Post by javeca on Mar 28, 2009 11:06:57 GMT -5
I was born in 1966 (and actually Baptized Catholic) to parents who where in the Navy, and from what I have recently discovered, really should never have married. To say the least, two years after my little sister was born in 1968, they got divorced. By 1972 my mother discovered the Jehovah's Witnesses.
By 1972 my mother had remarried, unfortunately to a real S.O.B. (and I don't mean Swell Ol' Boy) who abused me physically and we aren't gonna talk about my sister. This went on for a number of years until around 1976 when my mother was able to get a divorce. Two elders caught my mother's second husband in flagrant delecto with another woman, adultery confirmed, divorce granted. New life for my mom, sister and me. Yeah right.
Like most people brought up in the JW, round hole square peg just doesn't really begin to describe it the alienation especially when you are teenager. But it didn't help that I only recently found out that my mother didn't stay with the JW's because of any profound faith or belief. It was because she was mad at my father and was using my sister and I to hurt him.
In time I graduated from high school and was baptized in 1985 because that was what I was told I needed to do and started pioneering, I wasn't talking with my dad much at the time, didn't have time. That all changed in 1986, you see I caught a couple of elders (the Presiding Overseers daughter with another Elders son) kids having sex, so I did what I thought was the right thing to do and told the elder who I had be studying the bible with for the better part of 6 years. A few days later I was asked to come to the Kingdom Hall for a meeting. Okay, no problem, I show up to a full Judicial Committee, with guess who? The PO, the Elders whose kids I had reported on, and it was I who was in trouble for, and I quote, "Causing Dissension In The Congregation." Once I realized what was happening, I read them all the riot act, (it isn't wise to tick off someone of Scotch, Irish and Sicilian ancestry, my language skills come to the fore and I can make even the most harden of men, except for maybe Andrew Dice Clay, pale with my invectives), gave them my verbal disassociation and told them the would receive the written letter in 2 days by mail, flipped them the bird and stormed out. I told my mother that if she thought I was ever going back inside of Kingdom Hall it would only be to blow it up to its component atoms (To this day I will not step into a Kingdom Hall). I then called my father and briefly told him what had happen, and told him he had 72 hours to get me a plane ticket from Washington State to California or the next time he heard from me it would be from a jail cell because I was so angry I was ready to kill. I then wrote a rather lengthy letter of Disassociation, spelling out every hypocrisy of the elders and my own personal disgust with them and the WTBS and left for California 2 days later.
But that is not where the story ends, you see in 1998 I ran into a guy who belonged to the same congregation as I did and had found out that he too had left, he asked me about my Disfellowship. "What?"
It seems, that instead of taking my Letter of Disassociation, they had Disfellowshipped me. And I know why. I know it has changed today about who you can talk to, but in 1986, while frowned upon other members of the congregation could still talk to a disassociated member of the congregation, but you couldn't talk to a Disfellowshipped member.
Recently, I had my lawyers draw up some paper work requesting a copy of my file from the last congregation I had attended as well as a "Cease & Desist" contact order. I knew I had a file because I had received a silent reproof as a sophomore in high school, and then there would be my DA letter and/or DF paperwork since we know that this paperwork is also sent to NY, a request was made to them as well. Since I didn't want to deal with the congregational elders, the WTBTS or let them know where I was, everything was being handled by my lawyers in Los Angeles CA (my pre-paid legal provider firm is Parker Stanbury)
The reply that I go was interesting from both NY and the Bothell congregation I had belonged to.
And here is a portion of the reply from the last congregation I had attended:
"There has never been a member of this congregation by that name."
And from NY
"There is no one on our publisher roles by that name."
Now the whole funny thing about this, is the fact that I still have pictures from when I was baptized at the Circuit Assembly Hall in Puyalup WA by an Elder from my Congregation.
But there is an upside to all of this, if I write a book a film a documentary about them, they can't come back at me and say he was disfellowshiped and apostate because if they try that stunt I am going to have letters showing that they said I was never a member. And if they try to maintain the fiction that I was never a member, I have pictures as proof I was a member.
Today I have a pretty decent relationship with my father, who happens to be a Roman Catholic and thanks to him telling me to go see a priest. I finnished my RCIA and took my Rite of Acceptance on March 22, 2009 and became a candidate with my Re-Profession of Faith, Confirmation and First Communion on Easter 2010
Better yet, my wife, a ex-Mormon, went through RCIA and Rite of Acceptance with me, and she will be Baptized, Confirmed and receive First Communion with me as well Easter 2010.
