The approach of ex-Jehovah's Witnesses towards those still Witnesses has been debated since the problem first occurred. Personally I joined the ranks of ex-Witnesses in 1988 and found myself more or less thrown into the fray appearing in media like newspapers, radio and TV.
One of the first things I noticed was the interest bestowed upon me from “competing” churches, particularly from the Pentecostalism camp. They seemed to be very keen on traveling the country with their own “tame” ex-JW on display telling everyone about how “JESUS” finally saved me from the clutches of the evil Watchtower. Fortunately my BS detector was sufficiently developed to see through this scheme.
During the many years since then I have discovered a lot of things about the whole realm of religion and religiosity. One of the most striking characteristic’s among religious people is their distaste for bluntness and directness. Everything has to be gently wrapped a couple of thousand times unto the point of complete meaninglessness. You see a lot of this when you call some of the incidents recorded in the Bible by their right names, like genocide, ethnic cleaning and pedophilia. This seem to be way to much and people are of course “offended” all round and lament and moan about the horrible language, etc. Of course we all understand that “horrible language” and “bad form” are far worse than genocide, mass murder and pedophilia.
The same phenomenon seem to come to the fore when someone present their research on the Watchtower Society and present such research with all possible documentation but use blunt and frank language about those responsible for the lies and deceit being carried out by the various leaders of the Watchtower Society. The very same “need” for multiple “wrapping” comes up again and again. The horror of having blunt and direct characterizations of the Watchtower leaders and their flock seems to be extremely “offensive” to these people.
In some cases you find that some of those who are so “offended” on behalf of all the poor people in the GB, and other high ranking Watchtower officials (which is of course “only human beings” and thus “only victims” themselves), and of course the innocent rank and file, are former Watchtower “career” people themselves. Having relatively high positions within the Watchtower hierarchy and used to being obeyed and listened to without question, they seem to be expecting the same behavior from the ex-JW community, and their habit of launching into long pontificating speeches about bad attitudes, bitterness, anger, etc. is still the same It is of course very sad to observe that some of the ex-Witnesses seem to be willing to let such individuals continue their pontificating and literally still “work” as DO’s and CO’s only this time in the ex-Witness community.
The GB and all Jehovah's Witnesses are of course only humans, they have joined or have been born into an organizations which have hurt hundreds and thousands of lives. True, they are only a little part of a larger system of religion based on the Bible which have caused and committed some of the most horrible atrocities ever inflicted on mankind. This very system is basically still in place, it still enjoy immense power and influence over people’s lives and have no interest in having such facts spelled out in blunt language.
If such horrible deeds and such behavior had been perpetrated by any other kind of system, there would have been no holding back and we would have seen it all described in terms which fit the horrible deeds. Take for instance the crimes committed by the Nazi’s in the relative short time they had the power. These crimes completely pales in significance when compared with what Christianity has committed in the long period they have had power and influence. Only when mankind was able to break that power, did it become possible to slowly develop the society we see today, while fighting the men of darkness all the way.
Seen in the perspective of the immense crimes perpetrated by the Christians religion up through the ages, the ones perpetrated by the Watchtower Society of course pale in insignificance. But unfortunately they to have destroyed far too many lives with their insane Talmudic rules and regulations in the best Biblical and Christian tradition. Thanks to them, people have died in their best years because of the insane Blood policy. People have been caused much pain and suffering and have even committed suicide because of their shunning policy and last but not least far to many children have been molested because of their insane adherence to “biblical principles”. The whole community of Jehovah's Witnesses, the leaders and the rank and file all have a responsibility in this, like it or not.
What approach the individual ex-Witness want to use when getting in contact with current Jehovah's Witnesses is something which we should leave up to each and every one of us who feel we have something to contribute in that respect. To the great champions and high protectors of the elusive “lurkers” which is too frail to venture into the harsh world of reality, I can only wish you all the best in your effort. May you all have a great success and following in your new capacity.
Norm.