A Special Thank You to All My Jehovah’s Witness Friends and Family
By William H. Bowen
How could you describe the life of a Jehovah’s Witness? Is it the only true religion? A cult? Publishing company? Social interactive experience? Spiritual paradise? Association of the happiest people on earth?
Perhaps you might think of other questions to clarify just what they happen to be, but in the most simple of terms when you shake it all down, the very existence of a Jehovah’s Witness is based on one sentence, “Sell books or die.” You see every meeting, talk; discussion, is based on the cloaked expression ‘preach the good news of the Kingdom’. The basis of that expression is the support of one of the largest and wealthiest publishing companies on the face of the earth. It is called the ‘Watchtower Bible and Tract Society’.
The WTBS is a publication making juggernaut that produces over a billion pieces of literature on an annual basis. The printed material is distributed by a volunteer labor force of just over seven million members that are told on no uncertain terms if they do not move magazines and books, God will bring a horrible death upon them at the end of the world, which is to occur at any moment. Management has had an extremely successful run with this mantra, as they have been saying it for over one hundred years and yet believers are still convinced the end is just around the corner. The monetary benefits are expediential. Members volunteer time, gas, and money to distribute literature, make tax free donations, collect tax free donations, and when they die donate all their estates to “God’s Work”. As a result the religious order takes in well over one billion dollars a year and have billions salted away in Swiss bank accounts along with billions in property holdings around the world. How do I know this? I was an elder and active member of JWs for forty-three years. Born into the religion, there was a time I believed it was the only way of life. Yet in time I discovered they willfully hurt children and as a result could no longer be part of something so wicked.
My concern on leaving was how to help my children to understand the danger and importance of being free of this religion. Yes there are doctrinal issues, the ‘sell books or die’ absurdity, as well as the abuse issue, but I needed something much stronger in positive reinforcement to make sure they would have such a distaste and disdain for this belief system they would reject it for the rest of their lives.
Thankfully my Jehovah’s Witness friends and family provided the excellent support structure to make sure that happened. You see JWs practice shunning of individuals that are ‘disfellowshipped’. It is a word that is not found in the dictionary as it was invented by Jehovah’s Witnesses. What does it mean? In their definition you have lost salvation by breaking one of their rules about how they interpret the Bible. As a result you are deemed to be worthy of destruction by God at Armageddon, which is just around the corner. You are a type of spiritual zombie, a dead man walking in which all association and interaction must be avoided as you could infect them with your spiritual disease. In the most simple of terms; if your own mother walked past you on the street she would not acknowledge your existence. Jehovah’s Witnesses believe this is a Bible based belief rooted in large part on a scripture found at Matthew 10:37
“Anyone who loves their fatherormother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
So with that one simple verse friends and family that believe are taught to shun any baptized member that is disfellowshipped. On the other hand if you are not baptized, then all members have an obligation to convert you to their religion so that you can also subscribe to the belief that you must ‘sell books or die’ in order to survive the end of the world.
So the question is why am I thankful to my JW friends and family? My children were never baptized as members; they were too young when I left the religion. Yet with over forty family members and several surrogate Aunties and Uncles who all said they loved them so much; when my children stopped selling literature they were completely cut off by all these people. It was like flipping a light switch and they evaporated overnight as any part of my children’s life. It was a true reality moment of discovering who your real friends were and who could really care less if you existed. My mother wrote me a letter in which she carefully explained it was too painful to interact with her grandchildren when she knew they would be killed by God at Armageddon. While I never shared that letter with my children, the shunning was so helpful in helping them to see the destructive nature of cult mind thinking and how they hurt families. For my children it was a king with no clothes moment in which they truly saw Jehovah’s Witnesses for what they were; a greedy, rich, cult that destroys families. It was further consolation to know that by being no part of Jehovah’s Witnesses they never had to fear being cut off by their non-believing family over some insipid interpretation of the Bible.
It’s interesting as Jehovah’s Witnesses also firmly reinforce another scripture in their belief system. It’s found in Matthew 18:6
“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
So you might say this creates a conundrum for my Jehovah’s Witness friends and family. On one hand they are required to establish salvation by selling books and shunning, yet on the other hand by disowning my children they have ‘stumbled’ them from ever being any part of their religion. As a result by their own teaching they have doomed themselves to condemnation by God.
Thankfully, this is not my problem to resolve as it is an interpretation I do not believe is accurate. In the end I am so happy that my Jehovah’s Witness family and friends by their actions have ‘stumbled’ my children from ever have any part of their religion.
David,, Stacey, Bill, Brenda, Melissa, Leigh Ann, Scott, Dub, Mary, Jean, Sue, Pete, Ann, Randal, Mike, Louise, Patsy, Michele, Lynn, Franklin, just to name a few that come to mind. While by your own belief you will be killed by God for your actions, I from the bottom of my heart wish to thank you for helping my children to be free from ever being any part of Jehovah’s Witnesses.