James:
Though I MAY, on more than a few occasions, have questioned whether or not I wanted to be one of Jehovahs Witnesses and I MAY at some point decide that I dont, I can assure you that I would never contact you again. It is really unfortunate that you felt the need to post our email exchanges on jw.com because to be honest with you, I actually thought that you may have been sincerely interested in me as a person. But the fact is, the only interest you have is your viewpoint, your opinion and yourself the same things for which you condemn the organization. I am so glad that I did not provide you with any personal information about myself as you probably would have posted that on jw.com also. I truly feel sorry for you.
I have been on the Net now going on 7years and despite the fact that i have tried to educate myself on how High Control groups like the wt controls it's members== it still is an amazing thing to watch how folks due to thier years of indoctrination literally SHUTDOWN.
one of the first things i learned when i started college (SHOULD HAVE completed in 1985 INSTEAD wasting my time at Bethel :( was how Classical Conditioning works in Psychology class - for most of the students in the class with my wife and i this class was merely another credit for them to add towards thier degree, but for us it was much more and after just a couple of classes the instructor caught on tht we were not JUST REGULAR STUDENTS
We would stay after class many nights and PICK HIS BRAINS, after awhile he asked us:
"WHAT'S UP WITH YOU TWO I have never seen anyone who cares about this class as much as you two"- and so we told him tha for us this was more than a class IT WAS ABOUT OUR LIFE
How two folks like us who were pretty sharp, seemed halfway reasonable could be taken in by WT for so long and so finally i begun to better understand how folks who are basically sharp folks could see PROOF, EVIDENCE, DOCUMENTATION AND THE LIST GOES ON AND ON, even agreeing that the information is CORRECT and yet still say: "I ain't leaving THE TRUTH"
There has been much debate on the net about posting private emails on public forums some feel it is ok and others feel it is wrong, esp if one party is not aware,
well I'm not here to argue that issue, in fact when Lady "C" found out I put up this poster email she went up one side of me and down the other that i should have not, and to be honest i have to agree but only to a certain extent,
while i understand the poster concern when their email is posted to a public forum I truly believe that in some cases the good out weighs the bad, I could be wrong and if so I am truly sorry for any pain i may cause, but i truly believe that the good far out weighs the bad (Lady "C" dis agrees)
while i would never post anyones name , phone number , location or address, i do believe the CONTENT of the message is important enough to where others need to see it, esp lurkers to show just how they think and the issues they must fact-
i guess what hurts me the most is to think back at all the years i was a jw , esp as an elder when i personally tried to help sheild the BLOWS OF THE COLD STEEL OF WT from striking single women just like this.
In my old hall we had 42 single black women from 25 -45 yrs of age and they all wanted to get married, many suffered great depression and frustration, so my wife and i would often times try to make thier life easier, and we always got dogged by the organization
my wife started a little "Lady's Night out" type of thing, it all started with 5 single sisters and my wife going to Ruby Tuesday's, a Fridays or a little upscale swanky place once amonth- and it ballooned to over 30 sisters some nights
it gave women who had no man, no where to go on a friday, no club they could go to a chance to get a little "DOLLED UP" and go out and have some good clean fun
well word got back to the CO and it was shut down- so many sisters were so hurt for as they would tell me all the time:
"James all we can do is go to meeting, service and read the mags and that gets OLD"
I had started a little bowling thing after sat service once amonth, we would have up to 60-70 folks out in service (any good jw knows you can't go to the bowling alley unless you went in service that AM - smile) but at any rate we had OLD FOLKS who could not even bowl, at the alley, they just wanted something DIFFERNT TO DO in thier lives, and sure enough I go dogged and told if they can go bowling THEN THEY COULD DO AFTERNOON SERVICE making RV- it was shut down
then i leave WT and i try to help folks and i still get DOGGED, I'm getting Tired it is wearing me out mentally:(
I'm getting tired of trying--- TRYING to help folks, many days i say to myself, WHY, why have folks over to house, why email folks, call folks,- would it not be easier just to say THE HELL WITH them, I GOT MY BLACK A$$ OUT - YOU ARE ON YOUR ON- all the information that one needs if they want to know is on the net, I can't force folks to see what they DON'T WANT TO SEE-
I think I need a break- college starts back up on Monday with new classes and i will have a full schedule. It has been a good run, but i think there are enough good folks on the net to provide any help that a sincere person will need
I wish all of your the very best in your Journey
James
in the avg hall a single woman was often time viewed as the lowest on the totem pole next to children
cto the point that the fear and denial factors that wt instills in allin terms of
Edited by - jt on 5 January 2003 0:16:14
