Okay, to give a bit of background....I have posted my DA letter on this board awhile ago. Of course, sent it to a elder. And I get a call weeks later telling me they were gonna announce my DAing to the cong. Now we discused things a bit, and he concluded that they would look at my letter again and find answers for me. I agreed, and waited anxiously to see what crap they would come up with. He also asked me to find the "misquotations and errors" in the creation book so he could see. (I had talked to him about that.)
So I find said quotes, and email them to him along with the source (wich, obviously is not a JW site!) And waited. Waited seems to be the keyword here... He tried to call me many times, but as it hadn't gone that well the first time (I freak out easily) I asked in my email that we should communicate not by phone but by mail or email. He didn't seem to get it the first twenty times (kept calling, guess he didn't know I could see his name on my phone...lol), but yesterday I received a letter. Very frustrating...
(This a very weak translation..lol)
"Dear Liliane,
I have received your 2 emails. I tried to phone you many times sonce november 2 but without success.
Than you for the few exemples you have sent me of so-called misquotations from the creation book as well as links to the website of origine. This link brinks us to a page containing other detailed essays. Only one glimpse at the titles made me realise that they were from apostats, ex-jehovah's witnesses or ennemies of the truth. ()
I have no intention of examining those texts as it would be like asking information about Jews to Nazi S.S soldiers. () They would of course have nothing good to say about them. (You don't say!) The only purpose of those essays is to talk bad of the organization even if they need to use disinformation or straight out lies.
The organization of JW is composed of imperfect humans () and does not pretend to be perfect. You can research in our publications and you will see that they humbly admit that they made errors in the past. Always in the past, Jehovah has had earthly representatives. They were all imperfect and comminted errors and still, Jehovah continued to use them exclusively.
(***Goes on an on comparing the WT to Aaron, Qorah, Abirma...etc.*** ) and then, I just loved that he mentionned how babylone was destroyed in 607!!hihihi)***...Back to the letter....
The scriptures say that:
1)Jehovah would need to correct his people.
2)Establish a faithful slave
3) Separate s from goats according to their attitude about his annointed brothers (meaning the WTS)
4)Some pointless stuff about the two witnnesses who are killed... (them again.)
Like I mentioned in our conversation, it is important to prove to ourselves that we are in the thruth. So it is capital to studie the Bible and scriptures from God's organization (double). I encourage you to continue to make researches to find who is that organization, the faithful and discreet slave who should work hard to make the name of God known and make disciples. (mat.6:9)
I am personally convinced of the sincerity of the organization and it's members. (Other random stuff about how they liked knowing me, etc.) ***And my personal barf-inducing favorite***
"You also know that you will always be welcomed back in the congreagation, if ever you change your mind in the futur."
*******************************************************************************
Needless to say I felt pretty sick after reading that, and also had my mouth opened and flushed cheeks (I AM very emotional, lol)I felt so insulted and couldn't beleive some of the stuff he wrote. So I emailed him today, lol. They haven't finished with me!lol
Here's my answer:
To answer your letter, I must admit that yes, I am disappointed. I thought I would receive an honnest, truthful and open answer and not something I could have read in any Wt magazine I would pick up. The numerous Bible verses you quoted, i know by hearth, don't forget I have been raised in this religion, I am no novice. I have heard those replies countless of times.
As for the links, it was only to show you that those actual misquotations did not come from my head, and who better the the quoted persons to comfirm it. Anyway, I was not surprised in the least to see that you've refused to read them. It's a typical behavior for members of your religion to judge without investigating. Those people on the internet don't take their time to write all that because they have time to kill or a personnal grudge against the JWs, they do it to prevent others that could ruin their lives just as they, themselves did. they expose simple facts, and most of the time, they don't need to resort to "misquotations and lies" to make their point.
The thing that surprised me though...was that nifty little illustration concerning the Nazis, that is totally innapropriate, I have to say. Nazi soldiers!! Come one! Let's not exagerate! And even if we chose to pick this imagery...if you *did* ask information about Jews to the S.S., you would know that what they say has no thruth. You are an intelligent person, shouldn't it be the same with those links?
A better exemple would be that one about the men wanting to buy a used car. (a religion), and the salesman (WT) strongly discourages the men to hear what the last owner did not like in that car. Wouldn't it be obvious that he has something to hide?
Like you've said to me so many times, and I know you mean right, yes, it's important to know we follow the right organization. to know for sure, I'm sorry, but one must make real investigations, carefully examine both sides. Not just stay on the "allowed" one. I think that the WTS is kind of hypocrite, when it encourages in it's litterature other religious people to carefuly examine their beleives and origines without any restrain and at the same time, discouraging it's own members to do the same. What you tell me to do, is just as if you would say to a Muslim to test his beleives using only the Koran and Muslim writtings, without looking at anything else. This makes no sense at all!
They point out the faults of other religions (calling them false because of those errors) even if those religions admit those errors and publicly make amend, for most. But they forgive themsleves easily, using the imperfect human condition for JWs to gloss over their own gross mistakes. Every religion could use the exemples of Aaron and all those past leaders you have mentionned. Every religious leader could compare themselves to those man.
(By the way, please check up your facts about the year of the destruction of Babylone. 607 is a wrong date, and that fact has been accepted by most historians. Misinformation truly applies here, if I might say so.)
Mistakes about dates, that I can forgive, it's up to people if they want to beleive anything without looking it up. But some errors aren't so petty. of course, when one lives in a normal, problemless family, it's hard to see the real problems of the organization, the serious ones. But maybe we should ask people would have lost children because they were told to refuse vaccins or transplants...how they feel about human error and those supposed "inspired decisions" switching back and forth through the years.
I still thank you for taking the time to write this short letter. even if as I had assumed, it did not adress most of my concerns and questions. The one thing I know for sure, is that I will never again return to that organization, my questions have been left unanswered, and I'm now convince that you have no satisfying answer for me, anyway.
Liliane