I have looked at Friday's online editions of both the New York Times and the Oakland Tribune. Neither paper has reported on this story or published any information about the verdicts and damage awards. I am disappointed by that in light of the Society's status in New York and the trial's location in Oakland. Perhaps the timing of these events has something to do with the silence and I hope that we'll see something in either or both papers before the close of business today.
The Governing Body must be rending their garments and gnashing their teeth over this development. Will they convene some kind of emergency session to deal with it? What will they instruct the legal, service and writing departments to do? An appeal seems likely, but a bigger problem lies with the reaction of the rank-and-file Witnesses as news of this judgment spreads. Perhaps they are counting on the kind of pushback I've already had. When I sent the news of this story to some Witnesses I know, one of them said that the hyperlinks to court documents on this thread did not work leading him to believe the entire story might be false. I encouraged him to read the entire thread so that he could see the additional corroboration he wanted. But it wouldn't surprise me to see the WTS leadership take a similar tack to the inquiries which may already be pouring into Brooklyn.
I've said elsewhere that the WTS ruling clique has a siege mentality. I believe this crisis will only reinforce that. The barbarians are at the gates and are now bringing out their battering rams to use against them. This story raises the very real possibility of an internal palace revolt as some of the more mentally agile rank-and-file decide that they have seen and heard enough and will seek wholesale reform of the organization. That reform may well mean the removal of current Governing Body members. If no reform comes, that may trigger a massive exodus which could lead to the collapse of the WTS as we have known it.
I think these possibilities are already being hashed out in Brooklyn. Along with the attendant fear they raise, one huge question may also find itself being asked. How could Jehovah allow this to happen? Why would he abandon or desert us at such a critical juncture? If that question is being asked, I have a very simple answer to it. Jehovah never abandoned or deserted the WTS because he was never with it in the first place.
Quendi