The Last Days (May 22-28, 2023)
Issue No. 6
Welcome to the sixth edition of The Last Days newsletter.
The Last Days delivers a collection of curated Jehovah’s Witnesses-related news articles from around the world, and other entertaining information, straight into your inbox every weekend. You choose what you want to read, believe, download, listen to, watch, or subscribe to.
You can find the last edition of TLD covering May 15-21, 2023, here if you missed it. If you prefer to read The Last Days on our webpage click here.
This edition of The Last Days, covering the week of May 22-28, 2023, contains our topical leading Feature of the Week, Do You Have to be Baptized to be a Jehovah’s Witness?; JW News from Japan and Tajikistan; JW News Fact Check; a JW Stage Play called New Personalidad; a JW Book Review; your regular JW Celebrity News ‘gossip’ section with this week’s celebrity in focus, Luis Munana; and a new video from YouTube content creator, Self-Aware NPC.
To lighten the news and keep you awake!, this week we also feature a JW Quote of the Week with special guests Danny and Sandy.
We hope you like our new format and colour scheme, which is based on our JW News Facebook page colour scheme, that has been in constant use since 2012.
Enjoy the Last Days!
“The events unfolding around us, are making clearer than ever, that we’re living in the final part of the Last Days, undoubtedly the final part of the final part of the Last Days, shortly before the Last Day of the Last Days.” - Stephen Lett, member of the governing body of Jehovah’s Witnesses
Please support The Last Days for as little as the cost of a coffee.
Do you have to be baptized to be a Jehovah’s Witness?
The newly published, official Jehovah’s Witnesses Terminology Guide for journalists, under the sub-heading Jehovah’s Witnesses, states:
A person is not considered to be one of Jehovah’s Witnesses until he obtains a reasonable understanding of basic Bible teachings, qualifies to participate in the public ministry in association with a congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and is baptized in symbol of his personal dedication to God. (bold italics added)
Is the claim that a person is not considered to be one of Jehovah’s Witnesses until he is baptized truthful and honest? No. Consider the following:
In the latest Jehovah’s Witnesses cartoon indoctrination video for little children, young Caleb learns from his father that he does not have to be baptized to be a Jehovah's Witness.
The video also refers to a potential meeting with the elders to discuss Caleb becoming an 'unbaptized publisher’.
Rebekah Vardy: Jehovah’s Witnesses and Me
Rebekah Vardy: Jehovah’s Witnesses and Me has been nominated in the category of Authored Documentary for the British National Television Awards 2023.
Vote Now (Be sure to confirm your vote with an email address after scrolling through all categories to the end)
Japan - published on May 22, 2023
A petition by former Jehovah’s Witnesses in Japan has been presented to the Japan Branch of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
A religious second group of 'Jehovah's Witnesses' has issued a statement that the cult's response to child abuse prevention is 'insufficient'.
"Jehovah's Witnesses" said that on the 10th of this month, the person in charge met with the Children's Home Affairs Agency and issued a notice to all believers that child abuse would not be tolerated and blood transfusion refusal would not be forced.
On the 22nd, a second-generation religious group held a press conference, and the notice from the cult stated that "whipping" constitutes abuse, as well as dissemination of guidelines on preventing abuse based on religion, which had previously been requested by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. He pointed out that there were no specifics.
On top of that, he said that the cult's response this time was "insufficient," and said, ``I want the cult to act as a self-cleansing mechanism to stop the abuse, and to acknowledge the past abuse and apologize.''
In the future, we would like to work to spread the abuse prevention guidelines within the cult.
(From "news every." Broadcast on May 22, 2023)
Tajikistan - published on May 25, 2023
Do not trust a news item unless you can check the original source. - JW.ORG
On May 24, 2023, the official Jehovah’s Witnesses website JW.ORG issued a news release titled “Spain Grants Historic Tax Exemption to Jehovah’s Witnesses”.
On reading the news article one is left with the impression that only the Jehovah’s Witnesses faith (Testigos de Jehová) received the so-called ‘historic’ tax exemption.
The facts: Spain granted tax exemption status to the Buddhists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and the Orthodox Church at the same time.
