the d.a. letter....
February 23, 2002
Body of Elders, xxxxxxxxxx, MA,
I feel that now is the time to explain certain events of the last year or so, as to how I have come to reach a point when I MUST make a decision.Around November or December of 2000, I came to the conclusion that certain things in my life, deserved, warranted and demanded that I make greater inspection, of, my beliefs, the reasons I worship God the way I have, and my marriage. Being a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses for all my life, I have never even, up till this point, thought of investigating anything beyond the “truth”. The thought that I HAD to make investigation into what I have believed all my life did indeed disturb me. Why should one, as a lifetime member of a religious organization such as The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, feel the need?
Questions. Irresolvable questions. Going back over the many years I have been a “Witness”, especially while a member of the xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, MA, and the xxxxxxx, RI, Congregation, and while having served as a Ministerial Servant, there were certain things I noticed, and observed, and was subjected to, that did indeed make me question what I was involved in. Even feel that maybe “Jehovah Gods Organization” wasn’t everything it was cracked up to be.
The very first issue to place questions in my head was the “dealings” of the xxxxxxxx RI congregation. These were cold, hard hearted people, and I remember sitting talking to my parents, as a teenager, crying and asking what it was about me that made it seem like such a cold and heartless place to go. There was only LOVE shown, if you were, on the “in” with a particular group.
I moved on…. was married and immediately moved to the xxxxxxxxxx congregation. These people at first seemed warm and loving, welcoming me in, as I would have expected. Soon after being appointed a ministerial servant, an issue arose concerning my stepson, UN-NAMED. We approached the elders asking for help. I expected help, as I did not know how to proceed, as I was a young man, now responsible for children. UN-NAMED was immediately disfellowshipped, or marked as was the case at that time, and shunned, as a baptized member would have been if he had been excommunicated. This distressed me. Instead of loving guidance, my stepson was shunned, as an unbaptized member, and had no contact with fellow believers. No effort was made to “help”, just disciplinary actions. This set about a course of events where I felt I could no longer continue to support the congregation in my position. I stepped down and became a rank and file member, content to leave well enough alone, and let Jehovah handle the disgusting conditions I found myself having to associate with.
From that time till the end of 2000 I continued associated, but disturbed. At the end of 2000 I found that I HAD to start searching for the answers to my questions, even while not knowing quite what was wrong, I knew something inside kept telling me, I have to dig deep, and get resolutions to settle for myself my own heart and mind.
Unfortunately what I did get was a healthy taste of “truth”. I hadn’t expected what I found. I liken it to this illustration. If your housekeeper does a good job, and you decide to check up on this person, and pick up the corner of the carpet and nothing is under it, you know that the dirt isn’t going there and the housekeeper is doing their job. However if you pick up the corner of the carpet and find dirt, you know the housekeeper is slacking, and you have caught them in the act. I picked up the corner of the Watchtowers carpet and found dirt. I expected to have to dig deep and been able to say, I can’t find anything, something is wrong with me. I was wrong. Dead wrong.
The first item to cross my path was a website called www.silentlambs.org. At first skeptical that this was “one of those” (Watchtower definition=apostate) sites, I learned that the owner of this site was a baptized Jehovah’s Witness. In fact he was an elder. Still is even as I write this letter. This site helps people who have been sexually abused. It is a support site, with a wealth of information. In it you’ll also find the horror stories of victims. Yes, “Jehovah’s Organization” isn’t so clean. Because you see, silentlambs.org is a support center for abused children and adults, abused by Jehovah’s Witnesses. Of the things you’ll be amazed to find out, are an amazing amount of Elders and Servants who are pedophiles, or sexual deviants, who even after being accused can go on serving in capacity, because of Watchtower rules. Even continue to go “door to door”. You don’t get 2 witnesses to a pedophile crime. Therefore the accused can simply deny, and the victim is told to keep his mouth shut. And so it goes. This is not right. William Bowen, the owner of this site and Silent Lambs, didn’t think it was right either. He has spoken up, loudly. Be prepared for a future DATELINE NBC, featuring Jehovah’s Witnesses and their sexual abuses, and the exposure of the Watchtower Bible and tract society for the covering up of these abuses.
