In 1965, I was in a hospital in Ogallala, Nebraska.
It was there that I met a very special nurse.
In the months that followed, we dated and I fell in love with her.
Her name was Rose.
Because of her religion, we couldn’t go to the movies, hang out with the other kids, play cards, or go dancing, nor do all the other fun things I was used to doing on a date.
Just what do two people do when you can’t do anything else?
It was a problem. She lived with two sisters who were Truthers, and I lived with two brothers. Both of the apartments were very small so we couldn’t go to each others’ place for fun. So, we ended up riding around and talking.
We had very long talks……..much of which I couldn’t understand.
I knew her religion was wrong, but I loved her anyway.
She knew I couldn’t go along with the “Truthers,” but she loved me also.
So, she never forced her religion on me, and I never pushed the subject either.
It didn’t do any good when I did as she didn’t believe in a good discussion and called it an argument.
Of course, it wasn’t, but that is how it was.
What really made me doubt Rose’s religion was what I knew about history.
What she told me about her religion did not correspond with what I knew to be facts about history.
Well, on July 2, 1965, we got married by a justice-of-the-peace. Just after we got married, something strange happened to Rose.
She started to get very emotional on me. She cried a lot for no apparent reason.
I would ask her what the matter was and she would say, “I don’t know, I just feel like crying.” It was after she left the “Truthers” in 1990, that she was able to tell me what her problem was. Twenty-six years later, after the bondage was lifted, she was able to tell me that she had been told she was “unequally yoked” (II Corinthians 6:14) with an unbeliever and because of this, they made her stop taking part in meetings.
This devastated her emotionally and spiritually.
All that time, she had to bear that burden all by herself as no one in the church was there to help her. As for me, I thought she felt she had made a mistake in getting married to me, and she was unhappily married.
Prior to getting married, I went to a Black Hills convention in May, 1965.
What I heard and saw did not make me happy.
On Sunday, I was going to leave Rose and the “Truthers” forever.
I was so angry!!!
I got in my car after having a few words with Rose and would you please believe this, the car would not start!!!
This car was a 1963 Chevy super sport. No reason for it not to start. After Rose and I talked some more, we left the convention grounds together.
Why do you suppose the car did not start???
We now both believe that God had something special in store for us, and that “HE” was on duty that day.
I also went to a few Gospel Meetings. I was never turned on by their preaching. What really made me angry was the way the used and abused Rose. Like the times they came and sat at our table and ate our food but couldn’t help her in the least. It appeared to me that they just didn’t want her happy.
Happiness was forbidden.
Life was something to be endured.
They did not want her to associate with anybody outside of their group, especially me. I felt they thought I wasn’t good enough for Rose.
As far as I knew, Rose was completely happy with her religion.
Because that was all she ever knew, she had nothing to compare her life to.
She was a very faithful girl. She always went to meetings and she always read her Bible.
She never explained any reason for her unhappiness and never complained to me about anything in her church that would make her so unhappy. Today, I look back and wonder how we ever survived our marriage for those 26 years.
Rose left the “Truthers” in 1990, making the last four years worth all the grief I went through.
Rose and I agree on almost all subjects. Rose can now talk about most anything and her feelings and reasons for feeling are understood by both of us. That was not the way it was when she was a “Truther.”
Two years after we got married, we had a daughter and two years later, we had a son. Rose always took the children to meetings with her. I never wanted to cause a conflict. I’m sure our marriage would have been dissolved if I had. Neither child professed. Looking back now, I’m sure the children’s teenage years would have been more pleasant had they been allowed the freedom I knew they needed.
I grew in in Pochontas, Virginia and in my early years, I went to a Baptist church and it was there that I learned most of what I knew about God. I went to Sunday School also. I was surprised that Rose never went to Sunday school.
Even with my limited knowledge of the Bible, I always felt that Rose’s church was weird.
In the back of my mind, I felt it had an origin from the Quakers. I spent a lot of time in research in the library. Hours and hours but to no avail.
I couldn’t find anything. I also always felt that they started around the turn of the century, because of their hair-dos, dress, etc. With her religion, there was nothing written down to find. Plenty about the other churches, though. I really wanted so much to prove to Rose that her church had a beginning and that it had a person who was head of it, and that it had some organization.
All of which she denied.
Also, Rose was unable to answer some very basic questions about her church. I felt even more frustrated than I ever dared to admit.
However, I did not give up looking for answers.
Then, one day in 1983, I saw an article in our newspaper………it was in there one day only.
It said I could write for a book about “The Secret Sect.”
I felt it had to be about Rose’s church.
I sent for the book, I read it and they had proof of everything I read.
Newspaper articles from Ireland, everything was researched for 30 years by Doug and Helen Parker of Australia.
OK, now I had the proof, but how would it be accepted and what would she do with the information???
When I told her about it two weeks later, she said she wanted to read it. I made it very clear to her that the book was mine, and if she loaned it out to anybody, she had better get it back!!!
I really was afraid the workers would destroy it.
Rose’s reaction was one of discovery. She said, “I know this person or that person.” She loved the pictures of the workers. Yes, it WAS about the “Truthers.”
I wasn’t surprised that she didn’t leave the “Truthers” right away. I had accomplished my mission. That was to show Rose that her church did indeed have a beginning.
Now, the ball was in her court.
It took Rose 7 years to leave the “Truthers.”
If I had the knowledge I have today, I’m sure I could have done things that would have helped her get out sooner. My main interest then was to keep my family together.
I also felt that once I gave her the information about the “Truthers,” the rest was up to her.
She succeeded at getting out and it was worth the wait.
George Medich
March 1, 1995
(Posted in the “Forward Press” in the summer of ‘95.)
