Dear _____________
ALL scriptures and interpretations of scriptures (as in WT publications) are a supermarket where you can select how you will conceptualise God, and JWs are no exception. There are some aspects of Jehovah in the WT publications that are more totalitarian than any secular government and some that are kinder than anything that exists in most societies today. We choose the kind of God we want from the sources we have available to us. Your version is not the only one among JWs. Because of the tight control on free speech wihin the JW congregations, it is something that people don't get to know readily unless they access JW opinions more widely. But I still love you, the organisation and its people. I would not have stuck around for 4 decades if I didn't see something good in it. But not a construction of Jehovah that is as totalitarian as secular dictators, and not one that collapses the distinction between the FDS and God.
I think the JW religion at its best is helping the marginalised to develop the skills they need to live in peace in society, and if they can come to the place where they can see that some might be able to serve God even more fully by going on to higher education and becoming doctors, lawyers, politicians etc, they might be able to help transform society into the kingdom of God we have all been waiting for. Society cannot be transformed into a place of peace by an Armageddon - violence breeds violence. And it is usually the meek and powerless that are eradicated, which means the survivors are the ones who carry on the oppressive traditions. But people who are prepared to die rather than be violent, like Jesus, Ghandi, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Junior, sets into motion a transformation that like leven grows into something different. That lump of leven consisting of all who choose death rather than violence, is the kingdom of God growing imperceptively in the world. JWs are part of this, as are many others, including Muslims who want the same non-violence. And this 'love must be for those who are 'other' than yourself. Even Jesus said, of what good is it if you love only your own, even the taxcollectors do that. The love that transforms is the love that extends to those who are not 'us'.
And people are leaving the JW organisation. I have heard JW DOs nd COs say that they are losing 60% of their youth. In some congregations, 100% of youth who have gone on to higher education, have left (is it any wonder there is counsel to avoid higher education). There are whole families leaving the JW org all over the place, and the FDS is concerned. I have read two of the 2009 new releases and I can see the concern in one of them by what is highlighted in it. And the fear of the FDS of losing control is becoming very obvious to many JWs and ex JWs. Many of them predict changes to stop the decline. The internet has made what is secret public and this knowledge cannot be stopped. People can be frightened into not accessing the knowledge, but eventually people find out what organisations have tried to keep from them. It is like an inheritor wandering around as a pauper because he/she has been prohibited from accessing the will. But, when the will is made known to him/her, nothing can stop the change. They realise they do not have to live in fear and poverty any more, dependent on the crumbs someone is prepared to give them. But as children of God, they can use their new freedom to serve others. And this is where the problem often is. People learn about their freedom, but not how to use it wisely, and they often shipwreck the process. I think this is what the FDS is afraid of. This is what I am afraid of too - that instead of using the new freedom to do what they now do out of fear, they will just leave the JW organisation altogether. I want the JW org to continue, but in a more egalitarian and loving way.
I hope that when people can appreciate the wonderful things that living in peace allows, they can combine this freedom with the same kind of motivation to live in peace and love that fear inspires in JWs. I would love to be able to go with you door to door to bring a message of a loving God who wants us all to live in non-violence and peace to create a kingdom of God on earth, with no Armageddon slaughtering the billions. How can you expect people to live non-violence when the current basic message is one of violence! Violence breeds violence. The message for living non-violence must come from a God of non-violence - someone like the non-violent Jesus who would rather die than kill. A God who plans to kill 99.9% of the population cannot inspire non-violent subjects - only ones who enjoy violence vicariously through their God and who perpetrate it through their discourses if not their actions.
So in answer to your question, do I know Jehovah? Not the kind that kills billions of innocent ones because they don't subscribe to a particular interpretation of scripture, but one who loves beyond what is even possible to conceive and asks us to take the best models of non-violent love (like Jesus) and try to copy that pattern. That is what I want to do. And that inspires me to want to be your sister, even though you infer that I don't know God or 'truth'. No matter what our differences of belief, you are a child of God to me, and my sister.