I do not know Richard personally, nor do I or Free Minds, Inc. get any $$ from this, but it sounds like a good book! We will not be carrying any new books for awhile, but you can check the links directly.
Randy
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:
Dick Kelly 616-447-0040
GROWING UP IN MAMA’S CLUB –
A Childhood Perspective of Jehovah’s Witnesses
By Richard E. Kelly
They knock on our doors and offer hope for a better life in a new world to come. And yet, we know so little about the inner workings of this non-mainstream religion. Particularly, the impact it has on children. Just as Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes captured the bizarre reality of life from a child’s perspective, Growing Up In Mama’s Club vividly describes the day-to-day life of a boy growing up in this unusual group—and his subsequent escape from it.
This fast-moving memoir holds readers with the intellectual and emotional struggles of a child beset by religious confusion. His attempts to conform to a belief system at odds with his intellectual capacity are heart-rending, and his ultimate triumph over religious indoctrination is inspirational for people of all ages, especially for those who grew up in an emotionally abusive environment.
The author was four years old when they knocked on his mama’s door. During his mother’s turbulent five-month conversion process, he thought she was joining a club. After she was baptized, and for the next sixteen years, he would be insulated from an outside world that his mama believed was going to be destroyed before he reached the age of 20.
While much has been written to discredit Jehovah’s Witnesses’ theological interpretation of the Bible, this story draws on the insights of a young boy as he transitions to manhood and tries to make sense of a mother he loves and a world in which he’s rendered powerless. This story provides engaging information about Jehovah’s Witnesses and the boy’s reaction to living under the rule of “truth.” It should prompt readers to rethink the influences that underlie their childhood. For a full life is created not by what happens to us, but how we make sense of events over which we have no control.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Richard E. Kelly grew up as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses (the Club). At age 20, while working at the Club’s headquarters, in Brooklyn, NY, he left the group. He lived with his wife, Helen, in New York City for a year before they moved to west Michigan in 1965. He worked for long time Grand Rapids manufacturer, Clipper Belt Lacer Company, for 33 years, where he served as the company’s treasurer and then president. He retired in 1997.
In April 1998, the author’s sister, Mary Lyn, was brutally murdered by her third abusive husband. Her mother was given power of attorney for her remains, and because Mary Lyn had left the Club five years before, no memorial service was held. She was dead and forgotten, as far as Mama and Club members were concerned.
Several months later, Mr. Kelly decided he wanted to write his story about growing up in Mama’s Club and dedicate it to the memory of his sister. He believes that for many children, particularly girls, growing up under Club rules and regulations doesn’t prepare them for their adult lives in the real world—a world that the Club teaches its members is evil and under the influence of the Devil.
In 1999, after writing a first draft of his experiences growing up in Mama’s Club, he was told he was angry and needed to learn how to write. Driven to do something for his sister, he took writing classes at the University of Arizona and Pima College in Tucson, Arizona. He participated in writing retreats, joined writing groups, and started writing every day. In 2005, he met and hired an editor, Sherry Sterling, who shared his passion for getting his story in print.
Two hundred copies of a pre-release edition of the book were printed in April 2007 to get reader input. Again and again, readers reported that the book was compelling, well written, and so moving they didn’t want the story to end.
Growing Up In Mama’s Club –
A Childhood Perspective of Jehovah’s Witnesses
By Richard E. Kelly
Parker Ridge Publishing, August 2007, second printing, paperback/$16.95
ISBN: 0-9795094-1-6