Dear Friends...
"Happy Tuesday!" Well the saga continues! I thought we had seen the last of the elders last Friday night as most have you are familiar with the story. But I thought wrong!
So there I was in my bedroom wrapping Christmas gifts in full view of the street. It's dark outside,and all the outdoor Christmas lights were on and the tree in our bedroom window was lit, just as the other night, when suddenly a car zipped into the parking lot. I kept wrapping as if I didn't notice them.I recognized the car, and sure enough, it was the elders, AGAIN! My husband said," There back! What do you want to do?" I said , "Well, they saw us for sure, we might as well see what they want." So he opened the door.
They proceeded to tell my husband that since we refused to meet with them, they met amongst themselves and since we admitted to celebrating Christmas, they have made a decision to disfellowship us for Apostacy. At this point, I had made my way to the door and was standing once again with my husband. They repeated what they had told my husband to me. We said, "OK" to their decision.
I asked who the 3 on the commitee were, and they were 3 of the 4 elders that had come 3 years ago to finally see what the deal was when we had been missing for months and all the "scuttle butt" was going around about our questions with 607.
I shook my head and told them, "You have just been waiting for something like this hugh? You FINALLY have a reason to get rid of us!" They both said, "No...no...its not like we have been stalking you". I looked at the one elder and said , "You know I should have told you the other day when you were here (it was just one of the two elders that were here Friday with the CO) the we weren't celebrating Christmas, we just put up lights to get your attention so we could get you to get back to us regarding the questions we had on 607."
He said,"We tried to get back with you but you wouldn't meet with us." I said, "That's right! We waited for 8 months! I "xed" off the calender week after week that you never called to answer our questions. Then when you finally did 8 months later, it was only because my siter in laws PO father, 2 states away, made a phone call the the PO here, and demanded to know why we had not been gotten back with after all those months. Then our PO LIED to him, and said they had been trying to get ahold of us but we would not return their calls. That was an OUTRIGHT LIE! Miraculously, the very next day our PO was able to get ahold of us."
The one elder said it was a very hard decision to decide to disfellowship and to determine if we had been sincere about our issue with 607!!! Talk about making me FURIOUS!! At that point my PMS hormones aren't doing me any favors and I get a bit emotional, as I said, " YOU HAVEGOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!! HOW MUCH MORE SINCERE DO YOU WANT?????? I begged you to find us answers and to give some sort of talk regarding slander and gossip to help stop the lies, going around, but you said, "We don't just give talks for anyone who asks!" I pleaded with you, that, that was the only way to put to bay the gossip about us. I even asked you how to stop all the gossip then if not in a talk? It would be like trying to stop a ringing bell! You told me to call everyone!!" (Which he knew I would most likely never do!)
(So instead, after hearing from 2 states away in either direction the gossip, I decided to take him up on his suggestion, but instead of calling everyone, I wrote over 200 letters and sent them out to everyone we have ever known in the whole circuit! Including the Circuit Overseer, who I sent his own personal copy!! I also named him as perpetuating the lies to my family without ever once calling us to see if the lies he had heard were true or not! Now that I am to be DF'D I will be posting the letter. I recieved quite a few replys to it, and am happy to say, only two were negative.I so badly wanted to share this with all of you on the forum, but because I was trying to preserve what little communication I had with my Grandmother, I refrained.)
He said, "Those who are sincere, do not stay away from the congregation! They continue to meet with us and find encouragement." I then said, "What, you expect us to sweep under the carpet the sincere questions we had????" He said, "No....". I told him, "For weeks we were missing meetings, my Grandfather was dying, we were in the middle of moving, and hardly no one..none of the shephards bothered to find out why!" Then when you finally did find out that in addition to everything else that was going on in our lives, we had these sincere questions you gave us NOTHING! We waited and waited! The Bible says that you leave the 99 sheep behind and you go look for the one lost little sheep, and YOU DID'NT DO IT!!!!! YOU DIDN"T DO IT!!!!
Then I refreshed the elder as to why we finally after 8 months of waiting refused to meet with them. I also told him how the last CO that was here went to my JW brother and his wife, as well as my Grandmother meeting them in their homes, repeating the gossip he had heard, but stating to them as a fact. And that was that we had started our own religion and were printing literature and had our own website! All which were lies!!!
