I agree with earlier posts that the criminal actions of nominal members do not invalidate the truth or goodness of any particular religion. Any one of us, regardless of religious training, MIGHT commit a bad deed, but that does not necessarily mean our training was at fault. Judas followed Jesus and heard all His teaching--but betrayed Him in the end. Yet his treachery does not render void the sublime teaching of the Sermon on the Mount.
For more modern examples, both Hitler and Mussolini were at least nominal Catholics. Yet the Roman Church also produced St. Francis and Mother Teresa. Anyone might renounce his or her religious training--or embrace it and transcend himself for the good of others.
All our organizations are, like each of us individually, compounded of both good and evil, wheat and tares. But we are all called, believers and non-believers alike, to overcome the evil with the good.
It is ironic, though, that the WTBTS has for so long taken fiendish delight in pointing to misdeeds of other religionists as proof positive of their religions' untruth--while at the same time turning a blind eye to the misdeeds of its own members and the logical implications for its own teachings.
The real "truth" is that, search the world over, you will find NO religion, past or present, that has induced moral perfection in all of its members all of the time--thus the need for, in Christian terms, confession, penitence, and grace. "All have sinned," and do sin, and will sin, however you care to define the term.
The news article quoted above tells us very little, actually, about the attacker's religious history, beyond his having been at some point a practicing JW. It might be that the man was deeply disturbed before he ever joined the Witnesses, or that in mid-life some unexpected psychosis developed from physical causes. So absent more information, we would be unfair to leap to the conclusion that the JW's teaching or disfellowshipping drove him to this horrible deed.
However, as larc points out, the Witnesses are singularly lacking in either compassion or help for folks who just can't "measure up" for whatever reason to their idea of godliness.
I know this from my own experience as a gay teenager among them. I'll spare you all the tedious details, but the end of the story was, at age 21 I knew I either had to leave--or kill myself. And for many years afterward, I suffered from crippling depression no pills or counselors could cure, over issues dramatically and unnecessarily exacerbated by the JW mindset.
BTW, I never did anything except "self-abuse" to feel guilty for as a JW--I remained, in fact, a virgin till my mid-twenties, long after I had left. My mistake, as it were, was in being conscientious enough to recognize the "thoughtcrime" of gay feelings as being worthy of Jehovah's full wrath and hatred. How contemptible, to make a young, healthy male want to throw his life away over something so insignificant in the scheme of things!
Unresolvable inner conflicts like that can, indeed, make you feel you are dangling at the edge of sanity. I know. Thank God that is all far behind me now.
Perhaps the Governing Body should just adopt "Shape up or ship out" as their permanent yeartext?
Peace, y'all--
Bill
"If we all loved one another as much as we say we love God, I reckon there wouldn't be as much meanness in the world as there is."--from the movie Resurrection (1979)