Knocking - Funding, Doctrine, and Hypocrisy

A Common Bond's Response to the Documentary Knocking - Part 2

Where the Money Came From

On May 22, 2007, a documentary program entitled Knocking was shown on some Public Broadcasting System (PBS) stations throughout the United States as a part of their "Independent Lens" series of programs. Because PBS does not accept commercial advertisements, programming on this network is paid for through grants from various corporate sources, public and private foundations, and individual funding. Programming on PBS always discloses the sources of funding for it's shows at the time of the program's airing, as well as on the PBS website. An examination of the PBS website lists the following as providing major funding for Knocking:

Walter Zaremba

Gunther Reibling

New York Community Trust

A further examination of the Knocking website shows the following list of supporters at the bottom of each page:

Independent Television Service

Corporation for Public Broadcasting

Reibling Foundation

Note the name "Reibling" on both sites as a major contributor for the production of this program. A quick search on the internet found a connection between Gunther Reibling, the Reibling Foundation, and the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society on the Boston College website. Further research reveals the establishment of the Laura and Lorenz Reibling Family Foundation of Boston, Massachusetts as a charitable organization some time after Knocking had been funded. According to the website of Taurus Investment Holdings, Lorenz Reibling is the brother of Gunther Reibling. Unconfirmed sources we consider trusted and reliable believe both Reibling brothers to be practicing Jehovah's Witnesses. Whether or not this is true, the Reibling family does associate with people who have close ties to the Watchtower. An online bio of Lorenz Reibling states the following:

Lorenz Reibling, Chairman, Taurus Investment Holdings
Lorenz is Chairman and a principal of Taurus Investment Holdings, LLC. As cofounder of Taurus, Lorenz has been responsible for the acquisition and/or development of over 100 commercial real estate projects throughout the United States since 1976. He regularly participates as co-investor in Taurus-sponsored real estate transactions.
In 1966, Lorenz completed an apprenticeship as Industriekaufmann at Obpacher AG, a Weyerhauser-affiliated, Munich-based printing and publishing plant. Lorenz subsequently graduated from Munchen-Kolleg and attended Technische Universitat and Ludwigs-Maximilians Universitat, earning degrees in Cybernetics and Psychology. His early research on personality changes in heart transplant patients was conducted at University Hospital Munich Grosshadern. After immigration to America he received a MS from Boston College in Organizational Management with focus on maximizing intellectual capital. He has attended and completed specialized courses at MIT and Harvard on real estate related subjects. Mr. Reibling's early career included employment with multinational corporations such as Hoechst (Cassella Riedl), American Hospital Supply Corporation, and CPI Cardiac Pacemakers, Inc. specializing in sophisticated cardiac stimulation appliances.
Mr. Reibling is a full member of the AHI Angel Healthcare Investor Group, The Massachusetts Historical Society, Friends of the Kunstakademie Munchen, and supporter of numerous philantropic organizations. He was appointed to the advisory board of MIT/CRE (Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Center for Real Estate).
As a collector of 15th-16th century Bibles and Reformation literature, Mr. Reibling has initiated and co-sponsored significant research and exhibition projects, such as "The Art of the Book: A journey through a Thousand Years" and "Confront: Resistance against Nazi Terror." He is fluent in German, English, Spanish and Italian. His residency is in the United States with homes in Massachusetts and Florida. He is married for 26 years with three adult children.

It is startling to note that Lorenz Reibling conducted research on "personality transplants" at around the same time that the Watchtower was teaching that organ transplantation was a disfellowshippable offense due to it's being considered cannibalism and a risk for the patient taking on the personality of the donor. Some time later, the Watchtower lifted the restriction against organ transplants, but failed to invite back the disfellowshipped members who had "sinned" by having life-saving surgery, but "went ahead of Jehovah" by doing so before the ban was lifted.

Another way to trace the Reiblings' association with the Watchtower is by doing an internet search on the other name that appears on the PBS website as a provider of major funding: Walter Zaremba.

A search on the internet revealed the docket of a federal court case:

BIELERT v. NORTHERN OHIO PROPERTIES [No. 87-4031, 1988 WL 125357, at *5 (6th Cir. 1988)] was a 1988 federal lawsuit in which David Bielert alleged that he suffered employment discrimination, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, because he was not a Jehovah's Witness. Northern Ohio Properties was a subsidiary of Zaremba Corporation, owned by Tim Zaremba, Walter Zaremba, and other members of the Zaremba family. The Zaremba family are Jehovah's Witnesses, and many of the investors and employees of the related corporations are believed to be Jehovah's Witnesses.

