Absolute Obedience to Watchtower cult leaders is only necessary because of coercion and intimidation and the duress of having the SHUN GUN pointed at their head for those JW's who are now awake. The threat is as real as that of a fully loaded pistol.
We are all aware of friends and family who are STILL INSIDE the Kingdom Halls with very little actual conviction that they are in The Truth. Why do they stay?
What do we call such persons? I'd say VICTIMS intimidated to live a joyless life of drudgery.
Pretending to be what they are not, each day is filled with compulsory duty enforced by watchful eyes of Elders and informants with the power to destroy the solidarity of family.
I know a married couple who were each the children of Congregation Elders and who secretly celebrate Christmas but who can quickly remove all traces when the grandparents come to visit. They are compelled to live like Bootleggers hiding a still from Federal agents!!
Imagine, if you will, the stress on the kids! Imagine the distorted sense of loyalty being taught! Imagine what values are at conflict and the psychological destruction being wrought!!
What can you say, what can you do that could possibly solve this dilemma?
In effect, such Jehovah's Witnesses-in-name-only, suffer an identity crisis which destroys any sense of reality and which makes a genuine life impossible.
Over time, these victims have chosen a living hell which they LEARN TO LIVE WITH as though it were NORMAL!
Repression, suppression, and dual allegiances are default settings in their consciousness and consciences.
IS THERE ANY SOLUTION?
Living a fraudulent life or one of ostracism is an awful dilemma! No person in a free country should face such an ambivalent fork in the road of life!
Can you imagine Jesus shunning anybody? He did not shun Peter who denied him nor Judas who would betray him. He did not shun Pharisees who baited him or those "despicable" Samaritans who were apostate. Jesus is the only model worth considering if you are serious in embracing Christianity.
But, no--the Watchtower religion has a seemingly "higher" standard than the founder of Christianity itself!!
Or is it?
Is it "higher" or is it a distortion of the very purpose of Christianity?
Should we not ask ourselves what the purpose of Christianity actually is?
Doesn't the Good Shepherd LEAVE the faithful flock to pursue and embrace the apostate sheep who has left the fold?
The 99 are left behind as the Shepherd lovingly seeks out and enfolds the 1 self-ostracized sheep!
Those who strayed were important to Jesus.
Jesus was INCLUSIVE.
His message is FOR the weak, not for hearts hardened into cold steel.
What good is forgiveness to those not allowed to fall short?
Look at the contrast with the Watchtower religion!
Witnesses are taught to NOT EVEN PRAY FOR the stray sheep, to hate them, marginalize them as mental defectives as well as to anticipate their imminent destruction!
How could an actual footstep follower of the Good Shepherd Jesus be so contrary in disposition to their supposed Master??
The leadership of Jehovah's Witnesses has proved they are not the "faithful" slave, but rather, are the "evil slave" who beat up those under their oversight!
Jehovah's Witnesses are all too eager to pull the trigger on dissent and worship as a death cult. Dead men's bones are their joy.
Kingdom halls become museums for shackled saints rather than hospitals for needy sinners.
And if you greet your brothers only, what extraordinary thing are you doing? Are not also the people of the nations doing the same thing? (Matthew 5:43-48; NWT)
And just as he who is without sin could cast the first stone (and none could of course), then a witness should consider that he who is without sin can commit the first act of shunning. Or marking. Or any of the other things that they do to punish one another.
Why--why then, does the Watchtower Organization point the Gun of Shun so eagerly?
Would it be going out too far to say that: remove the SHUNNING POLICY and the Kingdom Halls would lose an immediate 33% of its membership?
FREEDOM to leave might prove catastrophic!