I too thought it was a fair and balanced article, dependent on what Wendy was told by JW elders. However, I thought it necessary to email her and let her know of some the inaccuracies in the elders words. Below is a copy of my email to Wendy;
Hi Wendy, I read your article today with interest. I particularly noted some comments from JW elders that are not quite factual.If God's Spirit is filling a Kingdom Hall, how is it that Satan can manuever the ones within that Kingdom Hall at the same time?
When it was stated that some are disfellowshipped to protect the congregation from harm by conduct or beliefs that contradict the Bible, it should be noted that the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society has written and published their own version of the Bible, the New World Translation and deviance form the Watchtowers interpretation of it is strictly disallowed.
The extreme shunning also goes for those who just decide to leave the religion, as I did through disassociation. While they claim that one can still do business with one who is disfellowshipped or disassociated, privately, it is strongly discouraged. Evidence of this would be Mr. Bryants loss of his business in California.
The comment about being disfellowshipped for molestation would be true, provided there were two witnesses to the act. Currently, there are lawsuits pending against the Watchtower Society for some having been molested and absolutely nothing was done, due to their strict interpretation of 1 Timothy 5:19, 24, 25 and as stated on pages 109 and 118 of their elders manual, "Pay Attention To Yourselves and to The Flock." This book is not open to public viewing and only elders are permitted to see it. But, some antiJW sites have published it on the web in the last few years.
Not all elders try to avoid disfellowshipping, either. Some, as in my case, attempted to railroad me into a Judicial Hearing due to my expelling two elders from my house, citing Colossians 3:8 and 1 Corinthians 6:10, claiming I was "prone to wrath." This after almost 5 years of inactivity with the religion. Some elders are very power hungry and use their positions to "lord it over others." I wrote letter to the Watchtower Society about the conduct of the particular elder within my home, but absolutely nothing was done about it. I know this because no one from my household was ever approached and talked to about it.
Currently, my JW wife and I are very estranged, partly due to the religion. Her children have said they were told by elders that I am no longer considered the head of my house. Of course, no one will admit to having said that. Her JW friends still comer by the house to visit her and her kids, but will totally shun me, not even saying a cordial greeting. But, none have a problem partaking of what I supply in the house, food, drink, cable TV, etc. In the last couple days, I have had my fill of it and have posted a notice on my door for none of them to come in or come over again, further straining my wife and I. She has said that I should not object to be slighted in my own house as I asked for it and knew what would happen when I disassociated myself.
Everything in the Jehovah's Witness world is centered around Meeting Attendance, Going out in the Door to Door Preaching work and studying the Watchtower literature. Studying other literature is strongly discouraged, as is attending "R" rated movies and even some "G" rated movies that may contain scenes or messages they find inappropriate, such as Disney's Fantasia. (magic is the culprit for that one.)
I found within the congregations there was a lot of spying on each other looking for wrong doing and even some cases of it being made up. Personal vendettas are often settled in a Judicial Hearing if an elder has it in for another member and most often, a disfellowshipping occurs.
Thank you for reading this and for printing the article. I appreciate that you sought out both sides and presented a fair report based on what you discovered. I just feel that the elders you spoke to may not have been totally honest with you. Or, as explained in their "Insight On The Scriptures" book, volume 2, page 244, "Lying generally involves saying something false to a person who is entitled to know the truth......." If it furthers their cause and deflects bad light away from them, they have no problem with half truths and such.
sic DakotaRed