The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses and Offensive Tactics.

Does the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses authorize or encourage offensive tactics against those with YouTube channels or Websites that publish content that is critical of their teachings? The purpose of this article is to pose some thought provoking questions for both current, Physically In Mentally Out and ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses to think about and come to a personal conclusion after some careful thought.

What follows is the author’s honestly held personal opinion and thoughts, and should not be taken as anything other than that. Whatever conclusion, that you may come to based on the evidence presented below is your own personal opinion.

Does the Organization and hence the Governing Body Of Jehovah’s Witnesses only engage in defensive tactics against those that are critical of its policies and teachings?

A case in point, is that of Kevin McFree, who is the creator of a fictitious J’Dub Town. J’Dub Town portrays life within the Organization using a world of Lego figures and buildings. His YouTube channel became popular. His video’s can be seen on YouTube, here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLHxAkHixLFiJmx01sTDppuNg4QQn-PyX.

The Organization pursued him legally with a tenacity which if applied to the child sexual abusers within the Organization would see those unsavoury people leaving the Organization in a rush, instead of being able to hide and continue their harm. (But, that is another story, also discussed on this site.)

The Organization’s offensive tactics against him lasted for nearly 4 years from 2018 – 2022 as they tried to get a legal ruling to reveal his real identity. They were desperate for his real identity, as without this vital information they are unable to disfellowship him. They also tried to get damages for alleged losses from the alleged copyright infringement even though the literature and JW Broadcasting are available without charge! For more details, see the following article here on this website and its links. https://governingbody.net/shame-shame-shame-on-you-the-governing-body-of-jehovahs-witnesses-who-claim-to-be-gods-spokesmen-on-earth.

Such legal proceedings must be known to and likely authorized directly by the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

It is therefore becomes pertinent to ask the following:

Does the Organization and the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses engage in other offensive tactics, though these may not be so publicly known?

Please consider the following:

First, let us define a term that not all may be familiar with.

A Definition of “to hack”, “hacker”, “hacking” is : A term used regarding Information Technology that indicates someone (hacker) who uses their skills (hacking) in computing to gain access (to hack) to a computer system or network or website, with the intention of either stealing money or data, or stopping it from functioning in some way for reasons of malice or to stop a competitor.

The difficult questions are as follows:

(1) Does the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses directly give authorization to attempts to hack and bring down websites that post material critical of the Organization, and the teachings of the Governing Body?

(2) Or does the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses or its appointed representatives, encourage, perhaps in indirect wording or by word of mouth, it’s Bethel members, whether in house or remote workers, or circuit overseers for example, who possess talents in the realm of IT and computing, to engage in such activities and in doing so give them tacit approval to engage in such activities?

(3) If the Organization does neither of the above, then why does the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses who are responsible for all content in any media published by the Organization, not make it perfectly clear to all Jehovah’s Witnesses, and by this I mean, by making it clear in the Watchtower magazine, that hacking is a type of behaviour that should not be engaged in by Christians? After all it is common knowledge that hacking is a worldwide scourge affecting computers and websites. As the author writes this article there is cyber warfare going on in parallel with the human warfare in Ukraine, between Russia and Ukraine and its supporters.

(Cyber warfare is defined as the use of computer technology to disrupt the activities of a state or organization, especially the deliberate attacking of information systems for strategic or military purposes.)

(A search of the entire Watchtower Library with Watchtowers and other publications dating back to 1950, reveals only one short paragraph that mentions computer hacking, on p30 in the 22/10/1985 Awake magazine quoting the New York Daily News)

Why are these questions being raised about the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses and why are they important?

These questions were raised and are important for the following reasons:

(1) Hacking is illegal, certainly in almost all countries in the world and is usually a criminal offense. Further, if loss of income or other losses affect the person or organization that has been hacked, then also a case for civil proceedings for compensation can be undertaken.

(2) If the Organization or its representatives or members are engaging in such practices then, at least in most peoples eyes, that would also be a very unchristian policy or action to take. It would also mean the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses are likely complicit in these actions.

(3) If the Organization does not, directly or indirectly encourage computer hacking, then it should show its stance on this type of activity to try and ensure that no individuals in its ranks take it upon themselves to engage in such nefarious deeds.

Now clearly, computers and websites did not exist in the first century AD. But can we seriously say, hand on heart, that Jesus would approve of taking such a course against those critical of him or his teachings? If we cannot say that Jesus would approve of such actions, then how could the Organization either facilitate or give tacit support to its members, to take such actions, if it truly is God’s Organization on earth as it claims?

Forget Offensive Lawsuits

Now, before the Organization slaps a lawsuit for slander against this website, let the author point out that he is not slandering or defaming them.

How so?

Firstly, everything written here is the author’s honestly held personal opinion.

Secondly, the author is not making a claim the Organization is definitely guilty of doing so. but is solely asking questions that require answers.

Thirdly, the author cannot think of any other reasonable explanation. Perhaps the readers can suggest an alternative explanation.

