I said to my (former) best friend, a still-in JW, "What is a more obvious disproof of False prophecy than 1975?"
This fellow is a masterful deflector. He replied, "I personally know at least 30 or 40 who were upset enough to leave the Organization over that 1975 issue. You know what I think? I think they were only in this religion to save their own asses and not because they loved Jehovah!"
This absolutely floored me. Did you see what he just did? It was amazingly sly. He switched the connotation and reframed the problem in less than a second!
I replied to him the following.
"So do I hear you saying to me that a Christian is required to spread false prophecy to others in Jehovah's name, under his Authority for no better reason than we shouldn't care about our own asses because we mistakenly demonstrate "love" by becoming complicit in blasphemy?"
He was silent and the wheels clickety clicked. I watched fascinated as the processing whirred along. Seconds later he answered slowly.
"No-o-o, I'm not saying that. I'm saying I am not perfect and neither is anybody who is a human being connected with any religious group. I'm saying we have to trust the Faithful and Discreet slave are doing the best they can with what they've got. Jehovah corrected them. That was Him showing His love. We show our love by waiting and not running ahead."
Wow!
That steamed me. For one thing, it is so self-satisfied, complaisant and smug. Further, it completely IGNORES the central issue involved!
I tried yet again.
"Why is there a test for False Prophets in the Bible in the first place if isn't going to mean anything when we discover one? Does the Bible urge us to act patiently when advised by a False Prophet and to wait on Jehovah--or does it say the False Prophet is to be PUT TO DEATH? Sounds rather cut and dried to me. What am I missing?"
I knew by now I wasn't dealing with an honest thinker and that this was his ego being protected. I felt I had put him on the mat and he wasn't willing to cry "Uncle."
He responded. "What am I supposed to do--become a Baptist again; start believing in Hell and the Trinity? Where do I go that has true Bible teachings better than what the Society gives us?"
Did you hear that? He's so sneaky! He loves switching the premise out from under the discussion. It is so shady!
I was growing angry and not quite able to hold back as calmly as I should. After all, I had known this JW my whole life. He's the bastard who recruited me into the cult!
I growled at him:
"You're so full of it. That's like buying apples with only one worm because the other apples have two or three worms! Who wants to eat a goddamned worm in the first place? What makes you think you have to join any religion and go along to get along? Why can't you have a personal relationship with God as an individual . . .?"
And just as I was saying these words I knew in advance what his rebuttal would be. I could have made it for him. So I suddenly veered off and intercepted it preemptively.
". . . and don't tell me Jehovah only works through the Organization. Paul was a Lone Ranger and Jesus himself constantly argued with Jehovah's "Organization" in his day where the governing body were the freakin' Pharisees!"
I watched his face and knew I wasn't calm enough to make any sober impression on him. He waited till I was quiet and calmly followed up.
"I am waiting on Jehovah and making the best choice I know how to make. I'm sure Jehovah will deal with those Brothers who got 1975 wrong and stumbled thousands of little ones. It has nothing to do with me. I can only be loyal to his appointed leaders and trust he'll show me the way."
Oh fer Crissakes! How bleedin' fake humble can you get?
So, you see, there was no progress made at all and I got a spike in my blood pressure for nothing.
"Here is what happened and make no mistake about it. Millions of us took time out of our lives to spread a big, fat stinking piece-of-shit False Prophecy because we trusted some crazy old coot named Freddy Franz who had one foot in the insane asylum and the other foot on a banana peel. We got the world focusing on a fake date and then nothing happened which only made the world laugh out loud at our FAKE GOD Jehovah because of all our millions of hours spent for nothing. They stole part of my life and I will never get that time back again. I went to prison for absolutely nothing. I will never get my 21st birthday back because I spent it sitting on my ass in prison. I was lied to and I was sent out to lie to others. If you think this is an act of LOVE to go along with it and smile and eat their shit like it was mom's apple pie--go right ahead. I think it is a miserable excuse for Christianity. If you want to know what ELSE you could do--how about this? Spend some time working for a charity, visit a hospital, visit the sick and elderly, take meals door to door instead of rag magazines with puke in them. Help crippled children, become a volunteer fireman, build houses for the poor. . . how's that for a start?"
He simply shrugged and said the rather feckless phrase. "We'll just have to agree to disagree." And that was that.