I have to reasons for creating this blog:
I grew up in my faith, as did my siblings and many childhood friends. However, many of those people have since left our faith. Over the years I have met other people who have drifted away from our beliefs and practices. I am not talking about persons who have been formally excommunicated (disfellowshipped), or about people who have deliberately chosen to engage in conduct which our beliefs specifically forbid. Nor am I talking about ones who have chosen to follow a different belief system or who have formally chose to leave the organization (dis-association), or to actively work against the Organization. Insead, I am genuinely concerned about people who may still deeply love Jehovah, respect the beliefs and Organization, and may even follow some of the teachings and practices, but who, for many reasons, have stopped association with theri local congregation, stopped going in the field ministry, and simply drifted away. As I have talked to some of these folks over the years, I have been given a number of reasons why this is so. Some include:
-The necessary cares of life, demands of family, job, health, etc.
-Depression or discocuragement, feeling that their contribution to the overall effort wasn't appreciated, or wasn't enough.
-Baptized too young, perhaps because others were doing it, before one really understood what such a lifetime dedication really was?
-A feeling that they were being pushed by otherwise well-meaning parents and others and that they had not come to their own choice about whether to follow our beliefs or not.
-A feeling that living by Jehovah's standards was too restrictive, that life outside was much more fun.
-A feeling that they will be judge, criticized, reproved or worse, for having been away so long.
This blog is for anyone out there who is searching or yearning for a way to come back to the congregation and the worship of Jehovah, but feels hesitant, shy, unworthy, unwanted, unsure, unable to take the first step. This site is for anyone who, looking back over their life, feels that something is missing, something needs to be made right or repaired. In short, this site is for anyone who wants to come back to the congregation, give Jehovah and his people a second chance and take another look. This site is for people who want to come home.
This blog is NOT for people who have been formally diassociated or disfellowshipped from the congregation. Whatever the reasons for that may have been, such matters need to be addressed via the elders in the congregation where the incident happened or the actions were taken. This blog is NOT for people who have engaged in active opposition to the organization and/or deliberate violations of our beliefs and practices, and who wish to persuade others of the rightness of their views and the wrongness of those of the Witnesses. This site is NOT the place for people who want to express their views about their local congregation, the elders, the Watchtower Society, individual Witnesses, or the religion, people, or culture in general. The horror stories are out there, but this blog is not the forum for those discussions. There are other sites for that, but not here! I hope this blog will turn into an encouraging and friendly forum for discussion, but not debate, anger and slander. I reserve the right to block or remove, if possible, any inappropriate messages to this site.
My purpose here is to encourage ones who, for reasons other than deliberate violations of Witness beliefs and doctrines, have lost contact with Jehovah and his organization and who need to know that there are people who care, who want them back, and to encourge such ones to contact their local congregations, speak to the elders, and receive the spiritual help, comfort, counsel, and shepherding that they need. As the day of Jehovah rapidly approaches, the congregations are being encouraged to make special effort to locate and assist such honest-hearted ones who need the help in taking the first baby steps back to spiritual health. For such ones, I can only say, given the current state of world events, the time to avail yourself of such help, is now!
However, I have another purpose in creating this blog:
As I have stated above, I am an attorney. I attended college and law school. I enjoy creative writing, mostly historical novels. And, I have been lifelong one of Jehovah's Witnesses. Does this surprise you? It does many of my colleagues and non-Witness friends who commonly believe misperceptions about my belief system and religious heritage. Some of these misconceptions are:
-Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe in education.
-Jehovah's Witnesses do not accept medical care.
-Jehovah's Witnesses would rather die or let their children or loved ones die than accept a blood transfusion.
-Jehovah's Witnesses scrupulously avoid association with in any way shape or form others who are not of their fath.
-Jehovah's Witnesses are a cult, a secret society, or brainwash their members.
-Jehovah's Witnesses who share custody of children with a non-Witness biological parent teach their children to dislike or disrespect that other parent, teach their children that the other parent's beliefs and lifestyles or wrong, or that that parent will be destroyed at Armageddon, and that Witness parents are encouraged to do this, as well as to frustrate the other parent's attempts to maintain a relationship with the child or children.
-Children of Jehovah's Witnesses are not allowed any pleasurable or fun activities.
-Jehovah's Witnesses only go to meetings, and go from door to door and study their own literature, but do not engage in any other hobbies, activities or interests.
-Growing up as a Jehovah's Witness is mentally and emotionally stunting to a child, particularly when that child is being raised by a Witness and non-Witness parent.
-Jehovah's Witnesses believe they are the only ones who will be saved during God's judgment day, Armageddon, etc., and everyone else who is not a witness is either damned or doomed.
-Jehovah's Witnesses do not care about their country, about their community, or about other people who are not Jehovah's Witnesses.
-Jehovah's Witnesses have a persecution complex.
In short, there are so many misperceptions out there. Type in the words "Jehovah's Witness" on any search engine and the list of such sites are endless. Also endless are the number of people who claim to be experts on Jehovah's Witnesses, but many of whom are, in fact, disgrunted former Jehovah's Witnesses who use their "expertise" as a platform to vent their own anger and frustrations about their life within the Witness Community.
Because I work with attorneys, judges, doctors, psychologists, counselors, therapists and others who have, from time to time, dealt with Jehovah's Witness families and have asked me about these misconceptions, I have decided to make the information more general.
While I DO NOT seek dialogue with disgruntled persons whose only purpose is to vent their anger or people who simply want to debate and argue, I do welcome and encourage questions about Jehovah's Witnesses, our history and heritage, our beliefs and practices, why we do the things we do, and what resources are out there for others seeking a genuine understanding of who we are and why we are.
My views are entirely my own. Although I will cite to scriptures and quotations and references from Witness literature from time to time, my opinions are NOT those of the Watchtower Society, my local congregation, or anyone else. I take full responsibility for what I write here.
