Did anyone feel kind of perplexed as you read that title? Did it do a somersalt in your head while you tried to grab hold of the message it was supposed to convey? When I read that some summers ago, my mind struggled to make sense of freedom while a JW.
I couldn't do it. It became one of those things that got shoved to the back of my mind along with the innocent holiday prohibitions. We weren't free no matter how they explained it. When I heard them say that we were free to worship God, I thought that wasn't freedom to me.
I never felt free. I thought about one of the Amendments on freedom of religion and thought how this wasn't even close to it. We weren't free to explore other religions or simply to quit religion all together.
My conclusion while still a raving JW was that we were NOT free, no matter what they said. I felt uncomfortable during and after that whole convention. I felt the twist of the words. The illogic pounded at my brain. Their explanation of Berean searching for truth hit me like this, too.
Any raving JW's ever felt that? No matter how strong your love was for the organization (I never once loved JH, now that I think about it) did your brain tie up in a knot when things like this came up?