Posts by Shepherd Book

11

I Come Bearing Gifts! Part 3 of 3

by Shepherd Book in

after my phone conversations with the elder, it seemed only right to attempt to contact our accusers.

since the elder violated the biblical directive and refused to put me in contact with my accusers, i was unable to contact them directly.

i did not know their phone numbers, email addresses, or home addresses.

Shepherd Book

After my phone conversations with the elder, it seemed only right to attempt to contact our accusers. Since the elder violated the biblical directive and refused to put me in contact with my accusers, I was unable to contact them directly. I did not know their phone numbers, email addresses, or home addresses. The only thing I knew for certain is that they had visited our website. Since they had visited our website, it stands to reason that they’ve seen my blog.
So I contacted them via my blog.
You can read what I wrote here: here is the spot to click .
Feel free to comment on my blog!
p.s. I am no longer a "newbie".

11

I Come Bearing Gifts! Part 2 of 3

by Shepherd Book in

after finding out the truth about noahs flood (and many other things), there seemed little point in actively pursuing the witness lifestyle.

one thing we were finally able to do was openly celebrate our sons birthday.

we had celebrated his first birthday, but we did so secretly.

Shepherd Book

FFM-- Good point. I never told them my web address, so they must have been scouring the web for incriminating evidence.
Quandry-- Judging from what I 'witnessed' while at bethel, many of the bethel boys enjoy many stiff things ...
Big Mouth-- Thank you for the high praise. When my uncle told me I should write to the Society again about my questions, I did so. Then I told my uncle they told me to stop asking questions. He never wrote me back.

11

I Come Bearing Gifts! Part 2 of 3

by Shepherd Book in

after finding out the truth about noahs flood (and many other things), there seemed little point in actively pursuing the witness lifestyle.

one thing we were finally able to do was openly celebrate our sons birthday.

we had celebrated his first birthday, but we did so secretly.

Shepherd Book

Thanks everyone! B_Deserter: Thanks for putting it so succinctly. Yes, the only attachments they included with their letters were WTower and Awake articles. tula: As to my judicial hearing, I have not heard back since sending the letter. My guess is that they have just dropped the matter. If the did DF me or my wife, no one in the congregation seems to care, as I have bumped into several of them in the neighborhood and at local stores and they are very friendly to me (e.g., ask me about my son, say they miss me, stuff like that). I would like to have the information published, although I have absolutely no idea how to go about doing that. The one publishing company I was familiar with is not likely to publish my stuff (ha!). I am currently trying to get my entire life as a JW and the research I did down on paper. So far the book is 400 pages long.

11

I Come Bearing Gifts! Part 2 of 3

by Shepherd Book in

after finding out the truth about noahs flood (and many other things), there seemed little point in actively pursuing the witness lifestyle.

one thing we were finally able to do was openly celebrate our sons birthday.

we had celebrated his first birthday, but we did so secretly.

Shepherd Book

After finding out the truth about Noah’s Flood (and many other things), there seemed little point in actively pursuing the Witness lifestyle. One thing we were finally able to do was openly celebrate our son’s birthday. We had celebrated his first birthday, but we did so secretly. His second birthday was a different story, however. We invited our non-Witness relatives and bought our son a cake and presents. We had a great time.

We also posted the photos from that day on the worldwide web. It was only a matter of time, then, until a Witness found the objectionable photos and alerted the elders as to our ‘sin’. In August 2007, an elder from the local congregation called me (I am unsure how he had my number, as I had changed my number after leaving the congregation).

The bible tells of many instances of religious leaders condemning the common people for breaking silly rules. Since the bible writers felt compelled to record the details of these conversations, I figured it behooved me to record our conversations as well.

You can listen to the conversations here:click me

Don’t forget to rate the videos!

16

I Come Bearing Gifts! Part 1 of 3

by Shepherd Book in

i realize this is not my first post, but id like to introduce myself.

my name is shepherd book.

so i wrote to the watchtower society.. .

Shepherd Book

Thanks everyone, I am glad that so many find it helpful / interesting. It was very cathartic for me. My wife (aka There ARe Four Lights) appreciates the compliments on the website design, as she is the supreme webmaster around the house here. Seven006-- You ask a good question. I would like to say: "I'm willing to take it as far as it will take me"! But, of course, I may reneg on that. But when it comes to the Watchtower Society, I am convinced that they are not God's channel here on Earth and, further, that they not only have made mistakes but have deliberately mislead. On the subject of God, I'm pretty sure that if he's out there, he's irrerelevant in my life (too many Richard Dawkins/Christopher Hitchens books, I guess). Satanus-- Yeah, I thought about that for a few weeks before replying. In order for me to reply to them, I first had to tackle their accusation that I was getting too nit-picky. I finally decided the best way to do that was to point out that they reign supreme in the nit-pick kingdom.

16

I Come Bearing Gifts! Part 1 of 3

by Shepherd Book in

i realize this is not my first post, but id like to introduce myself.

my name is shepherd book.

so i wrote to the watchtower society.. .

