Many remarks are here and hopefully no one expects me to answer them all, for each has ten followups and I would never be able to leave, which perhaps is the point. One must pick and choose.
Several have raised the ARC hearings. In general, we got pasted a bit because we were not seen to help enough in the world's fight to handle its pedophilia problem. Apostates try to reframe this to suggest there would be no pedophilia problem without Jehovah's Witnesses. It doesn't fly, though, I admit it can be spun to cause us embarrassment.
The only reason there ever were records that everyone now wants is that Witnesses were proactive when few others were. They kept track so that a pedophile could not slip out of one congregation and enter another, and thereby endanger children there. This was not attempted at many other churches. In fact, it was not possible at some - many churches are completely autonomous in governance and keep no central records. A pervert slips out of one and easily slides right into another.
The pedophile problem is absolutely out of control and authorities are beside themselves trying to reign it in. Everyone knows this. Turn on the TV. Throw a stone in any direction and you will hit ten pedophiles. People that must track internet child porn as part of their jobs liken it to Medusa; one look and you turn to stone.
This will not be easy to stem. It increases with time as internet porn whips up an appetite, but it has long been a staple of human existence. The Greeks, foundation of Western society, built their civilization around molestation of children; it was an accepted, even enshrined part of daily life.
The Witness policy is that when required by law, any instance of child abuse is reported to police, and any member is always free to report such an instance, required or not. Child advocates go apoplectic at this - why does not go beyond the law? One reason you do not go beyond the law is that in a clergy-penitent relationship, same as doctor-patient, or lawyer-client relationship, you get into serious trouble for breaking confidentiality. Instead, if going beyond the law is the gold standard, why doesn't that become the law? It is not as though governments do not know how to pass laws. In fact, our guy pleaded with the commission to make laws uniform across the board, instead of the patchwork that it is, for it would make our job ever so much easier. But the disunited world cannot even do that. When all was said and done, it was clear that our people wanted to cooperate and there will no doubt be policies to address their concerns, though the world's track record on controlling pedophilia is dismal.
Certainly errors on our part have been made and it is exacerbated by the reluctance of some old-timer rank and file members to 'air dirty underwear.' They must come to realize that we now live in a world in which people routinely stroll around in dirty underwear and have little comprehension or sympathy for a reluctance to share. The situation will continue to adjust.
To return to the thread's topic, many have stated Witnesses have no interest in staying at the door and get away quickly. Surely this is an example of how the one who measures can skew what is measured. Are those on this thread the typical audience JWs will encounter? Does anyone think that I stand there and patiently reason with Outlaw when he answers the door? I dive through the open window of my car. If it is a fight I am looking for, I can pick one with my spouse and never leave home. Witnesses find many a hearing ear, but none are on this forum.
Someone else is not unduly put out by ISIS running over strollers in trucks. It is just one of those things. Why, there were bad people in the past, too. Where is this promised presence of his? Why all things are continuing exactly as from creation's beginning. He has fallen into the atheist camp, for atheists reason this way. He likely blasts at members from this same thread on other forums populated by ones who have fallen into the old-time-religion camp.