To The Jehovah’s Witness Who Mailed Me a Handwritten Letter Last Week

Dear Gertrude,

I received your letter a few days ago, and have spent the ensuing period formulating a response in my mind. That response is ready now.

How dare you?

I can confirm, without the faintest glimmer of a shadow of a phantom of a doubt, that you would not, in fact, “love to see [me] there.” I can assure you that I would not, in fact, be “warmly welcomed.” I can also assure you, with indignation thrumming through my core, that if you were as “interested in [your] neighbors” as you claim to be, you would never have sent this letter to us, nor would you be sending similar letters to anyone else.

I know what happens at Kingdom Hall.

I need you to understand that I do not come to this certainty naively. I was raised Catholic. There is a silver coin commemorating my First Communion in a lockbox in my bedroom closet. I attended Sunday school for years, in two languages, in multiple US states. My parents adorn their walls with Christian iconography, from playful paintings of Noah’s Ark to effusive statues of Jesus on the cross to Bible quotes on plaques. I attended Mormon church functions with my high-school girlfriend and listened to classmates and colleagues invoke God’s providence to guide their decisions and buoy their hopes. I have survived dozens upon dozens of holiday dinners prefaced with de facto sermons and with thanks to God for the family’s health, prosperity, and peace. I have watched my parents in mourning over and over, consoling themselves with the thought that my grandfather and great uncles and grandmother were now, after long illnesses, in a better place. There is a shrine in my parents’ bank devoted to La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, one of the patron saints of my people. I am intimately, personally acquainted with several varieties of Christianity, and they defined not just my own youth, but my spiraling path through the Christian-dominated societies that have surrounded me ever since.

Those religions abused me. Christianity, in its infinite grace and wisdom, declared my desire for truth and logic a sinful vice. Christianity declared that I was a failure of a child, in need of divine forgiveness, for any moment of defiance or even hesitation between me and my parents. Christianity declared my parents righteous for using a belt, however sparingly, in their quest for my compliance. Christianity told my parents that God smiled on their authoritarian, narcissistic patterns and would reward them for maintaining them. Christianity told my parents that transgender people are fake, broken, tragic, and Satanic and that it is horrible and sad to be associated with them. Christianity told my parents that gay people are not “real” members of their gender and their relationships deserve no acknowledgement or approval. Christianity told my natal country that what other people want for a uterus counts more than what its owner wants. Christianity told my country that anything joyful that isn’t itself Christian is a sinful distraction and aimed us all at endless toil and adulation of the wealthy in the process. Christianity told my country that people who want to make sure their children grow up distrustful, angry, and ignorant of basic science should be respected for their “faith” instead of opposed for their child abuse. Christianity told my country that people who sequester their children in basements, collect them as harem-wives for sect patriarchs, and automatically mistrust anyone who would want to date them, are living out Christ’s (actually Paul’s) vision of Godly order, or maybe trying a little too hard, rather than being obviously, unforgivably wrong. Christianity told my natal country that trans people are worth murdering in enormous numbers and gay people should be denied the right to be at their loved ones’ bedsides as they lay dying.

Christianity sailed across the Atlantic and shattered my people so thoroughly that our old language is lost forever, even to historians, and it has been our trial to grow, rebuild, and remake ever since.

I fled all of that, thousands of kilometers, a lifetime away. I got out, because I knew what my choices were: my life, honest and analytic and scientific and transgender and lesbian, surrounded by people who know and love me and not the Christian lie my parents wanted me to pretend to be, in a place where I have rights and options…or a one-line obituary under a name that isn’t mine.

You say your Kingdom Hall would “love to see [me] there.”

Where I am, that is not a welcome. That is a threat.

You are not the first Jehovah’s Witness to visit yourself upon me. I have encountered your ilk lurking near drug treatment clinics and bus stations, trying to ensnare the desperate and hopeless. I have seen, closely, how your cult pretends at love and acceptance to drag people inside and then tells them to put all trust, every trust, in Jehovah, accepting every bit of abuse the cult can inflict and encourage as something else to escape through faith alone. I have seen your cult demand that children subjected to neglect and violence accept their lot as a trial from God and refuse to cooperate with police to bring their abusive parents and cult-mates to justice. I have seen your cult hide child molestation rather than admit that your God is either totally inadequate or irredeemably evil, to permit such a thing to happen at all. I have seen your cult demand that people devote so much time to evangelism that their careers and family lives disintegrate. I have seen your cult encourage people to sever ties with anyone outside it, until the Kingdom Hall is all they have left, because then you have them forever. I have seen what your cult has to say about gay and transgender people, and it is everything I fled my old home to escape.