Shepherd Book

Thanks everyone! Hope you liked the new website. Yeah, when that new OKM came out, I immiediately thought back to how that directly contradicted what the Circuit Overseer said.

16

I Come Bearing Gifts! Part 1 of 3

by Shepherd Book in

i realize this is not my first post, but id like to introduce myself.

my name is shepherd book.

so i wrote to the watchtower society.. .

Shepherd Book

Thanks. Yeah, evidently "God is not unrighteous so as to remember my works", but the Society is.

16

I Come Bearing Gifts! Part 1 of 3

by Shepherd Book in

i realize this is not my first post, but id like to introduce myself.

my name is shepherd book.

so i wrote to the watchtower society.. .

Shepherd Book

Greetings! I realize this is not my first post, but I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Shepherd Book. I was born into a 3rd generation Witness family. I am a very studious person by nature, and I loved studying about God and the bible. I joined the Ministry School before entering Kindergarten and I was baptized before entering Junior High. I got a job when I was 15 years old so that I could save up enough money to buy a car to use as a pioneer. When I was 16 years old, I became a regular pioneer and, within a year, I was appointed Ministerial Servant. Not only was I the youngest Ministerial Servant in the circuit, I was actually the youngest person the Circuit Overseer had ever recommended to be appointed as such. Within nine years, I had eleven parts on the assembly/convention, including a talk.

Soon after graduating (I graduated early so I had more time to pioneer), I went on a bus trip to Bethel. On the bus trip, I met a girl that I eventually fell in love with. We began dating about a year later. After marrying my girlfriend, I was at a meeting where the Circuit Overseer made an interesting suggestion. He said that some in the audience undoubtedly feel as though they don’t learn anything new at the meetings. They are so studious, and so well-learned in the Watchtower publications, that they are frequently bored with the average lessons. He suggested that if we feel this way, we should make it our aim to make studying interesting again. He suggested we make it our aim to learn absolutely everything we can about one particular bible subject.

This was an amazing moment for me. I felt as though the Circuit Overseer was speaking directly to me. My mind reeled as I tried to think of a bible topic in which I would love to become an expert. It was the CO himself who offered the suggestion that persons like me try to learn everything they could about Noah’s Flood.

So I did.

Needless to say, the Society’s literature did not answer all the questions that came up, and as I researched encyclopedias trying to find the answers, I was continually discouraged by the information I uncovered. I asked some of the elders about my concerns, but they either didn’t understand the concepts, or they just said to “wait on Jehovah”. So I wrote to the Watchtower Society.

Then they wrote me back.

Then I wrote them back.

Then they wrote me back.

And now I am here.

I have shared this information sparingly up until now. One person I shared this information with shared his story with the Infidel Guy. His story his here: http://www.ryansutter.net/audio/igshow_09062006.mp3 and here: http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/postmonth/mar04.html . Another person I shared this with was an inactive Witness who decided this past spring, for the first time, to not bother with the Memorial. Another guy told me that he had always figured the Society had ready-made answers to these questions, but that now he knew they had no idea what they were talking about. Another person I shared this with was my wife (her name is There Are Four Lights, and she’s posted here, too), and she’s not a Witness anymore, either.

I wasn’t going to make these letters available in a public forum, but, as you’ll see in the final letter I sent them, the Watchtower Society’s unresponsiveness is an implicit authorization for me to do so.

You can read the letters here: http://www.watchtowerLetters.com .

Enjoy!

20

This is the argument my dad used to justify "new light"

by marmot in

i was talking with my dad the other week and i revealed my doubts (well, not doubts really, conviction) that noah's flood didn't cover the earth.

he tried the usual, first he printed up all the stuff on the flood that he could find on the wt cd (even though i told him that i already read everything the society has ever written about the flood) and when that failed to convince me he brought out the ol' trust in jehovah(tm) line .

plus, he said that since i was so enamored with science to disprove the flood i should consider how science doesn't have the same position on certain subjects compared to the past and that it's based on progressive understanding.

Shepherd Book

Tell your Dad that scientists don't claim to be inspired by God, so it's understandable if they make errors. Can the same be said of the Watchtower Society? What CD-ROM references did he provide you to "prove" the Flood was real? I have been in correspondence with the Society about their misuse of secular sources...maybe your Dad would like to see the original source material?

7

REQUEST: Letters of reply from the Watchtower?

by inkling in

i have been pondering wether or not there is any value in gathering some of .

my more pointed thoughts into a letter to the governing body.

imagine these to be "questions from readers" style criticism, edited and.

Shepherd Book

Not only were most of my questions ignored, but the Society spent the majority of their reply letter defending a position I never questioned. Weird. Judging from what Oompa and others have said, I think it is safe to assume your letter and the Society's reply to it will end up in the hands of the local elders. If the Society ever forwarded details of our correspondence to my local body of elders, they never said anything. In one congregation that I attended for years, some of my relatives were elders, and I'm sure one of them would have approached me and said something if they felt there was a concern. Oompa - I'd be interested in learning the nature/topic of your letter(s) to the Society. If you're willing to share, go ahead and PM me if you don't want to post it on the WWW.