Do you wish you could like them, but you can't?

JH

Does there come a time, when you would like to be at peace with the Jehovah Witnesses, and try to forget what they done to you, but then all of a sudden you remember the way they treated you, and then you start to get angry again at them? Does this happen to you?

Stan Conroy

I don't know if I will ever like them, but I don't hate them as individuals. I guess I feel pity for them, but definitely don't wish harm any to them. My beef is with the company. That's where the evil lies. The people are victims, they just don't know it yet.

Stan

blondie

I was abused by a non-JW father and not protected by a JW mother. So the blame gets spread equally to both sides of the equation. I learned that vengeance is not the game. Nasty people seem to get it in the end. At least that is what 50 years has taught me. My parents are miserable people. The JWs that have been deliberately cruel and unkind have that haunted, hunted look. They have no peace with God. Peace with me is minor compared with that. I just kill them with kindness. It elevates me and my mood and at the very least makes them wonder when the next shoe will drop.

Blondie (life is too short)

Introspection

You know, I wanna say that whether I like them or not, they have to like themselves.

I don't hate them either, but at the same time it's unfortunate because they are confused. Even in terms of how I was treated, I am not the same person that I was back then. But aside from that and I think more significantly is the fact that they are all isolated in their own world, and they have no peace. Not really. They are hurting themselves actually.

BadJerry

Be at peace with them....never! I really don't care how they reacted to me or my family leaving, but my dear wife has been in touch with some young girls whose lives have been so ruined by the shunning that I really do see them now as "THE ENEMY", their organization and the individuals who still cling to all the lies. So much of what I've read here and have seen personally would, if not associated with a religious organization, but considered downright crminal. Peace, no but I do look forward to justice!

Maybe this is just a reflection on a stressful workweek, but I'll read others' thoughts before making that my final defense...

Mac

I can't apply the terms : "they or them" to a group that I once was a part of and direct a true feeling of dislike towards them. They are victims as I once was a victim. Pity is an accurate term if one were to describe my current feelings toward the rank and file witness . Now the degree of contempt I hold toward the heirarchy is a figure that may be hard to calculate using the most up to date technological instrumentations but, I'm sure some developmental project is on the horizon that will furnish a device capable of this gargantuan task!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mac,of the hopes there is a hell so they can rot in it class

(that didn't sound harsh, did it?)

reporter

What I really dislike about them is the systemic problems from the "top" so to speak. When reading Ray Franz' books, it came quite apparent to me how much that absolute power corrupts absolutely, if I can borrow the expression. The GB beaurocracy mixed in with simple Christianity is an unwieldy beast indeed. It is not dissimilar to mixing church and state.

And going back further and further into history, into Russell's days, the roots are quite rotten, and mixed with very strange teachings.