Do you still imagine that your Kingdom Hall would welcome me, Gertrude, now that you see who you invited inside? Would you still “love to see” me there as an out, proud, atheist, antitheist, transgender lesbian with an encyclopedic recall of your cult’s crimes against humanity and nothing but rage for how emotional and physical abuse is the only way that it knows how to operate? Do you?

You likely think I hate you, Gertrude. You’ve almost certainly already defaulted to that idea, that what I offer in this letter is merely the persecution your cult leader lovingly promised you to prevent you from seeing the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ detractors for what they are. I don’t hate you, Gertrude.

I pity you.

And I hope you see the den of monsters that has ensnared you for what it is, and make your own escape. I hope you find a supportive, compassionate, understanding place to land when you do make that escape. I hope, in your “genuine interest” in your neighbors, you’ll show some curiosity into our experiences, and come to understand how toxic to us so many of the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ precepts really are. I hope you’ll find yourself saddened by your former involvement with these people, and gratified by being in a position to now, newly informed, do some real good in this world.

That’s what I’ve been trying to do, in my small way: some real good, for real people. Helping friends navigate their way out of their own abusive situations. Passing what little money I can to friends who need it more than I do. Writing for others’ benefit, to share my knowledge and insight with the world. Investigating deep and hard problems with tools unavailable to others, because I can, and because the world benefits when I do. Sharing my experiences with those about to embark on similar journeys, to help them skip my missteps. Making sure the advice I give people is good, useful advice that corresponds to reality, rather than a hideous error like “please attend a Jehovah’s Witness meeting.”

I will not be visiting my abusers. I will not be visiting a group even more emotionally destructive than my abusers even knew how to be. I will not once more pretend to be someone I am not for others’ benefit. I will never, ever imagine that who I am is something I should hide, suppress, or feel shame over, and I will never, ever encourage anyone else toward that sadness. I will not be shutting down the analytic faculties and hard-earned expertise that make my mind what it is in order to secure a place in a group that values conformity with rules over knowledge and exploration of this actual world.

I respect myself too much to destroy what I have spent 29 years building by chasing approval I cannot earn and, if I’m being honest, I don’t actually want.

My future is ahead of me, Gertrude, laid out in pride flags and lab coats and everything else your cult would have me abandon.

And it will not include you contacting me again. I will consider any reply to this letter from you as harassment unless it features an apology for presuming that I could find your cult anything but abhorrent and an invitation to visit it as anything but a request for me to open myself back up to what I upended my entire life to escape.

May the future be kinder to you than people like you have been to me.

 

Most sincerely,

Alyssa

Alyssa wearing a dress with a bare-tree print and strappy sandals, perched on rocks on a riverside, looking down at fish.
Someone you will never own, doing what she loves.
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To The Jehovah’s Witness Who Mailed Me a Handwritten Letter Last Week
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19 thoughts on “To The Jehovah’s Witness Who Mailed Me a Handwritten Letter Last Week

  1. 2

    May I ask what hope do you have for the future ? I’m being sincere in asking.

    It sounds as if you’ve ruled out all religions?

    After reading this I feel really bad. I’ve sent letters like this also.

    I’m not Gertrude, nor do I speak for her, but I believe her intention was not to cause you any grief.

    I hope you find what you are looking for. I’m Sorry

  2. 3

    Wow. I’m sorry if you have had bad experiences with religion, but this letter reads as if your anger is all consuming, and in danger of taking over your entire life. Maybe if you say that you want to help people you need to focus on positive feelings and not allow yourself to dwell on this hate that you have. I’m sure Gertrude meant no hurt by writing that letter; it’s certainly not worth an explosion like this. If I got a letter like that it would go in the bin, end of story. I think your view is warped because of blinding hatred and anger. In the same way that, as a gay man I expect people to be open minded towards me and to show no prejudice, I am open minded towards people’s faiths without prejudice. You should be too. Gertrude and her colleagues are all people too after all.

