by Dogpatch 33 Replies latest jw friends
Randy,
After seeing the excerpts on your site a few months back, I e-mailed Barbara and thanked her for Visions of Glory and related how it had affected me personally. She very graciously answered my e-mail and now I am distressed to learn how very ill she is.
Thank you for keeping us abreast of the news, and also for sharing the above excerpts of her wonderful book. Wish I had a bankroll to finance a reprint!
outnfree
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts -- John Wooden
Randy,
Thank you so much for posting that excerpt... it sounds like a wonderful book! I wish I met her.. what a neat and personable lady she sounds like.
I'm going to order the book..does anyone know if it is available?
Very interesting post, again, Thanks!
That was it alright.
There are companies that deal in out of print books. You could look for them and try to get the book. I got mine from a source in England sometime ago although I lost the information on it. You will pay a premium to get one if you can find one.
I do think VISIONS OF GLORY would now be a big seller again in view of the Internet and many JW's starting to question things more now.
If everyone on this Board would send Randy/Dogpatch $5.00, I believe enough money could be raised for a reprint if Barbara would okay it.
Is this a possibility Randy? What do you think the cost would be?
Outaservice
When I wanted to buy the book, I was amazed to hear that it was out of print. I'm so glad I finally found one (cost me only 15 $ or less)
I had a used book store do the search for me.
How much would a reprint cost ? Does someone know ???
My local library has the book, so may be able to get it through inter-library loan.
Dear Randy,
Thank you so much for posting your interview with Barbara G. Harrison here.
Would you please be so kind to send this e-mail to Barbara? I think it may give her some comfort. Sincerely, I would like for her to have some peace of mind at this time in her life. I don't have her e-mail address, and I welcome her answering me through my husband's e-mail: [email protected]
Dear Barbara,
I am currently in my tenth year of college, studying to be a writer. I am Philip Allen's wife, Sarah, and I relate in many ways to your experiences, which I have read yesterday online.
Seven years younger than you, I came into the truth with my family in 1952, living on a farm not far from Brooklyn Bethel. Visiting Bethelites were happy to come and breath fresh air on our farm, so we formed wonderful friendships with many from Bethel during their weekend speaking assignments. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since the 1950s. Currently, Philip and I are living in the San Francisco Bay Area, near our dear son.
I attended the Kingdom Ministry School in 1963 and was sent as a missionary to South America, then I continued overseas as a special pioneer and mom, and as a regular pioneer, a total of 15 years service overseas (in different countries) and another 10 years in the USA. My experince is very much like yours as a child. Like you, I also wanted service privileges as a young woman and I had applied for Bethel and then was invited to the KM School, when by the way only congregation servants and circuit overseers were being trained in South Lansing. I went for the month of June, 1963. Our experiences parallel.
Excerpts from your book online reminded me of so many experiences I had. I can relate trying so hard to do everything just the way I would read in the Watchtower. "Do more! Do more!" I did do more and I became physically ill trying to "do more" in the 1960s and 70s. Then one day I read an article concerning wrong-doing. I got done reading and felt bad because I was doing everything right. I felt like what was WANTED from me in that stupid article as a good human being was to do wrong, that to fit in with that article I should go out and do something wrong so they could correct me like everyone else! That's when I started thinking: "Something isn't right here." Then I went through the experience of having an elder become very friendly with our family. He acted like a real good friend. I found out a year later from him, in front of the Presiding Overseer, because I asked for a meeting with them, trying to find out why as a regular pioneer I had never had a shepherding visit- during a whole year! This GOOD friend told me more or less right then that he was sent to spy on me! He had been sent by the P.O. to report back to him every single thing I said. That I should consider his friendliness as my shepherding visits! By the way, I pride myself with being an honest person and that experience just floored me! After that I wouldn't have another thing to do with what the Watchtower brand of politics had become. By the way, speaking of politics, I had heard at one point that the WTBTS had a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. I wonder now if that wasn't true?
I had to study psychology for four years in college to understand what the WTBTS had done to me and to my family. My son was spiritually raped by a congregation committee and my former husband, an elder, let them do it! Not only that he told my son not to get up and leave.
After studying psychology for four years I would need two more years of studies to begin my internship as a clinical psychologist, if I wanted to. I have decided instead to write. I foiund out something you may already had figured out.
Commenting in particular on your experience when the brother "tucked her in" at bedtime, when you were nine years old, I wanted to add that the scenario reminded me of what we studied in psychology about "projection reaction." What I seem to remember from our classes is he sounds like he may have projected toward you, a sweet little kid, what he himself had done under the bed covers. That man appears to have done things under the bed covers HE should have been ashamed of. So, he projected what he did.
I was at Bethel on many visits those years you were there.
Do the best you can to take care of you, Barbara. I cried almost all night, last night, after reading your experiences. I want to thank you for opening my eyes about the anti-Semitism. I hadn't made that particular connection, and now that I have I am very angry that my mind was played with this way.
My heart is with you, Dear One, and my thoughts. The other posts reaching out to you brought tears to my eyes. See, my motivation, like yours was to benefit humanity. The consolation I have for us is that divine vengeance will be brought against the WTBTS. The Scriptures say: It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the true God. Also of great comfort is 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, the whole chapter.
Many thanks again for your truly valuable gift to us all in your writings, I am looking forward to hearing that my e-mail reached you. A hug to you Barbara, Sincerely,
Sarah Allen
Thank you Sarah and others,
Actually Barb had suggested I put up the book online a few months ago, so if anyone has the time to scan and convert the whole book with OCR, I will put it up. I do not have the complete edition, only the abridged edition, so whoever does it would need to already have the book. Any takers? This book should be up for all to see!
[email protected]
Several pages from "Visions of Glory" is up at:
http://www.exjws.net/visionsmain.htm
Randy Watters
Net Soup!
http://www.freeminds.org
For anyone who is interested, an excellent meta-search engine for BOOKS can be found at http://www3.addall.com, and as of this writing it has located three copies of "VISIONS OF GLORY" at AMAZON.
Randy, I'll see if I can find my old copy of Barbara's wonderful book and then try to figure out how to use my OCR software. I may be albe to report something good later today... Barbara was a few years ahead of me into the JWs, but we walked in many of the same places (I'm a NuYawkah too). I would consider it an honor to assist in the "free-publishing" of her book.
The endnotes are also valuable for research. Please include them.
