The WTS is ultimately responsible not only for their written words pushing the end in 1975 but for the lives that became destroyed because of it.
Nobody should feel that they were manipulated, stupid, ignorant or uneducated because those that made life decisions based on this religion and that specific prophecy, were doing so because of FAITH. Faith and trust are at the core of daily human life and experience. We are taught that police are our friends and there to uphold the law - we have faith in them - and then we see a video of them beating a man on the ground. We put our faith in teachers or politicians as leaders - and have a set back when we hear of them sleeping with young people or stealing from those they are supposed to serve. We have faith and trust in our neighbors, in the bus driver, in our parents, in our children - in our employer - if we did not have this faith and trust, we would believe in nothing and nobody and for the majority of people, that in and of itself is not the norm and not necessarily desirable when trying to live in a peaceful, secure or healthy environment.
People put their faith and trust in the WTS and it was the WTS that destroyed their lives and abused that faith and trust. People who married because they truly believed that the big A was coming, found themselves unable to divorce a partner they found they did not want to spend a lifetime with, because the WTS shunning policy traps more people than it releases. Those that sold their homes to pioneer full time - some never regained their financial footing and in a few instances the pressure broke them causing them to take their lives. Others carry the guilt in knowing that they spent their time bringing people into the organization, only to find out later that what they preached was a lie - and once in, a person cannot get out, often with lifelong ramifications. Still others pushed some new members, family, friends and children to become baptized - and once baptized - leaving puts you in the position of becomeing a victim of shunning.
There is nothing wrong with faith and trust. When that faith and trust has been abused but the abuser never has to pay for the crime they have committed, they go on to repeat the offence. If the WTS did not have such extreme punishment in the form of shunning, perhaps the sting wouldn't have been so bad. Perhaps if they admitted their own wrongdoing it would be different. In one way it is perverse because we expect religious organizations to pay in some way for the molestation of children but we should ask, how many people were brought into the organization at that time as a direct result of those WT teachings that might include those children who might have had a different life had they not be strapped inside the cult? About half a million people were brought into the fold in just a few short years leading up to the 1975 prophecy - if there are 10 people affected by 1 admission then 5 million people - parents, grandparents, children, spouses, friends - could easily have been affected by that decision and for many it very well could have been a negative experience.
Never feel badly for what you believed because it was based on faith and trust..you were not the abuser. sammieswife
