An exposé of what? That the Society photoshops? That they're amateurish videographers? That they brag about their expertise in area where it does not exist? Did they purposefully remove the flags? Of course they did. Did they do it to evilly hide their history? Please! They did it (in my opinion) because they didn’t want a flood of letters asking about flags.
If you want to press the issue of how the Watchtower presents its history, look to more valid things. For instance, W. H. Conley and C. T. Russell’s involvement in the 19 th Century Faith Cure movement is nowhere discussed by Watchtower writers. The sex scandal involving Conley’s hand-picked Faith Cure house manager is outside of any story the Watchtower tells. That Russell’s prize convert, A. D. Jones, ran a charity that the newspapers characterized as a fraud is left unexplored as is his divorce for adultery. While these two events do not reflect directly on Russell, they at least show what sort of person he chose for an associate.
How about the polygamy scandals in Africa. This is a long-running story that started with the first Bible student in Africa, Edward Seton and continued in various places until the 1950s.
The Watchtower’s presentation of its history is mythology created to preserve the idea that Russell was divinely chosen. On this forum and elsewhere Russell is called an Adventist as if being an Adventist were somehow worse then being a Methodist. The claim is made that he lied when he denied ever having been one. In point of fact he was a One Faith believer from 1871 until he met Barbour and maintained most of his One Faith beliefs afterwards. Does this relieve him of scandal? Oh hell no. But making a false claim undermines “our side.”
I don’t even care if we find great faults. I care that the myth of Russell’s special anointing exists. I’ve pointed to the Truth History people before. Their blog is the best history site out there. The blog owner is a Witness, but he presents this stuff without a blink. How he can continue to see the Watchtower as the repository of the truth after doing this research, I do not know. That’s his problem, not mine. I think his book on Nelson Barbour is intensely interesting because it strips away myth and replaces it with historically verifiable detail. I came away from reading it with a sigh of relief. No great scandal is uncovered. But you don’t see an implicit claim that Russell was divinely led either. You have to ask to join the blog. He doesn’t ask who you are, and the rules are simple. Don’t rant, don’t copy his material, comment in a meaningful way when you can.
And Cedar, I though you were through with this. Apparently not. If you reasoned as badly as you do here while within the Watchtower organization, you probably had endless anger and never “got” anything right. Some things do not change. Of course I do not care if you “see” this bit of photoshopped propaganda. Does it prove the Watchtower wrong when it says that it is super accurate. Yes. Will it change anyone’s mind? Highly doubtful. Most active witnesses will shrug this off.
I am sympathetic with the complaint that the Watchtower people manipulate their history. I wish that those who post on that would focus on what they have written, or events they hide, instead of photos or illustrations that supposedly have hidden images. (Here’s a good place to say that I’ve seen the original painting behind some of the Watchtower illustrations. That stuff isn’t there.) It is much more effective to say, “Brother Smith, can you explain what the society meant when they wrote this?” (pointing to some half-assed, oddball claim) than it is to say, “Mom! Look! The left out the flags!” This is especially so because they have published the photo with the flags elsewhere.
A problem that “apostates” face is self-justification. We’ve left an organization to which we gave our lives for sometimes decades. We tend to feel a sort of ill defined guilt. For a few there should be guilt. There is a difference between getting tossed out on your ear for being a naughty boy and leaving because you found the doctrines untenable, the behaviours wrong, and the leadership hypocritical. We are led to find anything to justify leaving. That leaves them still in control of our lives. Do you want them to have that control? I don’t.