The Watchtower and the Internet (print version)

It is no exaggeration to say that the Internet has spawned a communications revolution. Although television has been around for over half a century, a handful of corporate owned television broadcasters have a monopoly on that medium. On the other hand, the advent of personal computers and the development of the Internet has empowered the peoples of the world to not only receive communications and information from a limitless source, but everyone who wishes can broadcast their own message as well.

According to the latest Internet usage stats over one billion people are now connected to the World Wide Web. In North America some 68% of the population now uses the Internet. While only 10% of the continent’s total population, over 380 million persons in Asia are connected to the net.

For centuries the printed page was the cutting edge of technology. Then along came movies and the radio. Initially the Watchtower Society utilized every new form of technology to publish their message. The Photodrama of Creation is an example of the Society’s resourcefulness in the early days of silent movies. (Click here to view a brief clip of C.T. Russell introducing the Photo-Drama of Creation) It pioneered the use of time-lapsed photography, colorized frames and synchronized sound. Millions of people around the world saw the Photo-Drama and for many of them it was the first movie they had ever seen.

Following in the success of the Photo-Drama, J.F. Rutherford became one of the first evangelizers to hit the airwaves. Commenting on the Society’s use of the radio A.H. Macmillan wrote the following in his book, Faith on the March on page 163:

“Rutherford's first broadcast from a public platform was in 1922, when radio communication was still in its infancy. February 24, 1924, Rutherford inaugurated the Society's own station, WBBR, a pioneer in noncommercial, educational broadcasting, built on Staten Island, New York. By 1927 radio was really coming into its own. That year the Watch Tower Society used a network of fifty-three stations to broadcast a talk from a convention in Toronto, Canada. Rutherford made full use of it on that occasion and regularly thereafter. One publication on radio personalities of the time spoke of him as an "eloquent Missourian" and accurately reported: “Judge Rutherford broadcast from Toronto in 1927 at an assembly of fifteen thousand. In 1933 he was heard over five stations in France, and was the first to utilize the largest station in Holland. His hook-up of three hundred sixty-four stations in the United States and Canada established a record for the largest wired network. His stirring words have been heard from coast to coast.” By 1928 we already had a weekly network of thirty stations throughout the United States and Canada, and by 1933 there were 408 radio stations in six continents carrying Rutherford's Bible talks by transcription.”

The Watchtower Society also utilized the phonograph. Macmillan comments on this on page 169:

“Opposition, however, continued to grow in intensity. Arrests increased, mobbing became more frequent, even contracts with radio stations became more difficult to obtain. Then, Rutherford announced Jehovah's witnesses were voluntarily withdrawing from the air. He felt by that time our purpose in using radio had reached its climax, and now a closer contact with the public was being sought. By this time, use of portable phonographs as vehicles for carrying the message had been attempted and found extremely successful. Within a year ninety different four and one-half minute Bible lectures were available in sixteen languages. Our purpose was not to start an argument on some point of doctrine at the homes but to preach the good news of Jehovah's Kingdom in a uniform and efficient way. Impressing the phonograph into theocratic service had decided advantages over the more impersonal method of reaching the homes through radio loudspeakers. Now we were able to answer questions that arose in the minds of the listeners and a much more effective presentation of our message was accomplished.”

Perhaps one of the Society’s most innovative endeavors was the MEPS project, which was started in 1979 and took many years to develop. (MEPS is an acronym for “Multilanguage Electronic Phototypesetting System.”) The development of MEPS meant that the Society’s publications could be easily translated into numerous languages. As a result the Watchtower now publishes in over 400 languages! Their website provides information in an astounding 265 languages!

This brings us to the issue of the Watchtower and the Internet. While the number of languages available on the Society’s website is truly impressive, and it is commendable that the New World Translation is also now available online, the actual subject matter and content of many of the articles is of questionable spiritual value. For example, this week the Watchtower’s home page features articles such as: What is the Best Education? Also, a six-year old article on suicide and an article on yoga are featured. A post-9-11 Awake article poses the question: Is Flying Still Safe? The Current Topics page of the 1st week of September offers a variety of articles on topics such as alcoholism, chat rooms, cooperation in the animal kingdom and the Mennonites. It is not that the articles are not informative – although nothing has much depth many of the articles are interesting. Personally, I found the article on the Mennonites well researched and very interesting. (Sadly, though, the leadership of Jehovah’s Witnesses seems to be following the same path as the Pharisaic Mennonite elders in persecuting those who look for truth outside the organizational confines.)

But the question remains, why doesn’t the Watchtower Society make better use of the Internet? Why does it choose to publish backdated milquetoast articles from the Awake magazine and neglect more weighty spiritual matters? (See commentary: How to Train Your Dog)

Why, for instance, doesn’t Bethel publish current Watchtower study articles? After all, most newspaper and magazine publishers also publish on the web. Take for instance the magazine Christianity Today. They publish a paper magazine but they also have an up-to-date online version as well. And unlike the Watchtower’s website, a reader can actually send an email to the publishers if they have questions or comments. Why doesn’t the Watchtower answer reader’s questions on the net? That would certainly be a valuable feature.

(It is worth noting that according to the website ranking of Alexa, Christianity Today is ranked about 8,000 out of millions of websites; while the Watchtower’s site is ranked about 24,000. That simply means that the evangelical website gets more traffic and is more popular with web users than the official site for Jehovah’s Witnesses. Oddly, the Society insists that Christendom is experiencing a spiritual famine while Jehovah’s Witnesses are being provided with a spiritual banquet. Judging from the Internet the opposite appears to be the case.)

The Watchtower claims to be the light of the world in announcing Jehovah’s kingdom. In fact, Jehovah’s Witnesses actually believe and teach that the angelic trumpeters of Revelation have been heard through the writings and public pronouncements of J.F. Rutherford and the Watchtower Society. For example, the book: Revelation, Its Grand Climax at Hand states: “Through resolutions, tracts, booklets, books, magazines, and discourses, this and later proclamations were trumpeted forth by means of the congregation of anointed Christians.”

Also, the Climax book states concerning The Golden Age magazine: “In 1919 the magazine The Golden Age, known today as Awake!, had been brought forth as “A Journal of Fact, Hope, and Conviction”—a trumpetlike instrument that would play a key role in exposing false religion’s political involvements.”

Embarrassingly, The Golden Age is better remembered, not for boldly announcing Jehovah’s judgments upon Christendom, but for publishing whacky health advice. The Watchtower Information website lists a few notable examples of such. No doubt one of the reasons The Golden Age was unceremoniously discontinued is because Bethel was aware that it had published so much nonsense and wished to disassociate itself from The Golden Age.

Be that as it may, the Society claims that the trumpet blasts of Revelation are continuing to be sounded up to the present moment. If that were really true, though, shouldn’t we expect to see the Watchtower make better use of the Internet in announcing God’s judgments to the world? For instance, why not publish the latest tract on the web announcing the coming destruction of false religion?

Like Jesus said, no one lights a lamp and then places it under a basket; but isn’t that what the Watchtower is doing by not better utilizing the web to reach the billion souls who use it?