Part 13: The Apostate Trial of My Friend:
As October started to fade and November arrived, I was enjoying sweet peace. Work was fun. Lawyers were a-buzz and I was in the middle of giving depositions. There was intense correspondence between me and Brother L in California who had been up to stay with us during the wedding. Yes, I was sending long letters, Parts and Series in full Amazing Style, and he being of like-mind was sending equally long letters, combined with phone calls. Could it be that this close JW friend might make it our of the Borg too?
I was enjoying meeting with the Christians at work. Elder E and I had some more productive discussions, or otherwise we stayed out of each other’s hair. My beard was flowing, needing a trim, but looked good with some gray streaks running from my lower lip and chin. Sweet Jesus! This is good!
The Tribal Elders were leaving me alone. No meetings. No parts. No door-to-door. No interference from the WTS Code of Regulations. No events requiring balancing acts. This is true religion! I am saved! Just kidding. The sense of success, of victory, and freedom were all converging together in this moment – and nothing could seem to go wrong now – I was just touching the dream to see if it was really real ...
Dark Clouds start to roll in: Brother (K)ind is one of those type of JWs that you meet once in a 100,000 years. He was raised 7th Day Adventist. He knew well the JW religion from its roots in Adventism of the 1800s. Somewhere in his early adult years, he was kicked out of the Adventist religion for Apostasy. He eventually becomes a JW, spending 30 years in the organization, serving at many levels, including the local PO before I arrived.
When I first arrived in this town in Dec. 1999, the PO had warned me about Brother K because I took him on a Bible Study. He told me then that they had a file on Brother K and had been worried about him a long time, fearing that he had apostate tendencies. Yet, I never considered this to be any real concern. Brother K and his wife befriended out family, and I enjoyed his unique ways. You never knew when he would suddenly jut out some theory, or cosmic idea. He recently visited me with an invention to examine, and sign his drawings as a Witness ... and ponder his device.
His invention – in my engineering way of thinking – which is why he wanted my input – was closer to perpetual motion than I had seen for a while. I did not have the heart to tell him that I thought it would not work. Rather, I agreed to help build a working model – that way he could judge for himself its usefulness – then too, if I was wrong and misunderstood his true intentions, I could have the fun of seeing him succeed and be pleased to be wrong.
Phone Rings: “Brother Amazing, its Brother K, can we talk?” Sure! Come on over, its a nice Saturday. Oh, no, I can’t come over in the daytime. I must arrive at night so that your neighbors will not see me. What? Our neighbors to the west of our property line are JWs, and they are nice folks, but watch everything going on at our house. So, I agree to an evening meeting.
He arrives, and appears very nervous. We talk and then he tells me that he has been charged with Apostasy, and is having a meeting with the Elders. The full story of his Judicial Committee is reported in Justice #9: NOW WE'VE GOT YOU, WE ARE GOING TO THROW YOU OUT! You can read it at the following Link.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=6923&site=3#80902
The other part of this story is what goes on between me and Brother K: He and I start discussing his concerns and what got him into trouble with the Elders. Since the PO was his accuser, Brother K forced him to excuse himself from the JC. Since Elder H was not up to serving on JC’s anymore, this left Elders G, A and C ... the Triune Club if Idiots to judge the future eternal life of Brother K. Brother K was surprisingly holding his own and would continue to do so for weeks on end.
I debated how much I should open up to him, because I did not want to insert my FEET into my mouth again. But, I knew that with Brother K the risk was low, and what the hell, I seem to have a knack for trouble anyway. We discuss many issues and concerns, and when I get brave enough to mention Ray Franz and his books, Brother K stops me. He does not want to see, touch, or read them so that he can tell the JC with a straight face that he has never been exposed to these Apostate works. Good thing, because those are among the exact questions they eventually ask him.
We ended up exchanging books. He brought by a book about the Christadelphians written by founder John Thomas. Thomas preceded C. T. Russell and some of his followers met near Allegheny, PA where Russell was from. Their doctrines are very close to JW doctrines, including the Invisible Presence of Jesus belief. Brother K theorized and was searching for linkage between Russell and Thomas. The possibility looked good.
Whoooops! I loan Brother K the book, Combating Cult Mind-Control by Steve Hassan. Seemed harmless at the time. It was about Hassan’s involvement with the Moonies (Unification Church, whose doctrines are remarkably like the JWs). He left appreciating this, and I knew he would read it, because he and I share a voracious appetite for books.
His wife sees the “book” and learns he borrowed it from me. She must have seen the Appendix that references JWs as a cult and the books by Ray Franz. You guessed it – as a true loyalist, the Elders learn of this – and Brother K is now being interrogated to give me up. Yes, you would have thought I had loaned him the Book of Satan! The reports I got from his JC were almost like they were willing to give Brother K a Plea Bargain if he ratted on me. They wanted to meet with me. I was now their golden prize. The Tribal Elders are on High Alert for Apostasy infecting the congregation. They must act quickly and decisively.
As the Wheels of Watchtower Justice turn, at times ever slowly and at others ever so swiftly, I am kept abreast of each and every meeting. Soon, some JWs are calling and visiting, and pumping me for my views and feelings about the organization. All these were sent as emissaries by Elder G to smoke me out.
They (visiting JWs) asked questions and I retorted with questions. They made statements that would seem alluring to me – to get me to think they too were having doubts – but somehow the phony ploys could been seen, and I would dance around with evasive answers just short of committing harry-carry. It was almost fun were it not for Brother K’s future as a JW hanging in the balance. He feared being DF’d because he dearly loves his wife and son, and did not want to lose their love and companionship.
