Dear Family,
Well I suppose a better salutation would be, Dear former family,
since I have only briefly seen sister BP on two or three occasions in the last 20 years.
D and B not even a word once, it is safe to say, we are no longer a family unit. We share
the same blood, but have no ties that bind. The simple pleasures of following each others
life's course, successes and failures, have been denied. This shattered family legacy is not
ours alone. The ripple effect will carry on for several generations after we are all gone.
My daughters and their children will never know anything of substance, about me or my life.
Only some half-truths, innuendo, and outright lies, formulated to 'ease the pain' and justify the
the act of shunning me. It is said that 'history repeats itself', no truer words in our case
and in our family history can apply. Shunning, disfellowshiping, disowning, rejection,
goes way back with us. The L's and W's learned well, early on how to apply this family
destroyer called shunning. I know it is not easy for you to see the insidious ruin this
'doctrine' of division, has wreaked upon countless thousands of family units all over the
world, but it most assuredly has! The very idea that a loving creator of
the family unit, would encourage or promote this dogma is ludicrous, to say the least.
The only way I can express to you my frustration, in trying to relate these words without
raising red flags of defensive condemnation from you, is to try and appeal to your
powers of reason.
Here goes;
Does dunking one accused of wrongdoing in a pool of water, until almost drowned, prove or
disprove one's guilt? Does branding or sewing a big letter A onto the person of an accused
adulterer assuage or even offer a deterrence to adultery? Does answering a list of questions
prepared by inquisitors, prove by the answers elicited that the person is pure of heart?
Does public whipping insure that 'the devil' has been been cast out of the wrongdoer?
Silly questions you say, we do not carry on like those early Puritans, we are way beyond
that. Maybe not so far from the 'tree' as you may think.
Consider these archaic methods before excusing the current in vogue methods being applied
by the WTBS towards those whose only sin (wrongdoing) may well be 'questioning the commands
of men'. I know why I was disfellowshiped. it was for adultery. That act was wrong and it
was destructive. After 20 years that act no longer defines my life or self worth. It
was a symptom of a far deeper issue. For that act or any other personal life experiences,
shy of murder, to culminate in the loss of all family ties, to promote the 'puritanical'
heavy handed 'once judged' always condemned dogma of disfellowshiping, is outright evil
and totally distorted.
Why evil? I cannot even begin to share all of the tremendous volume of personal experiences
now being shared by thousands recorded on the Internet, about heartbreaking rupture of
family ties and love losses, as the WTBS continues its 'witch hunts' and public drownings of
both young and old. These are feeling, living human beings, whose sometime only fault is the
exercise of ones own thinking and reasoning ability. Not some shady, clandestine sexual
perversion or even a crime that would require exercise of Caesar's law against them. No
they simply choose not to be in a religion anymore! For this so called 'apostasy' they
wind up loosing all blood ties, all their history, some like myself have coped and gone on
with life. Many cannot take the loss, and find themselves in deep depression or on the
verge of suicide. Other's far to many end it all.
The next time you callously turn your face away from one of these 'shunned', ask yourself,
could I be the one that pushes this fellow human over the edge? Could I by my sanctioning
the draconian methods being utilized by an organization of men, be in fact promoting a
practice that is far from 'godly', in reality as close to evil and unholy as was the
inquisitions of the early 'catholic' hierarchy? Who's hierarchy will you attribute so much
pain and suffering? God's? If you have one once of human feeling, if you have even a remote doubt
in your mind, about the justification Biblical or otherwise, about this doctrine of
'DISFELLOWshiping' you owe it to your conscience, and to your loved ones, to take a look
at some of these stories. Just type the words Jehovah's Witnesses in to any search engine.
Read without the blinders of prejudice or preconceived ideas. Read as if for the first time
in your life....read and see if you do not weep along with the rest of us.
Us, those who have been forever denied the love and solace only real blood can offer.
Your brother,
Danny