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

by Lloyd Evans

know this because I was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses for 23 years before officially leaving on December 29, 2013.

“Isn’t it a remarkable coincidence that almost everyone has the same religion as their parents? And it always just happens to be the right religion.” —Richard Dawkins

From my own experience, a good number of Witnesses privately loathe the door-to-door preaching work, which they refer to as “the ministry,” or “field service.” We humans are simply not programmed to enjoy repeated rejection; neither are many of us entirely comfortable with intruding on total strangers without an invitation.

short, there comes a point where the argument “Well, God just did it—okay?” must yield to the simple logic that if an all-wise, all-powerful entity wished to wipe out all living things apart from two of every kind of animal and one family of humans, he could have done it instantaneously without all the gory, implausible melodrama.

One Awake! magazine cautioned: “If you are a young person, you also need to face the fact that you will never grow old in this present system of things.” Why? Because “all the evidence in fulfillment of Bible prophecy indicates that this corrupt system is due to end in a few years.”

I should perhaps mention that the above article was published in 1969. I will leave you to guess just how many people have both started and finished extremely productive careers in the nearly five decades since these words were printed without the end of the “present system of things” interfering with their retirement plans.

allowed an instructor at Macclesfield College to talk me into signing up for a more generic art and design course that included graphic design as one of the course elements.

Interestingly, women (or “sisters”) in the congregation are not barred from sharing in the “privilege” of vacuuming the carpet, polishing the woodwork or cleaning the toilets. But when it comes to the handling of sound equipment, the counting of donations, or the dispensing of books or magazines, these are considered strictly male duties.

Without prayer, all you have is a bunch of guys deciding which of their male friends can join their exclusive club.)

Moreover, if a Kingdom Hall ever needs to be sold for any reason, you can be sure the proceeds would not find their way back into the pockets of local Witnesses who over many years were persuaded to believe they were responsible for its construction, maintenance and upkeep.

I visited JWfacts.com.

Watchtower was now exposed for what it truly was: just one in a long line of religious scams masquerading as God’s one true church.

Hence, after 47 years, one preposterous idea (that God built the Great Pyramid of Gizeh) was merely supplanted by another (that Satan did).