I had withheld writing about this because I thought it was obvious what our unchanging stand has been on this subject, but some have been negatively affected by false and misleading claims so much that it is listed among the major claims against us by sociologists. (Perhaps, as psychologists, they take the accusation personally.) Disgruntled former members claim that Jehovah's Witnesses used to prohibit consulting a psychiatrist. This claim originated with a former member, a psychiatrist who used to treat Jehovah's Witnesses. After leaving the way, he claimed that we had a higher number of those with mental disorders than the general populace. (I addressed this claim in another post .) Obviously the claim was bogus. Being a JW at the time while treating JW's, of course he had a larger number of JW clients than non-JW clients because they trusted him to do their treatment over anyone from the world. (A trust which he ultimately betrayed.) Thus he got taken by data bias. He c...

Being required to believe something in order to be a member of the organization and speaking in agreement so as not to cause contention are two different, but related things. ("Two sides of the same coin.") The faithful and discreet slave (FDS) has laid out that anyone who wants to be a member of Jehovah's organization must believe in the salvation message we preach, which includes rejecting the Trinity, hellfire, the immortality of the soul and eternal security ("Once saved, always saved"), and they must live morally clean lives. (Any viewpoint that promotes a different understanding will be immediately flagged as apostate as there can be no doubt that we have the correct salvation message.) When a person is baptized, they are declaring their faith in the salvation we preach in line with the Scriptures. If, at some point, they change their view of salvation, then their view ceases to be compatible with membership in the organization, regardless of whether they...

A couple of incidents in Hollywood and the sports world in 2018 regarding a couple of our brothers and sisters that does not reflect well on the organization got me to thinking about the need to help some to consider those incidents from a different perspective. The people in question were both raised in the truth and one was baptized at a young age and the other was not. Both spent decades away from the truth and have recently returned. In so doing, they display the typical affectations of those who are new in the truth, including: strict adherence to rules and unattractive displays as sin works itself out under the adherence to those precepts. If you know a person claiming to be one of Jehovah’s Witnesses who demonstrates similar unattractive traits, please look at these two aspects of new members and I think you will gain a new understanding. Strict Adherence to Rules It is true that Jehovah’s Witnesses are very strict in regard to health, (2 Corinthians 11:1) neutrality (Matt...