On Saturday I walked into two old-timer sisters from my congregation and we had a long and very open discussion about many critical topics regarding the organisation and the responsible men within it. At first I was not even sure if they would greet me. Off course, they tried to convince me of going back to the meetings, but in no way were they judgmental or pushing.
We spoke about the preaching work (tract campaign), higher education, independent thinking, elders and child abuse (Silentlambs & Barbara Anderson)…
Most of all they wanted to know why my whole family does not go to the meetings, since we used to be a very active family, all pioneers, the males were appointed servants and one of us would have a part at every assembly or convention.
They said that it is sad that so many of the nice brothers have left the truth and the reason for this are the overly self-righteous elders and travelling overseers. One of the sisters said that from a hundred brothers only five she would be able to call true friends and elders are the biggest hypocrites causing most of the damage.
However the elders will not make them stumble and nothing can surprise them, since they have seen so many bad things happen and higher ups coming and going.
I could not believe how open I could speak to them and more then that they agreed with most, if not all, the assessments and comments I made.
One of the sister’s daughters helped expose a terrible child abuse case of a jw family in England which used to belong to our congregation. This enabled me to relate what happened to my sisters and how the matter was handled in the same pattern of silencing the victim and covering over the crime. They were shocked to hear how the wt society deals with this, yet did not doubt what I was saying since they have been instructed to watch carefully who joins the young girls in FS.
The new tract was a fantastic aid to bring across many points in exposing the double standards and falsehood, without needing to refer to the issues with such clear words.
So thank you Watchtower Society!
Today I spoke to one of the sisters for three and a half hours on the phone. This conversation was even more open then the one before. Towards the end of the conversation I read directly from the tract the quotation from 1 Cor. And the question asking if the reader knows a religion that silently tolerates immorality?. I said: " Yes I do, it is our Jehovah’s Witness organisation, which not only silently tolerates immorality , but silences the victims of immoral crimes!" The sister told me that, even though she does not want to, she has to agree that what I say is true.
Thanks again WT society!!