A couple of things got me thinking today.
I was reading jgnat's thread on responses to elders, and it reminded me of the Reasoning book in some ways.
Then I got to thinking about having access online to all of the elder's letters for decades, and websites with WTS literature, copies of the UN letter on the WTS being a NGO and so much more. We've got copies of the elder's manual, KMs and the latest mags. We have the Quotes site, or at least the new versions of it, with thousands of quotes about what the WTS really said on hundreds of subjects. We've got sites with hundreds of critical arguments against WTS doctrine, history, "science" and theology.
Then we have sites like this and many others where ideas are presented and argued about and where we're given the reasoning of dozens and dozens of minds on literally 1000s of JW related issues. Poor thinking and bad research are quickly attacked, as are quotes pulled out of context or people who may just have an ax to grind and are willing to say anything to hurt the JWs.
AND ALL OF THIS IS DONE WITHOUT A THEOCRATIC ORGANIZATION, WITHOUT A GOVERNING BODY, WITHOUT A BODY OF ELDERS WATCHING OVER US.
This vast array of apostate, dissenting, heretical, scientific information was created in the trenches, from the bottom up and not from the top down. It was created democratically, with open debate, through critical thinking, with lots of humor, with passion and intellect, and without fear of censure or repercussion or shunning from within the apostate ex-JW community (if there even is such a thing).
No one here has titles, and you're not told you're not allowed to speak or teach because you are a woman or a child or a young person. Here you earn your stripes and the respect of your fellow posters based on your thinking skills and talents - not because you brown-nosed the elders and the CO, proving your ability to be a yes man and do what you're told without questioning.
Here questioning isn't just tolerated, it's encouraged, required even!
Over the last 15 years or so, free thinking minds have created an incredible wealth of accurate, well thought out information critical of the WTS and Jehovah's Witnesses. I used it when I wrote my letter to the elders in my congregation, then I posted that letter on this site to add to that body of knowledge.
Earlier today I heard Terry Gross interview Syrian dissident Ammar Abdulhamid on Fresh Air on NPR. At one time he'd been an Islamic fundamentalist, but is now a visiting scholar at the Brookings Institute. He is a writer and teacher, a novelist and more. He laughingly referred to himself as a "heretic." I felt a kindred soul to my own.
From Seeker4 to this amazing community of dissidents and activists, I raise my glass of wine and salute you and this great archive we've created. Collectively, from the ground up, each of us adding our own bricks to the wall.
The WTS sure has good reason to fear the power of the Internet. Look where that power comes from.
S4