I would like to take this opportunity to give a brief account of the events that I have had to under go over the last 5 weeks. I have been a Jehovah’s Witness for 38 years and all of my close family are currently active JW’s. I got married to my wife in March 1999, she was a baptized witness and had been for over 30 years. Prior to getting married she confessed that she had been having an adulteress relationship with prominent elder in a local congregation where we live in the North West of England. At this moment I didn’t want to damage our relationship any further by exposing what had been going on for over 20 years to the elders, She also put me under great mental strain to keep it all concealed. The elder in question had been seeing her for over 20 years in this time he had been serving as an elder and undertaken all the duties of an elder including judicial committees where he was disfellowshipping others for the same sins he was committing. The same elder was taking the watchtower, book studies giving talks at conventions etc, he was well respected and appointed by holy spirit !!!!!.
As I write this account I have had to attend a judicial committee last week where I was disfellowshipped for covering over my wife’s sins and the elder in question, both my wife and the elder have been disfellowshipped. The judicial committee have given me 7 days to appeal against the decision to which I feel very aggrieved. I would like to point out at this time that I have had my doubts about the WTS for a number of years and this is obviously the last nail in the coffin.
Over the last few days I got in touch over the phone with the presiding overseer of my congregation to ask for his advice on appealing against the decision. I was promised that no other elder would know the details of my case by the elders making up the judicial committee, so I was assuming the presiding overseer would not know the details of the case but could offer me advice. To my surprise he knew exactly what was going on and informed me that there was no reason to appeal because no committee would over turn the decision. He also went on to say that because I was asking for advice this was a sign of unrepentance. This loving shepherd of Jehovah’s congregation rather than offering help and loving advice and counsel had a tone of anger in his voice to the point of disgust. During the conversation I requested that the grounds for my disfellowshipping be put in writing because I couldn’t fully understand what they were, his reply to this was that it was out of the question to do so but I had to put my appeal in writing to them.
I have now spoken to the chairman of the committee and told him I would be appealing against the decision to which he was shocked. I have spoken to all the elders who were at the committee over the last week and each has given me a varied response. One elder said that I could be a ministerial servant if I make it back another said I was getting the raw end of the deal and the whole affair had become wide knowledge throughout the circuit so had to be brought to a stop, another elder said that I had to confess my sins to Jehovah’s channel on earth the elder arrangement. When asked whom the body of elders confess there sins to he replied that they confess to Jesus Christ and are answerable only to him.
My course of action now is to search for legal advice regarding taking the congregation of Jehovah’s witnesses to court on the grounds of defamation of character and mental abuse, which has resulted in me regularly visiting a psychiatrist and taking medication. Since the story of the Bryant family has become public knowledge it pains me to see others going through this mental torture to the point of suicide. From my own experience over the last 30 years of being a witness and especially at this time when I have been cast out of the congregation and my family put under intense pressure to shun me, I can personally see how easy it is to end ones life. I feel that there are so many of us who have stories to tell but just require the right channel to get our stories in the public eye. I would welcome any suggestions on newspaper and television reporters who would like to hear my story, maybe this could lead to others giving there accounts. I would also like to know if there are any solicitors in the North West of England who may have dealt with possible cases similar to this against religious organisations.
ABOUT PANORAMA
