I blog about a number of different things that catch my attention. This page started off with the intent on discussing my day to day life with Tourette's and PTSD, but that became very depressing. I found that I had to change it up very quickly. So, I started to write on what I was passionate about. Some days it's music. Other times, I'll post about politics or gay rights. Sometimes, I'll go for a week without posting anything but a movie trailer (sorry about those weeks). The posts on this blog that seem to get the most attention, and many times the most comments, are the ones about Jehovah's Witnesses, and my experiences from within the organization.
I tend to have quite a few readers that are former JWs, and that find my site from Google searches, looking for information regarding the religion. I have contemplated many times about making the blog an "ex-JW only" themed page, but have decided against it, because I would probably end up starting another blog just to write about everything else, anyway.
Because some of what I write about has to do with the gay community, I have chosen to moderate the comments at this time, so I can make sure nothing hateful or homophobic appears on the site. So, every comment pops up in my email first, and gives me the option to either publish it, or delete it. With that being said, one of the drawbacks of posting something Jehovah's Witness related, is having to subsequently deal with the comments. I would say that about 95% of the comments I receive are positive in nature. In some of them, the reader relates a story or an experience they had back in the day as a JW. The other 5% however, is a mixed bag.
About two months ago, I published a post entitled,
"02/15/2011 Watchtower: Disfellowshipped/Disassociated Ones Are 'Demons'". Many of you read it. Quite a few of you commented on it on various Facebook pages. Overall, readers seemed to have the same reaction to the Watchtower article as I did: The organization had gone too far to show the requirement for Jehovah's Witnesses to shun their disfellowshipped family members.
Apparently, there are some that disagree with me. I received a Facebook message on March 23rd. Keep in mind, I do not publish my Facebook address. I don't have any links to my Facebook account from my blog. Someone
TRACKED MY ASS DOWN in order to write me directly. I'm not going to who the message is from, but I will print it, exactly as it appeared in my inbox:
"Hi Adam
I read your message on the wall regarding disfellowship people being class like demons. I read the article in question and feel that wasnt the message the society was trying to get across. The Elder was trying to comfort the mother. Explaning to her that Jehovah understands what she was going thru. Jehovah had sons that rebeled and so Jehovah had to protect the rest of his angel sons and human race and though it pained him him he get off association with his disobedient sons. So Jehovah understands our pain.
And no im not a Jehovah's Witness im disfellowship also. I knew what I was doing at the time. We are like children to Jehovah, and like all children if we do wrong and we dont listen to our parents then we are disciplene for our own good to bring us back to our senses. I dont mean to be rude or cause offence to you. Sorry for my bad spelling."
Honestly, I was dumbfounded. Completely at a loss for words. At a moment's notice, this was the only thing I could type back:
"Wow. I don't even know how to respond. Good luck. I'll just leave it at that."
Now that I've had some time to think about a better response, let me just say.......
 |
| "Oh, no!" |
"Stop drinking the Kool Aid, sister." I can understand this if, say you've been disfellowshipped for a relatively short period of time, and your residual "Witness guilt" is getting the better of you. Otherwise, let me fill you in on something. It's complete nonsense. Here's why.
In a nutshell, Witnesses disfellowship for two reasons, 1) to "protect the flock", and 2) as a way to encourage the "wrongdoer" to come back to the congregation. From what has been reported by those trying to return to the congregation in recent months, people have been told that they cannot look others in the eye, that they must sit apart from the congregation, and that they weren't allowed to stay for the final prayer.
Imagine being told that you're an alcoholic, and that the only way you're going to get better is by going to a 12 step program. You show up at your first AA meeting and your told that you're not allowed to participate with the rest of the group. You also have to look down at the ground, so as to not look anyone in the eye. Then, the group moderator takes your folding chair and moves it into the room next door, and tells you that you have to get up and leave before the serenity prayer is said. How much do you think that you'll get out of the program? Do you think you will be on your way to sobriety just as quickly as the rest of the members of the group? Of course not.
Do you honestly think that, as a disfellowshipped person, Jehovah's Witnesses give a shit about you? If they really wanted to "encourage" you to come back, wouldn't your family and friends have an active role in doing so?
Why are you defending them? They hate you! They hate all of us. How could you think any differently? How can you still buy that bullshit that you've been spoon fed all of this time?
Moving on. Another comment, about the same post. This one received on the site itself. This was left by an "Anonymous" reader last week. Again, I am printing this, as is, unedited, word for word.
they go into the understanding of yehweh Yahweh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 329] states: “Jehovah (Yahweh), in the Hebrew you have to undershand they Je or Jeh or Jah means Lord or God Hovah Hoba and Hova means, like 20 words like, Wickedness, Naughty, and more words along these lines so really who is Jehovah, who is Lord or God of Wickedness..................... Yahweh Translates into Jehovah im sorry but it does................. now this is important THE!! hear me THE Shocking Implications of 'Jehovah' We now see how the first part of the Sacred Name "Yah" was changed to "Jeh" as the "J" developed and the "a" was replaced with "e" to hide the name. The suffix "hovah" is No. 1943 in Strong's Hebrew Dictionary and has the meaning of "ruin: mischief." It is another form of No. 1942, havvah, which is translated "calamity, iniquity, mischief, mischievous (thing), naughtiness, naughty, noisome, perverse thing, substance, very wickedness." Ok so who r they worshipping oh dear the god of wickedness also they preach from the new world order.. Sorry I mean translation same bible that once had 73 books but Constantine etc reduced to 66 books I'm strongly considering reading the Quran as 114 books are easily recited by children ad young as 8 in entire villages to prevent corruption and it tells u to believe in torah n Christ but be mindful of corruption Jesus spoke armaic n the word Allah is a translation of the word god their main sin is shirk associating others with the worship meant for the one and only creator
If someone has a Gary Busey to English translation dictionary, and could loan me their copy? I would love to try to understand just what in the hell this person was trying to say.
