Posted by AF [AF] on November 18, 1999 at 06:35:49 {KEdmzBXaT6DjRmAxB/kMdaOt1gg/Zk}:
In Reply to: ********AP and AF posted by Friend on November 17, 1999 at 21:51:13:
My example of expressing divergent views is rather unusual, as is yours. Plenty of people have told their stories on this board and elsewhere about expressing such views to their wives or other close associates, including elders, and then being called before an inquisitorial committee to answer one question: are you loyal to the Watchtower Society? Any form of a "no" answer got them DF'd. I'm also aware of plenty of people who were called before such committees and played the game: they told the elders that they were loyal and were left alone.
You know very well that your own circumstances are unusual and therefore can hardly be compared to that of the average JW. I'm also in a somewhat unusual position in that some in my family are in high positions in the Watchtower world, or have connections with those who are. I have no doubt that these relatives expressed the reasons for my divergent views to key people in Bethel, and this over a period of many years. It would have been self-defeating for these key people to "deal" with me in the usual way, given that my loyal JW relatives approached them with sincerely posed problems.
The fact is that the Society and JWs act inconsistently. After my wife quit the JWs, her brother and sister began shunning her simply for leaving. Can you explain how they could justify that? I certainly can: it's implied to be proper in 1980s WTS publications, and the Society has never retracted those implications in any public literature.
: The fact that we are asked to share divergence within some parameter (system) is acceptable and common. What I have difficulty with is that I consider those parameters unnecessarily restrictive and beyond that indicated in the Bible.
I agree. And until they lighten up on this, they're going to be taken to task by people like me. Immoral and unethical behavior committed in the name of God deserves to be exposed and stopped.
AF