Posted by Tantalus [Tantalus] on November 23, 1999 at 21:11:14 {KNpNN6QGfw5mhrmu9.YkAJToxO4pJo}:
In Reply to: *With a Bang posted by Cheeky on November 23, 1999 at 14:21:43:
Hi Cheeky,
I appreciate your responding to my post. You mentioned that I sounded hostile. Well, that is how I feel, not toward regular witnesses like my parents, others in my family and you but towards the decision makers in the organization. I used to feel that they were sincere people, with a religion closer to the truth than any other I knew of. Over the last year or two I have learned so much and it is now no longer possible for me to excuse them. As my brother who is disassociated said to me, "This religion has swept through our family like the plague." That is about the best description I have heard of what has happened and continues to happen to people that I love, because of their misplaced trust in the people who wrote the article I quoted. My mentioning Russell's affinity for pyramids was one of the things my daughter found threatening to her faith. I wish with all my heart she would lurk and or post at H20 or a similar site, as you are doing.
The problem is that once you see the facts about them you need to re-examine the faith you have put in them. Are you doing that? There is no doubt in my mind, after researching things like the mediatorship, that they are misleading people and giving themselves glory while pretending humility. This particular article really got my goat because like Marilyn said, they are trying to steal the thunder of any criticism by confessing before being exposed. Then after admitting to spending over thirty years thinking of the Great Pyramid as a Stone Bible, they mention it and dismiss it in a paragraph or two concluding with saying that since they told you about it now you can forget it and wait humbly for God (as it is written it seems to imply them!) to square things away for you. In other words if they were a man and the rank and file were a woman, Cheeky, they would be saying, "Don't worry your pretty little head about it. Now get back in the kitchen." Arrogant condescension is what I hear. Or at least that is my read on it. It is not a small thing to me that they declare themselves Kings and Priests and deny you Christ. Or that they cavalierly dismiss all critics as bad associations and to be shunned. Then lie on their PR Board and say DF'ing doesn't sever family ties. If my hostility is offensive then I am sorry. I know I don't have a good Christian attitude toward them and that I am very bitter and angry at them. If they were personified into a man and I saw them across a street they'd better run. I would drive to New York to get a chance to see them. If you have ever seen the movie the Grapes of Wrath there is a part where an Okie is wanting to shoot someone for what they are doing and as he tries to figure out who to shoot each person is just doing his job. That is kind of how I feel. They are all misled and wasting their lives too. It doesn't keep me from hating the evil they do though. I call myself a Christian. I wouldn't hit an old man. But sometimes I have a desire to go up and kick open whatever door they are behind and extract some payment for damages done. I know someday they will have to answer to God, but that is small comfort to me sometimes.
Tantalus