Read his story in the Maine Times [text version] Maine Times
May 24 - May 30, 2001
‘Nobody likes Jehovah's Witnesses except other Jehovah's Witnesses'
Danny Haszard is a third-generation Jehovah's Witness. He grew up believing the end of the world was just around the corner. Worldly concerns were unimportant - getting braces on his teeth, accepting his developing sexuality, finishing high school and even treating his ulcerative colitis took a back seat to the sureness of the rapture ahead. But a few years back, Haszard began to question the teachings of his church, and he ultimately left the spiritual community altogether. Since then, he says, he's been shunned; he thinks his mother died recently in Florida, but he has been unable to make contact with church members or his family. "Basically, I got voted off the island because I didn't sell enough Watchtowers," he says. Now, angry, sick and on a mission, he stages a one-man picket on a noisy corner across from Bangor’s City Hall.
On a sunny morning shortly before Mother's Day, we sat on a wooden bench and talked as the traffic roared by.
Maine Times: I don't know much about Jehovah's Witnesses. They come to my door once in a while and talk with me about my religious beliefs.
Danny Haszard : Let me guess. You know they don't give blood and they don't celebrate Christmas and that's about it, right? Which is the great paradox, because they claim that they are the evangelists of the world, but for all the preaching and teaching they do, practically nobody knows anything about their teachings.
Q: After a lifetime of Jehovah's Witness.........