Maryland congregation gave me false info

by Alleymom 28 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Alleymom

  Oops --- Edited because somehow I managed to post a blank message. My apologies.

  Last month a couple of JW's stopped by. "Eve" showed me the latest WT with an article about Noah. As she flipped through the magazine, I saw that the article had a chronology timeline. I used that as an opportunity the bring up the subject of 607 BCE. I told her that I had discussed the chronology with another JW about 7 years ago, and that she had never been able to show me one single source that agreed with the WT date of 607 BCE for the destruction of Jerusalem.

  (I am not a JW. My husband used to be an editor at an archaeology magazine and I majored in religion, hence my/our interest in Bible chronology. I have read The Gentile Times Reconsidered, Crisis of Conscience. etc., and thought this might be an interesting way to start a discussion and get Eve to think about some issues regarding the Society.)

  A couple of weeks later she and her husband dropped off a packet of information at my door. I was sick, so my husband answered the door (he was just half awake, too) and took the packet.

  Pages 2-15 have some articles cut-and-pasted from the WT CD. (With a VERY interesting omission ...more on that below).

  But page 1 is REALLY interesting.

  I don't know if the woman's husband put this together or if an elder gave it to them, but it is a well-done forgery. At the top of the page is a definition of the terms CE and BCE. Just under this is a screen print of the britannica web page with the term BCE entered into the search box. So this would give one the impression that the definitions come from the Britannica, right?

  But something struck me as fishy. For one thing, the fonts didn't match. Secondly, the definition refered to BCE as a "new" term, which is not true. It called AD "an acronym", which is inaccurate (it is an abbreviation, not an acronym). Other phrases and wording didn't ring true, either --- I knew the Britannica would not refer to Jesus as Yeshua ben Nazareth.

  So I went to the Britannica website and entered BCE and guess what? I came up with a screen that looked just like the bottom half of page 1 of the JW document, but the definitions weren't there!

  I did a websearch on some of the phrases on altavista, and I did find the source of the definitions CE and BCE. They come from www.religioustolerance.org. It turns out this is site maintained by five people: an agnostic, an atheist, a Christian, a WICCAN, and a Zen Buddhist.

  Can you believe this JW couple gave me definitions plagiarized from a site run by a Wiccan (with banner ads for love spells and love spell kits <s>!) and cut-and-pasted so as to give the appearance that the definitions came from the Britannica website! How about THAT?!

  I hope they come back so we can discuss this.

  The rest of the packet was cut-and-pasted from the WT Library CD. The main article is WT 8/15/68, "The Book of Truthful Historical Dates". It gives a long list of sources which support 539 BCE as the year Babylon was overthrown by Cyrus. My husband and I own several of the books which are cited. I would really LOVE to show them Parker and Dubberstein's Babylonian Chronology. Their article cites p. 13 as showing Babylon falling in 539. What the WT article doesn't mention is that on the facing page Parker and Dubberstein show Nebuchadnezzar's regnal years, followed by the other neo-Babylonian kings. If they want to cute P & D for 539, they need to accept 586 as well.

  I'd appreciate any advice (and prayers for guidance from the Christians here). If Eve and her husband do not come back do you think I should try to contact them through the Kingdom Hall? I do not know their last name. Should I report this plagiarism to the head of the congregation? (But what if he is the one who gave it to Eve and her husband?) I feel as if this remarkable forgery from a pagan website ought to be able to be used constructively to open some eyes, but I am not sure where to go with it. Should I copy the whole article along with my print-outs from the religioustolerance.org site and send it to WT headquarters? Any ideas?

  BTW, this is the congregation attended by the artist-formerly-known-as-Prince when he is n the DC area. I wonder how HE would react if he knew an elder at his congregation was passing off info from a love-spell-selling site as infro from the Britannica?

  Marjorie
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  OrbitingTheSun

  What congregation? I'm from Maryland.
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  Alleymom

  Orbiting the Sun --- it is the Bowie congregation.

