I know, I never formally introduced myself when I signed onto this board. However, a little bit about me. I was raised as a witness since age 10. My mother and my 3 siblings are all witnesses. 25 years ago I dated a " sister " who would later become my wife. She confided in me that her father had been raping her and her sister since the age of 9. These rapes continued until the age of 17. Yes I had gone to the elders and they promised that they would take care of it. She continued to get raped after I told the elders. That infuriated me !! After going to them twice more, they told me that it was none of my business. I was just a 17 year old kid at the time. With the pressure of disfellowshipment, my family and my so called " friends", my hands were tied. Nobody helped.
The rapes didn't stop until my mom allowed her to move in with us. Of course being a good witness at the time, I went to live with another brother until we got married. We stayed married for 15 years. During that time my wife was severely depressed and attempted suicide 4 times. I would come home from work and find her with her head in the oven with the gas on. She would run out in front of cars so as to get hit by them. I was devastated, here was this girl that I loved and I didn't know how to help her. All that time I had hoped things would get better. We prayed, went to counseling, studied ect. Nothing seemed to work. There came a point where I was so traumatized by her behaviour, I had to leave. I couldn't take it anymore. ( there is much more to this story that I don't want to get into )
We divorced after 15 years, and yes the Damned Elders tried to stick their noses into that too !! Because I chose to keep my divorce a private matter, the elders and my family had no idea whether it was scriptual or not. It was none of their business. From that point on, I was treated differently. It's been 7 years since I've seen my 2 nephews. And about 3 years since I've seen my family and my other neice and nephew. When I dis-associated myself 3 years ago, I was told by my family, right to my face, that they wanted nothing to do with me. I've been accused of being all sorts of things by them and the elders.
Most recently I have been accused by NanceePark of being a troll and someone who likes the Watchtower. That accusation is one I take as a stance to fight to the death !! I have had nothing but hatred and contempt for that organization and I find her remarks highly offensive!!!! I have fought way too hard with ignorant elders and family members in my quest to expose the wrongdoings of the Watchtower. I don't need accusations from another ignorant person. If you like my comments, FINE. If you don't like my comments that's Fine too. I will express myself as I see fit. If there is a problem with that, I'm sure Simon would let me know.
Scumrat