You want to minimize their organizations involvement and let them off the hook for thousands of people's demise. Your right they should have just snapped out of it and realized it was all bull shit and moved on with their lives like we all have done here....nice to say I guess.
Read. What. I. Wrote.
The counter to "letting someone off the hook" is putting someone on the hook to begin with.
Unless there is evidence that the rate of suicide is statistically significantly higher than comparable groups, then there is no hook.
Like I said, the WTS sometimes attracts "earnest" people, and sometimes it attracts people with delusional outlooks who should be getting more appropriate help. The sheer number of nuts that are obsessed with biblical stuff that show up on this forum over the years shows there is some correlation between mental illness and religion / belief in the supernatural.
One person who couldn't stand the guilt of leaving Bethel.
Which to me suggests they are not entirely balanced.
Three people who could not have any contact with all their children and grand children.
Again, it's sad and no doubt added to their mental stress, but to kill yourself over it? This sounds like the people who kill themselves over a relationship failing - is that the fault of the other person?
One person who was gay and could not live guilt.
This is actually more understandable if someone had been brought up as a JW, less so if they are one of those weird people who are gay and decide to join a religious group that condemns them for who they are.
Two people who left the organization but still believed it was real and killed themselves before god could.
So why did they leave? What else was going on in their life? People don't accidentally believe something, they choose to believe and keep believing because they are too lazy to research and learn some new beliefs instead.
How about the hundreds of people who have killed themselves because of refusing a blood transfusion? Isn't that really suicide....or do you call this mental illness?
I don't believe there is a massive number of deaths that are down to purely refusing blood. There are definitely some, and those are tragic, but medical care isn't so perfect that they can always put a death down to one thing. What about all the lives saved by people refusing blood and the WTS life in general? If you want to count the negatives, you have to include the positives as well. This also applies to suicides as I'm sure there are some who might not be here but for the support and fellowship that the religion provided.
I don't believe everyone who kills themselves has mental illness.
Again. Read. What. I. Wrote.
Did I at any point suggest that the WTS influence was never a factor in anyone's suicide? I'm sure they were. But there's a whole range of values between "all" and "none".