  I forgot to explain that the packet with the cut-and-pasted WT articles has an interesting omission. The end of the 8/15/68 article says that the chronology "will become more apparent in the following article." Hmmm, what following article would that be? My packet gives the titles and references and paragraph numbers to all the articles cited with one exception. Strangely enough, the elder "forgot" to cut-and-paste the title and paragraphs #1-3 of the following article. I looked it up (I bought a CD from eBay awhile ago.) The title is "Why are YOU Looking forward to 1975?"

  I'd really like to know if Eve and her husband were members in 1975. I would really like to know if they are the ones who put this packet together and "forgot" to include the title of that article. I could be wrong, but I suspect that they didn't do this themselves, but were handed the info from an elder.

  Marjorie
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  DJ

  Hi Alleymom and Welcome,

  I am not surprised believe it or not. This is what is called "theocratic warfare" to a jw. They condone lying by it. This is an unusual experience but not surprising to me anyway. Next time don't answer the door and keep some peace in your life. love, dj
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  OrbitingTheSun

  I would really like to know if they are the ones who put this packet together and "forgot" to include the title of that article. I could be wrong, but I suspect that they didn't do this themselves, but were handed the info from an elder.

  I have known overly zealous pioneer sisters to gather information from various sources and use it in meetings and in field service. Like DJ, it does not surrprise me that you were given false information. They have themselves convinced, but don't realize that most ("worldly") people are not convinced--and expect reliable "worldly" sources.
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  Nickey

  Hey, I use to go to the Bowie Congregation. Isn't that somethin'...
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  Alleymom

  I have known overly zealous pioneer sisters to gather information from various sources and use it in meetings and in field service.

  Orbiting -- I'm curious. Were those pioneer open about what their sources were? This info I was given is really deceitful because it has been made to appear as if it comes straight from the Britannica site, when it doesn't. I've been told that deception is accepted as a part of theocratic war stategy --- but wouldn't ANY eyebrows be raised if it were known that this info was taken from a site run by a Wiccan, an atheist, an agnostic, and a Buddhist, a site where love spell kits are sold?

  If Eve and her husband did not put this info together themselves, do you think they would be shocked to find out that the elder who gave it to them got his info from such a source? When you were in the organization, would it have upset YOU if a householder showed you that an elder had given you info from a site like this? Or would you have shrugged it off as an all's-fair-in-theocratice-warfare kind of thing?

  DJ --- I have been opening the door for the past 13 years and talked to quite a few members of the Bowie congregation. They aren't allowed to talk to apostates, but they will usually talk to me (for at least a couple of visits). The older ones don't use the internet, but and the younger ones are supposed to, but I try to pique their curiosity in the hope that someday when they are alone they will look some of this up. For instance, two years ago I managed to show a stack of photos of Russell's gravesite next to the 9-foot pyramid to one of the JW's at my door while my husband spoke to the other man. He was fascinated and kept shuffling through the stack and exclaiming to his partner. Who knows? Maybe someday he'll do a search on Russell and pyramid and find out about the organization's past belief that the Pyramid was God's stone altar.

  Marjorie
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  Alleymom

  Hey, I use to go to the Bowie Congregation. Isn't that somethin'...

  Nickey -- Did you know any of these: Edna Harris, Lottie and Linwood Adams, Violet Adams, Cindy Dadyalla, Debbie Spooner, Marilyn Wilson, Timon Wilson, Mildred and Janice Bishop? What caused you to leave?
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  OrbitingTheSun

  ...but wouldn't ANY eyebrows be raised if it were known that this info was taken from a site run by a Wiccan, an atheist, an agnostic, and a Buddhist, a site where love spell kits are sold?

  One would hope so...but you never know. It depends on who is responsible for the information. I, personally, consider it plagarism and hypocrisy...but they have ways of protecting people in high places. If an elder or respected pioneer sister did it, they will find a way to cover it (or at least that is what I would expect to happen).
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  Alleymom

  I'd like to paste in a copy of the page, but I don't see anything showing up.