The same Jehovah’s Witnesses news article, in paragraph 3, falsely implies that other religions in Spain already had tax exemption status, where it claimed:
While Jehovah’s Witnesses in Spain were granted legal recognition as a well-established religion in June 2006, they were not given the same tax exemptions as other religions in the country.
On May 26, 2023, Gage Fleegle, member of the governing body of Jehovah’s Witnesses, in the 2023 Governing Body Update #4 broadcast, made the following statement relating to the tax exemption decision:
This decision confirms that Jehovah’s Witnesses are a well-known and respected religion in Spain.
Wouldn’t the tax exemption decision confirm that the Mormons and the Orthodox Church are also well-known and respected religions in Spain?
According to Gage Fleegle “after nearly twenty years” the Jehovah’s Witnesses managed to obtain this tax exemption. However, the earlier cited JW.ORG news article Spain Grants Historic Tax Exemption to Jehovah’s Witnesses states in paragraph three that Jehovah’s Witnesses “were granted legal recognition as a well-established religion in June 2006.”
Upon being granted that legal recognition in June 2006, they were however, not at the same time granted tax exemption. Therefore, it can only be after nearly seventeen years, not ‘after nearly twenty years’ as claimed by Gage Fleegle, that the legally established Jehovah’s Witnesses religion could have lobbied the government for tax exemption status.
This is not the first time, and nor will it be the last time, that the Jehovah’s Witnesses chronology of dates and events are not supported by the facts.
Verdict
Misleading by omission is still misleading, and for this we label the article and the Governing Body Update broadcast statement as “misleading”.
Worthy mentions
Brother Joan Comas, a representative of the branch office of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Spain, for joining in a multi-religious ‘interfaith’ photo opportunity supporting the tax benefits (refer Footnote [1] below for our comments);
Paragraph two of the JW.ORG news article that, not surprisingly, places financial interests and taxation concessions ahead of being recognized as a “known religion”; and
Gerrit Lösch, of the governing body of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who travelled to Spain shorty after the tax exemption announcement was made.
Footnote [1]: During, and after, the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, representatives from the branch office of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Australia refused to participate in closed roundtable discussions with the government while representatives from other religions were present, lest it be construed as ‘interfaith’.
The stage play New Personalidad will be presented on Friday, June 2, 7:30 p.m. at the UrbanTheater Company, 2620 W Division St., in Humboldt Park, Chicago, IL, USA.
a driver’s license is not a license to run wild or to misbehave with the opposite sex. - Awake! magazine, March 22, 1989
Let’s face it, there are a lot of actors, singers, musicians, artists, sports stars, and celebrities that are former or even current Jehovah’s Witnesses, or that were raised as children within the religion.
In focus: Luis Munana
Luis Munana, international model, and star of the Netflix reality show Young, Famous & African, grew up in a Jehovah’s Witness family. Munana is shunned by his family, after he was ‘excommunicated’ for his antics on the reality TV show Big Brother Africa.
In the first issue of The Last Days, our first JW Celebrity in focus was former Jehovah’s Witness, Peter Andre. The featured article, as published in the UK Sunday Times, has now been republished across five-pages in this weekend’s edition of the glossy The Weekend Australian Magazine, available at outlets across Australia, or online if you have a subscription.
Super Space Kids! Save Planet Drizzlebottom by Peter Andre
The first intergalactic adventure from superstar Peter Andre - based on the stories he tells his own children. It's just a normal day at school for Millie and Theo - until a space rocket arrives in the playground! Where will it take them and who will they meet? Find fun, friends and fantastic aliens in this action-packed space adventure! Based on the stories that Peter tells his own children This picture book for 3+ emphasises the importance of friendship, teamwork, resilience and kindness Bright, vibrant illustration and a shiny foil cover. - publisher blurb
In this YouTube video Self-Aware NPC discusses the removal of two shunning videos from the current “Exercise Patience”! 2023 Convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
On Wednesday, February 22, 2023, it was announced at the World Headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses that
“Brother Anthony Morris III is no longer serving as a member of the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses.”
Still no news on the reasons for the removal of Anthony Morris III from the governing body of Jehovah’s Witnesses, or his whereabouts, although online speculation continues to abound.
