My first very serious encounter with JWs took place just before they issued the first part (A-E) of “Aid to Bible Understanding”, so we are talking about the late 1960s.
In previous years, I had read papers exposing the WTS’s errors with the neo-Babylonian chronology. So when I checked on the claimed sources on the subject in the “Aid” book, I found that the author was lying. Consistently. Since this was a simple matter of accurate and honest reporting, and it had nothing to do with interpretation, the next time the JWs came, I showed them that their “Aid” book consistently misquoted and misrepresented the sources they claimed to be citing.
The impact on the visiting JWs? Just a blank look, apparently totally unaffected, with the response that the brothers were not perfect. I was flabbergasted. JW after JW, all the same. Facts had no impact.
It took me a long time to realise that THEY WERE FOLLOWING THE LEADERS IN BROOKLYN BECAUSE OF WHOM IT CLAIMED TO BE, REGARDLESS OF WHAT THEY WERE SAYING. Whatever the leadership said was true, because it was after all, the only representative on Earth of God’s heavenly government. If they got things wrong, Jehovah God was permitting this to happen and he would correct things at the time of his own choosing.
(So how can one determine who has the truth, when even God’s organisation is subject to error? How can they complain that others are doctrinally incorrect when they find the need to change their own teachings?)
A long time later, I became aware of the personal pressures exerted on JWs, of which you will be aware. The Exclusive Brethren are amateurs in comparison.
This combination of obeying the leaders regardless of what they are saying, and their concern with the impact of shunning, means JWs are never interested in facts, only in defending the organisation.
All we can do is to sow seeds that in time might bear fruit at a time when the JW can see the mental stranglehold, and hopefully in time, is able to break the shackles.
Doug