The article from 1994 Awake strikes me as reasonable, in that it leaves the issue of children playing with "magical toys" as a conscience matter, which each JW parent must decide for themselves for their children.
So where's the proof that the JW policy has changed away from that? It's certainly not found in the Sparlock DVD, itself: what you see is a JW Mom who exercises HER conscience in the matter, probing Caleb's beliefs to see if he thinks the toy is magic; he said "yes", and she decided.
Granted, what Caleb's mom DIDN'T do was explain to Caleb that the toy ISN'T magic, and in fact, there is NO such thing as magic. However, that is NOT a part of JW eschatology: I don't need to tell anyone here that JWs DO believe magic exists as the work of the Devil: that's part of the JW spiel. Not my beliefs, of course, but they DO enjoy the right to believe the Moon is made of cream cheese, under the protection of freedom of religious expression afforded by the U.S. Constitution.
But when I see Cedars say:
This illustrates perfectly that the material in the Society's publications is steadily becoming more extreme, with less and less room for flexibility in how principles are to be interpreted.
No, it doesn't illustrate that perfectly. Speaking purely from a logical standpoint, Cedars failed to PROVE the assertion of ANY official policy change, such as the WT saying "We forbid playing with magic toys". If that WERE true, where's the evidence to back the claim of "WTBTS steadily becoming more extreme"? It's absent, because it doesn't exist.
The Sparlock video DOES graphically depict their stance on magic, as applied to an imaginary scenario of Caleb: the Sparlock video is simply depicting the policy stated in 1994 Awake. But to claim it's evidence of a "position shift" away from, or an example of "hard-lining" on the stance? Nonsense. That's poppycock.
So once again, we have a straw-man position of the WT that is simply fallacious, and the charge doesn't stick (at least for anyone who's willing to analyze the situation with a calm, rational analysis). Another over-reach, a logic FAIL...
Cedars, you'd do well to consider the calm, balanced and rational approach that is used by jwfact.org: they doesn't over-state the facts for the sake of dramatic effect, engage in straw-manning, hyperbole, etc. Just a plain presentation of the facts in an unbiased manner, letting the readers decide for themselves (I know! Facts are SOOOOO BORING...). But to spin and create strawmen insults the intelligence of the readers, and is disengenous.
The facts, the TRUTH, about the WTBTS are damning enough on their own; they don't need "writer's embellishment" to bolster them to be any more damaging to the WT (posters like Blondie know that providing THEIR OWN WORDS suffices; no need to over-state).
HOWEVER, any such attempts to deceive readers certainly DOES undermine the credibility of those who'd challenge, but see, it's not just YOU: it undermines the credibility of all of ALL WT critics, like Blondie and jwfacts.org. You make it easier to dismiss THEM (just like the guy posting WT Illuminati and claiming subliminal images in WT similarly damaged the credibility of the site, and not just them).
Oh, Cedars, please avoid the torrential ad-hominem-filled diatribe: I didn't write this for your sake (I know you don't get it), as much as to try and show lurkers on the fence that some posters here ARE actually concerned with facts and logic, and not willing to use "no holds barred" rants and rhetorical slight-of-hand fallacies to deceive them.
