My brother, Micah, walked into the Kingdom Hall with an ashen face. Without offering a greeting, the young attendant led him wordlessly toward a seat in the front row. Micah knew the rules. Except for my sister Cyndi and me, no one could speak with him. He wouldn’t have come except that Mother died on Thursday after a long struggle with cancer. She would’ve wanted him here. I watched from the back of the Hall, as I conversed with Sister Ada McHenry, one of Mother’s life long friends. Ada had taught Mom the Truth, as we Jehovah’ s Witnesses call our faith, before I was born. (We later found out that generations ago Mom’s family had been prominent Witnesses back in Pennsylvania.) Dad never joined, but the three of us kids and Mom became steadfast Witnesses; all steadfast, that is, until Micah’s daughter, Lidi, died for lack of a blood transfusion, four years ago. Bitterness led him to begin questioning the Watchtower’s teachings and eventually led to his resignation from the Faith. From that point on, everyone in the congregation was required to shun Micah, except for direct family members and even we were supposed to keep contact to a minimum. My eyes fixed on Cyndi as she walked up to where Micah sat. She greeted him and engaged in her usual animated chatter, as if nothing were wrong. Tears welled up in my eyes. Mother’s death, coupled with memories of Micah’s tragedy, was too much. Foolishly I had agreed to give the funeral talk for Mother, foolish, that is, because I didn’t know if I could get through it without breaking down. Somehow I did get through the talk and the luncheon at the McHenry’s afterwards. Micah was not allowed to attend. Our beliefs do not allow us to eat with disfellowshipped people. This treatment is not out of malice but conviction that his eternal life depends on us disciplining him back into the Truth. I had no appetite and left as soon as I could politely manage it. I went home, shut myself in my study and pulled out the file containing Micah’s letter of resignation. When he wrote it, nearly four years ago, I had only glanced at it. I now leafed through it again, counting the pages. The letter itself contained over fifteen pages and there were an additional ten pages labeled as proof texts. Clearly Micah had put a lot of time and research into this. Previously I had lacked the patience to read through the whole thing. During that unsettled period, Micah had been upset, spewing crazy ideas. Yet seeing him today at the Hall, I gained a renewed compassion for his situation. I wanted to help him. I wanted to learn what made him tick. I could give my brother my attention for an hour or so, knowing he had put his heart and soul into what he wrote. I stretched out in my recliner, turned on the reading lamp and cleaned my glasses.
It is with a sad heart that I am writing to disassociate myself from the congregation. Having been an elder and pioneer for over a decade, I know full well what this letter means. From now on I will be shunned by lifelong friends who will refuse even to say “Hello” on the street. There will be ongoing awkwardness with my mother, brother and sister, who will limit their association with me. Over the years, I have learned much from Jehovah’s Witnesses. There has been real love and genuine support. When Dad died, the sisters in the congregation were a real source of strength. They got Mother through some difficult times. For that, I’ll be eternally grateful. However, my continued study of the Bible has led me to a vision of God’s love that is more forgiving than the view offered by Jehovah’ s Witnesses. Millions of Christians around the world of diverse denominations love and serve God to the best of their abilities, according to the measure of wisdom they possess. They have the same Holy Bible and many seek to live by it. We differ in belief and practice based on various interpretations. Too often we ‘awfulize’ differences so that other beliefs seem extreme or dangerous. In contrast, the Bible emphasizes the need for love, forbearance and unity. We are never told that faithful Christians should split off to form a separate organization from those they believe to be unfaithful. How much less should we cause division based on honest differences of opinion. “Who are you to judge the house servant of another? To his own Master he stands or falls, indeed, he will be made to stand for Jehovah can make him stand.” Different views on God’s dietary Laws and the celebration of holidays were acceptable in the first century Christian congregations. (See proof texts below.) Unfortunately, as Jehovah’s Witnesses, we have taken a hard line. We claim to be spiritually superior— judging ourselves as the only ones practicing “pure worship” and all others as unclean. We seem to have forgotten that forgiveness and humility, not purity and superiority, are the heart of true Christianity. Jesus taught that we will be forgiven as we forgive others. By being harsh in our judgments of other organizations, we endanger our own standing with God and Christ. There was a knock at the study door. Still clutching the letter, I got up, opened the door and ushered Cyndi and Micah in. Cyndi gave me a hug. “I brought over a box of Mom’s old photos for you. I left it on the kitchen