Can JW Television (digital news) be trusted?

[Srecko Sostar]

I am sharing with you a very important view of the WTJWorg organization and their international information system on their official site. 

 

 

[JW Insider]

It's very difficult to make a presentation without showing bias. The things that are important to one person or group or religion are the thing reported, not the things that are much less important. This presentation above was extra careful to present only things that were factual, but even here a couple of biases slipped in.

For one thing, the narrator claims by strong implication that no changes to CSA policy were initiated in the wake of the Australian Royal Commission. This isn't true. First of all, Bro Jackson made some excellent points about how responsibility for CSA policies cannot just be one-sided where all blame appears to be put on an organization when the organization itself often has no blame in the matter. Primary blame is always on the perpetrators of the crime, but policies to deal with it include government and law enforcement policies. It's true that many individuals within the organization have not always followed the law, but the law itself is often inconsistent, and frankly, the authorities have not earned public trust.

The ARC pointed out some of these egregious mistakes and even cover-ups. But the truth is that CSA policies were updated CORRECTLY in the wake of the ARC, and there was also a kind of "public service announcement" that addressed a necessary attitudinal shift among Witnesses: There was to be no more thinking that covering up CSA crimes somehow protected the reputation of the organization. From now on the emphasis was on the fact that all the shame should be centered on the perpetrator. Also, there has been a heightened awareness and sensitivity to the legal issues and more legal personnel have been aiding the organization in this regard.

I get the impression that these new policies and emphasis have been working. There are fewer and fewer NEW cases being tried against JWs. There are many cases still being tried and pending, but they are nearly always from CSA reports that predate the updated policies.  

[TrueTomHarley]

52 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

and there was also a kind of "public service announcement" that addressed a necessary attitudinal shift among Witnesses: There was to be no more thinking that covering up CSA crimes somehow protected the reputation of the organization. From now on the emphasis was on the fact that all the shame should be centered on the perpetrator. Also, there has been a heightened awareness and sensitivity to the legal issues and more legal personnel have been aiding the organization in this regard.

The reproach of the abuser falls on the abuser, not the congregation. It was indeed a timely attitudinal shift. It’s a chapter that was in TTvtA, and now will have to be included somewhere else.

https://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2019/02/the-reproach-of-child-sexual-abuse-falls-on-the-abu.html

[ComfortMyPeople]

 

 

(1 Corinthians 5:1) . . .Actually sexual immorality is reported among you, and such immorality as is not even found among the nations—of a man living with his father’s wife. 

Well, I agree that the fault lies with the perpetrator, but the shame falls on the whole of God's people. What are we to think of what Paul mentions to the Corinthians? Well, surely the Christians of that city would be criticized, it is most likely.

In fact, when we used to say to the victims something like: "don't report him so as not to bring reproach to the name of Jehovah" it was because, sadly, his name really did get dirty.

I also agree with the report that our site only presents positive information: successes, victories and achievements, but not the opposite. As a politician here in Spain said (and I'm sure it's the same everywhere) "others are already there to criticize us, we don't have to do it ourselves."

And I agree with the argument that we have used naivety in acknowledging the errors of the biblical writers as proof of the authenticity of the Bible.

I do not think it is debatable that at the Organization level there have been very few times where we have recognized doctrinal or other errors. And I prefer not to delve into this precise subject because he is one of the ones that hurts me the most.

Finally, with regard to Spain, from where I write, due to the fact that general elections have been called for next July, this tax exemption measure has been postponed, and we will see if with a new government it will be able to enter into force or not. A letter read to congregations this week acknowledged this situation.

[Pudgy]

During the time of the old Soviet Union, and even today, the major newspaper, similar to the New York Times was and is called “Pravda”.

“Pravda” in Russian means “Truth”, about which the book “1984” was written.

Any relationship to anything specifically labeled as news in the Watchtower is exactly the same as anything that was labeled as news in Pravda.

Spin.

Only expect to hear a good news that extols the virtues of the Watchtower or the Soviet Union.

The perfect example of this is how the Society reported their relief efforts after the hurricane  destruction of Haiti.

It was truly embarrassing to read, if you knew what was left out.

Since 2008 the world has gone bat-crap crazy, NOTHING from ANY source should be believed at face value!!

 

[Srecko Sostar]

The minister invited the representatives of the 4 religions and they all sat together with him at same table and smiled at each other because of the money that would be left in their pockets. These photos are not shown to the JW audience. Is there a reason for that?

[Srecko Sostar]

It is shameful for WTJWorg Australia (in reality the USA headquarters) that it agreed to join the national redress scheme only after being warned that it would lose its charity status and tax exemptions. Since 2015, there is still nothing about these events on JWTV.

It seems the only solution for the world authorities to get WTJWorg to cooperate is through financial pressure. It is a language that Religious Corporation of NY understands.

 

The very significant aka devastating testimony of a GB member before the ARC will never be on JWTV. On that occasion, Geoffrey Jackson publicly denied the core teaching of WTJWorg. He announced that GB in NY is not the only FDS (Chanel) on this planet that God is using to spread his word.

