Excaliber needs our patience and prayers. He is very depressed and has made several attempts to contact the Catholic Church and make friends unsuccessfully. (Search some of his other threads) He doesn’t understand why God would allow him to be in more or less a cult for so long. Almost all of his family members are either JWs or Seventh Day Adventists, and so are virulent anti-Catholics. In fact, as a former JW, he has to sneak to Mass, because if it was found out that he had left the JW’s, he would be permanently “disfellowed” and shunned by virtually all of the family and friends he has. They would be basically forbidden from talking to him or contacting him. Because the JW’s believe the end is coming in our lifetime, people are encouraged to spend all of their time prosyletizing, since saving souls in these last days is most critical. Charity was irrelevant, since the second coming would be in a few years. People are discouraged from higher education and marriage, and so Excaliber never developed any serious relationships, and has no education to fall back on for a job. He only discovered the truth after working at the JW headquarters in New York, and found, after all of his years of service, devoting almost 24 hours a day to his faith, that he was thrown out of his living accomodations with no warning and no place to go. He also discovered plenty of hypocricy and corruption there. Since he now lives with a family member, if anyone found out, he could be thrown out of his own home onto the street. The JWs are ALL about the organization, and are very tight-knit. You are made to feel welcome, you are immediately brought into the organization, and you are quickly paired up with people to make the JWs your social and religious network. Catholicism, in many ways, is the polar opposite of the JWs. (Not to mention that the JW’s are non-Trinitarian). When Excaliber has gone to Catholic Churches, he has generally been ok with the experience, but no one at the church door welcomed him, asked if he was new, or directed him to resources for newcomers interested in the faith. He has been unable to contact the (likely) severely overworked priest at the parish. Any attempt to show interest in converting to Catholicism has required him to jump through a multitude of hoops just to get anything started (so far). The idea of staying after Mass for “coffee and doughnuts” to meet people in many ways seems foreign and almost offensive to him. The JWs would have a multitude of organized religious activities that EVERYONE would participate in, not just a few. (Not to mention that almost everyone in the JWs is highly active in their faith, whereas there is a huge range of participation and belief among Catholics). He is also a fairly shy person by nature, and about the only African-American at his parish. (He knows NO ONE that is Catholic, besides those of us here online.) Everything that he has known is his life religiously has been turned upside-down, and he’s having difficulty coping. Is it a wonder that he is depressed and frustrated?
Before we get too hostile, angry, or frustrated with Excaliber, I thought that it was important that we all know where he’s coming from.
