Some time back we shared some replies we had received from JW friends to our "farewell" letter.
(See http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/121203/1.ashx )
One among them, "Ed" seems to want to continue the dialogue. However, I fear the dialogue is not really legitimate. Herewith, the latest exchange. What do you think?
Lenny,
Sorry about the delayed response to your response. I've been much too busy, too many things to do.
I would say that mistakes do take on more significance if they have had serious consequences that have been ignored. Yes, I believe there should be apologies made because there are a significant number of people out there similar to you, or ones that have been more seriously directly effected by something in the past. Will apologies be made? Maybe, maybe not. If they are made it will likely be within an article and slightly veiled so not everyone will even catch it. Large scale, open, transparent admissions will probably not happen as there would be too much negative fallout. But who knows what the future may bring?
It's obvious that the society, organization, governing body (whatever you want to call it) wants to keep everyone believing the end is just around the corner and their messages are tailored as such. It helps swell the ranks, but they would really be remiss if they weren't putting out that general message and the end IS just around the corner. We do need to stay awake, as we know the scriptures tell us that the end will come as a thief. It may be an exaggeration, but I'd rather think the end is very close than think it is quite far away yet. I keep going because it does keep me inclined in that direction. When you look at the world situation taken together with the destructive potential of rapidly "advancing" technology, you realize that it can only go on so long until it has to be brought to an end to prevent mankind from destroying too much and too many.
Sometimes I feel like I'm acting selfishly, using the organization for what I get from it (I guess I'm just a harlot), but I don't have my head in the sand. I think you went for quite a while with your head in the sand, as I can remember some things that you said a long time ago that I never did believe and still don't. People were being "judged" when we went to their door and they didn't respond favorably. Everyone everywhere will have gotten the message and had ample time to respond by the time the end comes. If you were a witness you were on the "for" side and everyone else everywhere is on the "against" side.
Anyway, enough for now.
You probably spend a lot of time now thinking or saying, "How about those crazy witnesses, huh"! Well, "how about those crazy Muslims, huh"! I don't know if you've ever seen it but check out jihadwatch.org sometime. The average person (especially younger ones) in "civilized" or "developed" nations thinks most about entertainment, food, sports, etc. and hasn't a clue about what the jihadists are urgently trying to do.
Ed
Hi again, Ed.
I don’t find in your last email any substantive response to the reasoning I presented regarding the harm the Society has knowingly done in the loss or ruination of so many lives. You continue to refer to "mistakes". I understand why you must attempt in some way to mitigate the effect of this reasoning. To do otherwise would place you on the horns of a dilemma. I didn’t understand your statement,
"Sometimes I feel like I'm acting selfishly, using the organization for what I get from it (I guess I'm just a harlot), but I don't have my head in the sand. I think you went for quite a while with your head in the sand, as I can remember some things that you said a long time ago that I never did believe and still don't."
What seems odd to me about this is that I was an absolute loyalist to the Society, supporting and promoting what they taught, since I accepted their representation that they were a "genuine prophet of Jehovah." Are you now saying, as an active witness, to me, an inactive witness, that it was wrong for me to do that? That to follow the direction of the "Faithful and Discreet Slave" was having my head in the sand? You’re making my head hurt. Either you believe it or you don’t, Ed.
"People were being "judged" when we went to their door and they didn't respond favorably."
This was taught by the Society for many years. As such, I supported and promoted it. Surely you don’t need the references.
"Everyone everywhere will have gotten the message and had ample time to respond by the time the end comes."
I don’t recall ever believing this or saying this to anyone. I have always realized that was a mathematical impossibility, and assumed Jehovah would judge the hearts of those not reached with the good news. That’s the way I’ve always explained it.
"If you were a witness you were on the "for" side and everyone else everywhere is on the "against" side."
Again, this is straight from the teaching of the Watchtower, not any idea I came up with. And as "God’s true prophet" I trusted them.
All the evidence I have seen and experienced for over 30 years, which is also supported by the substance of your responses to the questions I have raised, has led me to a painful, but inescapable conclusion.
Consider the evidence.
1.) Five hours of "meetings" every week, which are all carefully pre-scripted, with no free expression allowed. Add to this more hours at larger "meetings" every year.
2.) Forbidding to openly question the legitimacy or authority of the leadership. Any who do so being hailed before a star chamber hearing and threatened with expulsion if they continue. Expulsion meaning being cut off for all time from any and all friends and relatives who remain within the organization. Many thousands are grief-stricken, having lost their relationships with parents, children and grandchildren for simply speaking out about hypocrisy, double standards and lies on the part of the leadership of the organization.
3.) Forbidding to even speak with any former member who has anything negative to say about the organization, no matter how truthful or factual (having suffered the punishment of #2.)
4.) Constant pressure and use of "guilt trips" to get members so involved in activities supporting the organization, that little time is left for much else. I can’t begin to count how many witnesses that have said to me over the years, "I never feel like I’m doing enough," because the Society is always suggesting we could be doing more. Sometimes it’s overt, sometimes it’s in the subtext. And this, we are taught, is a good thing. "To be busy in Jehovah’s service."
5.) A steady stream of printed information that all members are expected to "keep up with" to assure not only that their time is saturated with this information, as well as aforementioned "activities", but that their minds will continue in "lock step" with whatever the current teaching is. And so, this information is presented in a very repetitive, dry fashion, over and over, which has the effect of dulling the senses, especially the sense of reason. Do you remember your comment to Karen in your email of October 24, 2003?
"We have a circuit assembly coming up (in Montgomery, Alabama!) nov. 22, 23. Sorry to say, but we couldn't wait for the Isaiah book to end. Even our p.o. said that. How many times and ways can you say the same thing?"
I’m not going to go on any further with more examples, because I’m sure your response will be similar to your last one. You have to write all this off as "imperfection" and "mistakes". Otherwise the only conclusion that remains is so distasteful that you can’t even consider it.
Ed, Karen and I love you and Cheryl very much. But at some point you should really ask yourself, What are the five points above typical of? Do you know? All of those factors are common to mind control cults. (See Steve Hassan’s "Combatting Cult Mind Control".) Again, it was a painful conclusion for us to come to, but all the evidence is there.
Your choice is to remain within, for the "good" that you see. I certainly understand that. It’s the same way I felt for so many years. I would overlook anything negative that came to my attention, and quickly dismiss it, concentrating on what was "good" about the organization. But I have finally exercised the due diligence I should have back in 1973. I was a young man of 22, and I mistakenly trusted the well-meaning witnesses I first came in contact with. My family and friends tried to warn me, but the witnesses had conditioned me to expect just that. They told me Jesus said my friends and family would become my enemies. And so I rejected the good counsel of those I had known all my life, in preference for that of those I had known only a few months. In retrospect, not very wise.
But that’s life, isn’t it? We each live with our choices and decisions. Karen and I truly regret the 30 years we spent supporting the Watchtower Society, and we cannot express how happy we are to be free. We are finally living our own lives again. We don’t miss it at all. We will always wonder how we were so easily conned into throwing away so much of our lives. And we wish there were something we could say to our dear friends to at least cause them to consider the possibility that what we tried to share might in fact be true. But alas, the indoctrination of decades forms a heavy callus over ability to reason freely. I thank you for your reply to my email. But I would have really appreciated a response.
Lenny