This wasn't too surprising, really. The comment came in the morning after the Memorial. As many of my ex-JW readers can attest, the Memorial season "brings out the crazies". I remember as a kid, every year there was always that one brother in the congregation that you wouldn't see all year would be rocking back and forth and talking to himself. Or, there would be the homeless looking guy that would partake every year, and you'd never see him again. Or, there would be that family with the three daughters that were in their thirties that still lived at home, and made their own dresses and looked like fundamental Mormons that haven't bathed in 6 months. Only the old timers in the congregation knew their names, and you would only see them on Memorial night. They were the Boo Radleys of the Kingdom Hall.
Then you have the troublemakers.
I had another person, this time
a Jehovah's Witness, track me down on Facebook and send the following message in response to my post about
a local elder I knew, getting arrested on molestation charges.
"Are u saying this to stumble others?U will not succeed.Why did the pope travel to UK?Tell me the reasons.Do you know what has been happening to ur so called pastors,priests,popes and other people who claim to be worshiping the true God?"
I replied, stating that my intent wasn't to "stumble"(a term Witnesses like to use, meaning to shove them off the right path) anyone at all, but rather to share a story. That story happened to be that an elder that I used to know liked blowing 14 year old boys and got caught. This individual is from Ghana. I'm not being racist, by any means, but just making an observation.
As a Jehovah's Witness, it is against the religion to read material from an "apostate", or someone that has left the organization and is writing things contrary to the religion's teachings. It is also against the religion to speak to, or write to, such an individual. Doing so can get yourself, as a Jehovah's Witness, kicked out of the church. I have noticed, in recent months, among my blog and other ex-JW pages on the web, there is a lot of activity by Jehovah's Witnesses from Africa, particularly Ghana and Kenya. I get at least a dozen page views a day between the two countries, and I imagine they're not reading about the 'Hangover 2' trailer. I have seen so called "brothers", openly taunting former members of the church on other websites. It's almost as if the "don't talk to the disfellowshipped" rule doesn't apply to that continent. Here's this "brother's" response to mine.
"I can only compare u to those in the past.Eg. Like Hitler,didnt he say he will wipe out all witnesses,where is he now and how many witnesses are now in Germany.Dont believe in God and do whatever u like in life and u will see ur end.Even those u had depended on them believe in God.Dont think i will argue with Satan.Mind u i wont read ur reply."
What a nice guy, comparing me to Hitler and all. I write a blog. Hitler killed 6 million Jews. Same thing, I guess. Same level of evil. Of course, he did the standard Witness retort in any debate: "Hit you opponent like a girl. Get the last word. Then, run like hell with your fingers in your ears yelling, "I can't hear you."
Finally, is the pièce de résistance. This one takes the meter way past logical thinking....past conspiracy theories...and enters the territory of sheer lunacy. It's so mad, I'm not even going to share any details as to who it's from, their website, or any of the text I received. You're going to have to Google it.
I received a comment a couple of months ago from someone. It seemed simple enough. It was along the lines of, "Great post. I can relate. Oh yeah, by the way. I have an ex-JW blog too. Check it out". And, there was a link posted for me to follow. What I read was so "out there", that it made the conspiracy theories of Bigfoot being the second shooter behind the grassy knoll that killed JFK seem plausible.
OK, some back story. The Jehovah's Witnesses despise the United Nations. In fact, they think the bible book of Revelation prophesies that the U.N. will be instrumental in bringing about the events that lead to Armageddon. They, supposedly, want nothing to do with it.
A few years ago, some documents surfaced that suggested that they were an Associate Member of the United Nations Department of Public Information. From February 1992, until October 2001, they held an NGO (Non Governmental Organization) status with the United Nations, until the day when The Guardian newspaper published a story about their U.N. involvement.
The blog I was linked to states that the reason that the Witnesses were involved with the U.N. was because of.....extraterrestrials. That's right, aliens. Keep in mind, when it comes to the bible, the Witnesses are literalists. They do not believe in evolution, and they DO NOT believe in life on other planets. However, this blog claims to "prove" that we have been "visited" before, and that, not only are the world's governments aware of it, but they are making plans in the event of an alien invasion.
His reasoning is this: If life is proven outside our planet...if an alien spacecraft lands in the National Mall in Washington D.C. tomorrow afternoon, people aren't going to be calling their Senator. They're going to freak out, and head straight for their local church. Supposedly, the higher ups at the JWs joined the U.N., along with all of the other religions of the world, to develop a contingency plan on how to handle their followers, when and if that day ever occurs.
Puts a whole new meaning to, "The "truth" is out there", doesn't it?