Now mind you both my husband and I have jobs that are in the public and our names and cell phones are advertised all over. We ALWAYS either answer our phone, or return the messages if we are with clients. These elders knew how to get ahold of us, yet they didn't because they had no answers for us! Then, when they finally called, we knew through my sister in law, that her dad, the PO in her hall, was the one to prompt the call, and her mother who I had also been coresponding with me regarding 607, emailed me and was angry, chosing to believe our PO who was lying and said we were playing games. That was the end of our communication. So then, when the elders called again, we asked them if they had any answers to our 607 questions. They said they did not have any answers, but had some information for us to read. We then decided not to meet with them. They had nothing to give us, and had been caught lying to a family member, who because of it cut us off and unfortunatley now won't have anything to do with us because of it.
The elder then asked if 607 was our only issue now. He said, " Because it always seems like this is how it starts, with one thing and then it snowballs, and before you know it your looking to the Internet and then you have other issues." (They obviously know we have issues with harboring Pediphiles as I made that quite clear the other day!) I said, "Of course we have other issues now! Your not going to tell me the Internet is a tool of the demons, now are you??!! Afterall the Watchtower has their own website!" He said, "No..no..that isn't what I mean..I use the Internet all the time." My husband said, "So what if we are looking for answers on the Internet, places like the British Museum online..comparing what the Society says to the places it is referencing in the literature??"
He said,"We checked it out after you told us about it." I asked,"Well.. what did you think? Doesn't it bother you that they are deliberatly lying about the date 607?" He didn't answer. Then I said, "Let me tell you something, I waited and waited for you to come back so I could share with you something very interesting we discovered. And that was in the Insight book under Nebuchadnezzar, it quotes a A.K. Grayson who is a Assyrian and Babylonian expert who the British Museum uses, and who the Society frequently quotes from.
It quotes him saying that the destruction of Jerusalem took place in 607! I was shocked to see this, as it was the ONLY outside reference that suppored the 607 date used by the Society. So I went to the library and ordered the book. It took two weeks to get it from a neighboring University. In it, on the exact page and paragraph the Insight book sited, it says NO DATE at all!! However, in the preface of the book it states that he, the author, believes the destruction of Jerusalem to have been somewhere around 586/587!!! So whoever it is back at Bethel putting the Insight book together, KNOWS about this and is DELIBERATELY LYING!!!"
"So when you ask do we have other issues now, YES! We do! When we discovered the Society was lying about this pivital date, we decided to go through every other teaching we have ever been taught and believed our whole lives ( we were both raised in the Borg), and decided to double check EVERYTHING!!! Afterall doesn't the Society ask people to examine their religion??"
They nodded their head, and looked at their watch and said they had to get going...(meeting night you know). But that we would have 7 days to appeal, but of course should we decide to appeal (when hell freezes over) then we would have to meet with the elders. It was weird, the one elder was visably shaking, and his voice was quaking. He even said he was nervous. When my husband asked him why was he nervouse he said, " Because I am always nervous when we have to tell peope who were once our friends they are going to be disfellowshipped." He pretty much let the other elder do all the talking. All in all they were here about 20-25 minutes. I was shocked that they let me say what I needed to say as I wasn't exactly soft spoken!. Both of these elders are in their late 30s and did'nt intimidate me in the least.
I actually think the one that was so nervous felt bad, and it almost seemed that deep down he knew what they were doing was wrong. Oh..I forgot..they had said that the decision for disfellowshipping was because we admitted to celebrating Christmas and we know how pagan that is!! So I said, " How is it you can disfellowship us because you say Christmas is pagan, when the wedding rings you are both wearing are pagan? The calendar you use is pagan, candles, hearts, wreaths?? Have you read the article on the Pinatas?? The Society acknowledges the Pinata is pagan as well, but it is to be considered a conscience matter, even though it is still used in religious practices in Mexico to this day! If you say one is wrong and pagan, you have to say they all are!" Then my husband said, "Honey, you know its because it the policy of the Watchtower to call Christmas pagan".....The elders both stood there and said.."W e l l............" They had no reply but wwweeelllll.
Anyhow..I got alot of things off my chest, that I have been waiting for a long time to finally say. I will say, I was suprised they let me go on without walking off like the one did as he followed the CO the other day.
I think that will FINALLY be the last of them! I want to thank ALL OF YOU for all you caring words and encouragement through all of this! You had many great suggestions of things to say to them and I was able to remember and use some of them..so thank you!!!
Sincerely,
Lady Liberty of the DF'D class!!
P.S. Was thinking I should write a D'A Letter and get it to them before my 7 days are up, stating all the reasons why I can no longer be considered a JW. (Not like we have considered ourselves JWs..We haven't been to a meeting in 3 years!!)