Steve, every year at conventions, when I was a JW, it was publically announced from the field that we were not to talk to apostates. Ever. While I agree, people do tend to shy away from cameras and microphones, they don’t know who this gentleman is and he’s asking them a very simple question, “Do you follow Jehovah” and a simple “yes” would’ve sufficed.
The purpose of this exercise by this man was to show that most of them will put the WTBS’s instructions of not talking to an apostate above even acknowledging “Jehovah’s” own name, which is ironic, considering the man, to the best of my knowledge, isn’t even an “apostate”. You would think they would “stand up for God’s name” in a public situation to “give a witness”, and most blew him off, with a couple of them snapping “Just leave us alone” and “Leave me alone man!”. This religion prides themselves on “being the only religion to use God’s name”, and most walked right by him. The ones that did answer he simply replied with a “thank you.” He wasn’t trying to trick them, otherwise he would pulled a fast one and turned the thing around on those that did answer. This is not a personal attack on them by me, but most of them gave a poor witness. Would they have acted differently if the camera had a local TV station call sign on the side? We’ll never know, but my intuition says yes. Why? To show a TV public that “they stand for God’s true name.” Whether if it’s for one man, or many watching on TV, we must always “be prepared to give a defense for the faith that is in us.” Could you imagine the Catholic Church ever telling the lay people to avoid speaking to people who are speaking against the Church, even if it means not even acknowledging if they follow Christ?
I couldn’t help when watching this of Peter’s 3 denials of even knowing Christ. Let us all pray that if we are put in a much more serious situation, we will never renounce Christ, no matter what. Easy to say, harder to do, I’m sure.
As a side note, my mother was “disfellowshipped” for over 3 years, and this is exactly how she was treated by the others, with no exceptions.