table.” I said “Thanks!” Stepping back she looked at me quizzically. “Why are you isolating yourself in here?” she asked. “Just thinking-- I’m quite upset by the way we, as a congregation, treated Micah today. We’ve lost mother and this congregation enforced estrangement compounds it--” Micah and I made eye contact. He gave me a pursed lipped nod. I held up the letter. “I’ve been re-reading his disassociation letter-- Have a seat.” They came in and pulled up two folding chairs in a circle with my recliner as I closed the door behind them. Micah still had not said a word. “How ya doing baby brother?” I asked. “Pain upon pain,” he answered, eyes cast down, shaking his head. “Mother and I never reconciled. I always hoped that before she died she would somehow come to respect my decision.” Cyndi’s eyes got big. “Respect your decision? Are you loopy? How could you leave the Truth and expect us to respect--“ I gave Cyn a stern look. “Sorry,” she whispered. Micah pointed to the letter. “As Jehovah’s Witnesses, we call our beliefs the Truth, but have you read my letter?” he asked. She shook her head no. I handed it to her, which despite a profound frown, she began to read. “I’m going to get us some drinks… Wanna beer?” “Sure,” said Cyndi without looking up. “Meanwhile, I’ll look this over.” I headed to the kitchen with Micah in tow as Cyndi began to read. We gave her some extra time by chatting by looking through a box of Mother’s pictures. Virtually all of them were Witness related-- Mother at the 1973 Convention in a jubilant crowd of thirty, each holding up a new tract, Mother at the 1977 Convention in a similar crowd, each holding up the latest book release, Mother at the 1988 Convention with Sister Kriegmore, her Bible Study who got baptized there. Micah commented that her whole life had been an immersion, a dedication to the organization. He knew as well as I did that Mom dedicated herself to God, not to the organization, but I let his dig pass without comment. When we returned to the study with three cold bottles, Cyndi was staring hard at the wall with the folded letter in her lap. “All this makes my head spin.” She held her ears as if trying to regain equilibrium. “Why are we discussing this now? Mom just died.” “Mom’s whole life was the Witnesses,” Micah said. “How can we move on until we deal with this breach in our family?” “I guess you’re right,” Cyndi sighed. “We might as well get all this out in the open. If Mother was here, she wouldn’t shy away showing you how wrong you are. The breach will heal when you come back to the Truth.” Micah gave her a hug, then sat down, pulling his chair as close to Cyndi as he could. “Sis, I’m not saying that Mom was all wrong or that the Witnesses are a wrong choice in and of itself. What I’m saying is that we, as Witnesses, are wrong in our harsh judgments of others. We need more humility.” Cyndi took a long drink from her bottle. “We spend hours each week studying to learn the Truth. We have the Truth. We are the ones doing Christ’s work, preaching the good news from door to door. We prove it all from the Bible. You make it sound like there’s no truth, just a bunch of optional paths.” “Doesn’t it sound presumptuous for us to judge our organization as the only righteous one, to claim that God appointed the Watchtower Society over all Christ’s interests in the earth in 1918. It’s up to the Master to judge his house servants. Isn’t that what the Bible says?” “The evidence for the appointment of the one true organization in 1918 does seem rather feeble,” I agreed. “It’s one thing to see a tree producing good fruit and another to say it’s the only good tree in the orchard.” Cyndi looked at me with daggers as if by agreeing with Micah on this one point, I had signed a pact with the Devil. Micah turned to her. “I’d like to ask you some questions, if that’s alright.” “Shoot,” she said, steeling her face for battle and taking a sip of her beer. “Is it a sin to misinterpret the Bible?” “Absolutely! Jesus said, ‘It is in vain that they keep worshiping me because they teach commands of men as doctrine.’ Everyone was created to do God’s will and we cannot know his will without accurate knowledge of the Bible.” “Have you ever misinterpreted a verse? Has the organization?” “Of course, but when we learn better we change!” “Is your current understanding perfect? “No, I never said that!” “So, you, I, the organization—we are all imperfect in our knowledge, and therefore practicing sin?” “Maybe—But we have the ransom of Christ to cover our sins.” “That’s right! God forgives in a large way!” “Yep!” “Now then—What about others who incorrectly understand the Bible’s teachings, say about the immortality of the soul or the future of the earth? There are verses that say point blank that the earth will burn up in the last day. What if our explanation seems way out to them? Say we are right, but they can’ t see it. Will God forgive them?” “Maybe--- That’s up to Jehovah to decide.” “Or say that we are wrong about some things and someone shows us their reasoning from the Bible, but we can’t see it. What then?” “I’ll confess to being imperfect. God will forgive me, right?” “Now, knowing that our worship is imperfect and that the worship of say the Baptists or Seventh Day Adventists is