Would you pose as an "interested one" and "study" to help free my family?

Essan

...In return for someone else doing the same with your friends or family?

This is a hypothetical question to see how many would be interested in something like this and if it could work. (I created another thread about this but the title and OP wasn't clear enough. Hopefully this will be)

Many of us are EXJws who have left the territory we were JW's in and are unknown to the JW's where we presently live. Others here have never been JW's and are unknown to the JW's in their location. Many of us have family or freinds inside the Org that we want to free, but who will not listen to us or the evidence we want to present.

Is it possible that we could assist each other to help free our family and friends, indirectly, by circumventing their defenses?

I left the JW's and moved away. No JW knows me here.

Imagine a forum was created where people posted threads listing locations where they have JW friends/family that they wanted covertly contacted, naming the congregation and territory. For example "Hi, I'm john I'm an ExJW and I used to live in X and attended the X congregation. I have friends there that I would like exposed to the true history of the Society and the UN scandal. Can anyone here do that for me?"

Imagine that I now live in that congregations territory. I could post, agreeing to go to that hall and pose as an interested one and specifically make contact with the friends/family that I had been informed about in order to start "studying" with them. For example, I might post: "He, I'm Essan. Yeah, I live in that congregations territory. The JW's don't know me here. If you PM or email me the names and a way to ID your friends, such as a photo, then I'll go to the hall posing as an interested one, make contact with them, and ask to study with them. Then I'll use the study to ask questions requiring proof which they will have to research and I'll show them my own research, exposing them to what you want them to see. Sound good?"

And so a covert "study" specifically targeted by request would begin, subtly exposing the JW's in question to info that might well 'wake them up', in a setting in which their defenses are down. Updates could be given as the study progressed from week to week, and the direction of the "questions" raised could be determined by the person who nominated the JW targets, because they know them personally and what issues would affect them most deeply etc.

Also, I would submit the locations of my chosen 'targets' - my friends and family - and wait for another member in that location to agree to covertly contact them on my behalf and do for me what I was doing for someone else. . And so, we'd be doing for each other what we cannot directly do for ourselves.

Who here would want to participate in such a thing?

Thoughts?

simon17

Thats a pretty interesting idea but its going to be very unlikely because you'd have to have a perfect match with someone: you and someone else would have to both move to each other's old congregation area. Unlikely you'll find many cases where it would work...

Essan

Well, the idea is that nobody moves in order to find a match but that we simply find close enough matches to make it work in enough cases to make it worthwhile. Otherwise, we simply wait until there is a match. People leave in such numbers and ExJW's are so numerous, there are bound to be some matches. Also, this isn't just something that ExJW's would participate in, but also non-JW's with JW family who they wish could be freed from the Org. There are a hell of a lot of those. They may participate too.

In part this is about making use of the phenomena of ExJW's leaving the area and moving to one where they are anonymous among JW's, which happens a lot anyway.

Black Sheep

Before it could start to be effective, the participants would have to learn how to conduct themselves so that they could make their points without scaring them off.

The psychology is more important than the information you want to show them, Essan.

For example, most of the research you want to present to them will simply set off their Aposta Alarm System.

You need to encourage them to do the research themselves.

Essan

I agree, Blacksheep. There could be a few articles on the forum about how to subtly do this. I believe there have even been books written about how to use the study situation to covertly and subtly expose JW's to info by asking questions which they are required to research.

I agree that if it was not done subtly it would fail.

But you can't encourage a JW to do research if they refuse to talk to you or listen to anything you say, which is the position many of us here are in with our friends and families because we left the Org.

You can induce them to do research in a Bible Study setting, however. But that brings us back to covertly creating a Bible Study setting, as outlined in the OP.

WontLeave

Nearly every "Bible" study I've seen conducted, the JW bailed on it. I was told to turn over all my studies with females and every one of the "sisters" I turned them over to dropped the ball. After gushing about how much the wanted a study, hoped for a study, tried for a study, had prayed for a study... They cited several different excuses, but every one of them was immediately discontinued, most without ever going once. Most long-time studies are with shut-ins, welfare recipients, mentally- or physically-disabled. There's no interest there, other than to have someone stop by and pass the time. The next generation of JWs are going to be a glorious display of the far-left side of the bell curve.

I personally don't live in my territory and have accepted 3 studies, never to have the JW return. I tell them how much I love reading the Bible, how much I love talking about it, how much I love bouncing variations of understanding off one another. Usually we have about an hour-long discussion, then they have to leave because someone's in the car, waiting. They offer to come back on a regular basis and talk more about the Bible, to which I excitedly accept. They don't come back.