it's just another example of the new GB changing policy. The once hardline stance is now very fluid......
I wonder if WT is so forgiving to individual JWs that display a flag on their home? Or, does WT expect them to defy the government and pay the fine, or suffer the wrath of a judicial committee for compromising their "Christian neutrality"?
As long as it's a rank-and-file JW paying the fine, and not WT, I would guess WT automatically adheres to the "hardline stance".
In an excellent historical review of Watchtower's activities during WW2 in relation to Nazi Germany, J. Bergman had this to say:
"The Watchtower was sympathetic to the Jews, even supporting Zionists movements until about 1932. [141] Then they reversed their stand, and began a campaign critical of Jews that can only be called racist. They also tried to appease the Nazis in other ways:
Watch Tower Society "branch servant" or "overseer" Konrad Franke tells that when he and another Jehovah's Witness arrived at the Berlin Sporthalle Wilmersdor where the 1933 Witness convention was being held, they were shocked. The building was bedecked with Swastika flags--evidently to please the Nazis. Then during the convention itself, the Witness faithful were called on to sing a hymn that they had not sung in Germany for years. While they had no objection to the words, the music was the same as that of the German national anthem, "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles." As for the Declaration and accompanying letter sent to Adolf Hitler personally, they were nothing short of self-serving statements which attempted to ingratiate Jehovah's Witnesses with the Nazis."
...OUTLAW