Erich writes:
say, didn't you ever meet brothers or sisters in your congregation, who treated you with love and "positive vibrations" ? Sure, you became extremely hurted and depressed. Toooo much. I can't imagine it you never met good JW's. As you know, me and my wife are JW's since 16 years. We always have tried to treat all people well and with love and kindness. Even (and of course) those too, who got "shunned" for unknown reasons. I'd mostly taken this easy...
Erich, of course I met JWs who were good people. And to tell the truth, I believe that most people who become JWs do so because they feel it is a reflection of their own goodness to do so.
Having said that, a person needs to keep in mind Jesus' qualifications of true discipleship:
By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves. - John 13:35'You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. The second, like it is this, 'You must love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets.' - Matthew 22:37-40
Then they also will answer with the words, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?' Then he will answer them with the words, 'Truly I say to you, To the extent that you did not do it to the least one of these my brothers, you did not do it to me.' And these will depart into everlasting cutting-off... - Matthew 25:44-46
Stop judging that you may not be judged; for with what judgment you are judging, you will be judged; and with the measure that you are measuring out, they will measure out to you. - Matthew 7:1,2
Erich, these scriptures are just the tip of the iceberg. Many JWs never seem to hesitate and ponder the fact that when they discuss the "sins" of the Catholic Church or other religions, or when they point fingers at people who are no longer JWs, that they are bringing God's judgement upon themselves. For them to discount the Catholic Church for the sins of one member means that JWs can also be discounted on the basis of the behaviour of one member too. If JWs are going to criticize the Catholics for not going door-to-door, then the JWs should expect to be criticized in return for their shortcoming as an organization of not setting up charities for the homeless, etc. When a person is hungry, they do not need a Watchtower; what they need is something warm in their belly.
My main reason for leaving the JWs is because I realized that I did not have to continue tolerating the way they were constantly abusing me and my family. This does not mean that I do not love people among JWs. This does not mean that I never had any JW friends. But the truth of the matter is, that once I stood up for myself and stopped accepting the abuse from these individuals, the congregation started regarding me as the problem, rather than their own unchristian behaviour. I have been told that JWs withdrew their friendship because I "said bad things about the brothers". Well, yes, bad things happened, and I spoke about them. But since when did speaking the truth and being honest become a bad thing?
I know you read my account of what what happened to me, because you commented about it. So tell me... if you or your wife was treated the same way, how would you deal with it? I handled it prayerfully in the best way I knew how and I feel that God answered that prayer. If I'm wrong, then I'm the one who will answer to God for my decisions. In fact, that's the way it has always been, even though at one time I believed that the WTS and its representatives had the "right" to expect me to answer to them. I know now that viewpoint is unscriptural.
I have no doubt that the people who treated me with such cruelty will answer to God for it when his time comes. However, that does not mean that until that time comes, that I have to continue accepting their cruelty and hatefulness and abuse, nor do I have to allow my children to witness them do those things to me; that would be extremely damaging to me and to them. The fact that the 'brothers' would overstep the law of love tells me that the Organization is not from God. Knowing that gives me the confidence that I do not "owe" the Organization anything in terms of loyalty or integrity. I have never treated any JW with anything less than the respect that they earned. If JWs truly followed the Golden Rule, I would not have left. I treated them with dignity and respect and received abuse and cruelty in return. They must have preferred for me to treat them the same way, don't you think so?
Anyway, I do appreciate your concern, Erich. I think you and your wife are probably good and kind people with the best intentions. But to be completely honest with you, when it mattered most to me, I was shown more love by 'worldly' people whom I had never known or considered as friends, than I was by hundreds of JWs whom I had known almost my entire life. And if it wasn't for those 'worldly' people who cared enough to help me, I would have committed suicide because of what a handful of hateful JWs put me through. I deserved better than that and my children deserved better than that. I'm not prepared to give the JWs another chance to do that to me; 30 years was more than enough chances.
Love, Scully
It is not persecution for an informed person to expose a certain religion as being false. - WT 11/15/63
