Hello Everyone.
This is my first post here, though I have been browsing these forums over the last week for more than a few hours.
In the interest of full discloser, well as much as anyone would on a public forum, I?ll tell you about me. I was raised as a Witness, and have no real horror stories to tell. Most of my immediate family are Witnesses. I was disfellowshipped in the early ?90?s (Don?t quite remember the year.) for pre-marital sex. I have attempted to go back a few times, but it never seems to stick for me.
I just wanted to ask some questions based on my general first impression of this forum. Not all of these questions fit everyone, and I?m not attacking anyone and I don?t doubt that some of you have been done dirty, but . . .
Do you think it?s healthy to be bound together in hatred? I know you?ll say your giving each other support, and I?m sure you do, but the venom in the snide remarks and labels that you give the WTS, GB, Elders, and other brothers/sisters . . . is nothing more that hate.
Do you think it?s healthy to perpetuate yourselves as victims? This is something I think a lot of people do. (Not just on this forum.) They become addicted to the attention, so they become the perpetual victim, and whine about their wounds, but never really heal.
Which of you was unable to leave the JW?s due to a gun being held to your head? When I was a Witness, I was always given the impression that if the ?truth? wasn?t for you, then you were free to leave. Of course, there will be those who would try to ?help? you not leave and tell you that your decision was wrong. It would seem that somehow you?d make peace with no longer being a JW and stop fixating on them.
It seems that you try to villianize the JW?s for your disfellowshipping and the subsequence shunning that comes from former JW friends and your JW family members. Every Organization has rules, right or wrong, and you knew what would get you disfellowshipped, not saying that everyone got a fair shake, but that happens in life. The fact that your family and friends won?t talk to you is a decision they make, because of a decision you made, caused by all of you choosing, at some point or another, to live by these rules. The subtle way around this reality is to portray the WTS Organization as a monster or cult that has your former friends and family as victims, thus relieving them of any responsibility, in your eyes. (Not sure where the question was in that one, just an observation I guess.)
Also I?d like to ask the following questions, just out of curiosity, feel free to answer or ignore, cause they are personal questions:
Who here thinks they are Jehovah God?
Who here thinks they are Jesus Christ?
Who here thinks they are of the anointed?
Who here thinks they are going to heaven, but are not necessarily anointed?
I personally answer negative to all the above, just to be fair and answer them myself.
On another note I just want to say, that I realize that some of you were wronged by overzealous Elders, or molested by a so-called brother that went without punishment. I won?t sit here and deny that those things can?t or haven?t happened. You have my sympathy. I just know that I was never taught that anyone in the WTS Organization, from the Lowliest Publisher to the Governing Body, where infallible. With that said, mistakes will be and have been made, but we all have to answer for ourselves. Those with more responsibilities, have more to answer for.
My personal position is that I do not think I will ever return to the JW Organization, whether they are right or wrong, I don?t really know. I do believe in Jehovah, and that this system will have an end. How, Where, When . . . Jehovah knows. If I?m given life or judged as an apostate, I cannot argue with his final judgment of me, it will be absolutely fair.
I just want to take the time to re-state the fact that this is not an attack on this community, or any individual in it. My writing style has often been perceived as hostile when that wasn?t the intention. I do understand that these are emotionally charged issues, and I don?t know everyone?s situation and that along the way I?ve more that likely offended someone. I?ll apologize in advance.