i found this site by accident a couple of weeks ago -- i did not go looking for it, and felt no need for it....
reading the posts, was like entering an old house that i once lived in and was now abandoned -- the issues being discussed were like the furniture of the old house -- covered in dust and the crap of the ages...
but, as i stayed and read on and saw the pain that so many have, i started to think about the process that led us all here.
and my thoughts crystallised --
i thought that i 'had' a good life as a witness -- yes i saw many things that i could question, but i accepted that old consolation that is offered when you have doubts - just wait on the lord brother - he will make all things clear in time...!!!
you know it's really strange that that expression is used so many times -- it leads me to think that so many must have doubts - even if unexpressed! ( and maybe 25% do not understand much about what they are studying anyway!!).
it was not doubts that led me to my judgement day, but an unresolved misunderstanding about my own nature.. a misunderstanding that was deep and profound but which i would prefer to talk another time...
this misunderstanding could only be resolved by a deep shock!!!
that shock was provided by disfellowhipping -- i was set free at last to find the real truth about myself!!!
for me dfing was a blessing!!!
i suggest that for nearly all posters - disfellowshipping is a blessing also!!!
you are free at last from someone breathing down your neck, looking over your shoulder -- judging you to even the smallest detail of dressing and personal choice..
free to think for yourself, free to be a real human, free to select your friends, free to make your own mistakes (costly as they may be), with out an elder who thinks that he has your best interests at heart, (but in truth only wishes to make you conform to his ideas), calling to counsel you to conform to hiw way of thinking....
i have realised for a long time that there is a close connection between christianity and fascism..
all your stories, reinforces that notion to me....
my life is now better than the one i had as a witness -- even tho a young man from the same congregation that disfellowshipped me ( actually, the same brothers on that committee) was told that he would finish up a lonely sad old man like me --
these guys know so little about life, that they get everything wrong!!!
i wish now that i had come to my senses and been disfellowshipped years ago....