Seeker4's 500th Post - My letter to the elders - long but fun

by Seeker4 52 Replies latest members adult

• 

  coolhandluke

  best, most well thought out DA letter i have ever read
• 

  BizzyBee

  Seeker:

  Awesome! Glad this got bttt or I would have missed it. Amazing how even though you'd been out for a decade, the emotion comes through - anger, sadness, righteous indignation - all handled very intelligently and effectively.

  A great template, with a little tweaking, for a piece to hand to JW's.
• 

  IP_SEC

  Yes! My friend that was one hellava letter!
• 

  Seeker4

  Coolhand,

  Thanks for bringing this back up. I haven't read this for over a year, and I must say I wouldn't change a thing, except for one misspelling near the end! Always the eternal editor.

  Now that a lot of the emotion of that time has passed, I'm thinking I might print out the original and send it to my kids, who have no idea that I ever wrote such a letter. It really spells out clearly my views on the Witnesses and why I left.

  Bizzy Bee wrote; "Amazing how even though you'd been out for a decade, the emotion comes through - anger, sadness, righteous indignation - all handled very intelligently and effectively."

  Thank you, though I must say that the emotion is all still there. Hardly a night goes by without my having a JW associated dream. This was soooo my life for so many years. Decades. My (now) ex-wife (still a JW) says it's so odd that I'm still concerned with the JWs. I told her it's the most natural thing in the world. How could I not think about what I spent the better part of my first 50 years on? It's like wondering why a guy who had a Hall of Fame career in baseball is still interested in the sport??

  WTF??

  S4
• 

  Double Edge

  All I can say is "WOW, that's some letter".

  Then the ones that know me could nod their heads sadly and shed a tear for their poor, fallen, deceived ex-brother, and the ones that have never heard of me could go, "Who the hell are they talking about?" just like they would do if you announced that I was no longer a Jehovah’s Witness.
• 

  dozy

  If you, as a body, decide to take judicial action and disfellowship me, and make any announcement to that end, I will feel at that time that I have no recourse but to take legal action against you as individual members of the body of elders of the XXXX Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Understand that clearly – I am not talking about suing the Watchtower Society. The lawsuits will be against you elders individually. I so don’t want to do this, several of you have been lifelong friends whom I still love very much, but I’ve given you an opportunity to reconsider your actions, and if you decide to proceed, you need to understand that it could cost you a great deal in both time and money

  You mention that the "XXX is no longer one of Jehovah's witnesses" statement was read out. Did you take court action , either against the WTS or against the individual elders , or was this just a meaningless threat , designed to try to pre-empt such a statement?
• 

  Crumpet

  A brilliant and truly loving and sincere and honest letter. Your last paragraph had me rather choked - as you give them the outline for the talk they could give!

  I still have dreams too although they tend to be more about my family than the borg - but I look forward to them as its the only time I get to see mum dad tors and rach (my sisters).
• 

  avengers

  I read the whole letter. Very well written I must say
  Makes me wonder if I should write one.
  My goal wouldn't be to inform the elders,
  but I would send a copy to my kids, ex-wife
  and more persons whom I had always cared for
  in the past and are still in.
  Thanks for the idea.

  Andy
• 

  Crumpet

  I am not going back for 4th's. never.

  Sparky - me neither! Maybe we should have classes of apostates - you know the one times DFed, the two times, the three times club! hehe! Has anyone gone to 4ths?
• 

  Seeker4

  Dozy,
  It wasn't an idle threat, but it was based on the premise that the body of elders were not following "Theocratic directions" as outlined in the Flock manual.
  I'm assuming the letter was sent to the WTS, and I'm also assuming that the Society told them to go ahead with the announcement, which nullifies that argument.
  But I'm thinking of perhaps discussing this with a lawyer, as the recent West Coast ruling opens up access to any correspondence between the body of elders and the WTS. We'd be able to find out just what was written back and forth.
  
  S4