I was born and raised in a very devout JW family whose Watchtower roots ran deep. My father's uncle, Ray Kent, had been closely associated with Watchtower founder Charles Taze Russell, serving as a deacon in Russell's home congregation in Brooklyn, and also as Russell's personal secretary at Bethel. Ray remained at Bethel until 1940, when he left to marry for the first time and settled in Sweetwater, Texas, establishing the first JW congregation in West Texas in his living room. During my father’s 5-year prison sentence for refusing alternative service during World War 2, Ray visited him regularly, and my father always considered Ray to be his spiritual mentor. Incidentally, when Watchtower reversed its position on alternative service in the mid-1990s, I asked my father how it felt to realize that he had gone to prison for nothing. At that point, he had invested way too much in Watchtower to say anything derogatory about the organization.
My mother's oldest sister and her husband served for many years as JW missionaries in Bogota, Columbia, South America. They became very close friends with Cynthia and Ray Franz who lived in the same missionary home while Ray served as the Colombian branch overseer. They were also close friends of Fred Franz and Nathan Knorr. Ex-JW, Eric Wilson, aka Meleti Vivlon, lived in Bogota as a young man and knew my aunt and uncle.
My parents also knew Ed Dunlap who had served as Circuit Overseer in Oklahoma during the time my parents served there as Special Pioneers before Dunlap was invited to serve to Bethel. When my father first became a congregation servant in the late 1950s, he attended a class taught by Dunlap at Watchtower Farm. You may recall that Dunlap was disfellowshiped for suggesting in a private conversation with two Governing Body members that the GB, for all practical purposes, functioned as the “faithful and discreet slave,” a view which is now official Watchtower teaching.
I married a fine woman from Abilene, Texas, who was also from a devout JW family, and we raised three excellent children, a daughter and two sons. I declined all invitations to reach out for “privileges” within the congregation. I had witnessed how serving as elders had caused my father and two older brothers nothing but constant criticism and drama from their fellow “servants.”
My first “red flag” concerning Watchtower came in 1981, when Watchtower began viewing exemplary Christians who withdrew from the organization for conscientious reasons the same as those disfellowshiped for wrongdoing, namely, shunning such ones. My father had known numerous exemplary Christians who had disassociated for conscientious reasons, yet he never shunned them until mandated by Watchtower to do so. My next “red flag” was in 1982 when a circuit overseer told me that Jesus was not my mediator. I replied to him that I ended every prayer "in Jesus' name." Later, after hearing a public talk on Revelation 14:1, I asked my father why JWs believe the number 144,000 to be literal. He said it was because Watchtower told us it was literal; but, he advised me to never debate that issue in my public ministry because it was a debate I could never win. My father never knew how his words opened my eyes. It's like Dr. Wayne Dyer said, "When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." From that point on, I began applying critical thinking to talks I heard at the KH or at conventions, and I continually asked questions that my father, my brothers, and other elders could not answer. Knowing the cost of leaving the organization, I simply chose to become inactive. Every so often, I would re-activate, believing it when others suggested I wasn't spiritual enough, only to find that the organization had become worse, not better, than before. But, there would eventually occur an incident which would lead me to officially disassociate from JW for good.
During a period when I had re-activated, I was assigned a talk on the Theocratic Ministry School titled “Why Bible Moral Standards Are Not Restrictive.” In my talk, I related that a young man had told me that he would love to become a JW, but that he was a homosexual, and a homosexual could not become a JW. I related that I said to the man, “You might be surprised how many Jehovah’s Witnesses are homosexual. But they heed the Bible admonition to ‘flee from fornication.’” The only person offended by that statement was the TMS overseer who persuaded other elders that I had expressed a personal viewpoint, and I was asked to put my views regarding homosexuality in a letter to the Branch. The Branch sent me a personal reply, citing the 1983 Watchtower article which provided the "theocratic" basis for my statement. That article explained that, according to many dictionaries, a homosexual is one who is sexually attracted to persons of the same sex, whether or not one acts on such desire. Similarly, a heterosexual is one who is sexually attracted to persons of the opposite sex, whether or not one ever acts on such desire. The Bible does not condemn the inclination to sin, but condemns sin itself, in this case, the sin of fornication. The elder body rejected the official Watchtower view, as every elder body is free to do regarding non-doctrinal matters. But I was told that, if I continued to promote that viewpoint, I would be marked as an apostate. I was shocked to learn that one could be marked as an apostate by one congregation simply for expressing an official Watchtower teaching. It caused me to wonder how many others had been marked as apostate who were, in fact, nothing of the kind. The first person to come to my mind was Ray Franz, an exemplary Christian whom my uncle (who had professed to be anointed) had known very well and admired. When Ray was disfellowshiped, my uncle believed that Ray was undergoing a trial similar to that of the righteous man Job.
