It's a PM that would ring alarm bells in my mind. Anyone asking an anon user to identify themselves would, as a matter of good faith, fully identify themself in their request.
I was thinking today how much of a shame it is, and condemnation of the shitty religion we were in, that so many of us feel compelled to hide behind user names out of fear of the consequences. I have just contacted another JWN poster here who says he's from Melbourne, where I live. It's just crazy that we each tiptoe towards revealing ourselves.
Someone made the simple point today on another thread: "What a horrible religion." Those four words are so powerful and I wish with all my heart that I'd heard them before I committed myself to them back in '85. It is just so twisted and perverted that a person can become part of a religion because of a sincere desire to learn more about the Bible (or simply be born into it) and then endure such pain to leave.
Some months ago on one of the talk pages at Wikipedia, where I hang out a lot, a devout (and truly spellbound) Witness trotted out the hoary old line about it being easy to leave the religion. "Just go," he said, and that was a message I heard many years ago when I first started witnessing, chatting to an elder who was genuinely bewildered at why "apostates" were so opposed to the religion. "No one's forcing them to stay," he said. "They were free to join and they're free to leave. No one's forcing them to stay."
He was a decent guy and I'm sure he truly believed it. I hope that over the years he has opened his eyes a bit and realised how false that statement is. Perhaps it's only those who want to leave who see how false it is and how paranoid and fearful it makes those who bridle against the control. But then again, his family is all in the "club" and maybe, just maybe, he feels as trapped as we know many other desperately unhappy Witnesses are.
"What a horrible religion." That's a slogan.
