The received wisdom is that the Internet has dramatically
damaged the ability of the Watchtower Society to gain and retain followers. There was a very eloquent article to that effect written some time ago by a commentator who attempted to buttress his argument with reference to the postmodern condition and the breakdown of metanarratives in today’s secular society, nay, even the come-back for Enlightenment notions of “truth”.
In the 1970/80s there were major challenges to the Watchtower’s theology (great crowd in heaven) and chronology (1914) in Norway, Alberta Canada, Dublin Ireland and in the NewYork Bethel itself: but the damage caused by those involved in the dissent was limited because knowledge was dispersed merely through personal contact and minimal use of obscure publications that seldom met the eyes of Witnesses innocent of the Watchtower’s doctrinal and chronological vacillations in any case. During the 1990s this all changed, and now most Witnesses have access to all the information involved in those earlier disputes, plus many more recent “scandals”, at the click of a button in the privacy of their own homes. Surely this must open the floodgates of mass exodus? Wrong! Let me explain why:
The Internet has in truth proved a very mixed blessing for apostates indeed; in fact I will argue that it has proved a positive disadvantage in the furtherance of their cause. Here are some of the main reasons for this:
In the pre-Internet age apostates would engage much more with their ‘brothers’ in the faith about the doubts they were having and dissention spread more productively. This was because defectors simply did not have the support networks available to them that they can now find on forums such as this: they were forced to work away at their issues with fellow Witnesses, and were often far more effective in convincing others in their congregations to join them as a result. That is why major regional defections (such as in Alberta and Norway mentioned above) happened in the pre-Internet age and are not likely to be repeated. Whereas pre-Internet apostates would extract themselves from the community with much struggle and bloodletting, a key buzzword for apostates in the Internet age is the “fade”. Apostates now simply slip away from congregations without dragging others with them because they have another option than going through all the trouble: they simply immerse themselves in the online apostate community instead. The Internet is truly a blessing for the Society in this respect: apostates are causing less trouble in local congregations than they once did.
But surely even if apostates are less vocal locally, this is more than made up for by the fact that most Witnesses worldwide now can access apostate literature (sometimes even accidentally) on their home computers. Don’t the numbers of those here on this forum who learned the “truth about the troof” in that way testify to the danger the Internet poses for the Society? Not really. Most Witnesses are too busy to look up apostate sites; many who do come upon them casually make fun of them and, most importantly, those Witnesses who are very active online have been effective in recent years at creating protected online communities. They have learned from the mistakes of the early days of greatcrowd.com and such like. Apostates often pride themselves in their exploits of infiltration into such “moderated” Witness groups. But the truth is that even the most active online apostate aggressors have only a limited grasp of the scope of the online Witness community. They are only biting at the ankles on the periphery.
There are no great apostate conventions anymore. In Britain there used to be great ex-Witness conventions: now all but disappeared: thanks to the Internet. Penton Stafford, Bergman, Johnson, Franz and others simply message each other on Channel C rather than meet up for grand discussions. The “Apostafest” of lesser apostates is the poor relative in the Internet age of the great ex-Witness gatherings in the pre-Internet period. Apostasy is all but dead: in the flicker of a hyperlink.
The Internet spells the end for effective apostasy and should make the Watchtower Society have one huge sigh of relief.
