This was the last sentence my Dad wrote to GB in his letter explaining why he is disassociating from JWs. It seems GB did not send copy of the letter to the body of elders! Sometime later two Elders visited him to encourage him to rethink his decision. He gave them the copy of the letter addressed to GB, which in part read like this:
“It is not enough to feed others spiritually or to play with concepts spiritually. Spiritual truths have to become visible in your lives. Without virtue there is no grounding of your spirituality, no realism about what you do—but spirituality has become just a mask or a means of escape. I feel deceived by your inauthenticity. I hereby sever all ties with your organization. I believe creation is full of wonders and is God’s appointed channel capable of imparting unchanging teachings—one can pick up any number of God’s qualities being reflected in it and become spiritual. (Romans 1:20) I feel I have the approval of Jesus who said:’ Recognize the tree by its fruits.’—Mathew 7:16-20.
Please do not send your Elders to my house.”
This happened a few years back. It is interesting to know what led my Dad to take such an extreme step. He was a very staunch JW, hence was very proud when my elder sister announced her decision to join Bethel in the 90’s. After many years of Bethel service once when she came for a week’s vacation, she brought her best friend too (a middle aged sister working as a Nurse in Bethel Infirmary). We had a very nice time with her at our home. However my Dad could pick something from what he could read in between the lines of what this Bethelite said unwittingly which ultimately led him out of JW org.
She became very friendly with my Mom. In their intimate conversation, my Mom said: “You said you were witness to the death of some anointed ones in the Bethel Infirmary. You must be so privileged to see them leaving this world in a state of complete serenity!” She said: “Yes, of course, some of them were too happy to die, they were in serenity and tranquility not only in their thinking, I could see them even in every cell of their bodies. Yet a few of them were too afraid to die and had a horrible time before they breathed their last, it was as though they were seeing some fearsome visions.”
Later when my Mom related this to my Dad, it shook him very badly. Since then he began to see only the negatives in JWs. After two years he decided to disassociate. Though many advised him to quit in low profile, fading gradually, to avoid shunning, he decided to come out with a bang. He sent a letter to the GB directly (which is quoted above in part).
While he was a Disassociated one, once he boarded a public transport and sat next to a JW who happened to be a deaf and dumb in his former congregation. Seeing my Dad, this JW fellow traveler moved to another seat away from him. My Dad said to us: “This incident put a final seal on my decision to disassociate with JWs. What a powerful organization that could convince even the deaf and dumb to go barbarous!”
When my Dad died sometime back, he was a contented man, never regretted his decision!