Brad,
Rest assured that I was not speaking about you. In fact, generally speaking I do not discuss things in a personal sense on this board, but rather more generally and in terms of principle. Even if it addresses something that might be taken personally, I tend to just break it down in terms of what is said and have no interest in the personal aspect one way or the other. When I said:
I will say that if you're concerned with numbers and converting people, rather than recognizing that each mature individual has responsibility for themselves, then the way is open for a religion to get fat.
I was not talking about you, I was referring to religions like the JWs which emphasize proselytizing and membership.
As for the comment about the idea of being imperfect, I was trying to point out how the idea of being imperfect itself likely comes from the JW indoctrination - which is again nothing against you, but just think about how much they talk about being imperfect and use that as an excuse, JW thinking is pretty big on the idea.
You see I don't think in terms of perfect or imperfect, and I understand even people who were never JWs will say things like "none of us are perfect." But since we're mostly exJWs here I said that in order to point out something subtle which may have been influenced by JW thinking that you and others may not be aware of. I don't think it would be some kind of failing on your part, but just perhaps something you haven't noticed.
But as far as the point itself, I think it's important to point out that the idea of perfect or imperfect implies a static standard of judgement, and I think it's more about the intent than comparing yourself to some standard. But if you are going to judge something on a functional level (as opposed to any kind of finger pointing of someone being bad or wrong) then it just makes sense to break it down and look at how it works, which is of course why I said I myself prefer not to name particular religions but discuss that dynamic and let people consider the process of analysis for themselves. (so for that matter it doesn't matter if the idea of perfection comes from the JWs, I just used that as an attention getter) However I do think it does go deeper than the teachings, because it is about the people and how they treat each other, and of course those in a position of leadership have a more profound influence on others. And even beyond that you might say it isn't about the form of the religion at all, but whether that collective entity recognizes and values the living intelligence from which the religion came out of in the first place and encourages that in people, as opposed to sticking to the letter of the law so to speak.
Sorry for any confusion, I am not always sensitive to the different ways of what I write can be taken as I am mainly focused on the topic than any personal interpretation of it.
