Remember Lieutenant Columbo, the TV homicide detective played by Peter Falk?
Because his questions were presented as efforts to clear up various points rather than as accusations, he never came across as threatening.
In fact, at times he was self-deprecating. He would say things like, “I’m sorry, but little things like this bother me. I can’t get them out of my mind.”
Because of his soft non-threating manner, suspects tried hard to give him answers, hoping he would finally be satisfied with their explanations.
He would back off for a while, but inevitably some new inconsistency puzzled him and he asked for further help resolving that problem as well.
In order to avoid triggering the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ persecution mindset when you challenge Watchtower dogma by voicing questions they would never dare or even think to ask, I recommend that you emulate Columbo’s non-threatening manner.
Here are some examples of how this can be done (I’ll highlight the “Columbo” language). Continue reading