The reason he is still on the Board of Directors of the Corporation is because all the other members think like him, and that is that they are not FDS. They are FDS only for rank and file JW. Only for the purposes of the doctrine that gathers believers in a vain idea.

 

[JW Insider]

57 minutes ago, Fausto Hoover said:

I'm curious as to why the 383 incidents that involved police weren't included in the ARC investigation.

I wouldn't be surprised at this. Do you have a source? Is there a reason that the Watchtower lawyers forgot to include this in any kind of defense? I heard a rumor about this too but was surprised that it took so many years for this rumor to begin circulating. But it seems reasonable, and if it were just made up by someone, I'm sure they would have picked a higher number. After all, 1000 perpetrators and at least 1500 unreported cases versus nearly 400 reported incidents is still embarrassing. I'm sure privacy issues were a part of this too, especially in cases of incest, where family members and even victims often insist that nothing is reported to authorities. I now know one of the Australian CSA victims personally, and he says that many cases are about incest, but his own was not. (For him, it was multiple instances of rape over a period of a couple of years. When a young friend of his finally talked him into turning in his rapist, the elder threatened him with blackmail based on lies. )

But I'm all too aware of the old policies of protecting the reputation of the organization (aka, not bringing reproach upon Jehovah's name). My sister went through this with a physically abusive husband and was threatened with discipline herself if she let hospital personnel become aware of her true reasons for being treated. Not nearly so traumatic was my own experience when a Bethelite stole my money on his last day at Bethel. I confided the issue to an elderly brother who lived next door and he and several elders at Bethel wanted me to let it go, not say a word, and they would get the Home Office to refund it. But I took my cue from Brother Knorr who was publicly dismissing at least one Bethelite a week for theft during this time by announcing their dismissal and reasons for it at Morning Worship. So I thought it better to contact the elders in his congregation. I ended up getting the money back. But I wasn't worried about the money. I knew my parents or my brother would replace it in an instant. I think I was just angry at the thief and wanted him to face the music.

[JW Insider]

38 minutes ago, Fausto Hoover said:

Could you please provide a source that supports your statement? My understanding is that there have been a total of 1006 cases within a 20-year time frame.

Yes, I can. I'll look it up again. I saved the spreadsheet that the ARC had as one of their documents along with a lot of other documents they had on their site. If you can provide the source I asked about (those 383 cases), I will go look up the sources again.

If memory serves, however, it was 1006 perpetrators and about 1700+ children. (Many perpetrators are reported to abuse more than one child over long periods of time.) Over a third of the cases were related to their abusers, although this does not always fit the term "incest" which I used rather loosely above. Also although a 20-year time frame covered MOST of the cases, there were several outliers that went further back. I think there might have even been a case where a perpetrator might have admitted to starting his crime spree as early as 1938.

[JW Insider]

30 minutes ago, Fausto Hoover said:

Understood, let me know if there's anything I can help you with.

Yes. There is. Hopefully, you can help with that Reddit source for the 383 incidents you mentioned. Thanks.

[JW Insider]

34 minutes ago, Fausto Hoover said:

Please refer to the information I posted for your consideration.

Thanks. I had read the Holly Folk article on bitterwinter some time ago, and I forgot that number 383 reported because Holly Folk was extremely careful to say things that were supportive of the Watchtower's position, yet she seemed to have carefully worded that line so that it didn't actually say that it was the congregations that had reported those 383 incidents. Her article only tried to imply it was the congregation who reported these incidents by saying the 383 was evidence there wasn't a cover-up. Obviously someone had reported them. But there were no reports that Witnesses had ever reported any. Remember that some of these cases were listed in the database because when a CURRENT case comes up in a  congregational judicial matter, the accused may admit to crimes prior to even becoming a Witness. The same issue has come up in the United States where persons previously convicted of CSA crime have become Witnesses only later in life, but their confessions even to prior crimes would be included in a record of some kind so that the elders would know what to watch out for. Some current Witnesses have even served time in their past for previous convictions. Obviously, anything that resulted in a conviction had been reported somewhere, whether a teacher, a bartender, a friend of the victim, a non-Witness parent, or a Witness who went against counsel from the elders.

What I was saying before was that I wouldn't be surprised if the numbers are skewed somehow. It's hard to believe that of 1700 incidents and 1000 perpetrators, not one JW would report. 

[JW Insider]

20 minutes ago, Fausto Hoover said:

Although I intended to share the link, it turned out that the hyperlink was automatically generated. I hope I won't get in trouble.

Thanks. I didn't go too far down the reddit hole to figure out where the person who made the comment was coming from. He seems not to always be very careful with the numbers and his understanding. But anyway, it's clear that his source is Holly Folk, and perhaps someday I will try to find out what HER source was. Perhaps there was a review of statistics coming from the ARC that I missed. At any rate, if the number came from the ARC, then that doesn't provide ammunition against the ARC for bias -- and that was what I was looking for. But if the numbers came from elsewhere, I'd love to know who gave them to Holly Folk and if she quotes a source.