Thank you for the warm welcome! (((((Aztec))))) I've been good for 20 years - it's time for a change! Rayzorblade, I hope to meet up with you again! And I see some others I recognize! Since I've been invited to tell you about myself I may as well get to it. I wasn't born a JW. I was raised as a Catholic and became a JW at 25. I dropped out of school after the tenth grade and pursued my main interests of sex, drugs, rock & roll, and bikes. Got into trouble, a short vacation behind bars, and I decided I needed to change the direction my life was taking. My mother, who had become a JW, somehow convinced me that JWs were the route to take. So I broke my engagement to my "worldly" girlfriend, severed all relationships with friends, and dove into it face first, and everything was fine, that is, until after I was baptized. I never fit in with anyone at the KH. Because of my former lifestyle I was always considered bad association right from day one. But I tried to do everything their way. I abandoned my trade as a machinist and started cleaning windows so I could pioneer, which I did for just over 2 years. I stopped because of a knee and back injury. I later injured my other knee in a slip and fall accident and required surgery on both knees. All this time, if I wasn't pioneering, I auxilairy pioneered fairly regularly and tried to progress in the congregation. That wasn't going to happen because I was considered rebellious - you know, for not obeying the elders when they told me to shave my mustache, sell my bike, stop wearing bright ties, and a dozen other trivial complaints they had. I married a pioneer sister as well. She was more or less raised as a JW, and was sexually abused by 3 brothers from the age of 4 to her early teens. Two of them went on to become elders. Although the elders and the society are aware of what happened, (we have a written admission and other correspondence from the org) nothing was ever done about it. So much for elders being appointed by holy spirit! Even though we had never done anything scripturally wrong, we were virtually ostracized in every congregation we were in. Because of the injuries I had, I thought it best to retrain, as the physical nature of the work I was doing caused these injuries to keep coming back. So I took a 9 month course in computer technology and networking, another course for MCSE and got myself into the IT field. I took some Cisco and network security courses as well. I now work as a Systems Administrator for the Ontario Legislative Assembley - Liberal Caucus. The brothers were always on my case about this. They don't seem to like it when people try to improve their lot in life by getting a bit of an education. I was even criticized for this from the platform. So over the years I developed a real problem with the influence these guys try to have in our personal lives. We had just moved in with my 81 year old father because he couldn't be alone any more. He died of a heart attack the same day we moved in. So I inheirited a house and a mortgage. Then I was always being hassled for being materialistic. Once when the PO was trying to counsel me about something I just had enough. I held out my bible to him and said, "If you have something to say you better say it from here - or keep your stupid yap shut. And you better learn your place." I threw out the book study we had in our basement. Have been inactive since January 2003. I was astonished when I saw the Fifth Estate on Jan. 29 this year. I didn't realize just how extensive the problem with child abuse was in the org. They interviewed a former elder who worked in the Georgetown Bethel legal department - he was partially in silhouette, but I recognized him and so did many others. I knew him well. I think he's been df'd since then, but I'm not sure. That's what prompted me to finally do some research on the internet and the society's own books, and from there you can guess the rest. I haven't been df'd or da'd yet, but it will come. I cannot be part of an organization that, by it's inaction, protects the abusers of women and children. My wife is aware of my position on this, but she's still hung up on the org, and anything can happen at this point. I would have da'd myself by now, except I'm waiting for my mother, who is 81 and ill with lymphoma, to pass on. She probably won't last out the year. This is only a brief summary of my experience in the org, but I think it's enough for now. Sorry to make this so long. Thank You for reading Walter
