My attempt at correcting a heavily biased Wiki article

by cedars 33 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse

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  rip van winkle

  Thanks Cedars for your effort and hard work.
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  88JM

  Wikipedia is a whole different cult of it's own
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  cedars

  88JM - I know what you mean. Some of its rules are extremely pedantic, and heavily weighted in favour of organizations like Watchtower.

  Cedars
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  Refriedtruth

  *open source* Wiki is doctored up bias big time just check out the Scientiology pages
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  braincleaned

  Thank you Cedars... your work is awesome. You have my deepest respect and admiration.
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  tootired2care

  Nice moves Cedars!
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  ABibleStudent

  Kuddos for trying to prevent the WTBTS from revising its history on Wikipedia. It is interesting that the WTBTS is trying to use its financial resources to promote a more positive image of itself on the demonized internet.

  Is there a way to to edit the Wikipedia article's introduction to compare the WTBTS's actions to more proactive secular organizations and to summerize how the WTBTS has historically attempted to silence public dissent by JWs of the WTBTS's "two witness rule" using coersion, shunning, litigation, and gag-orders?

  The WTBTS has chosen to delay implementing effective child protection policies instead of proactively instituting policies like many USA non-profit organizations (i.e., Boy Scouts of America, Amateur Athletic Union, Civil Air Patrol, to name a few) that have implemented stringent child protection programs that require back-ground checks of all people that may come in contact with children, a zero tolerance policy of immediately contacting law enforcement of any chld abuse or molestation allegation, and that children are not to be left alone with a non-related adult.

  The article seems to ignor that people like Barbara Anderson (www.watchtowerdocuments.com) tried to work with the WTBTS since 1992 to get the WTBTS to implement more effective child protection policies and she eventually got frustrated with the WTBTS's inaction to create common sense child protection policies. Historically speaking the WTBTS has used every legal maneuver that it can to not implement effective child protection policies such as not complying with Victorian child protection laws in Australia until prosecutred by Steven UnThank for JW children, not settling with Candance Conti, and settling other lawsuits with monetary awards and gag orders.

  Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,

  Robert
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  mind blown

  Thank you for your long standing efforts Cedars! Not only making info clear, but also exposing the WTS for who they REALLY are. TTATT!!
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  Juan Viejo2

  Good work, Cedars.

  One thing that I know for certain and that is that I find Wikipedia more informative, and in general more accurate, than the classic hardbound encyclopedias we've all grown up with.

  I know that is quite an assertion, but I know it to be truthful.

  When I was growing up we had the Americana, the Brittanica, Colliers, World Book, and Funk & Wagnalls available to the masses. My parents bought F&W. Each year we would get a "yearbook" that included added material representative of the previous 12-36 months and a series of errata pages. During the 5 years that my parents bought that series (roughly 1952-1958) the yearbooks included errata that was about 50% of the entries. After 5 years, that set of encyclopedias became essentially obsolete. Public library sets of the majors had to be replaced about every ten years, but were so out of date they were basically useless for serious research.

  Wikipedia changes all of that. It is a living resource. Some of it is wrong, much of it is quite accurate and continues to be updated at frequent intervals.

  There is a prejudice against Wikipedia as a source for serious research, but for general information (like the Watchtower article above) it is often the most accurate resource available.

  Before you flame me for taking this position, just think about what Cedars did. He found errors and had the ability to access Wiki and correct it, or add his own notes. Try doing that with your Funk & Wagnalls!

  Just remember, everything you read must be digested with salt, huge grains of salt. Compare "Team of Rivals," and Bill O'reilly's book about Abraham Lincoln. O'reilly's book has outsold Team of Rivals in spite of being so poorly researched and full of inaccuracies, legendary tales, and outright falsehoods (so bad that most University libraries refuse to add it to their shelves) that a Lincoln museum refuses to sell it in their gift shop. Steven Spielberg's movie was based on Team of Rivals because he found it to be the most accurate and best researched book of that genre available.

  Thanks for making the effort to get it right, Cedars.

  JV
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  cedars

  Thanks Juan. It's encouraging to see that a good number of my changes are still up there and haven't been erased... yet.

  The only problem with two warring parties with completely opposing interests writing an article such as this is that it soon starts to read like a tennis match. Most of the changes I made begin with the words "however, critics argue that..." Basically everywhere you see "critics" in this article is probably my insertion. Like I said, it doesn't make for the best reading experience, but at least it presents both sides of the story.

  Cedars