I want to start by saying I will not participate in discussion here about my resignation as a moderator at JWN.
Simon please consider this as my resignation from that position.
I have been posting on this board for almost 12 years. I know some of you a lot, others a little and some not very well at all. I have remained here for those of you who have needed support as you make the transition out of the WTS, who needed someone to listen to your experiences of abuse at the hands of Jehovah's Witnesses, and to both laugh and cry with you as you progress out of the Watchtower Society.
We know that we have all experienced the cruelty of abuse of one kind or another. We all know what that feels like.
We have learned that if a child is being abused we cannot remain silent. To do so would make us complicit in the abuse. Abusers want one thing from people and one thing only - our silence. To them our silence means they are right or they have scared you so much that you are afraid of them.The sad thing is that the message given to the victim is that you agree with the abuser.
Victims of abuse need one thing from us. To speak out and for the last eighteen years I have spoken out about Watchtower abuses on its own people - the Witnesses themselves.
I am reminded of the words of Ray Franz as he started his book Crisis of Conscience when he said in his opening chapter:
Whether we like it or not, moral challenge affects each of us. It is one of life's bittersweet ingredients from which there is no successful escape. It has the power to enrich us or impoverish us, to determine the true quality of our relationships with those who know us--it is seldom easy.
We have the option, of course, of surrounding our conscience with a sort of cocoon of complacency, passively “going along,” shielding our inner feelings from whatever might disturb them. When issues arise, rather than take a stand we can in effect say, “I’ll just sit this one out; others may be affected—even hurt—but I am not.” Some spend their whole life in a morally ‘sitting’ posture. But, when all is said and done, and when life finally draws near its close, it would seem that the one who can say, “At least I stood for something,” must feel greater satisfaction than the one who rarely stood for anything.
Sometimes we may wonder if people of deep conviction have become a vanishing race, something we read about in the past but see little of in the present. Most of us find it fairly easy to act in good conscience so long as the things at stake are minor. The more that is involved, the higher the cost, the harder it becomes to resolve questions of conscience, to make a moral judgment and accept its consequences. When the cost is very great we find ourselves at a moral crossroads situation, facing a genuine crisis in our lives
I am at that moral crossroads. I can no longer remain silent. Some of you have wondered about my silence regarding AAWA. I made an agreement first with myself and then with the board of AAWA and with Simon that I would not get involved due to the conflict of interest. I will not further address this issue here.
To those of you who have sat silently and watched and read over the last few weeks I hope you can look into your conscience and say you did the right thing. That you took a stand. That your moral compass is still working or for some that it has started to work. I wish you well.
I will be continuing to write for Freeminds. I will most definitely be working for AAWA and with the very good people there. And I have my very neglected website (see my Profile). I will be available to anyone who wants to contact me.
Much love to those of you that I care for. I wish the very best for all of you. I hope we do not lose touch with each other.
...OUTLAW