JW identify any who cease to attend meetings as those were “stumbled” “fell away” “drifted away” or “not of our sort”.
This is grossly unfair and blatantly untrue in most cases.
In my case, I have 2 family members that no longer attend because they were “abused” by several elders. Without details, they were forced to comply with pet peeves of these elders that had nothing to do with Bible principles. It was strictly an abuse of power.
The final blow was when they were mocked from the platform as being “murmerers” and cast as the Bible character Korah when they were anything but. The emotional “abuse” became so bad the only resort to peace and well being was to quit going to the place they received the abuse. How Sad. For all the times elders are referred to as “a hiding place from the wind”…in this case and in many other cases, they ARE THE WIND.
Now here comes the evil part. The innocent victims are the ones labeled as being “stumbled” “drifted away” and “fell away”, as if they had anything to do with it. Sadly, these are the only terms JW are allowed to use with such ones. The truth is they don’t apply at all. These terms infer the guilt belongs with the wronged party instead of the wrongdoer (the elder).
So we are left without a proper term for someone who has been abused by the elders and no longer attends meetings just because such an event was never recorded in the Bible. JW would have us believe that if it isn’t in the Bible, it doesn’t exist. Not!
So here is a new term, “Elder Abuse”. I just invented it. There, now you have it, an appropriate and applicable term that we can use for victims who through no fault of their own, no longer attend meetings. They stay home to protect themselves from further emotional harm.
JW would have us believe that type of abuse doesn’t exist. Unfortunately, it does.