bttt
Anyone want to share emails that they wrote to the BBC about the program this morning?
by brotherdan 36 Replies latest jw friends
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truthlover
Cantleave and ANgus:
Is this interview anywhere on a link
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Mad Sweeney
https://www.box.net/shared/7bdu0jvajm
This is a link to the interview in mp3 form
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Mary
Bookmarked. I will try and do an email tomorrow.
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poppers
The was a good interview. It was nice to put some voices to the names I see hear.
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Gayle
To: [email protected] Thank you so very much for exposing the Watchtower Jehovah's Witness system of shunning. It is extreme. The organization commands their members to shun their own family, under threat that they too would be disfellowshipped. The Jehovah's Witnesses leaders actually lie about this. Here is the facts in Jehovah's Witnesses organization "secret" Elders Manual. There you will find out of the 12 chapters, 7 chapters discuss issues of "disfellowshipping": http://www.************* This organization requires unquestioning loyalty and manipulates out of fear to their members. Again, many thanks for your very valued public service to expose the Jehovah's Witnesses organization of this fact. Gayle Phoenix, AZ.
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laverite
This is the letter I sent to Emma. It's a bit longer than I wanted -- I wanted to keep it short and sweet. But I couldn't edit it down any further. Please note that I wrote this in English and not in American.
Dear Emma,
I listened, with much interest, to your radio programme with the segment on Jehovah’s Witnesses. Thank you so much for doing such an amazing job with this.
I really cannot even begin to put into words the pain caused by the shunning that Jehovah’s Witnesses actually do to former members. It is impossible to leave this organisation alive – you are considered spiritually dead (and are ‘dead’ to all friends and family). Family members await your actual physical death at the ever imminent (but never arriving) Armageddon.
The ways in which families have been devastated by this religion deserve more attention in the media. Your programme has brought to light some of the issues that need to be discussed more openly. The real truth is crying out to be told.
Unfortunately, people become involved in this religion unaware of the actual impact it could have on their family relationships, their health and well-being, and very lives. Because they go door to door in order to actively convert members to their organisation, the public deserve to know the real truth of the Jehovah’s Witness religion.
I left the organisation at the age of 18. From that point on, I could have no further contact with friends or family. It’s very difficult to be totally alone in the world, with no back up, no safety net. It felt to me as if everyone else in the world had a ‘forever family’ as imperfect as many of them are. However, I was completely alone – without a family. I have nowhere to go should I need assistance or support. I have had to build a new life, with substitute family and a support network of friends. But this cannot take the place of one’s family.
It’s been over twenty years now that I have lived without a family. I have a biological family that are still living, but I am ‘orphaned’ so to speak. All because of a wealthy publishing and real estate company in New York City called the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. How does one begin to describe that pain?
Thank you for your amazing work.
Kind regards,
Anonymous former JW
NB: You may share or publish (or do whatever you wish with) with my letter, but please do not share or publish my email address.
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villabolo
Here's mine:
Hello Emma. I wanted to thank you for your story on the Jehovah's Witnesses and shunning.There is a lot more to the Jehovah's Witnesses underneath the surface than how they treat their non believing family members that were never part of their religion. First I will give the basic facts of disfellowshipping (excommunication) as they call it; then my personal experience; and last, examples of media exposes of Jehovah's Witnesses covering up pedophilia within their own ranks. One pathetic example, linked below, is that of a Jehovah's Witness woman who was disfellowshipped and her family shunned for exposing to the police the elder who molested her in her childhood. The Jehovah's Witnesses are a totalitarian religion that assumes complete control of their lives of their members lives. Expelling members that do not adhere to their rules is crucial to their control. Those members are not only completely shunned but if anyone where to associate with them they too would be disfellowshipped. They disfellowship (excommunicate) 1% of their members every year, by their own admission in their literature, as well as my own observation in 8 years of membership. I live in a large apartment complex which, being dominated by the Witnesses, has about 15% of its tenancy disfellowshipped. No, I did not get that number wrong. That is the result of 1% times an average of 25-30 year average residency and thus the accumulation of many disfellowshipped ones that never go back to the "Truth" as they call their religion. The reasons for disfellowshipping are extensive but it usually involves adultery and premarital sex. A disproportionate number of shunned members are teenagers. According to statements they have made to the congregations, which I have heard with my own ears, that is because they are both more sexually active and inexperienced at hiding it. In order to determine that their own members are engaging in those sexual activities they have an extensive spy system. It is officially composed of the Elders (4-5), who run the congregation (100) and their assistants, the Ministerial Servants (4-5). I have personally overheard Ministerial Servants planning a stakeout, at 2:00 AM, of Sister So and So's house in order to watch the entry and exit of an unrelated male. Simply being alone with an unrelated member of the opposite sex overnight is grounds for disfellowshipping since it presumes sexual activity. They will also follow their own members in automobiles as they rendezvous to hotels or secluded areas. Reasons for disfellowshipping are as follows:
- Apostacy (Heresy) which includes not merely holding an opinion different than the Governing Body's but such ridiculously trivial things as joining the YMCA. Watchtower ; January 1st, 1979 Pages 30 under Questions From Readers.