By 1972 my mother had remarried, unfortunately to a real S.O.B. (and I don't mean Swell Ol' Boy) who abused me physically and we aren't gonna talk about my sister. This went on for a number of years until around 1976 when my mother was able to get a divorce. Two elders caught my mother's second husband in flagrant delecto with another woman, adultery confirmed, divorce granted. New life for my mom, sister and me. Yeah right.
Like most people brought up in the JW, round hole square peg just doesn't really begin to describe it the alienation especially when you are teenager. But it didn't help that I only recently found out that my mother didn't stay with the JW's because of any profound faith or belief. It was because she was mad at my father and was using my sister and I to hurt him.
In time I graduated from high school and was baptized in 1985 because that was what I was told I needed to do and started pioneering, I wasn't talking with my dad much at the time, didn't have time. That all changed in 1986, you see I caught a couple of elders (the Presiding Overseers daughter with another Elders son) kids having sex, so I did what I thought was the right thing to do and told the elder who I had be studying the bible with for the better part of 6 years. A few days later I was asked to come to the Kingdom Hall for a meeting. Okay, no problem, I show up to a full Judicial Committee, with guess who? The PO, the Elders whose kids I had reported on, and it was I who was in trouble for, and I quote, "Causing Dissension In The Congregation." Once I realized what was happening, I read them all the riot act, (it isn't wise to tick off someone of Scotch, Irish and Sicilian ancestry, my language skills come to the fore and I can make even the most harden of men, except for maybe Andrew Dice Clay, pale with my invectives), gave them my verbal disassociation and told them the would receive the written letter in 2 days by mail, flipped them the bird and stormed out. I told my mother that if she thought I was ever going back inside of Kingdom Hall it would only be to blow it up to its component atoms (To this day I will not step into a Kingdom Hall). I then called my father and briefly told him what had happen, and told him he had 72 hours to get me a plane ticket from Washington State to California or the next time he heard from me it would be from a jail cell because I was so angry I was ready to kill. I then wrote a rather lengthy letter of Disassociation, spelling out every hypocrisy of the elders and my own personal disgust with them and the WTBS and left for California 2 days later.
But that is not where the story ends, you see in 1998 I ran into a guy who belonged to the same congregation as I did and had found out that he too had left, he asked me about my Disfellowship. "What?"
It seems, that instead of taking my Letter of Disassociation, they had Disfellowshipped me. And I know why. I know it has changed today about who you can talk to, but in 1986, while frowned upon other members of the congregation could still talk to a disassociated member of the congregation, but you couldn't talk to a Disfellowshipped member.
Recently, I had my lawyers draw up some paper work requesting a copy of my file from the last congregation I had attended as well as a "Cease & Desist" contact order. I knew I had a file because I had received a silent reproof as a sophomore in high school, and then there would be my DA letter and/or DF paperwork since we know that this paperwork is also sent to NY, a request was made to them as well. Since I didn't want to deal with the congregational elders, the WTBTS or let them know where I was, everything was being handled by my lawyers in Los Angeles CA (my pre-paid legal provider firm is Parker Stanbury)
The reply that I go was interesting from both NY and the Bothell congregation I had belonged to.
And here is a portion of the reply from the last congregation I had attended:
"There has never been a member of this congregation by that name."
And from NY
"There is no one on our publisher roles by that name."
Now the whole funny thing about this, is the fact that I still have pictures from when I was baptized at the Circuit Assembly Hall in Puyalup WA by an Elder from my Congregation.
But there is an upside to all of this, if I write a book a film a documentary about them, they can't come back at me and say he was disfellowshiped and apostate because if they try that stunt I am going to have letters showing that they said I was never a member. And if they try to maintain the fiction that I was never a member, I have pictures as proof I was a member.
Today I have a pretty decent relationship with my father, who happens to be a Roman Catholic and thanks to him telling me to go see a priest. I finnished my RCIA and took my Rite of Acceptance on March 22, 2009 and became a candidate with my Re-Profession of Faith, Confirmation and First Communion on Easter 2010
Better yet, my wife, a ex-Mormon, went through RCIA and Rite of Acceptance with me, and she will be Baptized, Confirmed and receive First Communion with me as well Easter 2010.
