@brotherdan:
I am SOOOOO sorry for how judgemental I have been to all of you over the last months. What a bitch I've been. I hope I haven't hurt any of you in a real way.
Ok. I accept your apology, @brotherdan.
And please don't call me brotherdan. I'm not a brother. I'm Daniel. And I am a real person. I hurt people. And I've hurt the person that I love most in my life.
Ok, Daniel.
Misery, I have no remorse.... I've pretended for the last 2 years. No more! My tongue will get me df'd and some of them may walk out with a limp that they didn't previously have. They destroyed the only thing that I ever loved....my family.... I'm a little pissed at you too, misery, that you are allowing yourself to continue to be part of that group.... I have nothing but love for you misery. But [I wish] you would come to your senses.
This sounds a tad hypocritical, that you have pretended to be one of Jehovah's Witnesses, but continued to mislead others into thinking that you were otherwise (maybe you even offered a prayer for a group of Jehovah's Witnesses once or twice before going out into field service), and yet you are here telling @miseryloveselders here how "pissed" you are that he has been putting on a pretense himself. Just an observation.
My "master" has left me all alone in this entire thing. I am so angry at him. The hurt that he lets me have is too much. I think 1Cor 10:13 is the biggest joke in the world. I've passed the point of what I can bear. I can't bear anymore.... But maybe he isn't my master.
You've taken Paul's words here at 1 Corinthians 10:13 out of context, but none of what you tell us has recently taken place in your life has anything to do with Jesus being or not being your "master.
I will never be able to get myself together. You guys don't realize how in love I am with my wife. She is my everything. And this religion shat all over it. She saved me from myself. And I almost killed her. That's what I do. I hurt. I help people self destruct.
Now which is it: (A) Do you believe the religion, the doctrinal beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses, that "shat all over" your marriage here, to be what led to your wife's accusing you of stress that she believes you to have been the cause for her seizure last Saturday, or whatever the MRI determines this episode to have been? (B) Do you believe your wife to have been correct in adducing stress as being the cause for her seizure because you seem to have a knack for 'helping people to self-destruct'? Which of these -- (A) or (B) -- do you believe to be true, Daniel?
You say that you are "in love" with your wife, and I do not doubt this, but you mentioned not just her comment as to your being the cause of "major stress in her life," but you mentioned something that she told her father that led to his contacting the elders about your being "an extreme apostate":
It was the scariest moment in my life. Her entire face turned blue and she stopped breathing. They brought her back. The doctors could not find a reason, but said that most likely it was brought on my stress. She told them that I was the major stress in her life. But I stayed by her side. She told her dad that it is because I am an apostate. He called the elders on me last night and told them that I was such an extreme apostate that I am giving my wife medical problems.
Then you wrote:
Watching her seize and pretty much die was the worst experience in my life. She asked me to find a new place to live. I had to tell my son and he [immediately] started crying.
Why would you tell your children that you have to find a new place to live or that you were even considering leaving home to find another place to live? I re-read your words in this thread: You guys don't realize how in love I am with my wife. She is my everything. Even if your wife had accused you of adultery -- and she didn't -- why would you be thinking about moving out and away from your children when, as a married man, you have a duty to your wife and to your children to fulfill? If you were a non-believer and had committed adultery, the question would never be put to your wife as to when she was planning to move away and divorce you for what you did. In such a case, the question that would be put to her would be whether she had been able to forgive you your transgression?
Now Jehovah doesn't like divorcements, and maybe she wanted to forgive you also for the sake of the children, but she accepted your apology as sincere and elected not to divorce you. But you are still one of Jehovah's Witnesses and yet you've actually given some consideration to moving away from your home when what we're talking about here is apostasy?
[I] will have my judicial meeting with the elders where I get to hear that fucking "apostate" word again.... [N]ow my mama will never talk to me again. Nor will my daddy.... My wife said she will sue for sole [custody] without visitation. I'm sure the courts won't uphold that. But it still hurts.
You are concerned about the outcome of a judicial committee, and the reception of your parents toward you should you be disfellowshipped. By your own admission, you've been in the proverbial closet as to your apostasy -- evidently not really "in the closet" as far as your wife is concerned -- but how can your parents avoid seeing you or dealing with you if they need to come to your house or make arrangements with you to see their grandchildren if you should not move out and be living elsewhere?
I just called her at the hospital to try and apologize and she hung up on me. I never knew this sort of pain existed.
You called your wife in order "to try and apologize" for what, Daniel? What did you do, again? You are certainly not sorry about not being able to accept what things Jehovah's Witnesses teach as being the truth, am I right? So for what was it your intent to apologize, if she had been willing to take your call? What are we missing here? What did you tell her that moved you to want to offer her an apology? I'm not asking you to tell anyone what is your personal business, but based on what things you have said here, you do not owe anyone an apology, except maybe Jehovah, who may have hoped that His son would be able to use you "on the last day," that is, during Judgment Day, to help resurrectees come into a knowledge of the same Bible truths that you came to learn on this side of Armageddon.
I will go to the JC and they will not know what hit them. I guarantee that there has never been a JC than the one I will give them.
Why? You go into one with the attitude that you have exhibited here, I'd excuse you immediately from the room, call a vote, and it's likely you'd easily be given a reproof. Disfellowshipping is quite serious, and so, absent evidence, the JC would not likely move to expel you from Christian fellowship unless it should later be reported to them that you were spreading apostate views around. If the JC already has such evidence, then I suppose you could be disfellowshipped.
I posted this message primarily to point out how much of a bad move it would be on your part to move out of the house away from your wife and children, even if your wife should decide to sue you to seek a legal separation and for custody of the children. To file such a lawsuit typically costs money to do and I'm sure she will not be able to depend upon you to finance such a legal action against you, so unless you should decide to treat the loves of your life unlovingly or disrespectfully, or mistreat any of them in any way, I don't see her prevailing in such a lawsuit, or even filing one without financial assistance of someone other than you. But this isn't the main reason I bothered to post this message.
The main reason I had in mind when posting this message was to tell you that your wife has every right to decide for herself to which religion she will belong or not belong, the same as you have this same right, to either belong to a religious group of some kind or to not belong to any.
If both of you were of a Jewish background, but you began to do apostate things (like you would regularly pork chops in restaurants, for example), would you be as resolved to accuse your wife's beliefs, her religious viewpoint about eating things that aren't kosher (like pork), as being responsible for her attitude over your not deciding to take these dietary restrictions as seriously as she does? Would you want to go kick the asses of those rabbins at the Jewish temple for their part in confirming these Jewish beliefs that they were teaching Jewish congregants long before you and your wife became Jewish congregants at that synagogue?
@djeggnog
