Dear John...

Dear [insert name of active Witness],

First and foremost, I want you to know that I love you. In fact, if not for that love, I would not be bothering to write this letter to you today. You've been a constant and influential part of my life, and have helped to shape me into the loving, moral, and discerning person that I am today.

During the 2016 convention season, the issue of loyalty saturated the program. Literally every symposium and independent talk covered the subject in exhaustive detail. It is quite clear that the Governing Body feels that focused dedication is required in these Last Days. The demand for exclusive devotion is palpable.

I had to ask myself what that meant for me.

Perhaps you'll remember Song 14 from Sing to Jehovah, All Things Made New, based on Revelation 21:1-5. It was always one of my favorites. Sometimes I'd just listen to the congregation sing it... In the chorus, we are given the promises of the end of suffering and death, which are then punctuated by the line, "For God has said 'I'm making all things new'; These words faithful are, and true'".

Faithful... and true. Faithful... and true. I don't think it's necessary to parse this and define the words. We know what it is to be faithful. We know what truth is, or at least the definition of "truth". Knowing what the 'truth' is can be a much more difficult matter.

To be faithful to something simply means we do not turn aside from it, and if it is intrinsically truthful, how could that be a difficult thing to do? We even call Jehovah's Organization "The Truth". But truth of what...?

C.T. Russel gave the Bible Students the first concrete time frame for the end of days. 1914. It was the proof that Jehovah's paradise was soon at hand. But it was a date that was derived by using measurements of the Grand Galleries of the Pyramids of Egypt. Read that sentence again if you must, but Russel actually published this in books he expected the Bible Students to read and accept.

Is that truth though? Not according to our Christian faith. Pastor Russel and all of his successors, right down to the modern day Governing Body, have used extra-biblical publications as their primary teaching tool; publications which have often had no basis in biblical text. "You must not add to the word that I am commanding you, neither must you take away from it, so as to keep the commandments of Jehovah your God that I am commanding you" (Deut 4:2). What, then, is there that we must discern as Christians that we cannot learn directly from the Bible?

That Jerusalem fell in 607 BCE? That's not true. The Bible doesn't provide a date. It does, however, say that Nebuchadnezzar would be in the twentieth year of his rule when it happened, which corresponds to 587 BCE. There is almost a literal mountain of archaeological and astronomical evidence which supports this. God's balance of the heavens is so precise that we can discern the dates of astronomical phenomena recorded by Mesopotamians, and none of them support 607 BCE? Did the Devil deceive them as a society? Did the Father of the Lie alter the heavens themselves to lead C.T. Russel astray? Neither is logical, and yet 607 BCE is the lynch pin of the Society's entire argument for end times starting in 1914, which is so arduously defended that we are expected to ignore empirical evidence to the contrary. It is "faithful and true"?

The Governing Body will have you expelled from the congregation if you disagree with this doctrine, yet they remain "faithful and true" to false information. The January 8, 1947 edition of Awake even called the practice of shunning, expelling, or disfellowshipping "pagan". However, the Society changed that stance in 1952. Were they "faithful and true" to their doctrine?

In 1954, then Vice President of the Society, Hayden Covington, testified in court that even if a doctrine was later proved false (as the second coming of Christ in 1874 had been), that dissent among Jehovah's Witnesses was grounds to be disfellowshipped. Being "faithful and true" to the truth is of very little interest to the Governing Body. Being "faithful and true" to the Truth, however, is paramount.

Blood donation and transfusion policy has undergone major revision, and under stricter guidelines of the past, many brothers and sisters died for their faith. Governing Body member Tony Morris openly bragged at the 2016 convention about a young brother who lost his life for refusing blood. In 2000, however, the Governing Body declared that Witnesses should decide upon blood transfusions as a matter of prayerful personal choice. The Society explicitly told the European Commission on Human Rights that they would no longer investigate or disfellowship members for accepting blood transfusions (Decision on Admissibility of Application 28626/95, p.22, pp.6; Information note no. 148, B. II. (a)). In other words, there is no sanction that the Society can or will issue on the matter. If abstaining from blood were a strict biblical command, did they remain "faithful and true" to it? It was either wrong then, or it's wrong now. Who bears the blood guilt for those who died under the old incorrect and unbiblical policy? Who bears the blood guilt for those yet to be judged under the new (and possibly still) incorrect and unbiblical policy?

This very long preamble only has one purpose: To scratch the surface of a long history of abuses to faith, rational thought, and family unity perpetrated by the Society and it's Governing Body.

As I mentioned at the outset, I love you. My heart is open to you and always will be. I cannot, however, associate with a people who demand my unwavering loyalty to a Truth that has no integrity. Job was lauded in the Bible as a man who was so assured of God's requirements that he could not be made to waver. Can the same be said of Jehovah's Witnesses? Your faith is dictated by men. Men who have not maintained even a single unshakable doctrine in their entire history, save one, and that is in the merit of Jesus' sacrifice. If God's word is "faithful and true", shouldn't his servants be as well?

It breaks my heart to say this, but I must request that you be respectful of my decision to remove you from my life. I love truth and hope sincerely that you seek it out for yourself as I have. Perhaps one day we can sit as [insert relationship here] and laugh as we once did. For now, I must be loyal to my conscience, and if I stand before God in judgement, please know that it is clear.

If you decide to turn away from your destructive lifestyle, know that I, and a very large community of awakened people, will be here to help you transition and cope with the intense emotions of breaking free from your abusers.

Faithfully and truly yours,

[insert name or signature]