God, so many good points here and so many heart-rending stories. If this is so obviously the "truth" with "love among yourselves" and all the other verses, blah, blah, then how in Hell can there be such a debate about the most basic concept of them all: "LOVE". Conditional love? You bet. I never saw more robots in my life. Reminded me of the clone army in Stars Wars 2. What is it with Oregon and Washington? Isn't that the area that "Jay Walters" lived and wrote his story when he left the WT and got his family out? What does Oregon have to be self-righteous about? The weather sucks. Okay, they have some mountains and volcanoes. Big deal. They also have the highest rate of depression and suicide by geographical area. Not a good statistic, is it?
I wish I could say my wife was my best friend. She was supposed to be. But the Watchtower comes first in her life. I'm not asking to be more important than God, but I do ask to be more than the WT. But as we all know, the two are the same. So a group of old men on Geritol mean more to her than I do. And she obviously thinks that God will "make it up" to our daughter for not having a father in her life for five years now. She is almost 21 years old, still has no driver's license, and is barely starting her second year of college. How's that for emotional maturity? Who ended up being the better parent? What fruitage does the tree produce, my Mrs.???
To GRACE: Very good point. Conditional love. This is the very opposite of everything that Jesus taught, is it not? BBUTTTTT, the WT is always right, so Jesus has to "readjust his thinking" if he wants to remain as God's son. After all, can't the WTS, at one of their yearly meetings, vote Jesus out of office if he doesn't toe the line? As we all know so well, the Bible comes second, AFTER the WTS books. Didn't Russell say that his Studies in the Scriptures meant more and would be more clearly understood than the Bible? Yet God had the Bible written using 40 men. No.....He only used Russell to dream up garbage, Rutherford was used to "drink a toast to those prophecies" and Knorr was used to bore everyone to sleep so they could vote while most JW's were in a coma. Then Freddie boy came along and gave them a doctored Bible to defend the crap they had just approved in their sleep. (Don't feel badly, at least they got a nap.)
I also was surprised when every JW I knew fled after my daughter's rape became county-wide news. Did they honestly think that the world would consider the rapist to be an isolated case? No one would talk to me. Some put their hands over their ears and yelled (in the hall) that they didn't want to hear gossip. I said "I'm warning you so your child won't be next". They just sat there with their ears covered like little brats. They also knew I hadn't started therapy or meds yet. And yet they still showed NO mercy to me at all. What happened to the Good Samaritan? Didn't even ONE of Jesus' parables apply to me?? If I wasn't to be forgiven for accusing the elders of covering this up, then who is really a "lost sheep"? Oh, I know. Maybe it's a young punk who gets into trouble with girls or money. They caution him to slow down. But ME?? "You turned your back on Jehovah (I criticized the WT for its abuse policies), so we are to hate you." I said, "I'm Sicilian, do you want to see real hate?" No takers. I meant them no harm, but wanted to see how far they'd go. They would rather die defending the WT's sick doctrines than listen to my warnings and keep their kids away from the molesters I was telling them about. WE CAN'T HAVE GOSSIP, CAN WE?? WE DON'T WANT TO GRIEVE JEHOVAH'S SPIRIT, NO NEVER, NEVER, NEVER!!" "You see, if we grieve god's spirit, then bad things happen. People don't clean the hall weekly, new people stop coming, parking spaces get scarce, snow gets tracked into the foyer, and people leave the seat up in the bathroom. Tsk, tsk.
Five months after my wife and daughter left me, it was one of those rainy, wind-swept, dark days in March in NJ. I was almost in tears and called the elder I knew best (he built many of my computers for me). I begged him to help arrange a meeting with the elders and my wife and child. His exact words? "You are concentrating on the MUNDANE things in your life. You need to think only about Jehovah." What an a**hole. I"m sorry, but does that sound like comforting words from god? If they were supposed to be, I'd rather be Satan's friend. My wife of 25 years was "mundane"?? My precious daughter? Mundane? Jerkoffs. I felt NO comfort from God or Jesus at ANY time. Do they care? I don't care anymore if THEY care.
Scotsman: Very good point about standing up for a pedophile. JW's will flood a courtroom to cheer on a known pedophile (we'll be here for you, we'll write, there will be a big party for you when you get out -kind of like the Mafia, we'll write every day, you can count on us, we'll mark that lying child who CLAIMS you raped her (we don't accept DNA as evidence since we don't know what it is and we can't spell it, etc.) So they tell judges that the JW man is a "good guy" and the 12 year old girl is a whore and a liar. I know, it happened to my child. I know some aren't fond of revenge her, but if my child dies from anorexia or commits suicide, I am going to drive back up North and we are NOT going to settle this in court. "DID YOU READ THAT CAREFULLY, WT SPIES AND STOOGES?? DON'T FORGET, I WARNED YOU."
To Sailor Ripley: You are right. There are no "friends" in the WT, which makes it more ironic that they call each other "the friends". They don't know what that word even means. "Conditional love" is an oxymoron. But then again, most JW's are morons, so it fits. There is just too much "goat gloat" in the WT. You know, where the JW's can't wait for everyone who disagreed with them to die. No regrets that they "chose" wrong, just elation that they "won't get away with disagreeing with ME anymore, how dare they??"
I'm sorry this was so long, but it saddened me that virtually everyone has the same story to tell. Since love was supposed to be the common thread running though the Bible, and JW's think they OWN the damn book, then why don't they have love?? Can any of you WT spies answer that one?? Come on, we're all waiting.