Hello All.
Hopefully this comes out nicely formatted and not one big lump. Anyway, I went back to my first piece from 1999 to let you know how I got here. Funny what was important to you to begin with in leaving The Collective.
Peace, Love and Understanding
Glen, who once was Deleted
May 31, 1999 (edited for inappropriate anger and changes of view on August 2, 2004)
I think for me it all started when I believed that God had punished me by blinding my left eye for pretending I was blind, when fooling around in a paddling pool. I was 5 years old. I was shot in my left eye with an “arrow” when playing cowboys and indians.
Sadly, my personal "god", my mother, was unable to accept "my eye" as an unfortunate accident and needed something or someone to blame. She chose me. She told me that if I hadn't have played around pretending I was blind God would not have punished me so. It was my fault to insist I played with bows and arrows with my friends. And God blinded me.
I don’t recall believing that God was so cruel, but it stuck with me. I did not question that God had the capacity to punish, let alone the desire. I just did not want to be punished, period. I did not come from a religious family and I was the only one in two whole generations that went to church.
In 1974, when I started reading about Armageddon I was scared to death about the impending calamity to come upon the earth. I needed to find out what I had to do to escape God’s punishment. A comment a friend in the UK made to me in Dec 80 prompted me to talk to The Witnesses, some 6 weeks later on my return to Oregon.
What they had to say about No Hell and a future Paradise Earth struck a chord. We had escaped the religious darkness of Christendom! We progressed, tripped, fell, got up again and plodded along. However, changes in Current Truth always left me with a jaundiced view of Brooklyn. I used to think it was left over thoughts from reading “Kingdom of the Cults” and a couple of other apostate books in 1981. I pushed those thoughts to one side. This afterall is The Truth.
I guess for me the last straw doctrinally was the revisionist treatise on “generation” in Oct 1995 - from a specific-period-of-time to birth-of-an-era understanding. I was told to wait on Jehovah, since we were in the doorway of Armageddon. Well 1984, 1988 and 1994 went by ..... dates that I could conjure up supporting the old understanding of “generation”. October 5 1998 would have been the last, but I was already gone.
I was “deleted” as a servant in 1995 (for immoderate drinking). I was even the one who volunteered to step down - not wishing to bring “reproach upon Jehovah and his organization”, but Deleted sounds better off the stage I suppose.
My own rethink started to mature after I started seeing a Jungian psychotherapist - I have had constant headaches for years, aggravated by a car wreck. Since then (1/5/99) I have read a great deal that would be frowned upon by the WT - Jung, Pagels, Ray Franz, Q, Gnostic gospels, Freud on Moses, History of God, Nag Hammadi, Gnosticism, Irenaeus’ Against Heresies, etc.
Well, I now see that the Bible as we know it is a direct result of Orthodoxy expelling Gnosticism - particularly Irenaeus, Origen and the Church Fathers spiritual battle against Heresy (so much for choice - the Greek for heresy!). In Irenaeus’ Against Heresies it details an attack on the Gnostic Valetinians using the same terminology as the WTBTS against “Apostates”. Demonizing the Enemy Within is the result of Jewish schism since 587 BCE - the real “607 BCE” date. It has lasted to this day. First century CE eschatology is the result of Jewishness not the result of a vengeful God. Satan prior to 587 BCE was just the opposer - not Evil Incarnate directing all but JW’s steps.
The upshot of it all is that Satan has been personalized to enable fanatics to focus on the differences between their versions “true and false worship”. Satan prior to the Prophets was not Evil Incarnate. The Jews made him that way. The early Christians were Jewish sects ... the rest is history. It has “become my Jesus is better than your Jesus”.
In addition, the origin of Jehovah could very well be the Midian volcano god Jahve bent on blood worship and justifiable genocide! Moses could well have combined Jahve with El (the patriarch’s god) and the monotheism and cleanliness laws of a past dynasty of Egypt. History states that Circumcision had Egyptian origins - the removing of the snake’s skin to ensure everlasting life!
