Vidiot: "Ironic that the WT leadership got so scared of “apostasy” that over the decades, they dialed disfellowshipping up to eleven across the entire spectrum of, thus driving folks to apostasy who would otherwise have never even remotely considered it."
Identifying paradoxes within their approaches seems never to have been their strong point.
Jazzbo: "The Appeal Committee change is significant. I used to sit on an Appeal Committee and the rule was that the person appealing had to be repentant at the time they were being disfellowshipped. If they were only repentant when meeting with the Appeal Committee that wasn't good enough."
The terror had to be real, and palpable, all through the process? So maybe they are discovering a small part of the quality of mercy. Sad that they have done so, not because they believe that God is watching, but they now know that governments are.
Many believe that Tony Morris was holding all this reform back. If that was the case, how long ago could these changes have happened if he was holding them back?
The Norway thing is relatively new; would the disfellowshipment and shunning rules have changed without that happening?