Early in 2001, in my search for “truth”, yes the truth about “Jehovah’s Organization”, I decided I had to read a book. Actually more than one as it turned out. The first book I purchased, was, Crisis of Conscience, by Raymond Franz. I was unaware of this persons existence, his relationship to Jehovah’s Witnesses, or anything about him. What I had hoped after finding out he was a governing body member, was that this would be a good book to provided me with facts, facts I could “take to the bank”. I read the book in one week. It was more that just factual, it was a book written well, with facts, even photocopies of letters and correspondence, which proved beyond a doubt the statements he was making were indeed as presented in the book. Though one would think it would be written as if by someone who had an “ax to grind”, as he is in a “disfellowshipped state”, it was not. He wrote it in a very matter of fact way, telling about his story, and the inconsistency’s he saw in “gods organization.
One instance in this book, provided me with information that I was neither aware of, nor had been published in prior publications of the Watchtower society. It was a comparison between Malawi, and Mexico, and the opposing positions taken by the “world headquarters” of Jehovah’s Witnesses. I was aware of the situation in Malawi, and the fact that “brothers” were persecuted for not buying a political party card, as this would be a violation of Christian neutrality, as defined by “The Watchtower Organization”. What I wasn’t aware of was a situation in Mexico where our “brothers” were actually bribing the local military, and in fact actually enlisting themselves in the Mexican army, in order to receive a “cartilla” …a card which enabled one to perform the daily transactions of life, much as in our own country. Driver’s licenses, passports, and simple things as these could not be obtained without such a cartilla. The reason bribes were being paid by “brothers”, was to avoid the one year mandatory service training in the military, but either way, paying the bribe, or actually serving, the end result was a cartilla saying that you were now enlisted in the army. Truly a contradiction. This is documented in letters dated as far back as 2/4/1960 and 6/2/1960 in which the Mexican branch wrote Brooklyn, and the “Society’s” response to these issues. Again in 8/27/1969 and 9/5/1969 the Mexican branch addressed this issue, and again, the “Society” upheld its contradictory position.
We were told that the brothers in Mexico had been oppressed by the government, so that they could not sing or pray at meetings. We were not told that the Society had registered as a "cultural" organization because religious organizations were not allowed to own property in Mexico. As a "cultural" organization, the brothers were obliged to downplay the religious aspect. The restrictions upon their actions derived primarily from a Society decision rather than government action. By giving up congregational prayer and song and the use of the bible in public witnessing activity, the Organization could retain ownership of Society property in Mexico and operate free from governmental regulations that other religions complied with. They were willing to say that their organization was not a religious organization, that their meetings were not religious meetings, that their witnessing activity was not a religious activity, that baptism was not a religious act—when in every other country of the world Jehovah’s Witnesses were saying just the opposite. All in order to maintain control and ownership, of property and assets.
Also a fact that came to “light” was that the “formula” for determining the end of the gentile times, was NOT something that was “spirit directed”. It was stolen. Borrowed. Adopted. C.T. Russell did this. John Aquila Brown first made the connection to the gentile times and the 2520 years, in 1823. His method converted the seven times into 2520 years in exactly the same way found in Watchtower publications today. This was 29 years before C.T. Russell was born. 47 years before he began his bible study group. And more than 50 years before the book Three Worlds appeared.
Further comparison of past and present Society literature uncovered a tendency to rewrite history, withholding information to make things appear different than they really were. I discovered countless doctrinal shifts -- a grave disappointment to me, since I had assumed our primary beliefs were solid. Perhaps the greatest disappointment was the long list of predictions made by the Society that did not come to pass.
One scripture that can explain why there is so many failed time prophesies made by the Society:
Deuteronomy 18:20-22
20 “‘However, the prophet who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded him to speak or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die. 21 And in case you should say in your heart: “How shall we know the word that Jehovah has not spoken?” 22 when the prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah and the word does not occur or come true, that is the word that Jehovah did not speak. With presumptuousness the prophet spoke it.
October 8,1968 AWAKE
A TIME TO 'LIFT YOUR HEAD' IN CONFIDENT HOPE
"THE DIFFERENCE"
True, there have been those in times past who predicted an "end to the world," even announcing a specific date. Some have gathered groups of people with them and fled to the hills or withdrawn into their houses waiting for the end. Yet, nothing happened. The "end"
did not come. They were guilty of false prophesying. Why? What was missing?
