by Dogpatch 59 Replies latest jw friends
I was just looking through my old first posts here on JWD and it helps me see the long journey I've been on in a fresh perspective.
It is good to review where you have been and where you are so you know how much farther you have to go to get to where you want to be.
Amazing.
Thanks for writing this account of your life terry, I found it encouraging... it's amazing the crap we had to deal with.
Terry [and Randy],
I missed this when it was originally posted, I'm glad it popped back up near the top.
I feel like I "know where you're coming from", and the observations you have made about how Witnesses view things.
Thanks for a good read,
----Dan
I so appreciated this story, Terry! Your early years sound like something I could share with my mom. I think your story might help her understand how the org. influenced her and stifled any real 'study' about religion. You put into words the things I have often thought. Thank you so much. You came a long way. You really paid your price for freedom though. I hope all is well for you.
Shelly
Thanks for writing this account of your life terry, I found it encouraging... it's amazing the crap we had to deal with.
I was cleaning out some old keepsakes in my old house yesterday and suddenly came to the realization that the "best years of my life" were utterly wasted in the service of a group of men in Brooklyn who couldn't care less about me or my life.
That stinks.
I so appreciated this story, Terry! Your early years sound like something I could share with my mom. I think your story might help her understand how the org. influenced her and stifled any real 'study' about religion. You put into words the things I have often thought. Thank you so much. You came a long way. You really paid your price for freedom though. I hope all is well for you.Shelly
When I've mentioned some of these details to non-JW religious people they can't begin to understand what I'm talking about! There is no frame of reference for a so-called "mainstream" religious person who simply goes to church on Sunday.
When I re-read it myself I got dizzy. Yipes!
How can a seemingly average intelligence person allow themselves to be so used?
Sad and maddening.
Thank you Terry for sharing your story. I remember as a young girl how so many of the young brothers were sentenced to prison. My older brother quickly pioneered and then went to Bethel so that he could obtain some kind of exemption, another one of my brothers was sentenced to work in a hospital. I can remember driving to a prison one time, with one of the sisters in the hall, to toss something over the fence for her husband. I was young but it was something he wanted and wasn't allowed to have. My point is that there were so many young men sentenced to prison then and even at a young age, I remember them coming out of prison changed by the experience. Some came out all fired up for "the truth" but many others probably experienced horrors that we cannot even imagine and were never the same.
Hi again Terry,
I was happy to see your story re-entered here for the benefit of others. Recently you confirmed for me that you were THE Terry of said article, whose best friend is Johnny. Though I've already mentioned it elsewhere, my best friend, an inactive JW and the brother who took me out in service the first time 40 years ago, sent me a copy of MY LIFE some time ago. I read it with interest, of course, but it wasn't yet "my time". Nils and Sherry's story of Joyful Conversion clinched it for me (they were friends at Bethel [had dinner with them recently]).
A friend, your and my age, and I met up yesterday and discussed everything. He went to prison like you and commented that not a single older man (no elders then) offered him support or comfort prior to his incarceration in AZ. I explained to him yesterday why they could/would not offer any sort of help. He had no idea all these years! Bottom line: cowardice.
Thanx again! May many more benefit from this thread.
With you in the true service,
Compound-Complex
Thanks for pulling that back up. Interesting story.
A friend, your and my age, and I met up yesterday and discussed everything. He went to prison like you and commented that not a single older man (no elders then) offered him support or comfort prior to his incarceration in AZ. I explained to him yesterday why they could/would not offer any sort of help. He had no idea all these years! Bottom line: cowardice.
It was only vaguely troublesome to me at the time not to receive visits, letters or support from my own congregation. But, now--with the passing of years I think it is an outrageous omission.
There is no such thing as "love among" the brothers and sisters in fact or deed. No, it is only lip service which is cheap enough.
I think I should have come to a quicker realization I was being used. I didn't.
Imagine this; my twenty-first birthday and entire 21st year of my life was spent in prison for nothing but a token gesture to the world at large (who couldn't care less what I did or why) that JW's had integrity.
But, with JW's it is always "What have you done for us lately?" There is no long term accumulation of service laurels. You toss your life away and you don't get it back.
How much worse for the brothers and sisters in Malawi and elsewhere who died for nothing.