An hypothesis (that I used to like to think so) is that Russell would not have allowed the WTBTS to go so orthodox-extreme if the Nag Hammadi library had been found in 1845 instead of 1945. However, JW-Orthodoxy is really the work of Rutherford, Knorr and Fred Franz in creating the doctrine of a faithful and discreet slave class which governs 12 million people in place of Christ. You can’t govern without a church system and 99% of church systems are as Orthodox as the early catholic church. The Governing Body in Jerusalem in the first century had way less authority and scope than the dozen old men in Brooklyn NY.
Irenaeus took the current 4 gospels as the pillars of the church - since they mainly supported Orthodoxy. In doing so any Insight (Gnosticism) was gone. The NT is the result of Orthodoxy. Orthodoxy cannot work as a system. Control oriented religions are corrupt because power corrupts. There is no escaping it, we were created that way.
Since 607 BCE as the start of the 2520 years (ending in 1914) cannot be archaeologically supported, only 587 can. Therefore 1914 is really 1934 then there was no “faithful and discreet slave” selected by God in 1918. No Slave then No 1935, when the great crowd “appeared”. There is just one class of Christians, thereby making the whole JW hierarchy a sham.
The F&D Slave has taken lots of liberties with its Greek translation. Another example relates to the door-to-door ministry. There is no evidence that Jesus did this work. Very circumstantial that the apostles did. The phrase Kat’oikoun (and derivatives) have been translated according to need. It generally means the “private homes” of interested ones. Let alone the annoyance factor, there is no scriptural support for going house-to-house. It is an activity that the JW’s use to measure their brand of Spirituality. It is works-driven not faith-oriented. It is the only thing you keep score on. Think about it, what real good does something that was not commissioned by Jesus, or Paul, do for individual christian freedom? A publishing empire needs publishers and publications, what a coincidence!
Specifically, the following points show why I would never return.
1. I mistakenly allowed my daughter’s privacy (and her friends’) to be invaded over a very minor issue, it seemed like emotional rape when looking back, as once was not enough, there was a second round, on a “technicality”, where’s the love in that … where was my love – it was only about smoking a few cigarettes, for goodness sake!
2. No God that created man in his image would be as fickle as the one that supports changing rules coming from the Mother organization
3. Why are there Society changes and adjustments without apologies?
4. “Current Truth” is an oxymoron, think about it – how can Truth be anything other than Truth?
5. The GB is courting the UN to help with the antiCult cases in greater Europe, that’s why they are back peddling.
6. Fred Franz had a subtle way of sounding scholarly by the use of circular arguments, check out what he said about 1975 pre- and post-. It’s clever how the same church fathers who are used to proof dates and Bible canon are also the ones the WT considers Apostate!
7. JW-Love is conditional - based on the other's good standing in the congregation, as prescribed (and changed) by a few old men in Brooklyn. It's kinda creepy really.
8. I have one of the local elders to thank for being exempt from the blood issue – he lied so I could continue to study and realize that it is the day to day suffering that proves you are in the “truth” – that was always my backdoor justification to agreeing to a transfusion for my kids if it were ever NECESSARY, thankfully it wasn’t – but it’s okay… “abstain” doesn’t cover blood transfusions, read the Greek!
9. Abstain from what component of blood that is current truth? - I hope too many of the faithful don’t die before The Liberal Elder (on the Internet) is successful in getting reform
10. The GB KNOWS that Jerusalem fell in 587 BCE (that’s why Ray Franz and others were DF’d!!), but they have so little faith in the rank and file brethren that they can’t tell them, that they wouldn’t be able to handle the changes?!?! – people have died, they are DEAD, there are several from our own congregation – waiting, suffering, for what?
11. I have more love now for other people then I did since my baptism, why is that?
12. Ministry or Service does not mean house to house - house to house is NOT what Jesus did … this is the core JW rallying cry, it’s a fake - check it out!
13. The Truth needs a Vatican I and Vatican II, soon
14. I have more formal Greek education than Fred Franz – honest I really do! (O&C O level, g5, 1971, some A level work)
15. May 1999 – now it seems Jill (my wife) shouldn’t have pioneered, since she had her tubes tied, okay then, not now? = Blinking Light Gets Stronger Before It Burns Out!
16. The treatment of Ray Franz, and so many others, was a disgrace – neither faithful nor discreet
17. All the innuendo around 1975 (and 1986 UN saying the year of peace and security) that the end was coming, and then blaming the rank and file for relying on it
18. 10/95 – the Generation “game”, I knew it, I said it in 1981, why didn’t I rely on myself? The WT taught that personal experience is not a sound guide, not like the words coming from a study article – now that’s scary!
