You Know,
With all due respect, your depiction of a prospective new JW and his complete awareness of all the ramifications of his commitment, is disingenous.
Acknowledgement by baptismal candoidates of the principles of ``submission to'' and ``cooperation with'' the appointed servants and the central organization are seldom understood by them to mean the total uncritical obedience they are in pracice, once baptized.
Nor are they often made fully aware that the the consequences of expulsion apply not only the serious sins but also to the relatively trivial offenses, i.e, expressing any misgivings, however tactfully or respectfully uttered.
Any dictionary will confirm that the terms ``submission'' and ``cooperation'' are in no way synonymous with the near-total knee-jerk subservience to human authority.
Also, as a student of the Society's history, you must be aware that, in contrast with the immutable constancy of Divine Law, the severity of the current policies date from the ``apostate scare'' of the post-Ray Franz era.
Whatever one thinks of him personally, any contemporary of his at Bethel knows that the his info is, as the English say ``spot on.'' What you may fail to appreciate is that at least some of us who are currently disaffected with Brooklyn wish it weren't so -- but wishes ain't gonna change anything. Among the rank and file, naivete about how the Society operates is endemic.
With all due respect, your depiction of a prospective new JW and his complete awareness of all the ramifications of his commitment, is disingenous.
Acknowledgement by baptismal candoidates of the principles of ``submission to'' and ``cooperation with'' the appointed servants and the central organization are seldom understood by them to mean the total uncritical obedience they are in pracice, once baptized.
Nor are they often made fully aware that the the consequences of expulsion apply not only the serious sins but also to the relatively trivial offenses, i.e, expressing any misgivings, however tactfully or respectfully uttered.
Any dictionary will confirm that the terms ``submission'' and ``cooperation'' are in no way synonymous with the near-total knee-jerk subservience to human authority.
Also, as a student of the Society's history, you must be aware that, in contrast with the immutable constancy of Divine Law, the severity of the current policies date from the ``apostate scare'' of the post-Ray Franz era.
Whatever one thinks of him personally, any contemporary of his at Bethel knows that the his info is, as the English say ``spot on.'' What you may fail to appreciate is that at least some of us who are currently disaffected with Brooklyn wish it weren't so -- but wishes ain't gonna change anything. Among the rank and file, naivete about how the Society operates is endemic.