last saturday, a former ministerial servant and pioneer committed suicide in the woodinville washington kingdom hall parking lot.
he was disfellowshipped several years ago, and according to the old sister that related the story to me today, he was depressed because no one would talk to him.
i don't know how i kept calm when she explained to me that "we couldn't talk to him...he was disfellowshipped.".
I just wanted to add that my son just got home from school, and I had asked him to ask the witness kids at school if they knew what happened. He said one witness boy said, "oh yeah, it was a disfellowshiped person", like it was not anyone important.
The total lack of compassion in the face of such a tragedy, talk about bringing up old memories.
last saturday, a former ministerial servant and pioneer committed suicide in the woodinville washington kingdom hall parking lot.
he was disfellowshipped several years ago, and according to the old sister that related the story to me today, he was depressed because no one would talk to him.
i don't know how i kept calm when she explained to me that "we couldn't talk to him...he was disfellowshipped.".
Last Saturday, a former ministerial servant and pioneer committed suicide in the Woodinville Washington Kingdom Hall parking lot. He was disfellowshipped several years ago, and according to the old sister that related the story to me today, he was depressed because no one would talk to him. I don't know how I kept calm when she explained to me that "we couldn't talk to him...he was disfellowshipped."
He wrapped a rope around his neck, then around two of the light posts in the parking lot, got in his car and accelerated. His body was yanked out of the car, and he laid strangled to death in the parking lot where he was found.
As some of you may know, this is the same kingdom hall we attended before our daughter committed suicide four years ago. The only reason I knew to ask this sister about what happened is because my son goes to school with a young boy that lives next door to the Kingdom hall and he told my son a dead man was found in the parking lot. Otherwise, I am sure no one would have called us to tell us that yet another young person was driven to suicide by the cruel practice of disfellowshipping and shunning.
I wasn't a close friend of this young man, but I remember that when we first moved to this area, he made an impression on me because he was a very kind, humble type person, and that really stood out in a congregation full of arrogant, cocky elders and servants.
I am writing this to pay homage to a quiet, kind young man, who like my daughter internalized the negative messages that he was a "sinner" and not worthy of associating with god's "clean" organization. I have never before publicly stated what congregation I attended, but I felt the need to speak out about whats happening in this local area. What can I say, my heart is broken that another young life is sacrificed to this destructive cult...
Sabine
heard through the grapevine the other day that another member of my old congregation had decided they were not going to any more meetings.
this seems to be happening a lot lately.
i was wondering if this is a bit of a trend of late?
An elder in West LA called the fade-aways that only attended the memorial "memorial day saints". It's a sad place to be, physically out, but mentally in...coming once a year for a good dose of jw guilt.
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http://audio.netradiolive.com:8080/ramgen/meria/sunday052602.rm.
today there was an interview with diane wilson who wrote "awakening of a jehovah's witness,escape from the watchtower society" along with gerald bergman, phd.. it's an awesome expose of the jw's and i think you will enjoy it.
I really enjoyed her book. It focused a lot on the psychological issues of being in a strict, legalistic religion (cult). Along with Franz books, this book was a tremendous help to me.
I thought I had seen many of the problems women face in the religion, but I had never known any one that had to go through the horrors of having a baby with the Rh factor problem, or women that had to endure the light flashing of and on with the rape issue.
I think it took a lot of courage, self sacrifice and love for others for her to write this book.
My 2 cents worth...
Hi Katheryn,
Sorry to hear you won't be able to come up for the get together in early August. I had such a great time in Mt. Rainer with all of you last year. It was my first time celebrating my B-day...I'll never forget it. It was so nice to meet your girls, hope they are all doing great.
Take care,
Sabine
they question her, in private, all alone with her.... then the questioning keeps breaking down the little girl, so she crys, and they watch, making her describe every detail of the sex act......while she crys..... they want more exact details of where here tounge was............. while she crys....... then they go to a room for 5 min and come back and tell her she doesn't have 2 witnesses, and that she should just keep quite about the matter.. and if she says anything about the matter at all, she will be punished........."then"... she has to go "home" and face "daddy" the "petophile"...... daddy is kind of mad.... do you get the picture yet????????????????????????????????????.
meanwhile daddy is asked to give a part on the assembly.. and little girl has learned to not tell-on daddy........ever again, or she might "die".
Howdy Crawdad!
I wanted to address two points, first the amount of abuse going on...who can really tell how widespread it is? I can only tell you from my personal experience of over 35 years in the JWs, listed are people I knew PERSONALLY, who told me their story, not hearsay:
1. My husbands uncle, former bethelite, molested many kids, and I was only told of this at a family dinner when he was holding my then two year old daughter, by my nervous father in law.
2. A sister in my congregation that was "marked" because she was trying to block her father from being reinstated after he molested her, her sister AND her brother.