Zaremba is linked to Reibling by a man named Aaron Gibitz who has worked for both Taurus (Reibling) and Zaremba:

From March 2002 to the present, Mr. Gibitz has been a consultant to Taurus Investment Group,Inc., based in Deerfield Beach, Florida. Taurus invest in real estate and has other business interest including health and wellness consumer products and media/technology. From March 1997 through March 2002, Mr. Gibitz was an executive with Zaremba Management, based in Independence, Ohio.

These associations, combined with the fact that both men are major contributors to Knocking, a documentary about Jehovah's Witnesses, are too obvious to be considered coincidence. The only possible conclusion that can be reached is that Knocking is a program about Jehovah's Witnesses, funded by Jehovah's Witnesses, praised by Jehovah's Witnesses, made in cooperation with the Watchtower, and co-produced and directed by... ...wait a minute... ...a gay man?

Watchtower Doctrine and Hypocrisy

In October of 2006, Jehovah’s Witnesses mounted a major worldwide campaign to distribute a tract entitled "The End of False Religion is Near!" to virtually every household possible. Millions of copies of this tract were printed and left on porches and in door jambs everywhere. Included in that brochure was a blanket condemnation of "false religion" for their acceptance of gays and lesbians in their midst. Of course, this is nothing new for something published by the Watchtower Society. The Watchtower is notorious for its stoic stance in condemning homosexuality. A typical statement made in the Watchtower's literature is found in the April 8, 2005 issue of Awake! magazine:

The Bible is clear: God does not approve of or condone homosexual practices. He also disapproves of people who "consent with those practicing them." (Romans 1:32) And "marriage" cannot give homosexuality a cloak of respectability. God’s direction that "marriage be honorable among all" precludes homosexual unions, which he considers detestable.

While we at A Common Bond recognize the irony of the Watchtower condemning homosexuals as promiscuous while at the same time denying us the stability of marriage, we do recognize that this stance by Jehovah's Witnesses will likely never change in our lifetime. The following comments were received from a supporter of ACB, and we feel they poignantly show the contradictory nature of the Watchtower organization's association, direct and indirect, with the producers of this documentary:

If this is their theology and belief then why would the headquarters openly cooperate with a "practicing sinner deserving of death," to assist him in making a documentary and then encourage members to support the showings of this film across the USA? Even suggesting to members to purchase and openly promote a propaganda piece made by a gay man? So while they openly spend money and time to support one gay man they conduct a tract campaign for thirty days in the month of October 2006 to condemn any religion as "false" that supports gay people.

This is a further self indictment of a religion known to say one thing out of one side of their mouths and then do the very thing they condemn by telling members it is OK. A classic example is the United Nations. For over eighty years Jehovah’s Witnesses openly condemned any religion associated as an NGO to the United Nations as worthy of death at Armageddon due to their belief that the UN was an "agent of Satan." Yet it was discovered in 2001 that Jehovah’s Witnesses had secretly joined as an NGO over ten years earlier and renewed their membership until they were caught in October 2001. Members were told it was ok as they had a good reason for doing so, yet if any member openly joined the UN during the same time period they would have automatically been “disassociated.” (this means you would have been thrown out as disfellowshipped without even having a judicial meeting) It certainly seems odd that none of the joining corporate officials of JW’s were “disassociated” that signed off on the secret membership as they were found to be in key leadership of the organization.

So once again it is a clear case of, "Do as we say not as we do." Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide openly condemned all religions as false that support anything to do with a gay lifestyle yet they show up in droves and spend money to support a propaganda film made by a gay man. Their actions prove the hypocrisy of their belief system as they continue to fall on the sword they use to slash other religions. Jesus described it best when he stated, "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites"In that way you also, outwardly indeed, appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." (Mt. 23:27-28)

Sadly, many people will watch this presentation on PBS, and, based on the impeccable reputation of that network, believe that they are viewing an unbiased presentation of a documentary on a religion they have little or no knowledge of. The purpose of this program, clearly, is to create and promote a positive impression of Jehovah's Witnesses, thereby making them more welcome when they engage in their house to house work. It is our hope that a sufficient number of individuals (including PBS station and program managers) will read this two part essay and reconsider what they have viewed on Knocking. There are indeed two sides to every story. Perhaps ours will be heard one day.

Mr. Engardio Has Contacted A Common Bond!

We are pleased that Joel Engardio, co-producer and director of Knocking, has taken time from his schedule to read our essay and resopond to it. Read Mr. Engardio's correspondence to us. For privacy's sake, we have erased Mr. Engardio's email address.

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