This incident appears to be a classic illustration of the totally unbending, dogmatic stance taken by the Society and the fact that there is no way that they ever want people to really study the Bible and think for themselves.
There are many if us here, who as elders (aka the Society's enforcers) could not bring ourselves stand up and say that the Society was always right and that we had the absolute truth.
What really gets me is that in a few years time they are likely to produce 'new light' on this subject. What happens to the disfellowshipped ones then?
I remember having a conversation with fellow Witness young men, as we were then, in about 1974 and saying we would be disfellowshipped if we thought that the 1914 generation might well pass away before the end came. How things have changed since then on that topic.