Should I avoid asking "upsetting" questions, or is this simply one of the "rites of passage" out of the WTS? It has to happen, in order for the release from the mind control? Though I don't want to to see this person sick, I also have a very hard time holding back on asking things I am sure they never thought through before joining up with the WTS.
Perhaps I am being petty, but when someone (like this friend) goes out of their way to be highly critical of my beliefs, and asks me about my "leaders" credentials, I don't feel out of line asking about THEIR's! And when they tell me it's a bunch of really good JWs ( though they don't even know how many) whom they wouldn't know if they plopped down in the seat next to them at KH, I can't help but ask...."Let me get this straight....I should research everyone else's relgious beliefs, including my own....however, if I were to tell you the same thing-- that they are some highly spiritual nice guys who I wouldn't know if they sat right next to me, you think that would be acceptable enough?" You can't name any of them, you don't know what race they are, you don't know if they are replaced upon death, you don't know how old they are, you don't know their credentials, you don't know the process by which they were chosen, and that is suppose to make me trust that they alone speak for God? And they know more than I do about the Bible? Sorry! Not buying it.
Of course, then I'm accused of not trusting them. Heck no, I don't trust them! I don't even know who they are! Neither do YOU!
I don't care if I talk about religous issues or not. There is plenty to discuss besides that all the time. But I don't feel the need to recoil and hold back, when I know something isn't right. However, I don't wish to see someone become sick over the conversation either. *Note: The subject of religion was NEVER, EVER brought up by me. But I have always been told off and cut off at the end of each conversation, as though I were the one who brought it all up!