I have come under attack from both sides. Interesting to say the least. On one side, the JW side I am being told I am bitter, and that I have not been able to let things go. Because I post funny pictures that help me see the bright side of the bad side to the result of me deciding I didn't want to be a part of "The Organization" And because I still speak out about the policies and procedures that allow pedophiles to continue to abuse children within its walls.
On the other side I have been called an Apologist because, as I stated in my last blog, (http://rambleonrose1974.blogspot.com/2015/02/before-i-continuesteadfast-with.html) I separate the actual Jehovah's Witnesses from The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. Because I do not hold all of a group accountable for the bad actions of a few.
It pains me to see Ex JW's who hold on to the "US and THEM" thinking, the Black and white mentality that keeps so many in this world from exploring the true wonder it holds. I see Blanket statements from both sides.
"Atheists are all just angry people with no moral compass"
"JW's (or religious people for that matter) Are all just judgmental arrogant mindless and brainwashed."
NO AND NO.
That's like saying all Gay men and Effeminate Or all Effeminate males are gay! Blanket statements... Lumping all people in a group into one judgement because there are a few bad seeds.
There are pedophiles who are atheist, and there are Religious people who are Non Judgmental! After an argument of sorts with my mother which basically meant I was informed I was bitter and needed to wake up before it was too late. (meaning I was going to die at Armageddon which is right around the corner as it has been as long as I can remember.) Actually they said the end was coming in 1878,1881,1914,1918, 1925 and 1975 The year after I was born.
Ref:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watch_Tower_Society_unfulfilled_predictions
I sat thinking, Since I was 17 for reasons both my own and my parents there has been a open and slam policy with the door to their lives. Those who know me, those who have spent more than a year in my life know this. They have seen it. Hot and cold running Parents. Why? In the beginning it was because I was VERY VERY vocal about my anger to them. I was a teenager. I did not know where to place the fear, hurt, and resent meant I was feeling so I landed All of it in their laps. They did not deserve it all. What was happening to us as a family was not all their fault. I held some of the blame, they held some, and The Organization held some.
I had no Idea how to place it. So in the beginning, as a child does, I rebelled. Drinking drugs, sex, parties. I was mean and verbally abusive to my parents at times. And to the elders. I had lost the ability to stuff down the hurt and the anxiety. With my first flash back and surfaced memory of abuse, it shook free all of my ability to control my filters.
As time went on I adjusted my view. I realized the truth of the matter is. If my Parents had not been Jehovah's Witnesses. If they had not been a part of The Organization. The man how molested myself and 2 other members of my family would never have gotten as far as he did. It would not have been hidden long enough for my mother to have called me as recent as the past 10 years to get more info on what happened because the issue had arisen again.
If it were not for the 2 witness rule and the "guidance" given by The Governing Body in the "Shepard the Flock" book The elders are only allowed to see... My Father, My Mother, As much as they love us would have put that man face first in Jail. I saw it in his eyes when we talked about it. My father was pissed. He felt, however, his hands were tied.
If not for the influence of MEN, the Governing Body. If not for the influence of The Watchtower Bible And Tract Society. There would be little or no shunning. There would be fewer cover ups of the pedophiles.. A lot would be different. If they would take only the Bible. Read it. Heed Psalms 146:3 That tells us not to put our trust in man, and 1Timothy 2:5 Stating there is one Mediator between God and Man. Would Jesus have allowed a known Pedophile to continue? Would Jesus have sent him off or warned children to stay away? Or would he have allowed these children to remain in the presence of a predator?
This logic does not stick with most people caught in a mentality of fanatical Religious Nature. Choked by Cognitive Dissonance. Seeing a truth that contradicts something that would shake the foundations of a reality that would mean a lifetime of pain and hurt caused by fallacy. A lifetime wasted? A family torn to shreds by a farce a kin to Jones town?
You got to ask yourself. If it got to that point, would you drink the cool aid? Blindly doing what 7 rich men in Brooklyn tell you is what god says is the proper thing. Or a really Rich guy in Italy. Or some rich guy in Iran who tells you to go suicide bomb some building to get your virgins. It's all the same insanity in my eyes. Letting a man or Men put themselves between YOU and YOUR salvation. Exactly what Psalms and 1 Timothy says is wrong.
Now somewhere in the middle of my marriage I stopped voicing my opinion to my family unless asked. I voiced it among people who had the same views. I did not shove My Ideals down their throats. That went well until recently. Now regardless of how little I myself may attack either side. Because some of the people who are in the "group" I am in I have been lumped in with those who are still bitter. The same people like John Cutright who Removed my Posts because they disagreed with his. Because they were logically an answer to his calling me an apologist because I will not say ALL Jehovah's Witnesses are evil because a few bad seeds. On the JW side I am being told I am bitter, angry and evil because the people who comment on my posts are.
Do you see the ridiculous cycle?
Guess what?
Yer right John, I am an apologist. I apologize for intolerant assholes who cannot see in anything but black and white. I apologize for people who hate because they fear what they do not understand I apologize for the waste of space humans on this planet who just really add nothing but negative and unproductive bullshit to the air.
I apologize. For those of us humans who cannot entertain another Idea and realize it does not have to alter our own if we do not want it. But who also do not realize that if that idea presents a truth that maybe it SHOULD alter our view a little.
That is how we grow and learn to be better humans. So, by all means to anyone who feels the need to remain ignorant and lost in a sea of uneducated and one sided fear of the realities of the world. I am sorry that you could not free your mind of the idiocy that put you there. And I do hope one day you can learn to see the world in color. Black and white is so depressing and boring for me.
I love the color in my world:
There's a lot of things about myself I still have yet to discover. This place, helps me dig even Deeper into who I am and where I can go How far I can push Myself before its no longer beneficial. You will find me in many forms moods and places. The Internet satisfies a need in me to have as much color in my life as possible. I spent most of the first years of my life living in black and white. Choked by *Cognitive Dissonance .
When I walked away from that I decided to take in ALL the color I could. I will answer questions concerning this if you wish to know. But it will also come out in conversation often.
Being as The internet is one of the many places I come to for color that means I also check the colors against my own skin tone. Is it something I care to or would like to wear? Unfortunately, however, i also find that some shades do not keep my interest for long. Others are tattooed on me, permanent displays of my own color. This variety of color comes from many sources. People, places, ideals and Emotions. All examples of Color.
So I make myself a canvas here. Color I like rubbing off on me because i get real close to examine it, too close in some cases. Even the hues that i hate and even regret letting someone smear are treasured reminders of what didn't exactly go with my scheme.
So bring your brushes if you wish and lets see if our schemes blend well on the canvas.
