You know them already:
1. False doctrines, all taught to keep people in darkness, all done by those claiming to speak for God!
2. Misconduct by the leaders and by the followers with impunity (ie. child abuse, adultery, etc., etc.).
3. Bloodguilt via involvement in war and politics.
It makes me think.
#1. It's amazing how we never figured out that those "adjustments in understanding" meant, by definition, that the previous teaching was false. I think, apart from the re-re-re-boot of Matthew 24:34, removing the 1935 date for the final sealing of the anointed was probably a pretty big thing. When I think about it, it means that up until 2007, this falsehood was being taught to everyone without scriptural basis. It's strange that false doctrine is a pretty commonplace occurrence in the JW theology, yet innumerable errors are explained away. Anybody who complains about it is failing to recognize God's authority, somehow. I've yet to read the part where Moses says to Israel, "Oops--scratch out Commandment #7. Here's the 'adjusted understanding'." So, ironic that this same complaint against all other religions simply cannot be filed against JWs by virtue of the divine [invisible] cloak of authority.
#2. How much does the average JW even know about the Governing Body? Very few could even name all of them. Most can readily identify the mistakes, even serious ones, of their local elders, I suppose. Any news reports of misconduct are dismissed as lies of Satan. Satan, we might add, has one heck of a media empire. I'd sure like to see HIS stock portfolio! Anyway, so #2 can't be filed against JWs because...oh, right, invisible cloak of authority.
#3. JWs, as they were since 1931, weren't in any wars, I guess. Or politics, if you ignore Rutherford's anti-Semitic rants against Jews and big business in the 1934 Yearbook, or whatever else could be found from before then. If you call that politics... Anyway, bloodguilt is there from the medical treatment madness--first it was immunizations, then blood transfusions, then organ transplants for 13 years or so, and disallowing blood fractions until just about a decade ago. No statistics available on how many deaths those rules can be linked to (at least no complete statistics). But even this, again, is a "minor matter" that I'm "nitpicking" about. You know, innocent people dying with the blessing of their religious leaders? Is that all that different from the priests blessing the troops? #3 can't be filed because...well, it's no big deal and who are YOU to speak against...the ? Wow, I guess it really is invisible.
JWs warn people to get out of Babylon the Great, which they say is false religion, to avoid sharing in her sins, her bloodguilt, her false teachings. Yet if the same--false teachings, bloodguilt, misconduct--is amongst JWs, it's just imperfection.
My wife asked me on Saturday if I had a better way of being Christian than what the JWs are doing. Well, maybe, maybe not. But I do know what is definitely wrong. Should I keep lying or spreading somebody else's lies because I don't know of a better alternative? What does that tell God about me? All the liars go to the lake of fire, supposedly. I figure I'll take my chances by starting with an absence of lying, and go from there, you know?
Guess the JWs should be careful what warnings they sound. Because, after all, people just might listen a little too closely.
--sd-7