The Reluctant Apostate: Leaving Jehovah's Witnesses Comes at a Price

by Lloyd Evans

The fundamental difference between an ordinary person and a Jehovah’s Witness is that the life of a Witness is effectively micromanaged by a religious hierarchy based in America.

Watchtower is controlled by a small group of men based in the state of New York who call themselves the “Governing Body.” This Governing Body claims to be used by God to direct what they will tell you is the earthly part of his organization.

Sadly, not everything Watchtower asks Witnesses to do or believe is entirely loving or beneficial to them or others. I know this because I was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses for 23 years before officially leaving on December 29, 2013.

Jehovah’s Witnesses do not want you consulting any independent sources of information on their beliefs—especially those available via the internet, which is riddled with information that debunks, disproves and discredits Witness theology.

Bear in mind that some people tend to lose their ability to think objectively and make rational decisions when they are depressed, lonely or otherwise emotionally vulnerable. Such individuals are the prime candidates to become Jehovah’s Witnesses, because Witness beliefs and fellowship offer a strong sense of purpose and community.

Put simply, the door-to-door work is already obsolete as a means of making new Jehovah’s Witnesses. The only useful purpose it serves Watchtower is that of keeping Witnesses busy and giving them a means to show loyalty.

Watchtower is terrified of young people learning to evaluate their beliefs objectively through interaction with others in an environment where free thought is encouraged rather than stifled.[29]

The organization’s publications were there to be read and accepted. They were not to be challenged or questioned.

For the first time, I began to look on the Governing Body, not as oracles of truth and wisdom guided by God’s spirit, but as a group of men in Brooklyn who were just making it up as they went along—guessing at the meaning of scripture and shoehorning Bible prophecy to make it line up with events in the organization’s history.

Rutherford wrote a letter to Hitler trying to reconcile with him?