Please read condemnatory email sent to me and help me reply (page 3)

Awakened at Gilead

Seeker4:

As I recently wrote to a couple of Witnesses, I'll be glad to stop publicly questioning and criticizing the WTS, just as soon as the Witnesses stop going house to house uninvited, forcing their views on strangers, and just as soon as they stop claiming to be the only religion with the TRUTH.

Until then they have absolutely no basis to whine and ask ex-JWS to "leave us alone and stop picking on us!" If they're out there all the time dishing it out, they better be able to take it themselves.

Funny, I have been using the exact same line with my loony JW relatives... they tell me that it doesn't apply to them since they have the "Truth" (TM).

Didn't Charles Taze Russell once write that if someone found anything wrong or inaccurate within the pages of the Watchtower, or if they found a better truth than the one offered by the WTS, that they would be duty-bound as a Christian to share that message?

One of the things that made me quit going Door-to-Door™ was the realization that I had no right to criticize the beliefs of others, because there were serious flaws in WT teachings, particularly the way they are taught to "soft-peddle" certain doctrines, like the Submissive™ position of women in the organization, its hatred of education and the blood doctrine. I did not want to be responsible for misleading people into becoming JWs. I felt that was extremely dishonest, and although I answered peoples' questions about those things as honestly as I could, I was Counselled™ on more than one occasion for "making the Witnesses' lifestyle look bad".

I might ask her, as a young woman, how she is going to survive in a JW marriage with proper JW Headship™ with her clearly direct and outspoken nature. There doesn't seem to be a submissive bone in her body. She seems quite all right with going against the directives of the WTS by sending an email to you and by even visiting your website. There is no way she is going to tolerate a JW marriage.

snowbird

I'm curious why many assume the e-mailer is female.

Just sayin'.

Sylvia

AudeSapere

(marking for later)

LDH

How bout this?

What's really SCARY is knowing that there are other Bethel writers who don't believe what they write, either -- and instead have been changing the message to the 'faithful sheep.' This Bethel Insurgency Group is behind all of the recent changes that have come about. There are more to come, just watch.

OUTLAW

Barb..I`ve dealt with thousands of people in my life..Your not going to please everyone.....The ones that don`t like you,are not always going to be Sane.....Don`t give another thought to the ones that don`t like you..Ignore them..Thats Right,just ignore them!!.....They are not worth your energy and ignoreing them drives them crazy..LOL!!........................... Laughing Mutley ...OUTLAW

orangefatcat

Barb. You are indeed a true lady. And I may add courageous on top of that. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You know the words to say to this person but, sometimes a few ideas help put things into perspective. This teenager has no idea that as she ages her feelings will change, it happens to every teen, they just can't accept that right now, as one poster said you can't tell a teenager anything these days, they seem to think they know more about everything in life then us adults. Apparently we don't know much of anything. They are going to have a rude awakening someday. And this person is no exception life will be a real eye opener for her some day. She has demonstrated her immaturity already by going to your website. For if she claims she will never leave Jehovah or his organization then why is she going to websites that the Society has counselled the congregations to stay away from? Her words indicate to me that she may be around 13-16 years old baptized maybe at 10 and was raised a witness since infancy. She has certain attitude in her words. Its as if she is having to defend her beliefs but she has some doubts because she is searching for something and she may not even be aware of it. But she will not stay a witness in my opinion as she gets older, she is looking for some kind of approval of her beliefs at the same time she isn't 100 percent of the validity of her faith. I think what Awakened in Gilead said is very good and what Minimus said as well they are all excellent point. Yes its okay for the JW's to persecute every other religion but when the shoe is on the other foot they feel it is persecution from God's enemies, well who the hell made the enemies in the first place who took the first shoot. JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES thats who. Tit for tat, but no the witnesses don't look at it that way at all, they look at it as if they are being persecuted for righteous acts. Well if paedophilia and deceit, lying , being involved with the UN and the numerous deaths they are responsible for then hey if thats the persecution they are getting I am all for it because those in the glass WaterTower are going to fall over and shatter to the depths of the ground below them. Gee I wonder who will clean up their disgusting filth of the street below. Orangefatcat

Quirky1

I would suggest that they do their "own" research. They must come to their own conclusion about the religion. Provide subtle information and let it go from there.

rebel8

Barbara,

Wow, I just visited your site and love all the things you've added since it first began. This is great stuff! Especially the document about the shareholders....but I don't want to get off topic....

You mentioned you're tired of these emails. Maybe consider putting up a FAQ page about yourself that people can refer to instead of harassing you. You'll still get some emails but maybe it would fend off some of them. Something like:

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Thank you for your interest in my story. [This frames their inquisitiveness as interest, which is what it is, not "anger at an apostate" like they're pretending.]

Are you an apostate?
[dictionary definition of apostate] give examples of jws being apostates from their former religions and how they continue to speak out about them, insert quote from wt publications about apostates having "Satanic hydrophobia", and make sure you mention this means rabies....explain there is no biblical basis for this characterization

Why did you speak out against Jehovah's Witnesses and the Watchtower Society?
Because my belief system required me to. These beliefs were based upon Watchtower Society teachings. [insert quote mentioned earlier in the thread, that people needed to speak up if something in the literature was incorrect]

give really brief explanation of the attempts you made to follow the internal chains of command to get things rectified, but obviously Jehovah's spirit did not inspire the leaders to correct these serious issues

personally i think your rationale for the lawsuit would be very compelling to a jw--it was wts that decided to violate the law and call you a thief/wrongdoer, you just responded. a lot of them know people are wrongly dfd.

How could you leave the organization?
etc.

I'm sure you address this in your book, but I imagine the type of people who harass you like this are not the ones who are buying your book.

ninja

to the first one I would write...."I'm going to get an apostate who lives near you to come round and kick your arse....you young whippersnapper...learn to respect your elders"

Please read condemnatory email sent to me and help me reply