In the meantime, back at the ranch: I meet a local Baptist Pastor. Nice guy. Used to be part of a Cult ... and related well with my dilemma. He offers to meet with the JW Elders and me to see if we can all straighten out matters. I decline, as he expected with understanding. But he wanted to do something to help.
The family knows of what is going on, but only in little spurts from what they could hear Brother K tell me as he visited my home. Otherwise, I was sworn to secrecy. My oldest son finally relates confirmation that the PO wants Brother K, “To get the Hell out of the Organization.” ... the PO’s son heard this and reported it to my son. The PO’s son does not want to be a JW. This confirmation secures what Brother K had been telling me.
Yes, I fretted some about being exposed and being DF’d. This was running contrary to my plans to fade away into the Void. Like a true friend, Brother k holds out, and never gives me away. The Elders are frustrated, but helpless to get solid evidence, al la JW style to bring me into their Star Chamber for a discussion on the Hot Seat. I offer several times to assist Brother K and testimony to the Elders on his behalf. But he refuses because the Elders already have discredited me, and so my words hold no weight.
Eventually, the whole scenario boils down to a decision to DF Brother K. He appeals, and the Appeal is rejected. He appeals to the Society, and they too side with the Elders. The Justice story I cite above gives the details of how evil, twisted, and messed up the JW system was with Brother K. He then hears about his pending DF’d announcement. He calls and cries. A man who is 50 crying is a tough thing to take. We discuss options, and he elects to DA himself, which adds delay, and he is able to mitigate some of this with his wife and son. So at least he salvaged his status with them. But I am now seen as infecting Brother K and blamed for his being DA’d. Better that than they blame him, and have his wife and child shun him.
Currently, Brother K seems to be doing well. He and I maintained our relationship and attended some ex-JW functions together as well as other Christian events. Last I heard he is still with his wife and his son is not doing much with the religion. His DF’d daughter and he resumed their total fellowship.
1993 brings in More Difficulties: The company I worked for, the job that was supposed to be my last until retirement in 2016, announces closure of the plant. March 30, 1993 will be our last day. Get ready for a wild ride.
Resumes flying around, new career seminars to attend, the Christian group meets for the last time because some leave early or quit to go to a new job, and some are relocated. This whole new support structure is now gone, fragmented. No more song, prayer, or friendly Bible discussion. Off goes my beard. Elder E takes early retirement. The lawyers are now zoning in on me during depositions. And rumors are now flying around in the JW congregation that not just Brother Amazing is bad, but his whole family are suspect apostates and bad association. Yes, Elder A rides again to try and meet with my daughter and son-in-law. Nothing but their intent to interrogate to get information on me. Finally, I am on the phone with Elder A once again demanding that he bug out of our lives, stay away from my property, and mind his own business. All this come crushing in to spoil what might have been the slickest Exit one could ask for.
As the weeks go by, there is hardly a day that I do not hear gossip, or get a phone call about something I was supposed to have said or done. In all this, we all honed our skills at deflection, evasion, non-commitment, avoidance, not answering the phone, being away from the house, and keeping once again a very low profile.
Phone rings: Three in the morning, someone there, but no one talks, This goes on for weeks. 2 in the morning, 11 PM, 4 in the morning. Who is it? Someone from work pissed the plant closed and blaming me for part of it. Not likely. JWs harassing me? Can’t tell, seems pointless. Sometimes the voice asks for me, and when I get to the phone and say hello, they hang up. Sometimes, I answer and they listen and ask if it is me, and I think it is a local Elder, they hang up.
So I go to the Sheriff and report it and file for phone tracing. The process is more complex than I imagined. Star 68 and 69 are not employed in our area yet. We watch, monitor our voice recordings, but cannot get a lock on who the caller is. They seem to evaporate, only to return when the system is not operating. We can’t determine where this is from, and so it can cause some paranoia given our situation with the Elders.
By March 1993: I get my last check and severance and am starting a new career. It is a struggle, but I am getting the hang of it. I am working in Portland, far away from the local JWs. Things seem to die down. So I figure that maybe this is what the Christians prayed for and now it has gone. Okay, that was not too bad. I will find other Christians. Don’t need a church. My daughter and son-in-law move back in with us, so the Elders will not likely come over and bug them too. Whew! I can relax, and stop being so worried. Ha! Dream on Amazing, there is more, much more to come.
Ring Hello? “Brother Amazing, this is Elder G: Yikes!!! What? “We are concerned about you. We have not seen you at the meetings in nearly a year, and you are now inactive.” ... “Would you like to report sometime?” Ahh, say again, time? “Yes, we would like to get you back off of the Inactive list.” Oh, well, I will look at my Field Service book and see what I got and call you later.
Elder G continues, “Okay. While I have you on the phone, Elder C and I want to come by on a Shepherding visit with you and your family. Since you missed out on the COs Shepherding visit, we wanted to include you and your family this time.” WHAT! Oh, no, I was visited by the PO and CO last time. They came up to the house, and so it worked out afterall.
Elder G clears his throat ...“Ah, I see ... well ... uummmm ... “
Stay tuned, for now the explosive mixture of JW Justice and ex-JW Liberty are about to clash in ... Part 14: The Last Shepherding Visit[/b] ... to be continued ...
