I am a JW in good standing... but just because they don't know that I come here. Good standing as a status is a relative term to me. I am in good standing with Jehovah but in the eyes of the org I would be an apostate.
Tha answer to your question Don, there is no need to reconcile this text with exclusivity. Most JW don't know such texts exists. In my experience, those who do really read the bible from page to page, don't do so conciously. Most, however, have not really read the entire bible in a fashion that would trigger your senses. See, the org gives you, if you ask, a list of paragraphs. In this list, it shows how you can read the entire bible in one year if you read the number of paragraphs per day as layed out in this paper. If you follow such list, you would have indeed read the bible from cover to cover. This does not mean you would have undertood it. There is so much chronology to be followed, names, geography and event that need to be correlated, that this list isn't enough.
The truth of the matter is that if you study the JW religion closely, you will realize that is utterly dependent on the absence of a handfull of key scriptures. Such would put the entire religion into question. Those scriptures are mostly avoided. It also dependent on the lack of correlation. Certain subjects are studied in isolation of text. For example, you could read 1 Cor 8:1-13 and you could read Acts 15:28 in different studies. But they would never be read back to back, because in first glimpse they technically contradict each other. To make matters worst, if you read them back to back, you would then have to explain the contradiction which, when put into context to explain it, would definitely show that the blood issue is unfounded, same for some celebrations. It would give the R&F too many reason to exercise their own concious choices.
I shown the text you mention to a couple of JW, including my wife and mother in law, who have been witnesses for much longer than me, and they have no explanation. The next question I asked is, how come we don't read this text at all. No answer either.
This entire religion is founded in a handfull of scriptures that are either heavily emphasized or heavily avoided. In a nutshell, I also understand that this is proof of the lack of exclusivity, and even proof of how unnecesary this push for unification is. But you don't need the bible to show them that. Just read the July 14 WT .The first two articles. I believe that in the second one there is a paragrpah that implies that congregational unity is more important than biblical truth.
