No matter what I know and have experienced as a Witness for over 40 years - my convictions in favor of non-discrimnation remain.
If we start shutting the door on matters of this nature, where do we stop? The Amish, Pentacostals, certain Baptist groups, Muslims, and a ton of others are less than mainstream from my perspective in many areas. I have met persons from other religions that have felt just as traumatised by the strict religious upbringing they had. Steve Hassan was victimised by a group completely seperate from Jw's, yet he felt the same pain and agony and mental bondage that witnesses feel. Where would we draw the line? I have a few neighbors who are unfit parents and would in my opinion be unfit to adopt - yet they have never been Jw's.
NO - if I had the power to make the calls, I would do all I could to assure that discrimination and the associated pain that comes to a society that sets itself up to judge others based on religion, sexual orientation, national origin did not happen. Observation of other societies that have done so - Nazi Germany, Stalin's Russia has shown where this kind of thinking can go.
While I agree that children would be better off raised in a more center minded household in some of the ways stated, I defend the right of others to believe and teach thier children as they see fit, as long as it is moral and ethical to do so.
To do any less is to surrender our freedom and return to a society that dictates by judgement who is worhty to live and die, who is worthy to be respected and allowed to decide for oneself what and how to teach thier children. I don't want to live in a society like that - even if the religion of Jehovah's witnesses was completely eliminated. Remember Hitler sought to eliminate them too. He failed not because he attacked the Jews and Jw's - but because the world saw his rulership for what it was - slavery and control far more dangerous than the sects and religions that he sought to destroy.
Wifey and I - by way of background - know from where we speak. We adopted our child. We were Jw's. We loved her and raised her the best we could. We went through alot of background checks that seemed addressed at our religion. We were just a couple of young people who wanted a child to love, cherish. We would have missed out on much in life, in spite of our religion at the time, had we been denied due to our faith. Jw's are still people, with real needs. I think we sometimes forget that.
Aside from all that - Jw's would just consider any effort to do as you suggest as persecution that further proves them to be God's people. Just treat them like people and they will self destruct in time no doubt as a culture. They are individuals that have been duped. In some ways that can be said of all of us in one way or another, can't it?
Jeff
