We never really learned to love. It is ironic that the witnesses claimed to be the true religion knowing the true God (who is said to be love) and yet, when we were with them we never really learned to be the one thing he is: love. Instead we learned how to give talks, become glorified door-to-door salesmen, despise other people for the things they believed that did not originate from corporate, and reject people who did not and/or would not “swing” our way. The purpose of speaking badly of such people is so that we could continue to hold it in our minds (psychologically) that we are better than they are. Consequently, we could judge ourselves as being righteous, based not on “Jesus’” or “God’s” example, but on our own criteria. As long as they are continuing to sin worse than we are, we are still in the truth.
There was little or no emphasis on how we should love our neighbor. Despite the fact that this is the second greatest commandment (and therefore should be emphasized), emphasis was placed on other things such as “Armageddon is right around the corner,” how many hours are being put in service, how many books/magazines are being placed, how many meetings are being attended, etc. etc. These are the things we learned as witnesses and after finding out that “the truth” is not true, is it at all surprising that ones would turn to atheism, anger, and all kinds of retaliatory acts? Do you think that if love was emphasized in our lives (if not in our childhood, at least in our religion) we would have developed somewhat of a different mindset than what we have now? If we spent our time learning the value of giving someone who is in need our time and friendship, feeding the hungry, helping those who are unfairly treated as outcasts by society, and realizing how important we can be in the life of even a little child, do you think we would be somewhat different people than what we are now? I am sure if we were more loving we would probably not only have more friends, but would also have a certain peace within ourselves that we did not have while in that religion. This is why I think one of the greatest mistakes people and religion often make today is not teaching and emphasizing how to have love and its importance in our daily lives. I believe we don’t know how love can heal us or those around us, or how we out of our own love can come to be able to forgive people for the things they have done. When we were witnesses, we forgave mostly because “[God] told us to” or perhaps because “it says so in the Bible.” We, being scared of what will happen to us if we don’t forgive, forced ourselves to “forgive” people we were still very angry with. If instead we learned that forgiveness comes as a by-product of one’s personal healing, things could have been different for us. We probably would be able to forgive because we love rather than “because we’re told to.” These things I think would really help us because I think the more love we can have, the better things can be for us.