Diary Of A Gay Exit

Could It Be From.....Satan???

sacsmt2@yahoo.com (Scott Terry) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 02:32:09 +0000

Just the other day, I was reading a Freemind's post from a reader who was having a difficult time with leaving The Truth. Karen wrote a really beautiful comment in response to Josh's story about growing up as a gay Witness. She wrote about feeling lonely, and how her life is filled with depression and how she has become a ghost of her former self as she struggles to leave the Witnesses behind, and her story reminded me of why I need to write this blog. It just seems important to help struggling people by giving them the assurance that life gets better when you get out of The Truth. It really does. Trust me.

Merry Christmas

sacsmt2@yahoo.com (Scott Terry) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 03:45:24 +0000

So here we are at Christmas, 2009. It's been exactly one year since I wrote my first blog for Freeminds.org, and it's time for reflection. And I understand that one of the primary agendas for this particular holiday is to be thankful and gracious and kind to others --- or so I've been told. I didn't celebrate Christmas when I was in The Truth, obviously, and this holiday has never become a significant part of my adult life, either. But today, I am going to focus on what I think might be some good aspects of The Truth. Something they might have given to me, and something for which I am appreciative, because that is a requirement of this day.

Is The Truth a Cult?

sacsmt2@yahoo.com (Scott Terry) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:54:39 +0000

When my sister returned to The Truth many years ago, my favorite grandma was ticked. She’s now dead, but when alive, Grams would have considered herself to be a front-row Baptist. When my sister went back to our childhood religion -- the Witnesses -- Grams said, “I don’t know why she wants to get mixed up with that cult!”

A few weeks ago, I found myself thinking about my grandmother’s comment while sitting in the audience at the annual conference of A Common Bond. That’s the group devoted to homosexual ex-Witnesses, and the lead speaker was J. Todd Ormsbee, a sociology professor from San Jose State. Don’t ask me what the J. stands for, because I forgot to ask him. He’s a brainiac from Brigham Young University, via the state of Utah, and he says lots of brilliant things you’ve never thought of and uses words like counter-hegemony. Yeah I know, I had to look that up myself.

A Gay Exit, and I'm Not Bitter

sacsmt2@yahoo.com (Scott Terry) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:47:31 +0000

Last year, I was finishing the final edit of my book and began to doubt some of what I had written about my childhood in The Truth. That's normal, I think, to have doubts about the accuracy of your memories, especially when you're about to launch them for the rest of the world to read. I began wishing that I had kept more of my old Witness publications for documentation because I thought my story would sound bitter if I didn't substantiate what I wrote.

Birthday Misgivings

sacsmt2@yahoo.com (Scott Terry) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 05:43:54 +0000

Not once in my adult life have I ever felt saddened by my lack of childhood birthday presents. Not once. Worldly people who didn't grow up in The Truth have the hardest time understanding that and imagine that I must feel a tremendous amount of anguish over missing out on birthday cakes. Their take on things is usually, "Oh how sad! How terrible it would be to not have birthday or Christmas celebrations!"

"Masturbation Can Lead to Homosexuality"

sacsmt2@yahoo.com (Scott Terry) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 04:08:07 +0000

The Jehovah's Witnesses offered this conclusion when they published the Youth Book in 1976. I was twelve and I believed every word they wrote.

Bringing Reproach on Jehovah's Name...

sacsmt2@yahoo.com (Scott Terry) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:47:51 +0000

A few years ago, a Jehovah's Witness congregation not far from me was sued for aiding and abetting child abuse. The story was on the national media radar and I read about the case several times in my local newspaper. I didn't think much of it, until I realized that my father could possibly be involved in the case. I can't even begin to tell you how ironic that was, to know that my own father could have any level of participation in this case as it unfolded in the courts.

Happy Converts - Part III

sacsmt2@yahoo.com (Scott Terry) — Fri, 08 May 2009 01:27:27 +0000

So I have one more story to tell about converting people to The Truth, and then I'll move on to another topic. My Aunt Donnis contracted breast cancer in 1996. She was a worldly person and unfortunately, she died a year later. She was my strongest supporter after I left The Truth and went to college - defying everything I had been taught as a Witness. We were very close and she's the first person I came out to as being gay.

Happy Converts - Part II

sacsmt2@yahoo.com (Scott Terry) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 03:34:21 +0000

My father once told me about the day when he became a Witness. He wasn't in the best frame of mind to make that kind of decision, if you ask me. He was poor. He didn't have an education beyond high school and he had no employment skills, unless you count herding cattle. He joined the Witnesses when he was 22, not long after my mother divorced him. He took custody of their two babies and his life was on a path to nowhere...until the Witnesses rescued him.

Are Jehovah's Witness Converts Ever Happy?

sacsmt2@yahoo.com (Scott Terry) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 04:06:39 +0000

So this is what I am wondering today. Do happy people ever become Jehovah's Witnesses? I mean seriously, do happy and successful folks ever encounter the JW message and buy into the whole thing?

A holy rite of passage….

sacsmt2@yahoo.com (Scott Terry) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 04:03:50 +0000

So I was reading Mark Hunter’s blog about the Memorial Service, and it got me to thinking about my childhood as a Witness and wondering if my experience was unique. I remember the Memorial Service as being a really significant day, close to being considered “holy” except that we would have never used that term --- it sounded too much like all the other churches we were trying not to be.

A letter from Satan

sacsmt2@yahoo.com (Scott Terry) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 05:15:27 +0000

My Aunt Karen was crazy. I can say this for two reasons, the first being that she is now dead, and the second being that she was in fact crazy.

Pioneering dreams.....

sacsmt2@yahoo.com (Scott Terry) — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 05:58:36 +0000

In my last post I said I wasn't angry about my experience as a Witness, but that's not entirely true. I can get angry very quickly. Not in a past-tense sort of way, but in a real-life-this-is-how-it-affects-me-today sort of way. I get angry every time I talk with my sister and listen to her subtle and not-so-subtle reminders that she no longer approves of me ever since she became a believer in Jehovah.

A Gay Exit from The Truth

sacsmt2@yahoo.com (Scott Terry) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:19:41 +0000

So I am writing my first blog entry on Christmas Day, 2008. There’s an irony in there somewhere, but I don’t know what it is. Christmas has no significance for me, other than a long holiday to relax and eat turkey. In fact, the vast majority of my gay friends are atheist or agnostic at best.