Pegg has covered the "rape" scenario as being Biblical, according to Jehovah's laws given to Israel. Though today it applies more in principle.
Things in today's world are not quite as "black and white" as they were in former times. Each case is taken on its own merits and circumstances. Harking back to old articles is hardly addressing today's situation. It's a very different world to the one our grandparent grew up in.
As for the "black skinned" people, most everything that was said in those articles (if they are quoted without editing) was true at the time. Look at the dates when these things were published. It was a completely different world, with completely different attitudes. It was not JW's who discriminated against "Negroes". If colored people had attempted to witness to whites back then, what do you suppose would have happened to them? They witnessed to their own and brought them out of their segregated churches and into the Christian congregation.
It was the 'whites' who put the 'blacks' into that uneducated, and unequal class. It was true that they were not equal in the education system and were deprived of many human rights at that time, but there was nothing to suggest that they were somehow less able to worship their God acceptably than their caucasian brothers. It was their educational deficiency that worked against them. Many had to learn to read in order to benefit from Bible study.
In Australia we have Aboriginal and Islander groups. Why? Because many of them have a deep distrust of whites...and not without reason. We too mistreated our indigenous peoples and stole their land and their children. It has left deep scars on many of them.
They flourish in their own congregations, but this does not mean that Aboriginal people are not welcome to worship with their white skinned brothers. They at least have a choice.
For black Americans, this is worse because they were kidnapped from their own land and forced into slavery by rich white men in a foreign country with a foreign language. When the slaves were finally "freed", their slavery continued by having to endure life in an unequal system that discriminated against everything they tried to do to better themselves. Look how long it took for African Americans to gain any kind of equality. To this day, in the south I believe that some churches are still segregated.
I had a southern fellow complain to me once about Witnesses going around preaching door to door. He said he knew they were Jehovah's Witnesses because blacks and whites were out together. He said it with disdain, but we are proud to have people of all races and from all backgrounds in our spiritual family.
