The leading metropolitan newspaper in New Zealand, the Dominion-Post, yesterday front-paged confirmation that JWs target grieving persons by trawling through obituaries for names of relatives and - unbelievably - even visiting cemeteries to approach persons tending graves (the article cites a recent Watchtower that presented the experience of a sister who did just that).
An ex-JW elder and his wife (both unknown to me) were featured in the article after approaching the newspaper in response to a local elder's denial last week that Witnesses deliberately obtain relatives' names from obituaries.
This is the third featured article in just over one week - and, to date, the most prominent.
Of interest a "senior" elder from the Sydney, Australia Bethel (which now has oversight over JWs in New Zealand) is quoted as not denying it happens - but tried to put a less damning spin on it by stating it was something that was up to individual Witnesses and is not expected.