I was emotionally ready to fade when I moved to my current location over 3 1/2 years ago. Due to family "encouragement" even over long distance I was soon involved with the local congregation and once again found myself quite involved with the "friends." I was once again regular in FS and MA. I did enjoy the social benefits, too. Nevertheless, the Theocratic Treadmill is tedious, boring, and doesn't even improve one's physical health, unless one counts walking from house to house as a form of exercise. My book study overseer was always trying to get me to go out in FS with him. He and his wife were nice enough people, but it really got on my nerves after a while.
Between family (long distance) and local "friends," it just didn't seem possible to simply drift away. I hate making excuses and just downright lying to people. I stopped attending meetings and ignored invites to FS. A certain "brother" I knew was sincerely concerned about me, so I told him straight out that I just didn't want to be a JW anymore. To be honest, if more of the "friends" were like this "brother," I may have never left. There are indeed some fine people who are Jehovah's Witnesses. Still, I had made up my mind. When this "brother" stopped by with the PO one Saturday morning, I told the PO that I had made my decision. I said that it was not due to any problems with any of the "friends" in the congregation and that I would rather not discuss the reasons for my decision as if they could somehow change my mind. I no longer simply had doubts, I knew for a fact that it isn't, and never was, the Truth TM .
I bluntly told my family via email and then over the phone about my decision. There was no easy way about it. I said that I wasn't going to argue about my decision. An argument (it's never simply a pleasant discussion when it comes to religion, is it?) would leave both sides with hurt feelings and possibly greater emotional road blocks. I tried to make it clear, however, that I was not rejecting them. I had done my research on the organization and the Bible. I gave them a list of reference material that they could read if they wanted to understand how I came to my conclusions. If they do read this material, then we may have a basis for an intelligent discussion. Otherwise, I'm just not interested in dealing with the inevitable case of antiprocess, the logical fallacies, and the rehashed intellectual dishonestly of the WTS publications.
Dave
