John's initial article wasn't all that heroic.  There was no reason for him to think that the cult could or would retaliate.  He expected serious ostracism from his former cult friends but those relationships were already strained if not irrepairably broken.  But he never expected the article itself to put him in harm's way and indeed it didn't.  What hurt John so was the unfortunate combination of the article -- which put him on Rawat's hate list -- and his legal exposure vis-a-vis the documents.  But John never for a moment thought that it could all blow up in his face as it did.  The court process was a shock to him every step of the way.  That's when he really saw the price he might pay for his indiscretion or whatever you want to call it and by that time the act was already done.  Increased, unanticipated risk of harm can't make a prior act heroic retroactively.  That wouldn't make sense.

On the other hand, John faced and continues to face choices as the game goes on.  To say that any of his actions since getting embroiled in the court system have been heroic is simply patronizing.  What's happened is that John's understandably tried to minimize the damage and that's about it.  To that end, he's tried for some time now to settle with the cult, they're just not buying.  Now, in his further desperation, he's upped the ante by publicly selling out all the other exes.  He's not just forgiving Rawat for any harm he's caused people over time, he's asserting that Rawat never harmed anyone to begin with.  It was all just John's own character flaw that made him think otherwise.  He further insults all of us by now asserting that we have no right to investigate, publicize or criticize anything about Rawat's private (read "real") life.  Another stab in the back for all his ex-premie friends.

But hey, the good news is that no one in their right mind could ever take John seriously.  We all know he's making these claims under great duress.  In that respect he really is like some hostage in Iraq begging for his life.  Those are extremely sympathetic but they're not heroic.  There's a big difference.