---> Elephant the gb warns against apostates due to their ability to convince someone to leave the org...
Absolutely agreed - it's really interesting, because other cults such as the Church of the LDS, deploy a similar tactic. I was for a time really fascinated from a purely intellectual view point of the Mormons, because of the similarities between them and JWs. Their Ensign mag is identical to the Awake! in many ways. The Mormons also believe in active shunning "disaffected ones" and view any as apostate who questions the Church.
This experience blogged by a young Mormon on how communication with "apostates" has made him a realize how little he knew about his own church and beliefs, it's really interesting as it shows the power of "outside" and online influence.
He writes (quote) ... though having been sharply advised against searching out anti-Mormon material, that’s where I first went. With my returned-missionary zeal, I was going to go out and prove every single one of the points wrong. I knew that I could research and find out the blatant lies that people were telling and really do the church a good service..... As my desire to know everything about Mormonism increased, so did the necessity of interaction with people who were disaffected, at one stage or another along the disaffection journey. I started out immediately dismissing all of them, to mocking them, to ignoring them. “They are just twisting the truth,” I would tell myself. “They leave the church, but can’t leave it alone, and it’s all because it’s TRUE!” I obviously knew everything, and in my arrogance, thought to tell those that had left that they should abandon everything that they had grown up with, everything that they had circled their lives around, and everything that was the focal point of many of their families as well....I was so foolish....
Highly recommended reading, it's well written and from the heart, a lot you here would really appreciate where he is coming from...
