Apparently the elders you're talking to have their heads where the sun never shines. Blinders on. Let's take a peek at the realities:
People in the churches lie, cheat, steal, commit adultery? And JWs don't? What elder you know isn't obsessed with "keeping the congregation clean"? What do they mean by that? They mean kicking out people who lie, cheat, steal and commit adultry. The big difference is that when JWs kick out people for doing these things, they ruin families, friends, and relationships of a lifetime permanently. As a result JWs have the highest rates of alcoholism and suicide of all religions. When people in the churches are disciplined for these things, their personal relationships are carefully kept intact. Which shows more love?
The people in the churches don't all believe the same thing? You said yourself that even among the elders, they do not accept the entire body of doctrines. And neither do you, right? They are referring to the scripture "In unity I shall set them like a flock in a pen." There is a world of difference between unity and uniformity. The JWs want uniformity, like Hitler and the Nazis did. People can be in unity, love each other and portray the fruitage of the spirit for all to see without being in spiritual lock-step with each other, behaving like automotons popped out of the same dough with the same cookie-cutter. Christ came to set us free from such Pharisical thinking. "Life Everlasting in the Freedom of the Sons of God"? Lack of intellectual freedom is the worst form of slavery. There's no freedom in mind control.
No other church preaches in the community? Every church I know of has outreach programs of some kind. One example from a Baptist congregation in Atlanta. They get lists of people getting new phone service in their area. A pair of people from the church goes by with welcome packages for the new move ins. They offer to help with the practicalities of everyday life until they settle down. Then they follow up with offers to pick them up on Sunday and take them to the church. If that ain't filfilling Mt 24, I'll eat your hat. That might not fit the JWs definition of preaching, but who died and left the JWs in charge of making all the definitions? These church folk DO NOT have to whip out arcane books explaining occult teachings on blood, the trinity, disfellowshipping and other nonsense and make such an effort to retrain how people think. Jehovah's Witnesses don't preach the truth. They sell bad publications door to door and then attempt indoctrination into a cultic environment. That ain't preaching, brother.
People's lives have been changed for the better without ever seeing a JW or the inside of a kingdom hall. In fact, most of the people on this site have had their lives changed for the better BECAUSE they're no longer associated with Jehovah's Witnesses.
"Debates about words?" Boy does the pot call the kettle black. Do you know of ANY religion that pounds and pounds and pounds on the orginal meaning of the original word in Aramaic or Hebrew or Greek as the JWs? Why do you think they published the "Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures"? They did it JUST SO they could engage in "debates about words." Now, if that's not hypocritical, I'm the Virgin Mary.
The churches in Palestine during the first century were NOT in unity as your JW elders claim. The brothers in Jerusalem differed greatly from the brothers in Antioch. The brothers in Jerusalem won that argument. That's just why you don't see so much about Antioch in the scriptures. There WAS no governing body in Jerusalem at the time. The claim that Paul's conversations with the brothers in Jerusalem amounted to seeking their approval for what he was doing is shear nonsense. His ordination came directly from the spirit, the same one that animates you and I and all other seekers today. We need not bow the knee to old farts in New York. And where were the body of worshippers that helped Paul's conversion? There wasn't any. The truth is the truth is you are a minority of ONE. That empty claim says that God is not powerful to affect positive change in an individual. Pretty weak god, if you ask me.
I don't think these issues and arguments are difficult to refute. Not when you recognize it for the bullshit that it is. I have publically challenged the entire governing body to a public debate. I've repeated the challenge over and over on this site. I know they are aware of it. They refuse to come out and "make a defense of their beliefs." They won't because they can't. And I'm talking about me, alone, on stage before thousands of people taking on the entire governing body and all their piss-ant attorneys. As Gandhi has said, "The valiant in spirit glory in fighting alone." I may be dumber than I am valiant, but I'm something they're not, I'M WILLING.
