I couldn't help but relate this first teenager to a suicide bomber. She sounds scared but her brain is turned off to any sort of reason.
Hard to believe this could have been me years ago, having this kind of bravado.
I honestly am feeling really sad for this girl. It really reinforces the cult claim.
Please read condemnatory email sent to me and help me reply
by AndersonsInfo 95 Replies latest watchtower scandals
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treadnh2o
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Seeker4
Barb,
When I was a teenager, I had a good friend, a man in his 70s at the time, who worked at my high school as head custodian. He enjoyed my writing for the school paper, looked me up, and began passing on his copies of The Village Voice to me, with the admonition, "Don't let your parents know where you got this!"
He was a cool guy, a poet and Buddhist, and as one teacher told me, he'd probably taken more college courses than most of the teachers! He never revealed his exact age to us, as we think he'd lied about it to the school administration in order to keep working until he was nearly 80. I also think he was a closet homosexual, as he never married, lived with his brother and sister, but spent his vacations every summer at Provincetown!
As a Buddhist, he received a newsletter from the writer Alan Watts. Watts had done an essay really knocking the JWs, which my friend gleefully passed on to me. He didn't like my being a Witness and hated the idea that I wasn't going to go to college.
Well, the point of this story is that I, like this young Witness, got all up in arms about Watts' essay and fired off what I figured was a brilliant response in defense of the Witnesses. Watts never responded, of course, but today I'm no longer a JW, and Alan Watts' books are an arms' length from where I sit typing, including the one with the anti-JW essay, and he has long been a great influence in my life.
This young person may be saying the same about your writings in time.
S4
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Quandry
Barb-So many good comments. I like this that you said:
at one time I thought just like them and I wouldn't have liked someone like me either for going public airing JWs dirty laundry.
Those were my sentiments also until a couple of years ago.
Jehovah's Witnesses go to great lengths to "Advertise" themselves, always wanting to be in the public eye. If they want people to examine them, then they must be scrutinized warts and all (ha!) and the dirty laundry is eventually going to be seen.
This poor teen has thick rose-colored glasses on, but the knowledge she now has will make them a bit heavier to wear until she may be induced to take them off one day!!!
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BabaYaga
Seeker... I love your story. I have known many custodians in my life who were more educated and/or more interesting than the professors. He accomplished more than he will know with his seeds of mind-broadening wisdom... something we should all keep in mind with our "seed sowing".
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Seeker4
My friend's name was Dan. He sought out the artists and muscians and writers among the students and was a cool guy. I stayed in touch with him until he passed away.
When I was still in school Dan wrote an epic poem where Jehovah, Allah and Buddha are all together in heaven having a discussion. I thought it was brilliant. I happened to mention it to one, at the time, especially earnest young elder. He told me that if the poem actually used the name Jehovah in that context, it was blasphemy. What an arse!
I invited Dan to my wedding when I got married in 1972. He gave us some very nice sheets as a wedding present with a card that simply said, "Happy Landings!"
S4
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whereami
Barb, you really are a awsome example to all of us. Your hard work and dedication to getting the facts out there is really a inspiration to all of us. Please don't stop. We really need you out here.