Again, I'm a decade removed from the faith. I have not kept up with any of the changes. I'm catching up now, and can't believe what I'm seeing.
I get that JW leadership faced a dilemma. There is no intellectual apparatus within the faith. No scholars or universities, theologians or full time clergy. The requirements to being a minister for the group are minimal, and mainly rest on having a generic public image and repeating JW dogma. So to grow from within would be tough, I guess too tough.
So rather than building anything useful, they latch onto the governing body producing videos as their way forward. I never was actually ashamed to have been part of this group. Irritated, upset, and frustrated are words I might use, but never ashamed. These videos change that. If somebody sees these videos and thinks I was part of what is being portrayed, its embarrassing.
I feel as if their entire faith has been turned into a circus.
We live in a media saturated culture. Unless you are sophisticated at what you produce, people can see right through it.
Bottom line, you cannot produce content as poor as what is contained on JW Broadcasting and think it helps anything. It's doing more harm than good. I cannot believe this project of theirs is yielding tangible results. It is down right awful stuff. There is a part of me that reasons the WTS knew that people on the internet were destroying their religion, and they decided they should just destroy it themselves instead.
Being on video is a performance. There are those that are good at performing, and those that are not. Poor Mr. Stephen Lett was so awful I couldn't believe it. To speak into a camera in the same condescending tone those magazines are written in results in an entirely different meaning. His tone is a book on tape. His facial expressions as insincere and as forced as they can get. On paper, those words feel commanding because of the voice in your head saying them. From his mouth It's a Colbert sketch.
Had this group been producing media like this back in the 90s when I joined, I never would have. A guy like Stephen Lett asking for money? No way.
Same thing goes for the kids videos. I will add that back in 2010 the mormons did a series of videos for kids called Matt and Mandy. Not saying its a copy, but if you compare the two the difference in approach is staggering. Hint, even LDS didn't sink to guilting kids to give them money, and instead focused on their typical generic stuff.
There are also whiteboard videos. You know, those shitty amateurish "animation" videos they use to sell erection supplements and get rich quick pyramid schemes? They have one 5 minutes long that tells people how to act at conventions. Talk about beating a dead horse.
After 10 years and stopping back to take a look, what they've done with broadcasting is showcase what a joke of a religion they have. Their appearance is on par with any other crappy tv religion paid advertising.
This religion is desperate. The videos reek of it. I never thought the WTS would actually go away in my lifetime. I assumed it would find ways to adapt. Now I'm not so sure. They are stupider than I ever imagined.