive young Watchtower writer using these sources unaware of the provenance of the information. On the other hand it is also unfortunately easy to imagine a dyed in the wool JW cynically using these outside sources believing that using such sources without full disclosure is justified in the service of "the Truth".
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  new hope and happiness

  Slimboyfat, in my opinion the W.T has a responsibility for what they publish. The magazine is established over 100 years with a latge readership and distribution and they have to be above carelessness in what they write.
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  slimboyfat

  Sure I don't disagree with you they are culpable either way. But it would be interesting to know if these sorts of examples are a result of ignorance or lack of integrity.
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  AnnOMaly

  Hi slim,

  OK - the one you want corroboration on. It's been buzzing in the back of my mind all day.

  The Encyclopedia Canadiana quote (Vol. 5, 1970 - snippet on Google books) does sound like it has been written by a loyal JW. No idea who wrote the article. The earliest WTS quote on the CD-ROM library is 1985.

  However, what was buzzing in my head was the account of Jim Penton who said he wrote the articles on JWs in an Encyclopedia but then Fred Franz took over - was driving me nuts to find it. Anyway, hubby dug around and got it. The Encyclopedia was not the Canadiana, but the Canadian Encylopedia. Different. We have a photocopy of the 1985 Canadian Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, entry on JWs written by Penton (p. 915).

  It's not the droid we're looking for.

  In Apocalypse Delayed (1997, 2nd ed.) on p. 395, n. 58, he says,

  "I know this from personal experience. While I was preparing an article on Jehovah's Witnesses for the second edition of The Canadian Encyclopedia, the editor of that work received a letter from Eugene Rosam of the society's Canadian branch offices in Georgetown, Ontario, complaining about the article that I had written for the first edition of the encyclopedia, and asserting that, since I was no longer associated with Jehovah's Witnesses, the editor should find a Witness in good standing to write the article on the Witnesses. Rosam went on to cite the example of The Encyclopedia Americana, which had requested Frederick Franz to compose the article on Jehovah's Witnesses for its then current edition. Since then, the Americana has contacted me to replace Franz's article with one of my own. The current edition of the Americana contains my article, as does the third edition of The Canadian Encyclopedia."

  So, long and short of it is, I have no idea whether or not the oft-quoted Encyclopedia Canadiana extract was in (indisputable) fact written by a loyal JW - even though it 'feels' like it was.