Missing was the full measure of evidence required in fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Missing from such people were God's truths and the evidence that he was guiding, and using them.
Remember 1975? I do. Those were not predictions made by mere average Jehovah’s Witnesses. Fred Franz himself spoke of Armageddon coming in 1975. Wasn’t he…spirit directed?
Also, in the WT 3/1/1965 p,151 Bound Volume it says:
"The best method of proof is to put a prophecy to the test of time and circumstances."
WT 6/15/1974, p.381
"Similarly, the 'false prophet' is not a person, but is a system or an organization."
JW’S in the Divine Purpose, p.63
"Any group or individuals that speak in the name of Jehovah put themselves under obligation to convey his word truthfully."
I could not understand how all this could be so. The Society asserts that it is "spirit directed" -- God's only "channel of communication" at what they say is the most critical time in human history. Considering what I learned of their past, I was forced to ask some hard questions.
We are exhorted to accept, without debate, the current understanding of the Governing Body. We are expected to behave as if they were directly inspired by Jehovah. This applies to matters of prediction as well as to matters in which the Bible is not explicit. These directives are to follow even to the point of death, which is especially distressing in those cases where the Society changes its position a few years later.
Consider…. “The generation of 1914”. For many, many years the Society has pointed to that date, as the starting point of a time prophesy that constitutes the major stimulus to “urgency” in the activity of Jehovah’s Witnesses. That being we would see the end of this system before the generation of 1914 passes.
In 1995, that all changed. Why? Evidently yet another unfulfilled prophesy.
Consider the Watchtower again:
w95 11/1 17 A Time to Keep Awake
Eager to see the end of this evil system, Jehovah’s people have at times speculated about the time when the “great tribulation” would break out, even tying this to calculations of what is the lifetime of a generation since 1914. However, we “bring a heart of wisdom in,” not by speculating about how many years or days make up a generation, but by thinking about how we “count our days” in bringing joyful praise to Jehovah. (Psalm 90:12) Rather than provide a rule for measuring time, the term “generation” as used by Jesus refers principally to contemporary people of a certain historical period, with their identifying characteristics.
Jehovah’s people? Please. These prophesies came from so called inspired, or spirit directed men, not from people like me. Why is the blame for another fail prediction passed onto to the average Witness like it’s his or her fault? Again, refer to Deuteronomy 18:20-22. I’ll say this. Truth is Truth. Whatever was predicted in the bible came to be. It didn’t change. MEN change. And men, specifically those at the worldwide head quarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses, have constantly changed. If this were the “Truth” there would be no change. If this was an organization, truly directed by Holy Spirit, it would not change, have constantly changing predictions, and failed outcomes. There would be no such thing as “past truth” or “present truth”.
In May of 2001, my feelings could no longer be stifled. I had conversation with my wife about some of my concerns. I rather matter of factly told her I did not any longer wish to go to meetings. The response? I was told if I didn’t go to the meetings, I would have to leave. There would be no more marriage.
Though this wasn’t a response I had planned on, it really did set some matters straight. It showed that her love for her husband wasn’t nearly as strong as her love for…a publishing company, an organization of men. This wasn’t the first time we had these words, over the summer we had these same conversations, as I was more and more of the feeling I was involved in a cult and following men, rather than God. And every time we had these discussions, I was told the same thing. If I didn’t attend meetings, I would be ending my marriage. Is this love? Talk like this is a sure sign of a cult, and one being taken over and controlled as such. But wait…it gets worse.
In the fall of 2001, I made a discovery. This discovery was concerning the United Nations NGO/DPI and the Watchtower Society’s PARTNERSHIP. This I documented with a letter to the Society, which the xxxxxxxxxx Congregation, has on file. I gave a copy of this letter to two elders. They were, Brother xxxxxx, and Brother zzzzzzz. I’m not going into what was in that letter here. Read those copies if you wish. In response to that letter, this is what I received:
http://www.geocities.com/plowbitch69/wtresponse.html
You know how concerned I was with this. My wife also knew. I told her I was going to write the society about this. After I came home from the meeting that day, she asked me, “If she still had a husband”? Shocking. I didn’t realize that writing the society and questioning them became a marriage ending offence. Guess I was wrong.
But now I must answer this letter I was sent. Because what you do not know…is the truth of the matter. Though the Societies defense of, they need access to the library seems, on the outside to be “ok”, what is involved here is a deception.
