Visited my mum today. She i a JW and usually refuses to talk about issues around the JW organisation however today I had an opportunity to debate with her.
We were discussing the elders and that sometimes they made mistakes. Her response was "they are human and humans make mistakes."
I said to her " You could say the same about any group or religion. By using this excuse you are saying you are not special and no different from anyone else. Surely if you are the ONLY representatives of god on Earth you should be striving for a higher standard that elevates you from other groups."
I am so fed up with this excuse as a coverall for any failing. I would expect at the very least for anyone who sets themselves up as a devine conduit to be striving to be worthy of the honour and be making a real effort rather than the lazy fallback position.
She was willing to accept that witnesses put too much trust in the elders and that some are not worthy of the trust. We discussed the concept of sin and how there is a lack of recognition that some of the things classed as sins are actually crimes and as a holy society there should be no tolerance for this. My mum argued that if the person was repentant then they should be accepted back . I argued that the issue of repentance was entirely separate to any criminal penalty and to be true shepherds they had a duty of care to the congregation and seek legal remedy if they were made aware of any crimes.
It was the most open discussion we have had in a long time and she was able to recognise that not every thing the society say or does is right. It's taken 8 years to reach this point.