A JW Biography of AlanF (page 5)

Curiosity sparked by yet another girlfriend trying to understand why "You and your whole family are so f---ed up" led me to find and start reading your essays about seven years ago, and I have followed your online path off and on since that time. I have consistently found your writing to be informed, competent, entertaining, (reasonably) economical, (occasionally) brilliant, mostly free of hyperbole, and often quite funny. I look forward to your postings, and when I visit JWD typically scan through your Post History to find which threads might be worth examining.

Both of my maternal great-grandmothers became Bible Students in the 1880s, and bred prolifically, leaving hundreds of Witness spawn. As far as I am aware, my younger brother and I are the only of that bloodline that rejected the religion on doctrinal issues (in my own case, before I was even a teenager). My interest in the Jehovah?s Witnesses comes from the fact that, in a very real sense, their peculiar history is the history of my family. It is impossible to understand them, their actions, and their processes without knowing what was going on in the Watchtower of the commensurate period. Your work has helped me more fully understand the dishonest forces which have shaped our family histories, and the complicit (learned, in some senses) dishonesty within my own family which has helped perpetuate their institutional dysfunction. (This latter part is still difficult to fully grasp.)

Since I have no patience for reading new or old WTS publications, or particular specialty that would make me useful in debating the issues within them, I have had nothing substantial to contribute, and there has been no reason for me to be anything other than a spectator. Your draft of your "JW Bio" was unusual in that it requested comments and suggestions, however, and, having read it, I seem to be alone in finding it surprisingly unsatisfactory, verging on what I would not have expected from you: propaganda.

Not merely that most of the material is an elaborated cut-and-paste of previous bios and comments you have made, or that it seems uncharacteristically unfocused, but that (for its considerable length) it appears to lack any sort of larger theme or perspective. As I say, I have read a fair bit of your writing, and what often distinguishes it is not only your exhaustive knowledge of the material, but your compelling desire to present it. It is not pure logic that causes you to, fifteen years out, spend what must annually amount to hundreds of hours of effort, but the same mixture of drives that manifests itself as your visible compassion, humor, temper, and sarcasm. That you are such a known and continual presence demands some consideration in a piece of this length, or you run the real risk of disingenuousness.

I suppose that, for something that was not just a brief throwaway, I expected you to apply your considerable powers of analysis a little more systematically to your own rationales for your long association with the Jehovah?s Witnesses, and then, as importantly, to your considerable time and work spent on post-Witness topics. Whatever drives those efforts strikes me as having far more relevance (and interest) than another few paragraphs rehashing scandals that have more complete coverage elsewhere. As much as the WTS is inextricably entwined with my own family?s history, your own is now linked with more than a decade of a significant anti-Witness movement. I believe you could make a more full accounting.

I freely admit to being ruthlessly critical by inclination, but I hope it is some measure of my genuine esteem and appreciation for your work that I expect more from someone as capable as yourself,

Mr. K?

P.S. For what it?s worth, I very often find myself far more comfortably and naturally arguing against a position than I do offering a genuinely fresh perspective, and have often noticed this tendency among those who post in these and similar forums. Whether this is just an unavoidable aspect of an argumentative medium, a failing more likely to be found among those who have spent a considerable amount of time testing and ultimately rejecting a particular system of thought, or something endemic to those who were raised with Watchtower publications and their constant subterfuge and strawmen as proofs, is a question I have often pondered, but have never been able to completely synthesize.

Narkissos

Hmm... autobiography is a perilous exercise. Especially for a talented writer.

New Worldly Translation

Thanks Alan that was an enjoyable and informative read. It was very interesting reading about your conversations with prominent members of the society and their attitude to difficult questions.

I can partly understand the criticism in the post from dilaceratus in that many of the points have been covered elsewhere in more depth. What I appreciated though was your personal journey to obtain the facts and the unravelling of Watchtower dogma in the context of your own life story. As you said in your original post it is a work in progress and I assume what is written at the moment is a draft to set out the chronology, main facts and occurences and to get across the main thrust of the essay. As the bio is fleshed out and more 'soul' is put into the piece I'm sure it will be enjoyable even to the critical eye.

Dansk

Alan,

You've been my favourite poster on this site since I first arrived here two years ago. It was a real pleasure meeting you and Julie in Manchester.

Love to you both,

Ian & Claire

XX

Crumpet

Xenawarrior

This is a phenomenon that Concerned Mama and I have both noticed. Even mothers seem oddly distant to their own children. As if they "know" that their relationship may be only temporary. This phenomenon has only been touched on before.

Thanks for repeating this as I have not come across your discussions on this previously. My mother was always very distant with me - I knew she loved me but got the impression she didnt like me, but maybe she didnt want to get too attached because she suspected I would leave. Whatever her motives she was not a mother to give me hugs and kisses or say I was good or pretty, like I see other mothers do (I just remember her telling me before meetings and service that I looked like a sack of potatoes, which was probably as true then as it is now - I always feel badly dressed and untidy!).

I in turn have used this reason for the last 13 years since I left for not wanting to broaden my circle of friends or get too close to too many people, partly because of Armageddon and partly because having lost everyone in the airplane crash of my disfellowshipment when I was 16 I find it hard to see relationships as permanent. I see them as transient things and avoid getting too deeply emotionally involved, although I still maintain my relationships with men as long term. Maybe it works so well because I am as anxious not to make any commitment beyond sharing a bed as they are! LOL!

Aztec

Alan, you did something quite extraordinary. You got me to post. I'm sorry if anyone else mentioned this because I don't have enough time to read through the whole thread but, the only thing I didn't particularly enjoy was that it was non-linear. Other than that it was an excellent read! You're a verbose bugger aren't you?

Stromboli

AlanF,

ditto what everybody said..... Great stuff!

If you need help with paging and HTML PM me I'll be glad to help

BrendaCloutier

there was no reason to think that the Jehovah's Witnesses are anything but an odd religious group

Amen!

AlanF, thank you for documenting your history. This is an awesome piece of work in the making. May I print it out at-the-ready for my family?

I am finding that so many of ex-JW's are highly intelligent and could no longer swallow the "spiritual food" as it tastes like hogs-wallow. You are just a handfull of years older than I and I remember much of the BS from the mid-60's until 1975-76. That brain/heart crap really had me going. I could't understand how JW's got it, and medical science missed it. One of many issues I began questioning.

Hugs and thank you

Brenda

startingover

Alan,

A question regarding this quote from your autobiography:

Barbara Anderson has known my family since 1954, when I was just three years old and she was 14. She had just become a JW, and had become friendly with my parents. She and my mother maintained a close friendship until Barbara left the JWs in 1997.

From what I have read regarding Barbara I thought she was still and wished to continue as a JW until she was DF'd in 2002. Any clarification would be appreciated.

A JW Biography of AlanF

TheEdge

dilaceratus