For some time, I have been thinking whether it is wise to personally work towards providing a Jehovah's witness with the evidence that the WTBTS is a man-made thing, if that witness has all of his/her family in the organization and would obviously lose a lot. On the one hand, living in delusion, the kind of life you people describe, is something nobody deserves. On the other hand, once the witness realizes how he has been deceived and abused, he or she will also be very clear that there are family members and friends they would want to continue to see and have relationships with. So, sometimes I wondered what was really to be done. I was wondering whether I, a non-JW who has never been in and quite often won't even be able to relate to what you people say here, would have a right to tell a JW the truth, and whether that truth wouldn't harm him or her more than living in delusion.
I found thinking material while re-reading "Crisis of Conscience". On the first page, Ray Franz added this excerpt from the Watchtower of January 15, 1974:
"When persons are in great danger from a source they do not suspect or are being misled by those they consider their friends, is it an unkindness to warn them? They may prefer not to believe the warning. They may even resent it. But does that free one of the moral responsibility to provide that warning?"
I believe this is also complemented with the first paragraphs of the book.
"Whether we like it or not, moral challenge affects each one of us. It is one of life's bittersweet ingredients from which there is no successful escape. It has the power to enrich us or impoverish us, to determine the true quality of our relationships with those who know us. It all depends on our response to that challenge. The choise is ours - it is seldom an easy one.
We have the option, of course, of surrounding our conscience with a sort of cocoon of complacency, passively "going along", shielding our inner feelings from whatever might disturb them. When issues arise, rather than take a stand we can in effect say "I'll just sit this one out; others may be affected - even hurt - but I am not". Some spend their whole life in a morally "sitting" posture. But, when all is said and done, and when life finally draws near its close, it would seem that the one who can say "At least I stood for something" must feel greater satisfaction than the one who rarely stood for anything".
With all due respect to Mr. Ray Franz, I don't think that "the greater satisfaction" I could feel would be a valid reason for speaking up. It's somebody else's life here. I think that the real reason needs to be the suffering, the sadness, the risk of bleeding to death and the wasting of so many good people's lives that needs to matter.
Just in case, I need to say I am NOT an apologist of the Watchtower.
I will appreciate any of your thoughts on this. You were, or are, witnesses, and you would know better than I.