Hello all….
A few months ago my wife expressed serious concerns about the time I had spent over the past couple of years reading old Watchtower literature (printed circa 1880 through the late 30’s) and the time spent on this site and several others. She is very grateful that I was very persistent in trying to convince her that this is just a mind-control cult run by clueless men who simply make things up as they go along. It wasn’t easy, but I’m thankful that I was able to wake her up thanks to many of you. But now she’s worried that I may have lost some balance in my life… Having meditated about this over the past several weeks, I believe she may be right.
That being said, whenever she brought up these concerns, I would always respond that if I were ever able to identify at least one person who was able to finally exit the WT because of something I shared with them, then I would consider all of my research time well spent. Recently, much to my surprise, I received an email from someone thanking me for helping him make the leap out of the WT. I won’t get into the details of this email… suffice to say it’s the greatest feeling to know that thousands of hours of research were not in vain.
Regarding my time on this board, as part of a compromise, I also promised my wife that I would sign off permanently from this board upon helping at least one person or reaching 1,000 posts (in no particular order). At that point, I agreed that I would simply turn the page and we would both continue with our lives without looking back. (didn’t know I would get to 1,000 posts so quickly though)
So now it’s time to keep my promise to my wife… But before permanently signing off, I must say that I have the utmost respect for everyone on this board, especially those who have literally started thousands of very informative threads on all sorts of subjects. Your persistence in getting the message out is admirable and has helped me and others immensely. I owe my life to several of you who have helped me wake up from the deep dormancy that has kept me captive within the confines of this corrupt organization. Thank you so much!
By the way, I’ve reached post #1,000 having no other JW-related books to read or anything else to post (that hasn’t already been posted on this board several times over). But I will continue to search for answers to many questions I still have by reading some non-JW related books... For example, I’ve found extremely interesting insight in a book I’ve recently downloaded on my Kindle called Soul Theft… How Religions seized control of humanity’s spiritual nature by Bill Missett. While I don’t subscribe to everything written in this book, I’m only halfway through it and it’s already answered about half of my pending questions… can’t wait to finish reading it… (I strongly recommend it)
In closing, I sincerely hope that many more JWs benefit from your knowledge, insight and your willingness to share. Hopefully, I will continue to find many more opportunities to help others develop critical thinking skills that will steer them clear of dangerous cults or high-control religious groups. When these opportunities come along, as I’m sure they will, I will definitely take full advantage of these.
Thanks again… I wish everyone the very best!
Your friend
Alfred