A week or two ago I read a letter written by a JW. I'll call her Sister Sincere. Her letter warmly but firmly beseeched the governing body to follow the Catholic Church's lead and come clean on the pedophile issue and do what they can to make it right.
Real or not, it was a very powerful letter. I couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for Sister Sincere as she pleaded for God's Mouthpiece to wise up. She has a good heart and frankly, I liked what she wrote. I liked it a lot.
So, I shared it with my sister.
You know... the one who hasn't been to the Hall in years but defends "the brothers" tooth and nail although she's one of the biggest independent thinking people I know, even going so far as living with a man for years that she wasn't married to.
Anyway, I wasn't trying to start nuthin' when I sent her the letter. Like I said, I just liked a lot of what Sister Sincere brought up and thought my sister would like it. Man, was *I* wrong! She lit into me like an F5 tornado, saying that she wasn't interested in no Dateline; people all over the world (and yes, even kids) get dumped on so what you really need to do is "get over it." She wanted to know how I knew that hundreds of children may have been molested and then protected by the wt policy (I gave her Bill's site), etc., etc., etc., blah, blase blah.
About two emails later, she'd had enough I guess and came right out and told me that "as for the rest of the bullshit. yea, it pisses me off that all y'all can sit back and say what y'all think should happen. but until it actually happens, all of you need to just shut the fuck up."
Sorry for the language, but it's important to include exactly what she said since my sister don't cuss. She did *then*. She damn near got violent in her disdain for my concern about the issue. True, I'm not a JW and normally couldn't care less about what those people do, but as I explained to her, this issue is different. I told her that every single person alive - JW or not - had every right to be concerned about innocent kids being violated by evil men and, because of wt policy, getting away with it.
She didn't back off one inch from her... um... admonition.
So, I told her that I respected her position. Her sons are old enough to fend for themselves and besides, they never set foot in any kingdom hall, anyway. I did tell her, though, that I thought her attitude was cold and heartless, that it smacked of "that ain't MY problem 'cause my boys is jussss... fiiiine," but she was within her rights to have it.
I then told her that folks like me were also without our right to have concern, talk about, and even become active in ways that will rectify the problem and she should respect THAT.
Different strokes for different folks, y'all. Some folks like chitlins. Some don't.
Edited by - teejay on 20 June 2002 21:47:25