Fourthly, it is widely known among the Ex-JW community that the Organization monitors sites such as this which publish material critical of the Organization. Therefore the author is offering the Organization and in particular, the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the opportunity to send me a denial via the contact facility. I would welcome such a denial and would be prepared to publish it within reason.

Even for the author, to personally come to such a conclusion took a lot of soul-searching. The reason is because, if true, it takes the Organization from being one of just another flavor of religion with different interpretations of the Bible to the author, to a whole new level. It would take it from a misguided religion to that of being a worldly corporation using dirty, underhand tactics against those who criticize it. Effectively trying to suppress others freedom of speech, something which the Organization previously legally championed for itself.

The author also would like any current JW’s who may read this article and also ex-JW’s to think about these questions and the implications of the conclusions you personally may come to.

This is also an appeal for feedback from other websites run by ex-JW’s on their personal experience as to whether this is true or not. In particular, we would love to hear from any PIMO Bethelites, Organization Remote Bethel Workers, or Circuit Overseers as to if there is any written evidence, recorded verbal evidence, or anecdotal evidence, that the answers to any of the questions above are in the affirmative or the negative.

What is actually happening?

Please consider the following evidence that the author personally considers as strong circumstantial evidence and make of it what you will.

The writer maintains 3 websites each with a different thrust and target audience in mind regarding the type of articles published on each website. The other two are UnderstandTheWord.com and AwakenJW.com.

Understand The Word of God contains only articles designed to upbuild ones faith in the Bible as the Word of God. This site examines evidence for the truth of the Bible and includes looking at archaeological findings, geology and science. It also looks at Bible prophecy in the light of history. It makes no reference to Watchtower Publications and other JW material.

Awaken JW‘s is designed for Awakening JW’s or awaken JW’s who appreciate being assisted to take a more critical look at the Organization’s publications, videos and so forth, in light of the scriptures. It also points out what is not being said.

By contrast, this site, GoverningBody.net, is very direct and strong in its critical examination of the teachings and policies and actions of the Governing Body. This strong approach taken is done rightly so, since they claim to be God’s channel of communication on earth today.

So this is where it starts to get interesting, and please note that the following statements are all facts. What conclusions, you, our readers, may come to, is also up to you, just as I have come to a personal conclusion.

Who else has a motive other than the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Organization?

If you put yourself in the place of a Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses member and you wanted to reduce the effect that websites of ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses was having on those still in the Organization, what would be your priority in wanting or having those so-called apostate websites closed down? If you were to put in an order this writer’s 3 sites in descending order of the perceived threat to the spirituality of Jehovah’s Witnesses, it would almost certainly be in the following order. First, a very high priority on GoverningBody.net, with some for AwakenJW.com, and then UnderstandTheWord.com.

By contrast, would not a normal hacker, attempt to hack the sites in equal amounts? It is also important to bear in mind that all the websites contain links to each other, which are visible prominently to all users including any hacker. No-one without a vested interest would view any of the sites as requiring preferential attention.

However, would it not also be true to think that if there are hackers with a mission to silence the GoverningBody.net’s outspoken critique, they would focus far mainly on that site than the others.

Also, try as hard as I can, the author cannot think of any other Organization or individuals other than JW’s who would have any motive to make such an effort over such a sustained period of time in order to gain access to this site and take it down in some way.

Now the evidence for you to examine:

The following is a table summarizing the number of lockouts made by the website’s firewall after attempts made to hack the following sites. (They were attempts to gain access to the system\admin user(s) or other user login with widespread rights to the website.) (Lockouts take place after 5 failed attempts to login, which was changed to after 4 failed attempts from partway through 19/6/2022*).

Failed Attempted logins

As you can see March and April 2022 also show a similar pattern in the focus of attacks being on the Governing Body website.

Now, you may notice that the table starts on 29/3/2022. That is because the author only re-published the GoverningBody.net site on the 28/3/2022 after slightly over 3 months offline. This was due to it being corrupted by someone who had managed to hack the website in some way back in mid-November 2021. This has not happened to AwakenJW.com or UnderstandtheWord.com, which all have the same level of protection.

The way the attacks are done, appears to be the work of a limited pool of individuals, trying to disguise their origin, and not the work of bots that just try every site they can find.

Finally, one further point. These figures are all compiled from the emails received in the inbox of the authors monitoring email address for all my website’s administrative notifications. They are being being kept as proof of these attempts by whoever is behind these attacks.

The author could show a sample as evidence, but unfortunately that would give away further information that is best kept private to avoid giving the existing hacker(s) or any potential hacker additional information to use against these sites.

Therefore, in conclusion, feel free to draw your own conclusions just as the author arrived at his own personal conclusions . Also, once again this is an appeal for any feedback from other websites run by ex-JW’s on their personal experience as to whether they get undue attention by hackers or not. In particular, we would love to hear from any PIMO Bethelites, Organization Remote Bethel Workers, or Circuit Overseers as to if there is any written evidence, recorded verbal evidence, or anecdotal evidence, that the answers to any of the questions above are in the affirmative or the negative.