6 million Jehovah’s Witnesses worldwide have been taught by the Governing Body, that they must stay politically neutral. Witnesses must “respect” government such as paying taxes, but they must not show any “support” for government such as joining the military, waving the flag or pledging allegiance to a Charter or Constitution. To knowingly “support” a government Charter or a war would personally cost a Jehovah’s Witness disfellowshipment, death at the soon to come Armageddon and shunning by family and friends in the congregation. Witnesses must take “neutrality” so seriously that they were killed in concentration camps for refusing to join the Nazis. Thousands more were brutally killed or attacked by a Malawi dictator in East Africa during the 1960s and 1970s. Today Witnesses are in prisons for refusing to join mandatory military duty in countries like Greece and Singapore and teased at school for refusing to participate in flag waving.
The Watchtower, considered a Non Governmental Organization (NGO), “voluntarily approached” and applied to the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI) for “associate” status in 1991. According to the DPI’s 1994 brochure, the DPI’s 1999-2000 Directory of all “associated” NGOs and present brochure, “associate” NGOs, such as the Watchtower, would receive a variety of public UN documents, have access to huge amounts of informational sources and could attend special meetings at the UN’s New York head office.
To become an “associate” NGO, the UN Department required the Watchtower, like all NGOs, to voluntarily agree with its criteria. Present criteria and past criteria required the “associated” NGO to voluntarily “support” and “respect” the ideals of United Nations Charter and to prove their support to the UN by distributing and promoting UN documents and activities to their membership. In fact the UN’s Committee Resolutions issued in 1968 and updated in 1996 actually require the “associate” NGOs to “conform” (or obey) to the spirit, purposes and principles of the UN Charter.
Knowingly supporting the UN charter is considered a non-neutral activity that would require the immediate expulsion and shunning of a Witness as outlined in chapter five of the Elder’s Handbook titled “Pay Attention to Yourselves and to All The Flock” published in 1991 by the Watchtower. Yet, it seems the Watchtower has never officially informed its members about what DPI calls a “partnership” and why they were publishing the UN promotional material in Watchtower’s magazines (example - November 22, 1998 edition of Awake!).
According to an 11 October 2001 letter issued by Mr. Paul Hoeffel, Chief of the NGO Section of the UN’s DPI, the Watchtower, as a NGO, applied in 1991 to the DPI and received “accreditation” from a DPI committee by 1992. DPI and other area NGOs also confirmed that “associated” NGOs like the Watchtower must complete and provide DPI with samples of their UN promotional work in an annual report and complete an annual accreditation form in order to keep their “associate” status.
The 1994 and 1999-2000 DPI directories of all NGOs associated with the United Nations show the Watchtower’s name and address along with the names W.L. Barry, Ciro Aulicino and Robert Johnson. W.L. Barry was a former Governing Body member and past Vice President. The Barry name links the approval for the “partnership” with the UN at the highest levels in the Watchtower’s Brooklyn, New York headquarters.
Mr. Hoeffel’s letter also indicated that the DPI had received numerous inquiries about the Watchtower and by October the Watchtower quietly requested their affiliation with DPI to be terminated. On October 9, 2001 the DPI officially “disassociated” the Watchtower. The Watchtower leadership has yet to inform its members about the “disassociation” in any of their publications and creates the impression that they had been caught at something “Gods Organization” should not be involved in!
By October 2001, Guardian newspaper articles by Mr. Steve Bates blew the lid off this in the United Kingdom. In an October 22, 2001 letter to the Guardian, Mr. Paul Gillies, a Jehovah’s Witness Press Officer, admitted to the “membership” but attempted to deflate the articles by suggesting that the Governing Body did not know about the UN Criteria. A November 1, 2001 letter from Watchtower headquarters to its Branches provided similar excuses. Yet the Hoeffel letter, a 1994 UN brochure, a 1999-2000 DPI Directory, two 1992 UN press releases, an “annual accreditation” form that had to be completed and signed by a corporate officer, and the 1968 UN Economic and Social Council resolutions clearly show a different account. An “independent” account proves that the Watchtower had to “voluntarily solicit” the UN, support the ideals of the UN charter and prove their support to the UN by distributing promotional UN literature. Due to the misinformation in the Gillies letter the Guardian has refused to publish the Gillies’ letter.
