... religious authority, on the other hand, is only valid and effective through the voluntary acceptance by the individual. So it is authority by acceptance.
This is just how I reasoned, by coincidence in 1998, when I determined I would not allow myself to be subjected to disfellowshiping or disassociation. I would not subject myself to their processes after I determined I was neither a Witness nor a believer of any other kind, and all of that simply became irrelevant. I deflected the questions of two elders who came to visit me, and when they asked for a second meeting I said they were always welcome at my home, but I had nothing religious to discuss with them. That was the end of it.
Two or three years later I was visited by an elder-special pioneer and his special pioneer wife, he was given my new address by an elder. I told him I did not believe in the bible or God, and I recall his response. He said, after a pause and some evident contemplation, something close to 'Oh, so in that case you would find it impossible to accept the Faithful and Discreet Slave and the role of the Watchtower Society and the congregation?'. I agreed, and said nothing of the Society (mostly since I would have considered it rude to criticise what was obviously important to him). We went on to have a few pleasant enough conversations on both the bible and general topics, neither of us tried hard to convince the other of anything and there was no question of any kind of proceedings against me whatsoever. Like Joe said, I did not accept their authority and they did not try to impose it.
I have never criticised the Society in the company of Witness. That allows me to have occasional, quite normal contact with the few Witnesses I still know or come across form time-to-time, and we take one another's company for what it is.
This third road out of the Witnesses is available, but is either not possible or not palatable for many departing Witnesses.
