I am happy with my religion.
I have several ideas for improvements to it and wrote a letter to the Canadian Branch (my former branch) so that these can be considered, and some or all of them referred to the Governing Body. I have visited Bethel here in Korea and spoken to two members of the Service Desk to make some suggestions on improving the quality of the teaching at the assemblies and conventions, to bring it up to the standard of the Korean assemblies and conventions, which I have also attended. They asked me to put it all in writing but I haven't had time to do it yet.
I am encouraged how our faith has advanced over the years as the Governing Body listens to suggestions from the publishers, in letters received by the Writing Correspondence Desk. I know personally an elder in Montreal, who regularly writes the Governing Body and who made the suggestion to change the term "presiding overseer" to "coordinator of the body of elders" (he wrote in French, so the term he came up with was "coordinateur", which shows me that they took his suggestion into account, as well as possibly others who had the same idea and wrote in), to overcome the false impression that this brother was a sort of "chief elder", as the "congregation servant" of times past was. It took about three years, but the Governing Body liked the idea and the change was implemented. I see the hand of Jesus Christ in that improvement.
Since I have read basically all the various points of view of those who have left Jehovah's Witnesses, I don't need to debate them with anyone. Jesus said that some of his servants would say "the master is delaying" (and then, likely, "the master isn't coming with his promised reward in my lifetime, or maybe ever; he probably lied to all of us, so why bother serving him anymore? I'll live my life the way I please, choosing for myself what is good and bad, and leave the 'Borg' to the fools who still believe in the master's empty promises"), while others would say "you are an exacting man, asking us to work for you while you are away, while you get all the benefits of our work". He also said that the seed of the word would fall on four kinds of soil, but only one would produce and bear fruit. The others would not.
I have "put my hand to the plow and am not looking back" because I want to be "well suited for the Kingdom of God".
I examined the history of Jehovah's Witnesses before I got baptized. My grandmother Metz in France got baptized in 1922, and, as far as I can tell, was faithful to Jehovah all her life and is now in heaven next to her Lord and mine, and before her God and mine. My grandparents Ehm also became Witnesses in Austria and Germany (before their marriage in 1925) in the 1920s. For that reason, my dad had in our home library several of Brother Russell's and many of Brother Rutherford's books, where I learned all about the previous chronology (1799, 1874,1878,1881). I lived through the 1975 crisis, and both of my parents told me beforehand that it was not definite that Armageddon would be coming that year, even though one of our elders, Brother Widawski, was certain of it and taught so from the platform.
It took a period of three years of doubt regarding the truth of the religion that I was brought up in to conclude that Jehovah personally helped me to see how logical, and intellectually and emotionally satisfying it was, and, at least for me, still is.
I know that the "fish" in the "dragnet" have to be separated. So does the Governing Body. By telling everyone, in the July 15 2011 Public Edition Watchtower, not to read apostate writings, they know that the faithful will not do it and that those who are doing it in secret will do it even more, find reasons to justify their loss of faith in Jehovah, Jesus and the organization, and finally leave.
At least that's what I think is their strategy.
Rather than want to keep people against their will or pressure them to return against their will by sticking firm with the Bible's clear teaching on disfellowshipping (Jesus, Paul and John all three described it), the Governing Body wants only completely honest publishers, those who have faith in the "good news", as they do. The present members of the Governing Body are all new now. Not a single one of them was a member in 1975, now that Brother Barr has completed his earthly course. Maybe some of them were very disappointed when the end didn't come in 1975, but they didn't lose faith that Jehovah is leading his people through Christ and evidently concluded, as I did, that the three main periods of sifting in our history (1914-1918, 1925 and 1975) were Jehovah's will, to separate the "fine" fish from the "unsuitable".
I find it interesting that despite all the writings of Raymond Franz and others, which have led so many to leave my faith, the European Court was not convinced by any one of the arguments presented by Russia to justify banning Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow. Whether blood transfusions, disfellowshipping, breaking up families because holidays are no longer celebrated, abuse of children by not letting them have enough play time, none of these arguments were sufficient to sway the judges that Jehovah's Witnesses are not a legitimate religion.
