Well, I felt it would be inappropriate to write a letter to PBS complaining about their airing of this documentary, "Knocking", without having seen it myself, so I ordered a copy at the exorbitant cost of about $36, and it took over a month for it to arrive. I agree with Gary Buss, that it is very polished and well-done. A few quick reactions:
- The overall effect of the documentary for me, was to make it appear as if Jehovah's Witnesses are just like other people. It makes them appear very "human", very "normal". It accomplishes this with a bit of toying with the facts. For instance, we are introduced to a 23-year old single man who lives with his parents, is clean-cut and we see him in field service and at the Kingdom Hall. But in the introductory scene, he is playing a few heavy metal riffs on his electric guitar at high volume, and a CD of Van Halen is shown in the foreground. Of course, no mention is made of the fact that this is extremely atypical, and is the kind of music witnesses are warned to avoid. It is presented as if the Watchtower would have no problem in all of their young members listening to this type of music. To me, this was an attempt to make the religion more "palatable" to young people. This same tactic is used several times, making it appear as if what we all know is "disapproved" behavior, is in fact, perfectly normal and accepted among the witnesses. It really reminded me of the deception that is used in child custody cases. "Oh, no. We can play in school sports. Oh, no. We can participate in school plays. Of course we believe in higher education."
- In the bonus materials, there is an extensive interview with Philip Brumley, General Counsel for the Watchtower. He makes statements which he should know are outright lies, based on his client’s own publications. For instance, with reference to 1914, he says the witnesses have believed that the last days of this system began then and have believed that for over 100 years. As Ray documents in his writings, the Watchtower taught that the last days began in 1874, well into the late 1920’s.
- Much is made, both in the documentary and in the bonus materials, of how much the Watchtower has done in securing Freedom of Speech rights for their religion, and by extension, other groups. To me, an unbiased documentary would have also given some time to discussing the irony of how these very rights, if exercised by members of the organization are outlawed and punished severely within the culture of the religion. There is no free speech at meetings. Only carefully scripted dialogue. Any suggestion by a member, even in private conversation, that some policy or teaching of the Society may be incorrect or flawed, is systemically dealt with in the harshest manner.
- No effort seems to have been made on the part of the producer of this documentary to deal with the feelings of long time witnesses who are no longer active. Several interviews with former witnesses who were part of the religion for decades, asking them why they left and what problems they saw in the organization, would have gone a long way toward making this a more balanced presentation. But this project very obviously had the Watchtower’s blessing from the get go, and they no doubt exercised a powerful veto with regard to including any former members in this video. There’s not one. This is especially to me, what makes it a propaganda piece, rather than a documentary. Especially given the fact that there are many thousands of very articulate, former witnesses, who have been quite vocal about their serious concerns regarding the organization.
- I noted with interest the credits, which made special mention of those who provided funding for this video. I recognized three names there of people I personally knew when I was "in", who were reputed, even back then, as being exceptionally wealthy. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with their contributing to the project. But it would be hard for me to accept that there were no conditions attached. In my mind, it would certainly cast a shadow over any claim that this is an unbiased production. It would be like doing a documentary on the Republican Party, and having as your primary contributors to the project, prominent wealthy members of the Republican Party. Or, why not a real analogy? It would be like the US Government providing overwhelming financial support (your taxes at work) to the political candidates in Iraq that your administration seeks to have in power, and then claiming that Iraq has finally had a free and democratic election. Total bullshit, of course.
Overall, for me, the piece is a project in some ways like "Faith on the March", a book commissioned by the Society, but not published by the Society, to give the public the mistaken impression that even unbiased folks on the outside "really like us, they reallylike us." Of course, that project was funded by the Society, and the book written by MacMillan, I think, a Society official. Looking forward to any impressions from you. Also, I didn’t get a lot of response before, but are any of you interested in mounting a letter-writing campaign to local PBS stations? I believe the airing is in May. There’s still time to light a candle.
Lenny
