As you can see from my posts I'm new here. I was born and raised in the borg....dad was/is an elder. I never liked the religion simply because it stopped me having fun like other "normal" kids. As soon as I reached my late teens I just left. I was never baptised so no DFing or DA. I just kind of dissapeared from it all.
For the last 12 years I haven't really given it a second thought. I just always viewed it as another silly religion that didn't do any harm, they were basically just nice people with silly ideas. Since leaving I've had a great life, and being an ex-JW has had no real impact on my life. Obviously still see my parents a few times a year but the religion is never discussed.
However, I've recently been looking at sites like this one and a few others, and I'm starting to learn things that I never even thought of before. Specifically I've been looking at all the doctrinal changes (new light), and policies they have that are not only absurd but disgraceful. I'm finding myself getting more and more angry that my parents are so taken in by a devious and deceptive group of old men in NY. They are blatantly being lied to and psychologically controlled.
The final straw for me was the threads I was reading this morning about the rape policies in the "best of" section. That is so grotesque I can't believe any normal or decent human being would think that is anything but appalling. How can anyone sit in the kingdom hall when these policies are being read out and not stand up and say "No Way". To sit there and accept that your wife and daughter should be DF'd because she was raped beggars belief. How can the woman be in the wrong.
When I was in Iraq, having just "liberated" a small town, we took over the duty of control, law and order, an angry mob came up to my checkpoint. It was a family bringing their daughter who had just been raped by the uncle (the uncle was also brought along). The family was obviously angry and wanted justice. As a small group of male soldiers, our first thought was to wach that the family didn't suddenly turn around and lynch and kill the uncle....which seemed to us the most likely outcome of this situation. However, right before our eyes, the father pulled out a knife and cut the throat of his own daughter, nearly decapitating her. He said she had brought shame on his family.............the uncle faced no retribution from his relatives. Everyone of us who watched that has been unable to comprehend how a father could think that and do what he did. I justified it in my head that those people are less than animals and evil in the extreme.
Then I saw this morning that my own parents hold exactly the same belief. So now far from thinking this is querky little religion that can be laughed at and provide amusement for the rest of us, I now see it as completely evil.
As a result of this I don't really want anything to do with my parents. If they are that evil, just because they are my own flesh and blood,it doesn't mean I shoould make an exception for them.
Out of principle and true morals which I think I have, I would never talk or associate with a peadophile, so out of the same principles I can't really talk to people who think a young woman should be "cast out" for "willingly" (on the count that she was terrified for her life and didn't scream) being raped.
My first thought is I'm going to tell my parents how evil their masters are and give them the chance to open their eyes and leave. Failing that I think I'm going to have to just cut myself off from ever having anything to do with them.
I'd like some feed back on this and any advice would be great. Appreciate it.
Thanks - Adolfius