To
whom it may concern,
I
have noticed the watchtower and awake article you left in the cafeteria and
would like to take the time to share some thoughts with you.
Over
the years, while interacting with various Jehovah’s Witnesses, I have become
increasingly concerned by my findings to such an extent that I am now troubled
by the mere sight of JW publications here, at my workplace.
I
understand that your desire is simply to help others by sharing your beliefs.
After all, who would, in their right mind, say no to eternal life on a paradise
earth? However, this promise falls apart when JW teach that all of their
beliefs and practices must be accepted as a whole in order to reach salvation.
The
organization and its teachings being imperfect is, from time to time, subject
to adjustments and “new light”. This creates a serious problem for one of its core
practices: Shunning members who disassociate or are expelled.
In
short, once you get baptized, regardless if you are 8 or 80 years old, you can
never change your mind in regards to Jehovah’s Witnesses being the only true
religion. If you do, you will lose contact with your friends and family. This
practice is extremely hurtful, especially to young ones who may very well lose
their entire social circle, family and friends. Most will experience a period
of clinical depression from which, some unfortunately never come back.
Try
this: List the people you and your friends know to be disfellowshiped. You will
likely be surprised by the count. Statistics show that for every 7 JWs, there
is one disfellowshiped person.
At
times, the Governing Body is compared to Moses, enforcing the same authority,
and yet, it does not perform miracles and, by its own admission, is not
inspired. How than, can they claim the same authority as Moses, the Apostles
and even Jesus? To sanction such a severe punishment against people lacking “loyalty”
requires more authority than uttering “though not inspired, we have good
intentions”.
The
frequent reminder to “loyalty” results in many JWs pushing aside their doubts “waiting
on Jehovah”. As questions are purposefully left unanswered and ignored,
individuals lose their ability to exercise their own Christian conscience.
For
instance, I once have seen a 16 year old girl share her experience in a
Regional Convention in Sherbrook. She talked about how she found it hard to
shun her father who did not remain loyal to Jehovah’s Organization. While close
to 3 000 in attendance applauded, I was shocked! A father does not have the
ability to teach his children if his personal beliefs are not in line with the
Governing body*. After all, like that girl up on the stage, these kids could grow
up to be very faithful JWs who would see it as a duty to denounce their father
as an apostate possibly resulting in his disfellowshipping.
All
the love, time and devotion given to his children would not count a bit as he
would have been found to be rebellious. Then, his children could also have the
privilege to be applauded on stage by thousands of strangers who, for the most
part, don’t know the kid at all!
Can
you truly reconcile this to the sort of love Christ was preaching about? Try to
list all the small doubts you have gathered through the years and write them
down on a list. Would you feel comfortable to share that list with your local
elders? Are you impeding on your Christian conscience for fear of reprisal by
your own religion?