19. My co-workers and worldly friends at Portland Brewing accepted me when I was part of the collective, but the brethren avoided us when we “weakened”, which is the True friendship?
20. What is the JW fruitage in comparison to the World, isn’t it the shiny wax around a rotten apple?
21. Deletion, as a term, is designed to be humiliating
22. Irenaeus of Lyons, The Greater Fred Franz, created the Bible to be Orthodox, to keep the masses in line, any religion based on it will have to be Orthodox too, and restrictive.
23. JW’s today have less freedom than the catholic church, there’s proof, there really is!
24. The German JW’s in ~1934 said they had a lot in common with the Nazis, where’s that in the wt and g?
25. JW’s are an adventist sect, all of their core beliefs came from elsewhere, they are a non-prophet organization
26. Russell would be disfellowshipped for his belief in 1874 and 1914 – yes 1914 was the END not the beginning. 1930 was the first year the WT made 1914 the START of Jesus rule, it was 1874 in 1929 and prior
27. Theocratic language is neologism (newspeak), think what the following words mean to the members: service, time, brother, sister, friend, meetings, good news, faithful – they mean more than the words themselves
28. Judicial-religious kangaroo courts should be illegal, really they should!
29. Discouraging the good folks from having children to serve Jehovah, I am glad there are so many (750,000?) that have fallen away to keep their integrity, at least they have each other for company
30. The faithful and discreet slave parable is not an edict to allow several old men in Brooklyn an opportunity to play God – they KNOW 6 million of the faithful hang on their every word
31. I have learned not to let myself get burned twice, I was almost out in 1985 then I thought I was following Satan and guilted myself back in
32. The Blinking Light of Porniea – now there was a witch hunt!
33. How could Job be happy that his first family was sacrificed to JHVH ‘cos of his bet with Satan, who would allow such a thing?
34. The Faithful and Discreet Slave isn’t! and it definitely isn’t a Class, it’s a parable – that’s all.
35. The writing dept is largely “great crowd”, so how does an anointed brother in Podunk MS get his views across, he doesn’t! ‘cos no one reads his letters with that in mind?
36. [I KEPT THIS IN ALTHOUGH IT’S PURE SPECULATION] The UN will be replaced by Apostates as the thing standing in a holy place (read Elaine Pagels’ Origin of Satan which puts the whole “Satan and the end of the world” myth in stark reality. The truly good news to which I am trying to reorient myself to is that ALL religion is a lie and I intend to stay particularly clear of the ones prone to demonize those they are closest to)
37. The WT has been a “friend of the court” with such notaries as Jimmy Swaggert and Scientology on sales tax problems
38. Moses (the greater Rutherford) did a great job uniting Jahve worshippers, with El worshippers and a monotheistic, cleanliness cult from Egypt to become the Nation of Israel following Jehovah God (JHVH EL) past and present and all its offshoots worldwide
39. The Israelites made a sacred calf to JHVH because that’s what they thought a volcano-god of the Baalim would want, they didn’t know, it was the first they heard of Jehovah
40. Mankind has been around a lot longer than 6000 years, it’s is empirically provable. The Flood account is a story, there’s a 150,000 years of empirical proof.
41. The are thousands of pieces of proof that the destruction of Jerusalem was in 587 BCE not 607BCE, thousands
42. The Holy Spirit in the Bible never went back and forth on issues, you don’t tack in circles, you move ahead, slowly but always progressing, name one thing that has moved ahead and I’ll name five that have spun in a circle
43. No one in Bethel has any social security, they had to take a vow of poverty to save the WT taxes. What’s gonna happen to them after all the walls fall down? I hope they are in “good standing” at the time and someone will take them in, not like so many others …
44. Changing the DA rules after the Ray Franz Incident hurt thousands of innocent people
45. The NWT is Newspeak, it indoctrinates….. gather yourselves together, faithful in little things, light gets brighter, governing body, elder, ministerial servant, abstain from blood, God’s word, etc. love among yourselves, preaching the good news: a few words mean volumes! The tell tale sign is that Newspeak is used to control the reader/listener. Watch how you react to Newspeak
46. Newspeak: WHERE would we go, you have the sayings of everlasting life, it’s not WHERE but WHO would you go to – subtle difference, NOT!
