Leaving the JWs by writing a letter of resignation as a publisher:
I thought of another way to gain closure in leaving the organization, other than by writing a letter of disassociation. It is by writing a letter of resignation as a publisher and resignation from the theocratic ministry school (or whatever it is now called). I wrote and mailed such a letter a few months ago. I had become a fader years ago. My sending the letter was not for the benefit of the elders but for my own psychological benefit.
I didn't like being on record as one of JWs since I stopped believing in a number of their unique doctrines and since I am now even an atheist, philosophical naturalist, and a secular humanist. Think of it this way, if I had joined a political party and later disapproved of the party so much that I didn't want people to think of me as a member of that party, I would be motivated to officially leave that party by revising my voter registration. Likewise I wanted to leave the JWs in some official manner, but without triggering the shunning policy (all of my immediate family members are JWs, though they are in a different congregation than the one I last attended).
The only record the congregation had of me as a JW was the congregation's publisher record card pertaining to me. In the case the WT Society, they claim not to have a membership list of JWs though they probably have records of those who had become ministerial servants, those who had applied to Bethel, and those who applied to be a pioneer publisher. Furthermore the WTs published total number of publishers (such as peak publishers) are what JWs consider to be the total number of JWs. Thus in some sense an inactive JW is no longer a JW, though they are usually still treated as one if they still attend JW meetings. Even if they are a fader who completely ceased attending JW meetings (even the Memorial) they are still treated somewhat as a JW (at least they are not normally shunned).
I had been an inactive publisher but I had ceased thinking of myself as a publisher (in the JW sense of the word) at all. Since resigning as a publisher (at least for faders) it not the same as officially disassociating or becoming disfellowshipped, I thus officially resigned as a publisher. In the letter I mentioned that I had ceased being an active publisher (in the JW sense) several years ago and that I now consider myself an ex-publisher and not merely an inactive publisher. In the letter I state that it is not a letter of disassociation (without stating I never disassociated from the JWs, since in a de facto sense I had disassociated from the religion and the congregation) and that nothing in the letter is grounds for disfellowshipping. I said that if they still have a congregation's publisher record card pertaining to me, then please either destroy it (since I am now an ex-publisher) or please add a comment to it saying I am now an ex-publisher. In the letter I also told them I have resigned from the theocratic ministry school (and that I hadn't participated in it for several years). Whether or not the elders carried out these requests of mine is not important to me. What is important to me is that sent them a letter in which I instructed them to do so and that I have a copy of that letter. I thus now feel that for all practical purposes I am out of the JW religion. If I were to later finish writing and then publish a book criticizing the JW religion, disproving Christianity and the Bible's supernatural claims, and promoting atheism, I won't be worried about someone saying aren't you a JW? That is because I could show that I am no longer a JW publisher, in additional to pointing out that I had stopped believing and practicing the religion years ago. As a result of me sending the letter I no longer feel the least bit dishonest in me telling people I am an ex-JW. I no longer feel the need to qualify the statement of being an ex-JW by saying 'though on paper I am still a JW.'
By the way, I was baptized in 1981 and thus before the baptismal vows were changed to say that JW baptism would "identify [me] as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses in association with God’s spirit-directed organization."