Dear Brothers
You are aware that I am not present this evening following medical advice from our family Doctor. I will attempt in this letter to give you some idea of why that is and how I feel.
The last six months have been emotionally, physically and mentally exhausting. You possibly don’t know that I broke my wrist in a heavy fall six weeks prior to Bertie’s unplanned home birth, all the while looking after Archie, aged two. Bertie was born with a serious and worsening condition culminating in emergency surgery at age six weeks which I attended alone - Paul was in the US on business. Throughout this time and following I have been in a downward spiral of increasing exhaustion from the demands of caring for a newborn and a lively toddler, running a home and keeping up with the rigorous demands of life as a Jehovah’s Witness. Of course my parents and Paul continue to be incredibly supportive to me. Without my family I can’t speculate on where I would have ended up.
During this time I received no help or support from you, my elders and shepherds, and precious little from other brothers and sisters. No one from the congregation cared enough to give me any meaningful support. Likewise I was unable to offer support to others – perhaps we are a congregation of emotional wrecks focused on recruiting new members? Occasionally sisters would stop by at our house for a coffee whilst out on Field Service – nice, but not helpful. On one such occasion I confided to Lizzie Robson that I felt I was nearing a nervous breakdown, but this was not followed up in any way that was tangible to me. Avril Davis commented to me at a meeting that she had coped and I would have to cope too. Although all this was extremely disappointing and upsetting, I do not bear a grudge towards anyone - the life of a Witness leaves little time for Christian works towards ones brothers and sisters. Maybe if I had been attending all the meetings, pioneering, commenting profusely and giving talks I would have qualified for more help! Or perhaps if Christian acts towards ones brothers were reportable on a time slip…but I digress.
The issue that prompted me to examine my faith, as we are constantly encouraged, was Paul pointing out the Watchtower teaching that Jesus is not my Mediator but only Mediator for the 144,000. I needed to know if other Christian faiths held this view or if was unique to Jehovah’s Witnesses. Whilst examining this matter, I was shocked and disturbed to uncover other issues relating to the Organisation that didn't sit well with my Bible trained conscience and God-given powers of intellect.
My other discoveries included:
• The Society's 10 year affiliation with the United Nations and subsequent hasty withdrawal under media attention
• The Society's ongoing and systematic cover up and mishandling of child abuse
• The Society's total lack of evidence in support of their unique belief that 607BCE was the date of the destruction of Jerusalem when all the Biblical and historical evidence points to 586/7BCE
• Ever shifting doctrines on matters of life and death including vaccinations, blood transfusions and organ transplants
• The misuse of disfellowshipping and extreme shunning equivalent to spiritual abuse
• The additions and subtractions made to the original language manuscripts and the intellectual dishonesty and mistranslation of the NWT
The list goes on - I am sure you are aware of other issues. Taking all these matters into consideration, I cannot in good faith attend the meetings right now and am positive that if Jesus were on earth today he would have a lot to say about the matter.
A few close friends visited when my absence from meetings had reached into the weeks and months. Obviously they wanted to know some detail around this and I wanted, not to stumble them, but to explain my conscientious reasons, and I believed these conversations to be in confidence. If I have upset or offended any, I am deeply sorry. However, in view of Jesus counsel in Matthew surely those ones should have been directed back to me to sort out the matter between ourselves? I can find no Scriptural basis for the involvement of a religious hierarchy except in the case of those teaching against the coming of Christ and his subsequent Resurrection – the biblical definition of apostasy. I understand you are using a more wide ranging secular definition in considering our case.
In my heart I know that I remain in good standing before my God Jehovah - I have not broken any of His laws, those he has given us in the Holy Scriptures. These are the laws I live by, not man's. Indeed the simple faith of Christianity is based on salvation by grace, not by performance.
I do not wish to be judged and labelled by you so that all my friends and family can 'officially' shun me forever, even though the majority of them have decided to do that anyway. Apostasy is the term applied to those that were drawing members of the congregation away from Christ and teaching that the resurrection had not happened. You know I am not guilty of this.
Please bear in mind Jesus' words "if they are not against me they are for me, leave them alone". I have no intention to 'enlighten' all about my recent discoveries that have led to my recent inactivity and fail to see how I am a threat to the congregation as I am not there and no one is speaking to me – are you happy this is a loving way to treat someone who needs more help than she has ever needed before? In fact you are aware that we are leaving the country to start a new life abroad in the coming weeks. I would just like to be left in peace with my family to recover and take stock.
