Posted by Tantalus [Tantalus] on April 05, 1999 at 14:00:54 {6.uz.4vynMu17635Raz.AJToxO4pJo}:
In Reply to: *Missing the Cong. posted by Skeptic on April 04, 1999 at 11:27:23:
Hi Skeptic,
I share your feelings on this. I quit going and moved. On a visit home I went to a meeting and had to walk out during the watchtower study to keep from embarassing my family by the comments and questions I wanted to
ask. An elder I had known for years came out to talk to me "as a friend" but it really wasn't. He wasn't really my friend. The only way we could be friends was by my towing the line he thought correct. That is not a friend. I think
the thing I enjoyed most when I first quit was the feeling of choosing my friends for their qualities, not their religion. The watchtower society really trivializes not only friendships but family relations, making them dependant on
society standards instead of real standards. It is amazing that people are willing to trade gold for clay like that. I guess it shows that even good people are selfish enough to give up others for their own personal good as they
percieve. It really bears out the scriptures that say as you measure it out so it will be measured unto you, or words to that effect. They give up real parents, brothers and sisters and get cardboard ones, to match their own
feelings.
By the way, I got your e-mail. Please forgive me for not responding, I am way behind to several people. I'm the guy from Florida/Alabama whose handle you couldn't remember and you wrote the other day to try and place
me.