  3. 4

    You know. You are a pretty awful person. You hate Christians, but just because a loving sister invites you to her church you attack her and say her religion is a cult? Get a life Alyssa. Explain what is EVIL about JW.ORG. Go to the website and find something. You’ve been mislead… Catholicism is evil- priest raping children is EVIL. But People trying to study the bible and living it to the T is not evil.

  4. 5

    Hi Alyssa. I ran across this response because I was trying to figure out how the JW’s got mine and my husbands address to send us (of all people we are mental health counselors) a letter about how covid 19 has affected the mental well being of many people and inviting us to their hall. Attached to the letter was, of course, the usual pamphlet. Honestly, I was offended to receive the letter. I, nor my husband, is christian and have no intention of becoming any form of christian. I just want to know how they got our home address and names. I found it distasteful that they would force their views on us, and an invasion of my privacy that they got our names and address. I didn’t sign up to receive their solicitations. I loved your response and unlike some others who have responded I see no anger here. Just the cold hard facts.

  5. 6

    Alyssa, your letter was powerful. Thank you for sharing. It takes immense strength & introspection to communicate so deeply. I also received a handwritten letter a couple weeks ago & mailed my response today [pasted below]. Critics love being critics and often cannot understand what they haven’t experience. I fully support you & share a similar past as you. Stay strong & thanks again!
    ———————————————————————-

    Mike & Danielle,

    We received your letter a few weeks ago and appreciate that you have followed the current social distancing requirements. However, a letter and/or a visit is still an invasive solicitation, so we respectfully ask you to remove us from your organization’s lists. The letter, despite your best intentions, has had a negative impact for the following reasons:

    1.) This is not the “Hendren family.” My roommate and I share this address, it is naively presumptive that complete strangers have drawn unwarranted conclusions about people that they do not know.

    2.) I was raised as an evangelical Christian for 18 years by abusive, negligent parents and have spent the last 13 years of my life overcoming the trauma and damage inflicted upon me by that situation.

    I no longer practice “living by faith,” but I am well-versed in theology, religion, and conversionary tactics. I am open-minded enough to acknowledge that you could be right, but I actively push back against those who attempt to convert desperate or vulnerable children and adults to oppressive faiths that speak in absolutes and certainties. With what I have learned in the past decade, I have found it dangerously irresponsible and harmful to do so. I am a writer and podcaster and discuss these topics often, presenting alternatives to helping others without the reliance of arbitrary religions and middle-men.

    All the best,
    David H. & Ashley F.

  6. 7

    Hello Alyssa,
    I wish I had your eloquence. Absolutely love your letter. Like Pauline above I was doing a search to try to figure out if there was some way to block this garbage. We have just received a 4th letter from this cult, all from different people. I believe they must be using public records from counties as one of the letters came to our vacation home address. My husband had enough and penned a not so eloquent response to “knock it off” in so many words. People will say “oh just throw the letter away”, “what’s the harm?”. Well I do not sit down and write to strangers about my beliefs or lack there of trying to convince them they should see things the way I see them. We have a relative that tried to push religion, prayed for us etc. My husband tried multiple times in a respectful manner to ask the e-mail forwards, constant overbearing religious messages etc to stop. It finally stopped after he responded very harshly one day. This was met with confusion and upset. He pointed out “Do I send you things that tell you to stop believing in your god? Do I send you articles and forwards telling you how wrong you are?” No I don’t, so have some mutual respect and stop trying to do the same thing to me.
    Again thanks for your fantastic response to Gertrude. The very best to you.

  7. 8

    Alyssa, I am sorry for your pain and hope you never have to deal with any one that treats you as anything less than a valuable part of this human family. I am and have been for many years one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, that said I don’t belive that all who say they are or even all who are baptized are Christian and I know that the Bible does not teach what most religions live by.
    I will not preach or try to change you or your mind I respect so much your viewpoint and love that you stand up for your belief.
    We do not require that you read the letter we send throw it out if you feel the need but we do believe as the Bible says that we have to do this work whether it is excepted or not.
    Again I am sorry for your pain past and present and would never do anything to cause you more.