3. A sister that moved into my congregation after her son committed suicide because he felt helpless trying to stop his sister from being further molested by the bookstudy conductor.
4. A sister that I met after my daughter's death, she told me that her daughter was molested by a young brother and it took 10 years for him to be disfellowshiped.
5. Two years ago (the last congregation I attended) a brother gets reinstated and the sister in example #4 tells me he's a child molester and not to let my son go to the bathroom alone. Of course the elders didn't warn us, since we were new and didn't know what this brother's history was. He was later re-arrested because he moved across the street from an elementary school.
6. Ex-jw I met in person told me about her father molesting kids while he was an elder, and I met one of his victims in person (her cousin).
7. Ex-jw I met from this board told me her son was molested.
8. I was studying with a beautiful young girl from El Salvador and one of the local elders took an "interest" in her, taking her with him to play golf (she was about 13 at the time) gone for hours at a time with this young girl unescorted. Turns out he was df'd for sexual "misconduct" with this young girl.
Just thought I would list these examples for people that say it must be a very isolated case.
My second point is about elders talking to little girls alone...while I was never molested, I was talked to alone several times when I was a child. One time in particular that I remember is when an elder talked to me in a car during service. We were alone and he was asking me about my mother's past. She was divorced twice, and she and I had different last names. I remember telling him he should ask HER what her marital status was. Even as a kid I remember thinking that it was very inappropriate for him to be asking a 12 year old about her mother's past.
And of course, my last experience with elders interogating a young woman was when they came to talk to my daughter while my husband and I were out of town. They questioned her about what she and her boyfriend were doing alone, heavy or light kissing, etc. Apparently they made her feel so awful about herself that she took her own life the next morning....
So for all you lurkers out there, yes there are some very good people in the JW organization, but like in ALL religious organizations, there are some people that are sick, unloving, pathetic excusses for human beings too. And unfortunately, many use the cloak of being an elder and misuse their power and influence to hurt many innocent people that were mislead into thinking Jehovah's Witnesses are somehow exempt from evil because it's the only spirit annointed organization God is using in our day.
on june 1st, for an alaskan cruise .
my mom, dad and myself are off for a much deserved and long awaited vacation.
we're leaving out of vancouver, bc and from there to.... juneau.
I have heard that it's almost all seniors on that cruise...Zev be prepared to be the young stud of the ship. Have a great time!
http://www.detnews.com/2002/entertainment/0205/18/d01-492788.htm .
what the hell?.
i just finished watching mulholland drive (for the third time this weekend) and my head hurts.
Thanks Preston, now I'll have to re-view MD to &"get it"...the first time I enjoyed it for its "graphic" value, lol.
As far as Star Wars goes, I am a dark skinned hispanic, often confused for just about everything. I knew right away that actor was Samoan, or from somewheres around there. It's just a movie folks, get over it.
I'm just living for the day people don't constantly come up to me and ask "what are you?" Human, most of the time.
this last weekend, there was a circuit assembly (one day) for our area.
the guy from new york, who was the main speaker, warned those in attendance about a television program, coming up, that attempts to discredit them, but 'remember that those who are on the show, are apostates'.. the one who told about it, was very anxious to see the show.
it might backfire on them.
Hi Mulan, I ran into some jws at the grocery store today...they are currently not attending (their daughter was molested by a young teen brother, it took 10 years for him to be df'd), anyway, I told them to be sure and watch dateline tuesday. They said they knew you, but for some reason thought your hubby used to partake...were they confusing him with your dad?
what are you using your time to do , that you couldn't do before when enslaved to the decrepit old men of the org?.
i'm now determined to throw down my squeegee , and become an artist.. yes i am ashamed to admit i am a window cleaner.. i have always love drawing and art, but was adviced in school that if iwanted to be an artist i would have to be determined and be totally focused in order to succeed.. but knowing i had to pioneer and go to the meetings etc i knew i wouldn't have time .so i choose to let go of my dream and waste my talents in order to serve god by selling magazines.. in fact the "truth" took up so much time that i almost gave up drawing , i cant draw well unless relaxed and i have plenty of time, in fact my favorite time is early morning when i wake up.. now i have no meetings , studying etc i have lots of time to draw and i just cant stop.. i don't know much about getting into the art world , but looking round different galleries i've seen and comparing my work i belive i can succeed.. i'll give it my best shot anyway.
The first thing Makena and I did after making the decision to be "free" was buy a house in Hawaii. We realized we COULD live in paradise...on our own terms.
Then I started attending college, studying all sorts of subjects that interest ME.
On meeting nights, we go work out at the gym. We are both in the best shape of our lives (ya gotta look good on the beach).
And of course, sleeping in on the weekends has been wonderful for our relationship...
