Overcame a Cycle of Hatred
Titus was a member of a violent gang that was outraged by oppressive segregation laws. He says: “We would go to places in town where black men were not welcome, such as hotels and bars, just to provoke fights.” Titus acknowledges that he was driven by hate, and he adds: “If I got into an argument with anyone, man or woman, I would always be the one to strike the first blow.”
Titus began to change when he started to study the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses. When he read the Bible, it had a powerful effect on him. He was especially moved by the promise of a future world where “death will be no more, neither will mourning, nor outcry nor pain be anymore.”—Revelation 21:3, 4.
At first, Titus struggled to let go of the hatred in his heart. “It was very difficult to change my way of thinking and acting,” he says. But he was helped by what he learned from Acts 10:34, 35, which describes God as being impartial.
What was the result? Titus explains: “I became convinced that Jehovah’s Witnesses practice the true religion when I saw the love evident among them, no matter what their race or color. Even before I was baptized as a Witness, a white member of the congregation invited me to his house to share a meal. It was like a dream. I had never before sat down peacefully with a white person, let alone shared a meal in his home. Now I was part of a genuine international brotherhood.”