It also seems the Watchtower’s responses are ignoring the fact that “associate” NGOs must disseminate UN propaganda to their members and to regularly report back to the UN samples of their activities in annual reports. In fact in the first two years of being an “associate” NGO, the Watchtower had to prove their “support” or loyalty to the UN by devoting a portion of their publications to the beast’s agenda and building support for the beast. See the Awake 9/8/1991
So while the Watchtower has been teaching “neutrality”, the UN is an evil beast, other religions wrongly support the beast, and why religious hypocrisy is wrong, the same leadership was also “supporting” and proving their loyalty to this same “evil beast” over the last 10 years. It appears that the Watchtower and its leaders, God’s chosen organization, are doing exactly what they accuse mainstream churches and others of doing in their November 15, 2001 Watchtower magazine.
The human cost of the leadership’s non-neutrality support to Rank and File members is demonstrated in Chapter 7 (Articles 39 to 51) of the UN Charter. Chapter 7, which the Watchtower voluntarily agreed to “support”, provides the United Nations a tool to use military actions and allow a member country to use armed force to defend itself if attacked. It would be compelling to hear the opinions of Witnesses, who follow their leader’s teachings and are jailed in Singapore for military duty refusal or those who died in Africa and Germany, on what their parent organization has done by politically supporting the UN over the last 10 years.
The Watchtower’s British representative, Mr. Gillies, letter as well as a November 1, 2001 Watchtower letter suggested that the “membership” with the United Nations was used to obtain an identification card for the United Nations’ library. According to the Watchtower, the organization needed information that could only be obtained from the United Nations’ library. Yet the access information provided by the United Nations’ library system shows that a person does not need to be an “associate” NGO to obtain all information from the UN library. It is shocking that a Watchtower leadership would “voluntarily” agree to politically “support” a UN charter and sacrifice its own teachings and members all for the sake of a measly library card that it did not need.
The statements made on these last two pages, are factual. I have all the evidence I need to prove it. Do not think I am coming off half-cocked! I have done my homework. I have done the research. I can provide this documentation at anytime or place.
After considering these facts, and the evidence, I am solidly convinced that the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, also known as The Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, is a fraud. I’d like to refer you to Judge Rutherford’s comments for a moment.
"Religion" is therefore properly defined as a belief in and indulging in a form of
worship of some higher power, and which belief is based on the teachings of men
handed down by tradition from one generation to another, and which system of belief or
teaching is induced and put forward by God's adversary the Devil in order to turn men
away from God. For this reason religion is a snare of the Devil.
--SALVATION by J.F. Rutherford (1939) p.35
Religion, being an invention of the Devil, turns men away from God. The people were
long ago warned that religion would ensnare them, and it has ever been so: ...
--SALVATION by J.F. Rutherford (1939) p.151
Referring to publicizing a talk titled "Face the Facts" to be given by Rutherford the following was organized:
A new service begun in 1936 in Newark, New Jersey, was further developed in London.
In advertising the lecture "Face the Facts" not only were placards suspended from the
shoulders of the individual Witnesses for and aft but, additionally, between those
wearing the placards, other Witnesses carried signs fastened to poles. These signs read
alternately "Religion Is a Snare and a Racket" and "Serve God and Christ the King." The
brothers then formed a parade line that was six miles long and walked through the busy
sections of the city passing out handbills as they went advertising the talk.
--JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES IN THE DIVINE PURPOSE (1959) p.145
Religion is indeed a snare and a racket. And Jehovah’s Witness are no different.
It is at this time I wish to make a statement. I, Zev, being of sound mind, do declare that I no longer consider myself as a member of the religion known as “Jehovah’s Witnesses”. I do herby formally and unequivocally disassociate myself from, The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, The Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, The xxxxxxxxxx Congregation Of Jehovah’s Witnesses and any other name this religion is know by or functions under in various states and countries. Further more, you (meaning any agent of the religion known as Jehovah’s Witnesses, be you and Elder or member of any sort) will not pursue me to try to readjust my thinking. I have stated my feeling in writing. They are to be accepted as coming from my own mouth. You also will not pursue my wife, Mrs Zev, with your questions, tribunals, judicial committees, and tactics, with reference to this letter or any decisions stated herein. Violating my wishes as stated here will leave me with no choice but to seek due recompense by the courts of this state.
zev
