Today is a Sat. morning. For some reason I decided not to go back to sleep after eating breakfast as I usually do despite being tired and sick (I'm fighting pnemonia right now). Not having read anything on this board for a few weeks I thought I'd spend some time seeing what has been going on. About 10 o'clock I hear a knock on my front door. Everyone who knows us uses the side door (front door is completely blocked with desk that has computer on it) so I knew it had to be a stranger. I looked out the window to see two elders that I knew from back in my cult days. I was just going to ignore them but my wife, who was never a JW, told me to answer it because I'd have fun with them. I threw on some clothes and went outside to see them walking back to their car. Following is the exact conversation.
Me: Yes?
Elder: Rhett. Hello. (sounding very confused and almost frightened to see me)
Me: Hello.
Elder: Where have you been? We haven't seen you in a while.
Me: I don't really belive that crap anymore.
Elder: Well, what do you believe? (as if you have to believe anything)
Me: Nothing really.
Elder: (after confusedly mumbling to self for a few seconds) Well if you ever change your mind we'd like to see you come back.
Me: Yeah, don't count on that.
Elder: ....... (walks away quickly and gets back in car)
Wish I would have gone on more about why I don't believe in them or anything else but I was caught rather off gaurd don't feel very well. I must say that it did feel VERY good telling one of them I don't believe their crap anymore. Especially that guy. He was such a jerk at one point when I was still a cult member the other elders actually made him apologize for being such a jerk to me.
Afterwards I remembered how unfriendly police were where I live towards JW's who would go house to house. On behalf of my neighborhood who would have no idea who these people who were going to all their houses and may be upset by it I called the police to alert them about these strange men going to these houses. A few minutes later I saw a cop car with its lights on parked behind that elder's car. After that I didn't see any more JW's in my neighborhood. Oh well.
I'm sure that all of this will get around the entire congregation and my family by the end of the weekend. What's funny is my family never says anything about my no longer being a JW just for the simple fact whenever they bring anything like that up I don't act the least bit ashamed of my status and will always be able to point out just about any weaknesses in their arguements quite well.
I'm unemployed without any hope of finding work anytime soon (weak economy plus finding technical work where I live is next to impossible), have pnemonia, my 16 month old son has a rare genetic disorder that he has to have unpleasent treatments for, and am happier now than I ever was when I was a JW.