About Me

Rich and Suzanne

“You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

John 8:32

For thirty-five years I was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses — an appointed Elder for over thirty of them, a Pioneer, and for seven years a member of the headquarters staff at Bethel in Brooklyn, where I worked in the Service Department as secretary to the Service Department Overseer. My wife Suzanne and I left in 2000. Neither of us was ever disfellowshipped.

This section is the account of how that happened. It is here for a specific reason, and not because my life is especially interesting. The argument made everywhere else on this site has to stand on Scripture and the historical record, and it would be worth exactly the same if a stranger had written it. But a reader is entitled to know who is making the case, how far inside the organization he was, and whether he left in anger or in conviction.

The three pages that follow answer that. They are arranged in order — before Bethel, at Bethel, and after Bethel — and they include documents: appointment letters, correspondence with the Society, and the Society’s replies. Those are reproduced so the account can be checked rather than simply believed.

About This Section

A man who spends thirty-five years in a religion and then leaves it owes some account of both halves — why he stayed as long as he did, and what finally made staying impossible. These three pages are that account, told in order.

Before Bethel

Pre-Bethel Life covers the years before headquarters: coming into the religion, baptism, pioneering, and the appointment as an elder. It is the part most easily misunderstood by people who have never been Witnesses. The life was not grim. It was busy, purposeful, full of friendships, and organized around a conviction that the end was near and the work mattered more than anything else one could be doing. Whatever is said later about the organization, none of it should be read as suggesting that the people in it were unhappy or insincere.

At Bethel

Bethel Life covers seven years at the Brooklyn headquarters, in the Service Department, as secretary to the Service Department Overseer — which meant handling the correspondence in which congregations asked headquarters what to do about hard cases. This is the part of the account that a reader elsewhere on this site may find most useful, because it is a view of the organization from the inside of the machinery rather than from a seat in the Kingdom Hall. I wrote material that appeared in The Watchtower and Our Kingdom Ministry, and gave convention talks to audiences of tens of thousands.

It is also the reason the argument on this site cannot be dismissed as the complaint of someone who never understood the religion, or never really belonged to it. By any measure the organization itself would recognize, my standing was unimpeachable.

After Bethel

Post-Bethel Life covers leaving, and what came after. Suzanne and I ceased association in 2000. Neither of us was disfellowshipped, which matters more than it may appear: what follows on this site is not written by a man answering a punishment. The page includes the letter I wrote to the Society and the Society’s reply, reproduced in full so that the exchange can be read rather than characterized.

It also covers what came next — the reading, the long reluctance, and eventually the Church I had spent three decades arguing against. The books that did the most damage to my certainty are named on that page, most of them by C. S. Lewis, who was not trying to make anyone a Catholic but ended up doing so anyway.

Why This Section Exists

Not as credentials. An argument is sound or unsound whoever makes it, and nothing here is meant to win a point that the evidence on the other pages cannot win on its own.

It is here because the questions this site raises are usually put to Witnesses by people with no idea what they are asking someone to give up — the friendships, the certainty, the shape of a whole life, and in many cases even family. I know exactly what is being asked, because I was asked it and answered it. That does not make me right. It does mean that when these pages say the cost is heavy, they are not speaking theoretically.

And it is here out of love for the many relatives, friends and acquaintances of ours who are Witnesses still. This site is written for them and dedicated to them.

Summary

Thirty-five years a Witness, thirty of them an appointed elder, seven at the Brooklyn headquarters in the Service Department. My wife Suzanne and I left in 2000, and neither of us was disfellowshipped.

Three pages, in order. Pre-Bethel Life is my life up to and becoming one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Bethel Life describes the two periods of my life at Bethel, first from 1969 to 1974 and then with my wife Suzanne from 1976 to 1977. Post-Bethel Life covers our life after leaving Bethel… and eventually the Witnesses.

This is context, not credentials. The arguments elsewhere on this site rest on Scripture and the historical record, and they would be worth the same from a stranger. But a reader is entitled to know how far inside the organization the writer was, and whether he left in anger or in conviction.

In short: I know what these pages are asking a Witness to weigh, because I weighed it myself and it cost what it costs. That does not make the argument true. It does mean that when the rest of this site says the price is heavy, it is speaking from experience.