If you haven't seen the movie "MILK" starring Sean Penn, or is you have not seen a documentary or read up on Harvey Milk, then it'll be hard for you to have an opinion on this.
This is not a "gay" thread. The fact that harvey Milk was gay and was a civil rights leadewr for the gay movement has nothing to do with the point I will make here.
Harvey Milk when he was campaingning for City supervisor for San Francisco and fighting against Prop 6 in the mid 70s came upon some marketing research that said, where a person actually knows a gay person, they vote favorably towards gay civil rights 2 to 1. This made him come up with his policy that everyone working on his campaign that had not come out as gay to their freinds and family, had to come out. I'm not sure if there were any consequences if someone just refused to come out; the movie didn't say and neither did the documentary.
How this applies to ex-JWs
I've gone on a few rants about how I think every non believing JW still living a lie should just come out. And I'm always slapped down pretty hard by people who insist that I'm not being "understanding about their situation" or that I'm being judgmental. so I am going to try hard to not be judgmental here. But I figure, in the very least, we should have a national day of "coming out of the Watchtower." I have suggested before the first day of spring as that day each year when practicing JWs who no longer believe in it, come out to their friends and family.
Do I know what I am saying?
Yes. I know that this will mean instant shunning for many who do this. That is why I am not ASKING anybody to do this. I am just putting it out there into the consciousness of the universe, so that those who feel a kinship with the suggestion may act upon it of they so desire.
I am not saying that JWs who no longer believe lack courage. But I would like to just make the general statement that, what such a decision would require, (coming out of the Watchtower) is EXTRA COURAGE. courage above and beyond normal courage. Courage that says "truth is nmore important than my family staying together based on some delusion or shared lie." or, "Freedom is more important than friends or family that when put to the test, will drop you like a ton of lead for going against the Watchtower Co.
I get it that this is a very unpopular opinion. But, getting back to Harvey Milk, if 2 out of 3 people vote favorably to a cause if they know someone in that cause, well, then, there is going to be a great multitude of people, JWs, who just REFUSE to shun their own flesh and blood. It ALREADY happens that way. A certain percentage of JWs actually do not shun their family members even though it is breaking the rules. That is just a fact.
But if incredible droves of people started comeing out of the Watchtower, coming out as a non-believer in it, if all those who came out were shunned, this would create an incredible social/sopcietal holocaust. Tens of thousands of families would be destroyed. Individuals would be homeless, suicides would take place in great numbers, all sorts of societal catastrophes would happen, and nonJWs, worldly people just wouldn't stand for it any more. They would pass legislation to outlaw shunning due to the incredible harm it perpetuates upon society in general.
I believe that IF mass amounts of people were to come out, especially suddenly all on one day, we would have ourselves a real civil rights movement on our hands, whereas now, we got what we got in terms of rights against a religious corporation. The corporation has all the rights. There is no such thing as "Interorganizational civil rights...YET!" Only if people were to start coming out like crazy can we ever hope to get more attention and someday get some support from ther government. Right now the ACLU fiercely defends the Watchtower's and other religions' right to shun. They need to see the destruction that this practice does before they will ever see us as a group of people with rights.