Trev received this email earlier from someone who is studying with the JWs, and he has allowed me to post it
Dear Trevor
I have been studying with the JW's for some time now.
However I have a legal background and am consequently
cautious about matters of doctrine. Generally I feel
that all religious organizations come to some
debatable conclusions. So it seems inevitable that
there will be difficult areas, whoever one becomes
involved with.
Over the years I have become disillusioned with the
mainstream churches for various reasons including the
following :
1. They offer repetitive ritual and little else.
Certainly there is no Bible study for educated adults.
2. Certain teachings which are as clear as crystal in
the New testament are often ignored, seemingly by
popular demand. How one can do this and claim to be a
Christian is literally beyond me.
3. Most churches are very hierarchical, involved in
politics, bless weaponry etc.
4. Some preach ideas that conflict with or are simply
not contained in The Bible.
I therefore came to the following conclusions:
a). It seems likely that the most sincere way to
attempt to embrace Christianity is to try to emulate
first century Christians.
b).The principle of elders taking to task members of
the congregation who offend Christian values is, to
me, no more than I would expect. And no more than was
practiced in the first century. I see nothing
draconian or sinister here in principle. Indeed
without this how can a congregation maintain the
highest standards?
Hence my involvement with the Witnesses.
So Trevor, I do find one or two of the JW's very
literal Bibical interpretations difficult and some
conclusions a step farther than I would have thought
necessary. But I have been unable to uncover anything
more worrying than that. Furthermore where else could
I find the level of commitment I seek? I get the
distinct impression that in these times many critics
simply resent the idea of being supervised by elders
or are stung by the JW's rigorous approach to a life
of faith, when compared with their own.
The above is not intended to be confrontational.
However I do not wish to make the considerable
commitment of becoming a Witness and have my life
ruined by disillusion. I would therefore greatly
welcome any further information or comments you are
able to provide me with in case I am uninformed or
naive.
Sincerely
This gentleman has obviously been listening to the Watchtower's conclusions about those of us who have seen through their deceit and left. Of course, the organisation never acknowledge that anyone leaves because of finding out the the truth about their so-called truth, and have to invent lies to explain why they are losing so many members.
Trev was resting when the email came, but he has replied. I told him to leave it till later, but his reaction was that he had promised Linda he would continue to help anyone who asked him to, and such things can't wait, so he replied thus, in a very balanced way, in my opinion.
Hello xxxxx, As I am sure you are aware, I am a former jw. The reason I left was nothing to do with the fact that the congregation was run by the elders, or their use of their authority. During my time as a jw, the Watchtower made a major doctrinal change regarding their genration beliefs. I began an investigation of jw history, and found that this wasn't the first time that they had changed their beliefs, and on several occasions they had predicted the end of the world, and obviously the prophecy had failed. There is much information on this site http://www.quotes-watchtower.co.uk/home.html which is entirely composed of older Watchtower publications which the organisation doesn't encourage its' members to read. The many, and there have been many, doctrinal flip flops are documented there, and I advise you to have a look. I would also advise you to read a book called Crisis of Conscience, by Raymond Franz, which can be obtained at a reasonable price from Amazon. Parts of it can be read here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Franz I would advise you to thoroughly investigate the Watchtower Society before making any commitment. Many have found that things are not all they seem, or all the jws would have you believe, in the organisation. regards Trevor Spencer
We both hope that this gentleman does investigate the Watchtower before he considers making a commitment to the organisation. We don't want anyone else going through what many of us have endured. We both hope that he will read Crisis of Conscience, which should be more than enough to save him from the Watchtower.
Marion