You have absolutely nothing to gain by labelling me as I have already lost that which was precious to me - many, many good, lifelong friendships which I now realize were wholly conditional on our joint conformity to whatever belief system emanates from Brooklyn. That which remains most precious - my love of God and His Son, my faith, my husband, my wonderful boys, my amazing parents and great sister - you can never take away from me.
I wish you love and happiness and hope that one day too you will have the blinkers lifted from your eyes and escape. You will always find unconditional love and friendship from the Morrison's if you need it.
Agape
Our JC
by besty 54 Replies latest jw experiences
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besty
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Crumpet
That is a great letter. I hope it was theraputic to actually write it too. Have you sent it?
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besty
To put the letter above in context I handed it to the elders at a JC. Shortly after we were both DF'd - presumably for being unrepentant apostates but the letter we got was non-specific in this regard.
Our history is here http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/139249/1.ashx
These events took place a couple of months back. We were invited to attend any of three sessions the JC had scheduled - Wednesday Friday or Monday evening. I declined to attend and was told that the sessions would take place with or without us. During that weekend I decided to attend the final meeting on the Monday night. Partly to find out who our accusers were and what evidence they had offered, partly to hand over this letter in person and partly as my FIL was keen to state his thoughts to the JC.
So I called the JC chairman and informed him I'd be there. I asked who would be there and he named the 3 other elders. He agreed to reveal the evidence and accusers if I would attend. To cut a long story short I read out the letter above before they told me who the accusers were. They then huffed and puffed about revealing the evidence, as we had self-incriminated. Finally they agreed to tell me as I accused them of lying to get me to attend under false pretences.
The shock was that my only brother had made a special 900 mile round trip on the Friday to give evidence to the JC. He has always been a hardliner, currently a PO, but this was below the belt on so many levels...our house is less than a mile from the KH and he never knocked our door to see how we were or even to see his only two nephews...shame on him. Also his wife had given written evidence against us. Nice to have family like that. On the Friday I had also seen our friends car outside the KH so I'm satisfied at knowing who actually pulled the trigger.
So there you have it.
I'm so glad to be out - the stress relief has been amazing to get off that stupid mind control flypaper treadmill.
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zack
Go on and live your life--- the REAL LIFE. Let the dead bury the dead.
All the best to you and your family.
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Purza
The shock was that my only brother had made a special 900 mile round trip on the Friday to give evidence to the JC. He has always been a hardliner, currently a PO, but this was below the belt on so many levels...our house is less than a mile from the KH and he never knocked our door to see how we were or even to see his only two nephews...shame on him. Also his wife had given written evidence against us. Nice to have family like that. On the Friday I had also seen our friends car outside the KH so I'm satisfied at knowing who actually pulled the trigger.
I am glad you found out about this. My brother went and told the elders about my supposed sin - and he didn't have any proof. I successfully avoided the elders and haven't spoken to my brother in over 5 years. I feel better for it too.
Glad you made it out. Good luck to you!
Purza
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OnTheWayOut
Thanks for sharing your letter. It is a great letter. Also, sorry for the lousy treatment you received.
But you are free now. That burden they put upon members is off your back. Yahoo. -
sweet pea
And if any of my dear friends find their way on here as a result of curiosity (as I'm very sure someone won't be able to resist letting others know that Sam and Paul's JC letter is on the internet) - I want you to know....
Life is fantastic outside. I have no regrets (other than a couple of things I said in my letter that were prompted out of severe pain that I was experiencing at the time due to losing all of my friends overnight).
Vic, Pam, Jill, Sarah, Ellie, Naomi, Faith & Marcus, Soozie, Sarah, Sandra, Gill & James, Emma
I miss you all big time but punishing me like this won't ever move me to come back.
Please, please, please check these things for yourself before the sacrifice is too great. This site is an amazing place, not one to be scared of - truth has nothing to hide. You will find most of the answers here to your questions and a loving, supportive community that will never judge or condemn you.
One day I hope that we will be friends again. You are all in my heart forever. -
ThomasCovenant
Thanks for posting that.
I'm sure it'll do you good in the long term
Thomas Covenant
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Hortensia
what a rational letter - unfortunately it was given to irrational people. Nurture yourself and your family.
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brunnhilde
Besty, that is far and away the best disassociation letter I've seen posted yet. I especially enjoyed how you hammered them on their "warm Christian brotherhood!" I hope you and your family enjoy your new life and that you find the support you deserve and should have received from the Borg.
brunn