    1. 8.1

      I appreciate your apology. Cure your affiliation of its violent child-abuse apologia, antipathy toward gayness and transness, and other miscellaneous crimes, and we will have more to say to each other.

  8. 9

    Ok, what I understand is your against to JW, not because they are negative to hurt people and steal objects from people which is obvious negative, even to world people, but more subtle negative that is your heart which connect your desire to be Lesbian or so, which JW is against that so that is why you are against JW because you will be shame into removing the desire of lesbian which you want, so you will hate what you love, so ya don’t want that, so ya love what you love, right? Basically it is your desire that is against JW?? You say JW values conformity with rules than rules over knowledge and exploration of this actual world, which connect to knowledge and exploration of this actual world which lead to a desire that you want which you know to be true, so you don’t want limit knowledge but expanding knowledge in connect to explore of this world that benefit you?? Well, it is same as your parent or caretaker that give you rule that shape you a person which you have a rule within you that you act a certain way like you don’t do bad things like stealing or killing, or whatever, so you have rule within you, so your statement knowledge as a primary over rule is a contradict since the knowledge will set rule within you or you have rule within you so you act correctly to new knowledge which the knowledge will not be destroy that is extend of knowledge to other person, like Lesbian, so feel connect to other girl but not something negative that is to kill another girl, an example so you understand my point, so a rule that has love, so rule of love. But of course ya will say JW is against lesbian so doesn’t love lesbian, right?? So, it is limiting to you so not expanding as should be??

    1. 9.1

      Your sentences verge on incoherent and I find you tiresome before I even begin, but I’ll play with you anyway because I could use someone like you to bat around for a while. It sounds like you think churches’ anti-gay and anti-trans rules and actions are expressions of their love, meant to steer people onto the “right” path and away from their “wrong” desires. You also think this is related to the fact that scientists are curious about and actively investigating how the world works but religions like the Jehovah’s Witnesses actively discourage that kind of investigation in favor of blindly accepting doctrine is somehow related to this.

      The thing is, anti-gay and anti-trans attitudes aren’t “right.” Jehovah’s Witnesses and a lot of other Christian and Muslim groups say they are, and they’re wrong. Those attitudes are evil, and I will not indulge anyone who claims otherwise. Furthermore, seeing oneself as a parent or other sort of leader guiding people toward “right” doesn’t excuse evil ideas like being anti-gay or anti-trans, and I won’t indulge that kind of abuse apologetics here, either.

      It is only the sheer incoherence of your words that has me not completely certain you’re a bigoted ignoramus who isn’t worth even this much of my time. Kindly prove me wrong.

      Also, all comments are held for moderation in this space until I find them. Mostly because of spammers, but also because of people like you.

  9. 10

    JW.org followers get your info from city property tax data files along with your phone number.
    Hint: write a fake ph#
    List a real/fake Corp instead of your full name or
    abbreviate first name with initial.
    (P. Smith) name on address
    get P O Box#
    Put a circle with a red stripe thru it
    Write “NO JW.ORG inside circle.
    Place a picture of the Virgin Mary or a cross at tour door ( works on the vampires…JW.org=Same thing!!)) Lol😆

    1. 10.1

      I was renting at the time and the letter was not personally addressed. I won’t be displaying Christian iconography at any time. I’m not sure what the rest of your suggestion is supposed to even mean, but I’m not worried about them getting inside my new home and I’ll have some choice words for them if they try. Thank you for the advice.

  10. 11

    Alyssa,
    I also have been receiving hand written letters from Jehovah witness people here at my home, addressed to me personally.
    These bigots have no idea who I am.
    I am also a
    transgender woman.
    I really don’t care for bigots sending hand written letters to me in a country that is on the verge of making my existence a crime. Thank you for brilliant post. Ps. I will fight to the death to save us from the sick twisted evil Christians sending us to Nazi Christian death camps. I am a United States military veteran. I am not easy to kill. There have been half a dozen attempts to murder me in my home town of Chicago. I don’t live there anymore.

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