"Consider the World Health Organization"
It seems that many of the articles in the Awake magazine that discuss the world’s many health, social and environmental problems, only offhandedly mention the Bible’s solution to such problems, almost as an afterthought. For example, in the January 8th human rights piece, the Awake quoted UN officials a dozen times and the Bible just three times. Many articles appear to be written primarily for the purpose of informing the public about the United Nations proposed solutions. For instance, a series of articles in the August 22nd, 1997, Awake, on the water crises, took the opportunity to tout the UN’s plans and achievements, saying:
“On November 10, 1980, the United Nations General Assembly spoke confidently about the coming “International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade.” The goal, proclaimed the assembly, was to provide, by the year 1990, full access to safe water and sanitation for all those living in the developing world. By the end of the decade, about $134 billion had been spent to bring clean water to over a billion people and sewage-disposal facilities to over 750 million—an impressive achievement.”
On the topic of the goal of good health the June 8th, 2001, Awake, publicized the efforts put forth by the United Nations WHO agency.
“DO YOU wish that you and your family could enjoy better health? Of course you do. But while most of us may suffer only occasional minor illnesses, for millions of people, infirmity is a painful, lifelong companion. Nevertheless, large-scale efforts are being made to stem the tide of sickness and disease. Consider the World Health Organization (WHO), an agency of the United Nations. At a conference sponsored by WHO in 1978, delegates from 134 lands and 67 UN organizations agreed that health is not simply freedom from sickness or disease. Health, they declared, is “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.” The delegates then took the bold step of declaring health to be a “fundamental human right”! WHO thus set the goal of achieving “an acceptable level of health for all the people of the world.”
As another example, the August 8th, 1997, Awake, discussing the problem of food shortages, is really just a disguised advertisement for the United Nations World Food Summit held the previous year. The opening paragraphs state:
“EVERY man, woman and child has the right to be free from hunger and malnutrition” proclaimed the World Food Conference sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) back in 1974. A call was then made to eradicate hunger from the world “within a decade.” However, when representatives of 173 nations met at FAO headquarters in Rome late last year for a five-day World Food Summit, their purpose was to ask: “What went wrong?” Not only has there been a failure to provide food for all but now, more than two decades later, the situation is worse.”
There seem to be few social ills that the Awake covers which are not used as an opportunity to quote some UN official. For instance, the excerpt below taken from an article on drug abuse quotes from Kofi Annan and the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs:
“UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan observes: ‘Drugs are tearing apart our societies, spawning crime, spreading diseases such as AIDS, and killing our youth and our future.” He adds: ‘Today there are an estimated 190 million drug users around the world. No country is immune. And alone, no country can hope to stem the drug trade within its borders. The globalization of the drug trade requires an international response’…In 1997 the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs warned…” Awake 11-8-99
Most people probably do not even know that there is such an agency as the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs; but the Watchtower Society has seen to it that its readership is made aware—if only superficially—of even obscure UN agencies.
But besides the featured articles heralding the UN’s message, which periodically appeared in both the Watchtower and Awake magazines, the “Watching the World” feature of the Awake is littered with facts and trivia taken from a plethora of UN agencies.
On average, each and every issue of the Awake refers to the United Nations or some UN agency at least once. (In actuality some issues contain several UN references and others none.) Granted, most references are innocuous, but keep in mind that the Watchtower's primary obligation to DPI was to disseminate information about the United Nations—no matter how bland.
Searching the Awake using the CD ROM, between the years 1991-2001, the expression “United Nations” is slightly more prevalent than the exact phrase “God’s Kingdom.” Of course, there are other ways of expressing each term, but considering all the many UN acronyms that also appear in the Watchtower Society’s literature (ex: UNICEF, WHO), it appears as if Jehovah’s Kingdom has been relegated to second place in the Awake journal, after the United Nations!
