Just like they can't close night clubs and bars or prevent jws from going to them, there's not a thing that the WTS can do about the Net except continue to hammer the jws about the dangers of it.
Will the Watchtower take down their website?
by integ 33 Replies latest jw friends
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obiwan
Re: Will the Watchtower take down their website?
When pigs fly out my butt!
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Hamas
demons coming down the phone line
They DO say it ! lol, I remember a story in the watchtower some time ago, some woman claimed that demons possessed her modem lol of course the Watchtower went round to sort it out
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libra_spirit
I suppose that sooner or later we will very probably see something called the "filter" to be loaded on all JW PC's. You can imagine just how the lovely rose colors will now appear bigger then life as all shadows are removed! Ofcorse only the poperly sanctioned sites will now pop up in the search engines, and all the apostate sites will magically dissapear!
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ISP
It could do with updating! Last time I looked it still supported the old generation-1914 pre 1995 view!
oops!
ISP
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jws
I think it all comes down to curiosity. I kinda think it's rare you "stumble" upon apostate websites unless you're going online looking for JW info or researching things like 1914, 607, etc. Eventually, somebody's curiosity gets a hold of them and they go looking to see what the apostates are saying. You come here on purpose, not by accident. And even if a loyal JW does "stumble" into this site, he will promptly "stumble" right back out.
Like life, you can't avoid everything. Going to a bookstore, a JW could encounter pornography, pagan books, or even apostate books. But if they know to look the other way, then they go on safely with their JW lives. The WTBTS has taken this same approach for the internet. While they don't specifically ban the internet, they scare the hell out of them of the dangers lurking there. They are most likely scared to do anything with the internet for fear of running across anti-JW sites or porn. I know my dad would absolutely LOVE all that he can find on the internet, but I think part of him is scared of it. I think that they think e-mail is OK, but the web is a no-no.
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DevonMcBride
The more they hammer away about not visiting apostate sites the more curious it will make them.
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freedom96
This is exactly why the WTS is so scared of the internet. It is powerful, and works from home, and most of all: No one will know.
Anyone with internet access can get on and look at all the information out there. The WTS cannot police everyone like they used to.
If you were out in service, and someone gave you something talking about the truth of JW's, you usually were with someone else, and you had to get rid of it. Never could you stick it in your bag to look at later. You would have been turned in.
I think the WTS has never been so nervous about losing control.
But, there still will be those rank and file witnesses that will nod their head, and never even consider looking on the net.
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paterfamilias
My own experience is that I never really looked at any of these forbidden sites while I was an active member. I was certainly aware of them, but I dismissed them all as being of no value. The image I had of the people who ran these sites was that of some creepy protestor you'd see standing outside a district convention with a bullhorn. I was completely turned off.
It wasn't until I started having serious doubts of my own and had been inactive for a few months that I started having a more open mind about it. I started off with some fairly innocuous searches on Google -- academic issues mainly, about religion in general. I was reading some material at a site called Religious Tolerance when I came across a truly unexpected bit of information about the Winesses. One of the topics in their outline on JWs dealt with their past opposition to vaccinations. I had no idea that vaccinations were forbidden from 1931 to 1952. That seemed unbelievable, but it was backed up by ample references to The Golden Age and Watchtower magazines of the time.
That discovery got me thinking, "what else is there about the Witnesses that I don't know?" I was disgusted and, at the same time, strangely intrigued at how people like me could be raised in the organization and not know about things like this from the past. That's when I truly began to see the degree of information control the organization uses.
Since then I've read material on many sites like Freeminds and this one. And that lead me to read the biggest bombshell of them all, Crisis of Conscience.
So I definitely agree with the point that a JW has to already be thinking critically of the organization before he's willing to even consider looking at these sites. You just don't get here by mistake. I'd say the biggest immediate threat that the Internet poses to the JWs is a lower conversion rate in the ministry in regions where online access is readily available.
And I think libra_spirit makes a very good point in his post above about the possibility of JW filtering software in the future. I think that's entirely realistic. And while it probably won't be required, it's sure to be strongly encouraged among the friends.
paterfamilias -- of the newbie class
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Gozz
I don't think they'll take it down. There's too much temptation in trying to explain their own part of disputes. Taking the site down will be a form of defeat. They could still tell their own to visit the internet and espouse how it could be put to good use. It's a mistake they made and can't take back. They're toast. Sooner than later, any JW using the iNet is tepmted to visit some other sites, the curious ones may want to know what others are saying about their religions. Some others may want to meet other brothers and sisters, and get directed to a site like this. Of course, the first reaction is to shut down, but there are other sites where the information is solid, straight from the JW books. Ingofrmationa ny honest hearted (uh!) person cannot ignore.