For those who may have missed it, my wife woke up and smelled the JW espresso about a week ago. She has read and watched all she can cram in as time allows. From where I sit, there's no doubt in her mind now that it is just a man-made, high-control religion.
The last week has really been a blur for us both. So here's the highlights as best as I can recall.
Last Wednesday, 21 October, 2009, Ms. OM was reading some excerpts from Crisis of Conscience online before I showed up. She asked me if I'd ever heard of a book entitled "Crisis of Conscience". This is almost tantamount to the WT Loyalty Oath question,
OM: "Hmmm, that sounds familiar."
I was stalling, trying to gauge her response. Ms. OM said that it's a book by a former GB member who got DFed.
OM: "Oh yeah! Crisis of Conscience. I spent 2 or 3 hours at the Library reading bits and pieces of it. I was too paranoid to check it out under my name. I stood lurking behind the book stacks with one eye on the door waiting for some Gestapo Elder to walk in any minute and destroy my world."
She tells me she was reading Jay Walters' story (aka "Amazing" here on JWN) about how he slowly got his family to awaken to the true nature of the WT by doing carefully planned family studies and allowing them the freedom to question.
Thurs 10-22-09
At work OM downloads COC on PDF and prints hard copy. Brings home. Ms OM is glad to have it.
At this point I figured we were either homefree or she's gonna separate from me for "Serious Spiritual Endangerment". (Just teezin' Ms. OM. ) The next week was a brick-by-brick collapse of almost the entire JW edifice. Here's a few Internet resources I remember taking a look at with her that were helpful.
watchtowercomments.com
Ms. OM was very impressed with the quality, the content and the style of delivery.
Barbara Anderson's CD: Secrets of Pedophilia in an American Religion.
We didn't actually look at the CD together, that kind of contraband was kept safely in my desk at work. But I shared Barbara's history at Bethel, Dateline, Silent Lambs, etc. My wife was amazed to learn that the God's Chosen Channel actually allowed a woman to put words together for them. Just stay away from microphone carrying, literature counting or giving a #2 Bible Reading.
Freeminds.org
truthbookblues videos on YouTube. (He's "Wasanelder" here on JWN.)
She enjoyed the phone interview with JR Brown, WT spokesperson, who in a nut shell, said that the WT doesn't claim to be God's Channel. The ever-growing Pinocchio nose made her laugh.
We watched the PO from a Congregation in Utah claiming under oath that the Watchtower doesn't have a "Custody Packet" for JWs going through a divorce. The video had the quote from the KM referencing the "Custody Packet" and the judge had a copy on his desk. LOL.
The same PO gave testimony to the effect that JWs aren't required to "shun" family members, that it's just the Congregation that does the shunning. Liar! Liar! That was the music in the background of the video.
Anyway, if you'd like to know how she got to the point of reading CoC excerpts, I submit the following threads which detail some of the milestones during the last year. The oldest thread is on top.
If you don't feel like reading them, here's the gist:
Plant a seed, back off and wait. Repeat until the mortar between enough bricks has loosened. Sorry for the mixed metaphors.
Thanks again to everyone for all your help in getting us here.
om and his better half
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/experiences/176622/1/Update-from-Open-Mind
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/members/private/177326/1/Point-of-no-return-Had-the-F-D-Slave-talk-with-my-wife
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/members/private/178025/1/MY-JW-WIFE-IS-LOOKING-AT-JWs-ON-THE-NET-WAHOO
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/members/private/180921/1/Wife-update-Gradualism-Gradualism-Gradulism-Satans-Tool-Box
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/183496/1/After-3-yrs-2-mos-MY-WIFE-HAS-AWAKENED-JOIN-US-IN-A-TOAST