What WILL they do?!!!!!

My wife and I have been discussing the probability of the upcoming Dateline program and the impact it will have on the org. It’s obvious to us now that the “retirement” of the GB some time ago (all of their PR bs aside) was predicated by their awareness that this situation was developing, or something similar to it. Seems logical, yes? So the threat is real.

We were thinking that there would be quite a build up of advertising hype surrounding the airing of the program, to build anticipation (and ratings) for it. Our question was: how will the Borg react when the ka ka hits the fan? My wife noted that when Ray Franz was df’d (the last really big shake up that occurred) it was all pretty low key as far as the public was concerned. So the damage control was all internalized. This time, the eyes of the world will be on them, and their reaction to these revelations. They’ll be no place to hide, and a few WT articles condemning molestation aren’t going to placate the wolves (read: lawyers) that will be appearing at their doors.

So what is going to happen?

Our guess is that early on, before the program shows, they’ll be the usual admonitions not to watch it, or take it seriously, all the while maintaining the innocence and purity of the GB members implicated. That will segue gradually into the old familiar Satan is attacking us theme, with the GB now becoming martyrs as the media feeding frenzy starts.

Finally, after the dusts settles and guilt is unarguably established, is will be the sad old – Jehovah is cleansing his organization routine. With the secular authorities being portrayed as agents of God used to weed out and punish the wrongdoers in the org; with the analogy being made that the same thing happened when Jehovah let the nations around Israel invade to punish them for their transgressions.

Then when it’s all over, the inevitable call will go out to remain faithful under this “test.” The “Jehovah’s is shaking the tree” ploy.

My guess is that 30% or so (in the 1st world countries) will leave the scene at this point. Then the class action lawsuits will start. I can see the Fed’s and the IRS taking an interest in this somewhere along the line. After that, who knows?

I assume most of you are thinking about this, so what do you think will happen? Ideas?

It will be interesting to see what the reaction of the WT will be.

Was there any response from the WTS when 60 Minutes ran a
story about child custody cases several years ago? Or did they
just ignore it?

Also, when will the Dateline report be shown?

--VM44

It's really hard to say what will happen. First of all, it depends what allegations or evidence are put forward in the Dateline program, which we (at least most of us) still don't know at this point.

Then, it depends what kind of a chord it strikes with the public. There may or may not be a "media feeding frenzy." If the allegations appear to point to a relatively limited number of culprits, then the public may not take as much of an interest or be as outraged as we might suppose. Remember, this wouldn't be the first time that a scandal involving sex or children has implicated a religious organization. And the Catholics, Anglicans et al. are larger, richer and (in some cases) more visible than the Witnesses. A lot of people just aren't that interested in what goes on with the Witnesses.

It will also depend on whether the Dateline program points toward:

a) an institution-wide coverup from the top down (i.e. GB involvement)

b) a legal loophole (i.e. the Society sticking rigidly to the "two witnesses" thing, believing it has a Biblical basis, without taking into account that such a policy is very flawed when it comes to dealing with child molestation) that needs to be plugged and has had a negative impact, but not as widespread as some posters have implied--again, I personally JUST DON'T KNOW, so I'm going to wait and see what happens.

On a related angle: I think any of us with family still involved in the organization will need to be prepared for whatever emotional fallout they may have from this episode (ranging from the extreme of "The Society is right, I don't care what happened, it's all lies by opposers or maybe just a few rotten apples" to the other extreme of "My God, the Society has been lying to us and my religion isn't true: my whole worldview has fallen apart and I just want to die").

My basic point is: It could have a huge impact. But I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't, either.

comment

My gut feeling tells me that my family (still dubs) and others I care about in the org will be saying the above. The society has too solid of a grip on the rank and file; 90% will never question them no matter what. Aside from hidden camera video of GB sessions where horrible things take place (non-blood related child sacrifice perhaps), nothing is going to break thru the wall of WTBTS=God most JWs have.

I don't think that the _Dateline_ episode is going to have as much of an impact as some might think. As usual for my posts, a list of points:

1) The WTBTS has had a long time to prepare for something like this, and we can be sure that the preparation has had a very high priority.

2) The program is aired (I suppose) mostly in the United States where there already has been a lot of exposure to WTBTS wrongdoing (i.e., Internet exposure).

3) It appears that virtually all of the growth in the United States is from Spanish speaking people; if the _Dateline_ program is not rebroadcast in Spanish, then many current and potential victims will not be directly informed.

4) If the program brings up the maters of Greenlees and Chitty (or a few similar cases), the WTBTS can counter with "that was a long time ago", "they were only a couple of individuals", "we did not know beforehand" (plausible deniability), and the like.

We shall see.

My thoughts on this are:

The outside world has a negative opinion of JW's already. It'll be just like Microsoft being exposed for dishonest practices....no big whoop.

In other words, everyone on the side of the organization will see it as a trial by fire sort of thing and, if anything, be strengthened by it. All others will just shun the JWs just a little more.

The gap will widen, but no big change....except maybe a longer fall into or out of the org.