Hmmm....well, things should get interesting in a hurry.
For those who don't know my story, the wife and I were born into the org. Raised in it, baptised, both very good publishers, pioneered, et al. I was one of those on the fast track for MS-hood. FWIW, the wife never really believed ALL their doctrines (IE, she always thought gays were okay, suicides WOULD be resurrected, god would make allowances for people who doubted based on their life experiances, etc.)
I did.
A number of things led us both to lose interest in the organization - for different reasons - and we drifted away a year or so ago. Never really been bothered by them since - we do live pretty far away from our congregation and have little contact with our family (except the wife's parents).
In ANY case, just had an interesting conversation w/ my still-very-in bro. He's recently lost his job, and we've thus had some time to talk quite a bit lately. For some reason, he really pushed the whole 'why aren't you two attending meetings anymore' thing in this last conversation. REALLY. (It seems, in an interesting aside, that him and my mother were of the opinion I had a crazy wife who was leading me astray. While, on the other hand, the mother-, father-, and sister- in-laws were all convinced it was I who had the spirit of satan and was leading their daughter/sister away. Oh, teh funnAy!)
So, he wouldn't let go. Fine. I'll throw him a bone. I mention....'Well, little thing called independant research' and go into some of the org's errors regarding dates (specifically the 607). Sadly, he bullshits very poorly. "Well, I'm looking at the recent article here in Scientific American where they say that they can prove the 607 date and that the 586 was a misunderstanding".
Me: "Bullshit. You know it. I know it. I can search their website if you don't think I know it to prove no such article was written."
Him: "Well, whether Jerusalem fell or not, Israel fell in 607 at least."
Me: "Don't think so"
Him: "Well, it doesn't really matter...."
Anyway, with dialog of such intelligence and him artificing sources from which to defend his beliefs, it was slow going. One thing led to another, and I blasted through the whole UN thing, pedophile coverups (he did see the Dateline program, but had been told every single person on it had been an apostate for at least 25 years! - of course, he said it was by the bro reading the letter, and, as I mentioned, he has a problem with honesty when he is challenged, so I cannot put any faith in this statement at all), early org mistakes/stupidisms, errors in teachings, etc.
So....uhhh....I dunno what's going to happen now. He got cut off because his wife came home and he has to go to the meeting tonight. Him and mom and the wife's parents go to the same hall (the one we transferred out of to the distant K.H.), and she hasn't talked to us in a while. I may be getting a number of interesting calls tonight.
Edited by - Xander on 10 September 2002 18:40:7