Larry:
<Perhaps former members are still trying to work through things that deeply affected them decades ago and are still unresolved. I know I’ve had communication with many where the wounds are still fresh 30 years later – you would think they had left weeks ago instead of decades ago.>
My wife mentioned to me the other day that we've actually been out of TLWF for close to 20 years. Some days it feels like 20 years, a relatively distant memory, other days as though we left "weeks ago." The conditioning from being constantly monitored and controlled--and the subsequent difficulty, once we left, of trusting anything or anyone--is deep. That said, we've made significant strides since leaving that mess, and never have we had any doubt it was the right decision. As I predicted to my wife after it became apparent to the church we were going to leave ('96), the professions of "love" from leadership would come through...and once that proved ineffective, ominous predictions (threats) of what would happen to our lives once to chose the "rebellious path." It didn't sway us--thank God.
<Perhaps former members are still trying to work through things that deeply affected them decades ago and are still unresolved. I know I’ve had communication with many where the wounds are still fresh 30 years later – you would think they had left weeks ago instead of decades ago.>
My wife mentioned to me the other day that we've actually been out of TLWF for close to 20 years. Some days it feels like 20 years, a relatively distant memory, other days as though we left "weeks ago." The conditioning from being constantly monitored and controlled--and the subsequent difficulty, once we left, of trusting anything or anyone--is deep. That said, we've made significant strides since leaving that mess, and never have we had any doubt it was the right decision. As I predicted to my wife after it became apparent to the church we were going to leave ('96), the professions of "love" from leadership would come through...and once that proved ineffective, ominous predictions (threats) of what would happen to our lives once to chose the "rebellious path." It didn't sway us--thank God.