I finally purchased and read Ray Franz’s book, Crisis of Conscience, and when I learned for the first time that Watchtower had become accredited to the UN as an non-governmental organization from 1992 through 2001, I was completely finished with the Watchtower organization, and I submitted my letter of disassociation as a JW. As a result of my leaving the organization, my dear wife of 43 years divorced me, albeit amicably. At this writing, all three of my children and my older son's wife have completely faded from the organization.
Contributed by
Roger Kirkpatrick
New Braunfels, Texas
My mother's oldest sister and her husband served for many years as JW missionaries in Bogota, Columbia, South America. They became very close friends with Cynthia and Ray Franz who lived in the same missionary home while Ray served as the Colombian branch overseer. They were also close friends of Fred Franz and Nathan Knorr. Ex-JW, Eric Wilson, aka Meleti Vivlon, lived in Bogota as a young man and knew my aunt and uncle.
My parents also knew Ed Dunlap who had served as Circuit Overseer in Oklahoma during the time my parents served there as Special Pioneers before Dunlap was invited to serve to Bethel. When my father first became a congregation servant in the late 1950s, he attended a class taught by Dunlap at Watchtower Farm. You may recall that Dunlap was disfellowshiped for suggesting in a private conversation with two Governing Body members that the GB, for all practical purposes, functioned as the “faithful and discreet slave,” a view which is now official Watchtower teaching.
I married a fine woman from Abilene, Texas, who was also from a devout JW family, and we raised three excellent children, a daughter and two sons. I declined all invitations to reach out for “privileges” within the congregation. I had witnessed how serving as elders had caused my father and two older brothers nothing but constant criticism and drama from their fellow “servants.”
My first “red flag” concerning Watchtower came in 1981, when Watchtower began viewing exemplary Christians who withdrew from the organization for conscientious reasons the same as those disfellowshiped for wrongdoing, namely, shunning such ones. My father had known numerous exemplary Christians who had disassociated for conscientious reasons, yet he never shunned them until mandated by Watchtower to do so. My next “red flag” was in 1982 when a circuit overseer told me that Jesus was not my mediator. I replied to him that I ended every prayer "in Jesus' name." Later, after hearing a public talk on Revelation 14:1, I asked my father why JWs believe the number 144,000 to be literal. He said it was because Watchtower told us it was literal; but, he advised me to never debate that issue in my public ministry because it was a debate I could never win. My father never knew how his words opened my eyes. It's like Dr. Wayne Dyer said, "When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." From that point on, I began applying critical thinking to talks I heard at the KH or at conventions, and I continually asked questions that my father, my brothers, and other elders could not answer. Knowing the cost of leaving the organization, I simply chose to become inactive. Every so often, I would re-activate, believing it when others suggested I wasn't spiritual enough, only to find that the organization had become worse, not better, than before. But, there would eventually occur an incident which would lead me to officially disassociate from JW for good.
During a period when I had re-activated, I was assigned a talk on the Theocratic Ministry School titled “Why Bible Moral Standards Are Not Restrictive.” In my talk, I related that a young man had told me that he would love to become a JW, but that he was a homosexual, and a homosexual could not become a JW. I related that I said to the man, “You might be surprised how many Jehovah’s Witnesses are homosexual. But they heed the Bible admonition to ‘flee from fornication.’” The only person offended by that statement was the TMS overseer who persuaded other elders that I had expressed a personal viewpoint, and I was asked to put my views regarding homosexuality in a letter to the Branch. The Branch sent me a personal reply, citing the 1983 Watchtower article which provided the "theocratic" basis for my statement. That article explained that, according to many dictionaries, a homosexual is one who is sexually attracted to persons of the same sex, whether or not one acts on such desire. Similarly, a heterosexual is one who is sexually attracted to persons of the opposite sex, whether or not one ever acts on such desire. The Bible does not condemn the inclination to sin, but condemns sin itself, in this case, the sin of fornication. The elder body rejected the official Watchtower view, as every elder body is free to do regarding non-doctrinal matters. But I was told that, if I continued to promote that viewpoint, I would be marked as an apostate. I was shocked to learn that one could be marked as an apostate by one congregation simply for expressing an official Watchtower teaching. It caused me to wonder how many others had been marked as apostate who were, in fact, nothing of the kind. The first person to come to my mind was Ray Franz, an exemplary Christian whom my uncle (who had professed to be anointed) had known very well and admired. When Ray was disfellowshiped, my uncle believed that Ray was undergoing a trial similar to that of the righteous man Job.
I finally purchased and read Ray Franz’s book, Crisis of Conscience, and when I learned for the first time that Watchtower had become accredited to the UN as an non-governmental organization from 1992 through 2001, I was completely finished with the Watchtower organization, and I submitted my letter of disassociation as a JW. As a result of my leaving the organization, my dear wife of 43 years divorced me, albeit amicably. At this writing, all three of my children and my older son's wife have completely faded from the organization.
Contributed by
Roger Kirkpatrick
New Braunfels, Texas