47. Mark was written first, after 70 CE, Luke and Matthew took Mark and applied it with the missing sayings of Jesus, it’s a set-up…. It was prophesy written AFTER the fact!
48. Blaming God for missing the dates (esp. 1975, esp. Fred Franz)
49. The wrong Franz was DF’d. Fred was a nutter, honest!
50. If the Nag Hammadi library was found in 1845 instead on 1945 there would be no JW’s, Russell would have gone Gnostic (maybe, ACTUALLY VERY BIG MAYBE)
51. According to WT doctrine Jesus is the mediator of the anointed, Jesus is the mediator of us ALL
52. Who is this group of 8000+ of the anointed that just won’t die off?
53. 144,000 is a symbolic number, it’s easily proved …
54. The 7 woes could not have been IBSA meetings at Cedar Point Ohio in the 20’s. Come on, think about it – a worldwide trumpet blast?!?
55. I was baptized in 1981 and I didn’t dedicate my life to the Borg like those in 1985 did – yes the baptism questions changed.
56. Russell would never have dedicated himself to a Religion, he’d be DF’d anyway
57. I cannot leave with dignity and have the continuing opportunity to talk to the friends
58. JHVH was NOT used in the New Testament
59. If JHVH wills it … and related pointing to divine direction – Read Jung on Synchronicity
60. Social work, caring for the sick JW’s, is worth way more than sitting in a car at the door of someone who doesn’t want you there.
61. The Gospel of Thomas at the point where Jesus is asked how to pray, Jesus says “Don’t tell lies. Don’t do what you hate”. This gospel is considered apostate by most forms of Christianity. It is brilliant – the onus is on the INDIVIDUAL to know what he/she hates and when he/she lies.
62. Galilee was a melting pot, lots of different people and religions, crossroads for Buddhists, Essenes, Cynics and traditionalists of all sorts. Don’t take the gospels literally!
63. The JW religion today has more rules than Deuteronomy. The Branch Handbook has almost 1200 rules. Rules and works do not a Christian make by any and all definitions
64. I fail to understand why the worship of a Middle Eastern tribal deity has much relevance in my world.
65. Due to childhood trauma I was scared of a god that would punish me. Avoiding Armageddon was my MO, sorry that’s all. Now it isn’t coming I don’t have to believe a certain way any more, it’s exhilarating
66. JW’s are a cult. Sorry, it is so. Don’t give me the BS that we aren’t following a man! Try doing something counter to “current truth” …
67. They think they are clever when they dodge taxes and subtly change the focus … why not just come clean? The full donation basis is a tax dodge for a publishing company, that’s about the sum of it
68. I would like to contribute to a memorial for JW children who died from the Blinking Lights of Blood, Organ Transplants, Being Put Down & Vaccinations – I really would
69. Satan (a la Borg) does not exist, he is not out anywhere to do anything to anybody
70. I will not pass authority over my life to anyone else ever again
71. The paradise earth is a dream, sorry … I wish it was as simple as that.
72. I used to think that that this had to be the truth, or if nothing else it is the best way of life – think again, THOROUGHLY, it isn’t, it can’t be
73. JW paradox: 3300 hours spent to convert, ~0 spent to retain due to spiritual-weakness/following-Satan
74. I am so glad Jill and I didn’t push our two best friends, Dan (17 – now 22) and Elyse (16 – now 21) into the JW mold
75. Apostates are the most regular folks you’ll know 95% of which have no relationship with Apostate Picketers at district conventions
76. I am glad to be rid of those funny looks and theocratic language that zap the soul into submission to service requirements and experiences
77. De jure the bros. and sis. "can" talk to me. De facto none of them do, due to my "spiritual weakness" I am bad association. Probably just as well.
78. I am thankful I have no family members in the "truth", I would be spiritually dead.
The "new system" is here, it has been here all along. Next month I will start the second half of my life, one that I will live with intention in this wonderful new system of a life worth living.
I wish each and every one of you a pleasant journey through the rest of your life. [AND I STILL DO]