- Included under the general and very broad category of apostacy and related to their claims of not shunning family members of different religions is the fact that they are forbidden to set foot in another church of any religion. Whether it be for attending a marriage or funeral, they will be disfellowshipped by mere virtue of their presence. I have personally witnessed a Jehovah's Witness stay outside of a Catholic church during a funeral service for an employee who worked under her supervision for decades.
- Associating with a disfellowshipped member.
- Adultery
- Pre marital sex (Which technically includes the mere fondling of breasts.) There is a high rate of suicide among Jehovah's Witness teenagers.
- Being the victim of rape and failing to scream. (Warning! They seemingly flip flop on this issue repeatedly and thus are able to deceive people who inquire about this issue by showing them an issue of the Watchtower magazine which gives a contrary statement. However they only reverse their position, temporarily, when they get negative media publicity. As soon as the media spotlight is turned off they go back to their original position.)
My personal experience is one that demonstrates how they treat their own members who don't even adopt a different belief but merely have a difference of opinion.
I joined the religion when I was 14. I thought I was learning the secrets of the Cosmos then. I started having doubts a couple years later as their pathological self worship, from their sermons and Watchtower articles, started to have a negative affect on me. They were continously aggrandizing their organization with comments like:
"Even if the Organization is wrong, how dare you correct it! You are running ahead of Jehovah (God)."
I was eventually disfellowshipped for having a minor difference of opinion. I had been living in a boarding house with a Jehovah's Witness Landlady. She used to have a vicious German Shepherd dog that all the tenants feared. It would constantly be barking at you no matter how well it knew you. So long as she held its leash he would just bark his head off. When word was out of my disfellowshipping she appeared in front of me with a demonic grin in her elderly face and her dog, as usual, barking at me. She dropped the leash as she smiled. Fortunately, the dog did not pick up the cue and I had a Jehovah's Witness tenant behind me who told her to pick up the leash. Needles to say, I had to leave that place. Unfortunately the only place I had to go to was my mother's apartment in the Jehovah's Witness apartment complex that I previously mentioned. Within a week, the Jehovah's Witness mother in law of the manager (also a JW) called my mother (She used to have a Bible study with her.) and told her that I should not be living with her. I was 21 at that time. I called her back and the first words that came out of her mouth were, "I should not be talking to you." I have had non Jehovah's Witnesses neighbors run away from me for no reason at all (Probably based on vicious rumors spread by the JW neighbors.). I have had neighbors, who were elders, running in an alley where my disabled vehicle was parked taking cell phone pictures of my car simply because its engine was smoking. The Jehovah's Witness organization demonizes "apostates" so much that it induces paranoia in their members. That clown of an elder probably thought I was attacking his beloved Jehovah's Witness neighborhood with my...smoking engine. For the past 30 years, the Jehovah's Witness manager has been trying to evict me for one spurious reason after another. It would be most revealing to cover other aspects of this sociopathic religion. Just put the word out that you want to speak to Jehovah's Witnesses specifically disfellowshipped for being the victim of rape; joining the YMCA; and exposing pedophiles in their congregation against the elders wishes- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XJQvpduyYA (2 parts), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZpScLCMqEk&NR=1 You can contact www.jehovahs-witness.net for assistance in any inquiry about this religion. Yours truly, xxxxx
Villabolo -
brotherdan
Laverite...I can't say this about any other post that I've read on this site....
But yours brought tears to my eyes. What a fantastic letter. I hope you consider me more like your family. I hope to meet you one day and be a true friend.
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brotherdan
Thank you, Villabolo!!!
I really never knew about your story! I can't imagine someone reading it and not being disgusted and wanting to investigate further. I really hope that she will take this story further and help expose more about this horrible destructive organization!