Yes, a Bethelite Woman Provided "Spiritual Food"
to Jehovah’s Witnesses
Over the last couple of years, many people have asked me to share my Writing Department resume' and basically that's why I'm doing this. I hope that the knowledge of what I did at Bethel helps Jehovah’s Witnesses to understand that the Watchtower organization misleads the flock by inferring that all "spiritual food" somehow emanates only from men and particularly from the Governing Body.
Oh, by the way, I know without a doubt that while I was in the Writing Department, none of the Governing Body researched and wrote any articles and books that the Society published. From information received from informants, this continued up until at least by the end of the 1990s. Karl Klein stopped writing for the Writing Department many years before I arrived in the department in 1989. And by that time, blind and ill Fred Franz was in the Bethel Infirmary. Lloyd Barry was the only other Governing Body member who occasionally wrote, and his last endeavor was to edit and rewrite a great deal of the work that senior writer, Robert Pevy, penned in the 1988 publication, Revelation—Its Grand Climax At Hand!. Perhaps, now with the addition of some new Governing Body members, there might be one of these “anointed” men who can contribute "spiritual food" to the members.
Perhaps you may say that many of the articles I wrote were not "spiritual." However, if you read each article’s conclusion, you will find some Scriptures along with spiritual commentary.
Inasmuch as I did do work that normally only men were perceived of doing at Bethel, it is obvious that Witness women do make many more "spiritual" contributions than the Witnesses are led to believe. And because there were a number of women doing research in the Writing Department as late as 2002, one such researcher being a talented writer who worked for the New York Times before 1994, I believe they are still being used by some senior writers to do just what I did because many of these men are not adverse to accepting or assigning capable women to write articles to fill a magazine that each man compiles on a rotation basis.
First for the record, here are the publications which contain pictures of my husband and me or just of me:
We appeared on the covers of the,
October 8, 1986 Awake! and July 22, 1992 Awake!
We also appeared in the following magazine:
May 15, 1989 Watchtower, page 10, smallest picture w/ blue frame
I appeared in costume in the following books:
One picture that is in, REVELATION--ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND
Five pictures that can be found in, THE GREATEST MAN THAT EVER LIVED
This is what I did in the Writing Department:
I was assigned by the Governing Body to be the major research assistant to senior Watchtower writer, Karl Adams, for the book,
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES, PROCLAIMERS OF GOD'S KINGDOM
During my research for PROCLAIMERS, I discovered many unknown facts about the early history of JWs which facts were included in the book. And remember, this book is considered to be "Spiritual Food" for JWs.
I did all the research and contributed text for the 1992 Sunday afternoon District Assembly public lecture assigned to writer, Harry Peloyan, by Ted Jaracz. The subject was on John 1:1 discussing, Jesus, the "light" of the world, which was a very "spiritual" lecture. I sat in the audience at a convention in Virginia listening to my husband give the lecture and wondered what the elders in the audience would think if they knew that a woman put together practically the entire lecture.
I did all the research for the October 22, 1995 Awake! article, "Why Is Life So Short?"
I did most of the research, plus, assisted the senior writer, Eric Beveridge, and was quoted many times in the article, "Women Deserving of Respect,” June 22, 1990 Awake!
I did all of the research for Awake! editor and senior writer, Harry Peloyan, for the 1993 booklet, "What Is The Purpose Of Life? How Can You Find It?" The original intent was that this booklet would only go to the Chinese-speaking world, and I spent many weeks researching Chinese history and looking for quotes to prove there is purpose to life, something that apparently the Chinese people don’t think too much about. Also, Chinese senior writer, Cyril Chain, worked with Harry on this booklet. Finally, when the draft was presented for critique, it received such praise that it was decided to publish the information for the non-Chinese world too.
I helped Sam Buck write some of the following article, "More Living Space For A Growing Family," Apr 22, 1989 Awake!
I was still in the Construction-Engineering Department working with the architectural group when Sam asked me to contribute material for an article that would be a report on the successful completion of the renovation of the Standish and Bossert Hotels, which would house Bethel family members.
I rewrote the following article submitted by a branch writer in Ireland, "Heeding the Warning Signs," October 8, 1991 Awake! This was the first work I did for Harry Peloyan.
Under the title of the following article can be found a statement that the article was contributed by an Awake! correspondent in Africa. However, I wrote the majority of the article and then it was sent to a missionary at an African branch for review. When he sent it back, it could then be said to be contributed by an Awake! correspondent in Africa.
April 8, 1993 Awake! Millions Are Suffering, Can They Be Helped?
I wrote all of the following articles,
December 8, 1991 Awake! "The Bill of Rights, Why Was It Needed"
Dec. 8, 1991 Awake! "Students Participate in National History Day"
Nov. 22, 1994 Awake! Cover Series Articles, "Difficult Children"
I was assigned and did extensive research on the neurological bipolar (manic-depressive) condition and submitted it to Awake! editor, Harry Peloyan. The material was never used because it was decided by Writing Department Overseer, Lloyd Barry, that an article on this subject could open another "Pandora's Box" such as the October 8, 1991 Awake! cover series articles, which discussed sexual child abuse, did. By the way, I did not write nor do any research for the Oct. 8, 1991 articles.
I continued to research and submit my findings on sexual child abuse to the Writing Department until I slipped away from the organization in 1997 because the Watchtower refused to change its policies which harmed so many of its members.
For what it’s worth, in the August 8, 1993 Awake!, p. 31, there is a letter and picture of our son and daughter-in-law who, at that time, were newly married and living at Brooklyn Bethel. The letter was from our son expressing his gratitude to us for having been raised by such good “theocratic” parents. I shared it with Harry Peloyan and he decided to publish it.
Not even ten years later, our son changed his mind completely about what great parents we were and decided to totally shun us after we were disfellowshipped for speaking out about the hidden sexual child abuse problem within the organization. He said I did a “noble” thing trying to protect the Witnesses’ children; however, he did not believe I did the right thing by going public. (Apparently, I broke the eleventh commandment, the most important one to Jehovah’s Witnesses: “You must not commit publicity.”)
Our son was in Bethel for 16 years and he and his wife left to have children. Soon after Dateline aired, May 28, 2002, they traveled to New York to personally ask Watchtower officials for their side of the story. He was told that I misunderstood the Society’s policies, and by my actions, caused thousands of people to leave the organization, leave the Bible and leave God. Hence, they were going to die at Armageddon and I was responsible. He chose to believe what he was told and this is the reason he has never spoken to me again.
hen I look back at my life from the time I was baptized at age 14, it simply amazes me where that first step led to. My only desire as a woman in the Watchtower organization was to help people to understand the mysteries of life, of course, in line with Watchtower's interpretation. After leaving the Watchtower organization at the end of 1997, my goal was still to help people, but I have concluded that I’ll never be able to unravel the mysteries of life, let alone help others to understand them. However, what I can do is to help people understand the mysteries of the Watchtower Society. In that way I can still help people to “know the truth and the truth will set you free.”
Barbara
_________
Randy
from Barb's pages at: http://www.freeminds.org/women/barb_anderson.htm