Hi All. First of all, Happy Thanksgiving! My roast is going into the oven shortly; no dressing OR stuffing here.
Dear New Posters who are here to irk us and not for solace,
Hello and welcome to JWD. I'm glad you're here, and I'll tell you just why in a bit; I'd like to first note a few observations about you.
I notice that you make negative blanket statements about everyone on this site and that you speak without having read near every post made in the last year. I also notice that this is your first post. I see that you have never welcomed a new person here, or read a post by a broken person who has lost his or her family and replied with tenderness and shared their sadness. I see that you've never shared a recipe, posted a news article that others would find entertaining or been supportive when someone has asked for advice. You never cheered for someone's 1 year anniversary away from their past life or their new job or baby.
I see that you have not posted your story of how difficult it was to leave the religion of your parents, to have them deny you, to be called a drunk or an addict or a whore!! because these can be the only reasons for your feelings about the WTS, or to have friends 'shun' you because they view your very presence in, say, a restaurant, as dangerous to their faith. You don't speak of the pain and confusion of explaining your new beliefs to your family, only to have them tell you that you're insane and weak and stupid, and are being led by someone to your death.
You don't speak of your father, who was the wisest man you knew growing up, who defends the actions of an organization that has protected child abusers for decades and denies the truth of news reports of the largest child sex-abuse settlement in history, or defends the WTS's double-tongued involvement with the UN as an NGO for over a decade by mimicking the words he was told on the telephone by the WT service desk, you haven't mentioned being torn by his mindless obedience to human men, something he swore he never do again.
Well friend, aside from these observations of mine, I am glad you're here. I'm glad you're here because you remind me of why I left the JW religion: They do not practice what they preach, they do not practice the words of Jesus. Here's what I mean. You say to us, 'Let go of the hate, your whining makes me vomit, there's dissension on this site omg!!, go do some good to a poor person instead of whining' and this is exactly the stance taken in the congregations of JWs when someone asks for help-it was my experience. Here are the JW answers to all of life's ills: If you're depressed--you're not doing enough for others. If you're broke--you're careless with money 'do you contribute to the WWW regularly? If you're lonely--you're not spending enough time in the ministry. If an elder was mean and cruel to you--you have a bad attitude and have to forgive him! If you're working late--you need to be at the meetings at time!!! Wait, you have to support your family, but you have to be on time, but. .
Friend, I noticed that 'James Wind's' topic received 3 pages of replies, and I'm not criticizing the decision of others to reply. I'm actually thinking that possibly James Wind, Blake Seeley, Carl Hernz, Charles Hunter ([email protected] per his post) are maybe related somehow; I can't help but picture them all sitting down to turkey today and James Wind saying 'I sure got 'em riled up this week, heh heh, more dressing please. . .' Possibly they won't call it "Thanksgiving" or even "turkey", possibly they will call it 'a day off common to all of us for having much poultry'. Please don't consider me rude, I won't dignify your accusing posts with more words and I wanted to tell you why.
Now, I know there are dozens, if not thousands, of people who now have access to the Email Machine/Internet, but it just sounds a little odd that someone would pop in here and his first post is wandering and wordy like BlakeSeeley's. And I'm not suggesting that you/they are all the same fella, no no, I'm only just thinking that maybe you're/they're having Thanksgiving together.
Hey, just so you know, my mom and dad and I were best friends, pioneered & travelled together like forever--they called me a drug addict (which I'm not) and now won't speak to me because I don't share their religious beliefs--of course I hate their religion. I miss them, I miss lifelong friends and my sisters, of course I hate their religion, it is true evil; it has made them fulfill their own 'end times' prophecy: they are the ones 'having no natural affection'.
Of course there is hypocrisy, bloodguilt and stupidity elsewhere on the planet, we're not stupid. But JW's do claim to be perfect as an organization, and they claim that the worst JW is better than the best 'worldly' person. They are the best/happiest/cleanest/rightest/most-adored by hotel staff/healthiest people on earth, according to their written words. And when we/someone/anyone points out where they just may be wrong, they do 1 or all of 3 things, hum it with me--we all know this: Attack me, attack my words, question my source.
They people on this site are truly some of the best people on Earth. Like others, this site has saved me, helped me, benefitted soooo many and I am grateful. An outsider/apologist that's here to jab and run doesn't deserve them.
Hugs to all, and Happy and Safe Holidays!!
Catfish