"A Safe Harbour," "The Storm Shelter," these were the kind of names I toyed with as I thought about opening up this little corner of my universe. Something that would convey the idea that this was somewhere someone could retreat to when adverse conditions got to much.
I have been more than a quarter of a century one of Jehovah's Witnesses, and this tenure of service came to an end when I left the organisation in 2012. Some would say I was expelled, but I had already come to the conclusion that the religion I had been affiliated with for 25-years-plus was not all that it made itself out to be.
For a while I haven't really been interested in publishing what would be considered, in Witness parlance, an "apostate" website. I do not harbour any animosity or bitterness - not that this is necessarily the driving force of any other anti-Witness website - but I simply did not feel moved at the time to add to the sterling work being done by the likes of jwfacts or jwsurvey, and many others besides.
For one reason or another, however, I now feel differently. One more choice is no bad thing. One more place where those that once were Jehovah's Witnesses, or those that still are, or those that never were, can come and just "hang out." Have a drink, have a cup of green tea - quietly read and pass the time of day. Sit in a darkened corner, in the shadows. It is perfectly understandable that you might not want to be noticed if you are still an active member of your local congregation. This is a place where you are more than welcome. My first outlet - the one that originally got me the old heave-ho - is called A Carpenter from Nazareth. It just seemed in keeping that this little watering hole should be named The Carpenter's Arms. The layout will be minimalist, unfussy, uncluttered.
The one big difference between these two ventures, however, is that the opportunity to comment will be open at The Carpenter's Arms.
The first thing I am going to do is gradually move the several Witness-centric articles from over there to over here, and you can feel free to say whatever you like about them.
Finally, let me be another name and e-mail address you can contact if you feel moved to.
8 comments:
good for you.
Nice work Rory
The domino effect continues..
Chris
Excellent site, Rory! It’s good to have a place for us folks who have been hurt by the Watchtower’s corporate religion to get together for solidarity and to compare battle scars. All of us have been hurt in one way or another by their disingenuous and aggressive proselytizing machine. A safe and friendly retreat such as this is like a welcome breath of fresh air.
Thank you, all, very much. The encouragement is much appreciated.
Hi, saw your post on JWN. I post on www.friendsofjehovahswitnesses.com as "Ask Jacqueline". I will read your full story tomorrow. Just wanted to say hello. I left after 61years, a born in. Telling our story and hearing others helps healing. Wish you success. Jacqueline
I very much enjoy this introduction Rory. It takes all kinds of voices to get the message across. Never think that what you have to say is less important. While the sites you mentioned have done wonders in blasting open doors, sites like this provide the calm after the storm many will appreciate. Best of luck to you!
Rory K. Sullivan: (I assume that is the correct form of your name, based on your user name “rory-ks” on “http://www.jehovahs-witness.net.” I don’t know what the letter “k” stands for.)
I read some of your blogs on “http://the-carpenters-arms.blogspot.ca” and “http://www.acarpenterfromnazareth.com,” specifically “Relax – You’re Already Dead” and “God Is Not God Is Not God . . . ,” and I must say that I found the way you expressed those concepts quite profound! I liked how you explained your somewhat philosophical description of death itself. I can tell that you are a lover of cosmological science and quantum physics (of the Max Planck, Stephen Hawking, Leonard Susskind persuasion). I am also. (Not the fancy mathematics part but the abstract concepts themselves.)
I have always been extremely fascinated, even as a young child, by the idea of an infinite void outside the universe, and what it would be like to be far outside the boundary of the universe and well beyond the range of any photon radiation and just gaze at the infinite black void. (I kind of “marched to a different drummer,” you could say.) Now, however, they say that the big bang was not an explosion in any kind of “classic” sense. I found it most fascinating when Astronomer David J. Helfand of Columbia University and his colleague explained on a National Geographic documentary that the big bang was not an explosion IN space and time but, rather, and explosion OF space and time, and that there was no point in space or point in time existing before the big bang. (There was simply no “when” or “where” before it occurred.) Furthermore, as Carl Sagan explained, space itself is supposedly curved into itself in the fourth dimension of time, so there is no actual boundary to the universe, but at the same time it is still considered to be of a finite volume.
As far as death goes, I think that the most profound and accurate understanding of it can be attained by simply asking a doorknob . . . or a doornail, or a brick if you prefer. Death is simply nonexistence. We can all remember exactly what death was like. Just think back to Tuesday, March 4, in the year 1900. . . . . None of us were born yet. . . . Exactly. It’s roughly analogous to the sound of one hand clapping on itself, or what a person born blind sees with their elbow. . . . Exactly. So, I think this illustrates how we don’t have to fear death – we’ve already been there before!
Cheers.
—DieselMVB@netscape.net
Welcome, Jeni. Thank you for visiting and adding such a positive view.
Deisel, what can I say? That is just the kind of conversation that is wanted around the tables of The Carpenter's Arms. Thank you.
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