Hi everyone,
Below is my latest letter sent to the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses.
Regards
JM
The Governing Body
Service department of Jehovah’s Witnesses
2821 Route 22
Patterson
New York
12563 15/06/2016
Dear Brothers,
I would like to inform you that I have made a very important decision in my life. I would firstly like to stress that this is not an official letter of disassociation. The reason being, that I need to keep in contact with my family and friends, as I am sure you can fully understand. In saying that however, I regret to inform you that I no longer identify myself as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses whenever possible. I will however, continue - for the time being - to associate with the witnesses at my local Kingdom Hall to keep up appearances; and allow the Holy Spirit to guide me in my path through life as a Christian.
I now fully consider myself a ‘Christian bible student’ and worship Jehovah in a ‘spirit of love’, whilst experiencing liberty in Christ (Gal 5:22, 2 Cor 3:15-17). This is a very different spirit to the Organisation / JW.ORG , in that many Jehovah’s Witnesses worship Jehovah in a ‘spirit of fear’ primarily due to your very strict, rigid, controlling Talmudic type teachings, rules and policies.
On the other hand, I have been very encouraged by the website ‘Friends of Jehovah’s Witnesses’. As a result of my research, my faith and zeal is slowly beginning to return again, similar to the days when I first studied with the witnesses over two decades ago, until I began to experience the control the watchtower society had over my life. From what I have learned on the ‘Friends of Jehovah’s Witnesses’ website, is that these groups were the original bible students, who like Charles Taze Russell, worshiped Jehovah in a spirit of Love. This spirit of love prevailed until the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society was taken over and led on another path by Judge Rutherford, bringing in a spirit of fear with HIS teachings, interpretations and organisational rules.
As an act of Christian love, I urge you brothers to read the many articles and listen to the Audio recordings of the conference calls on the website ‘Friends of Jehovah’s Witnesses. These true meaningful Christian bible students show a spirit of love by allowing the brothers to speak about their faith and views on the scriptures without fear. These brothers speak freely without being judged or labelled as ‘mentally diseased’ apostates. Even though they may have varying views on some scriptures or teachings, they are fully united in Christ; united in a spirit of love. Their example speaks volumes.
So brothers, I hope this letter helps to explain my current position as a Christian. Though I no longer view myself specifically as Jehovah’s Witness (preferring instead to view myself as a ‘Christian bible student’), I will always remain a friend of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who in my mind – though misled at this time - are sincere Christians.
I would like to thank you for reading my letter brothers and sincerely hope you bring about a spirit of love by getting rid of all your unnecessary rules and policies that have and continue to cause so much hurt, pain and stumbling to the brothers world wide. Love is the key. 1 Corinthians Chapter 13
Your brother in Christ
J M
Witness for Watchtower reform