The judges recognized that different religious views can cause division in families, but that that is the price of governmental respect for everyone's belief, and that a religion has a right to apply its interpretation of religious texts, interpretation that was accepted by members at their baptism, but that they may not agree with anymore when they lose faith in their religion. The two latest victories over France and Armenia (the last one, where the Grand Chamber overturned the decision of a smaller Chamber just two years earlier) are also encouraging for me, though the defeat of France was not a surprise, and even the Frech officials tried to settle out of court because they foresaw that they would be humiliated when the judges came to a decision. It certanly happened. Also humiliated was the Armenian Apostolic Church that has been lobbying their government to remove our registration with lies about our conduct.
I do expect, though, that the time will come when judgements may not be so favourable, but it won't be the result of the writings of the apostate "generation" of 1980 (Raymond Franz, Dunlap, Randall Watters, Alan Feuerbacher, and the Canadian, James Penton). All their words have failed to make an impression on objective judges of the European Court, who may be of other religions or complete agnostics or atheists.
James Penton is for me the most interesting of the above group because I met the man before he became openly apostate. My father and I were invited to supper at Frank Mott-Trille's house. James Penton ridiculed me for having chosen Engineering as my major at university (he said that "everybody these days wants to be a tinkerer", and not study a "real" subject such as hiis, history), and he dared to tell our host, Frank, that my father's account of the people of Alsace-Lorraine's feelings during the First World War was "not exactly like that", when Frank asked for Penton's opinion on the question. When I think about it, I am still amazed at his hubris. That he could think that he, a Canadian historian, reading books about what happened in France in the First World War, could know better than my Dad about the feelings of Alsatians and Lorrains during the World War, when his parents lived through those events, as did everyone in my Dad's village, not to mention all that my Dad has read on the history of his region in the magazines he has been subscribed to for decades! James Penton had to prove that he knew better than my Dad, but certainly didn't impress me. He didn't even say what his opinion was, just that he knew better from his studies of the question.
During the supper, he and his wife spent all their time criticizing his fellow elders for being "narrow-minded". He even ridiculed Brother Russell for his decision to not have sexual relations with his wife, Anna, which for sure was out-of-the-ordinary, but still was mutually agreed upon and was that couple's personal choice. Both struck me as very narrow-minded themselves.
My Dad and I were not comfortable the whole evening. It was no surprise when we learned that he had formed his own "Bible study group" in Lethbridge and had taken others with him. I have seen his books advertized on Amazon, but have absolutely no interest in reading them, because, while he has analyzed my faith's publications to try to embarrass us, I have analyzed the words of the man, and I am not fooled by him, because I saw his conceit at close range. His facts may be accurate, but his analysis cannot possibly be objective. I actually feel sorry for him!
Being one of Jehovah's Witnesses and sticking with it (arguably the most difficult religion on earth) is not for everyone. To do so takes faith that the there is a Creator who cares about us, that, of all the holy books of the world (I have read the whole Quran and the Bhagavad Gita, and have watched a dramatization of the Mahabharata, all 96 45-minute episodes of the B.H and Ravi Chopra version) , the Bible is his Word, that there is a Devil and he has companions called demons who don't want anyone to serve Jehovah, and that the Bible's message of the Messianic Kingdom is what mankind needs. It is possible that I will not live long enough to see the New World come; or the great tribulation may start tomorrow. That for me is not the most important. The most important thing for me is that Jehovah is the best ruler. He helped me when I was at rock-bottom last year, and earlier this year, when several times, with the equivalent of $2 in my pocket in a foreign land, I prayed to him for wisdom. He always answered my prayer.
I am not absolutely sure if he approves of what I am doing by posting here. I am sure that he doesn't want me to spend hours debating our beliefs with those who have already made up their minds to leave him and not believe he is the best ruler for individuals, for the earth and for the universe. But I try to live by the principle of James 4:17, even if my brothers and sisters don't always understand or agree with me. The Governing Body has also taught that organizational directives must be applied reasonably. They have also taught that Jesus once made an exception to Jehovah's direct command to him that he was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, when a higher principle, the principle of compassion, required it. So I think that the Governing Body might understand why I have written here what I have. I will be open to Jehovah's loving counsel if I have made a mistake in doing so.
