Comments from the Friends - Online Edition - Fall 1997

JW magazine on the Internet
omits their own website

A RELATIVELY BALANCED discussion of the pros and cons of the Internet fills nearly half the July 22, 1997 Awake! magazine. Yet, nowhere in the 13 pages devoted to the subject do the Jehovah’s Witness publishers admit that they have a website of their own.

How strange!—especially in view of the fact that the Watchtower Society's “official” website at www.watchtower.org is one of the largest religious sites on the Internet featuring the complete text of several JW publications, colorfully illustrated in a variety of languages.

This new discussion in Awake! represents a loosening and liberalization of the Watchtower Society's position on members using the Internet. For some years now its publications have been warning readers against going online with their computers. As far back as its issue of August 1, 1993, a Watchtower article titled "Let No One Spoil Your Useful Habits" cautioned against,

electronic debates on religious matters. A Christian might be drawn into such debates and may spend many hours with an apostate thinker who may have been disfellowshipped from the congregation. - page 17

In a similar vein Our Kingdom Ministry of September 1995 featured an article on page 6 titled "Maintaining a Balanced View of Computer Technology" warning that

connecting a computer to an electronic bulletin board can open the way to serious spiritual dangers. . . . apostates, clergymen, and persons seeking to corrupt others morally or otherwise can freely place their poisonous ideas on bulletin boards.

In May 1996 we heard the first report of Witnesses actually being expelled as a result of the Internet. These were JWs in Gothenburg, Sweden, who reportedly found a web page page exposing hidden demonic images in Watchtower illustrations, showed what they found to some local elders, and were disfellowshipped as a result. (We never received further details.)

Now Awake! concludes that the Internet "will likely continue as an important medium for sharing information, conducting business, and communicating." - page 13
In weighing the pros and cons it still places heavier emphasis on the dangers and negative aspects. Yet it allows for adult JWs to explore the new technology and suggests guidelines for giving children access.

Jesus said, "No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth [it] in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light." (Luke 11:33) Yet the Watchtower Society continues, so far, to keep its own website secret from Awake! readers.

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