imperfect, why do we judge ourselves as pure and others as unclean? Don’t they also pray for forgiveness in the name of Jesus?” “They have way too much wrong. Besides they don’t change when they find out they are wrong.” “So you’re saying that God forgives only little sins, but not big ones?” “Well, no,” she said with a scowl, feeling cornered. “Bible verses are like dots. To get a complete picture someone has to connect the dots. There are different ways of doing so and they can result in different pictures of Bible teachings. One person looks at the stars and sees a Big Dipper and someone else sees a Great Bear. Both love God, Christ and Bible truth. Do you see what I mean?” Cyn’s scowl deepened. “I don’t like where this is going,” she said then emptied her beer. “Don’t you feel that we ought to treat others as we expect to be treated? Take changes in the Catholic Church, the removal of saints, like St. Patrick and St. Christopher, who proved to be historically inaccurate, Vatican II, the admission that modern Jews were not to blame for the death of Christ? Don’t they change their beliefs based on ongoing scholarship?” “I guess so—“ “And when they make changes, we ridicule them for their inconsistency, but we think it’s great when we change things. Be fair. Jesus taught that we will be forgiven as we forgive. If we are hard core, minimize our own imperfections, focus on and ‘awfulize’ the imperfections of others-- what are we setting ourselves up for?” “You’re saying God will not forgive us our errors of our minor misinterpretation unless we forgive the Catholics?” “Think about Charles Russell, the founder of the Watchtower Society. He used the cross which we now understand to be a pagan symbol of sun worship. He celebrated birthdays and Christmas. He taught that the Great Crowd would go to Heaven in addition to the 144,000. He didn’t emphasize Jehovah’s name as we do today. And he died without repenting of any of these misinterpretations. Was he faithful to God? Did God forgive him?” “Surely, Russell died faithful to God.” “There were other Christians at that time who considered Christmas a pagan holiday, a long line of them going back to the Puritans. Russell reviewed their reasoning about the date being wrong as well as their other evidence but felt it was much ado about nothing. Now, today, Jehovah’s Witnesses believe he was wrong in his judgment on this matter and yet faithful to God, right? All this was after having heard the truth and rejecting it, right?” “Uch!” Cyndi moaned. Her face contorted as if she were being tortured. “You’re saying we’re hypocritical—that we judge our own differently than those outside the organization. And that we’re petty-- that we make a federal case out of a lot of stuff that doesn’t really matter— but there has got to be a difference between doing God’s will and not doing it. You’re making the two equivalent.” I jumped in. “What I think Micah is saying, it that there is a right and wrong on every issue, and there are benefits in having the truth--- but not everything is a matter of life and death. Others can be forgiven and saved, despite not having the truth on every issue.” I turned to Micah. “Is that right?” “Pretty close. I’m also saying that we lack humility. We should do our best and leave it to Jehovah to judge us. But we too easily equate our organization’s viewpoint with God’s will. We hardly notice how much human reasoning goes into piecing together our understanding of the scriptures.” “Hmm—“I said. “When we prove something from the Bible by going from one verse in Luke to one in Isaiah to one in Revelation—the way we link those scriptures is like drawing the lines of the Big Dipper? The stars are God’s but the lines are ours. Is that what you mean?” “Yeah, exactly,” Micah agreed. “In reality, we don’t know how imperfect we are or how much more Jehovah has yet to teach us. We can’t assume our sincerity and conviction makes us very nearly perfect. And I’m also saying that regardless of how imperfect our understanding is, we can be forgiven. The only requirement is that we have a humble and forgiving attitude toward the errors of others.” “That view has a certain logic,” I agreed. Cyndi just shook her head. Micah continued. “But there’s more than that.” He looked at us with apprehension, not sure whether he dare to broach the larger subject. He took a drink, than another, wavered as if he were holding an inner debate, shrugged and then preceded. “Please hear me out on this one, OK?” Cyn and I looked at each other. “OK,” we concurred. He reached over and took the letter off of Cyndi’s lap, paged through it to find his place and looked up at us. “I worked on the wording of this for a long time and I’d like to read it to you.” We both gestured our agreement. “This picks up with what we’ve been saying.” Holding the letter flat to capture the light, Micah began to read: Doubtless, there is, Biblically speaking, a right and wrong way to worship. But our study of the scriptures and sincere belief we have found the Truth does not mean that we actually have the full truth on any given matter. God’s ways are higher than our ways. We need more humility in our assessment of our own righteousness as an organization. God promises to forgive even the Roman soldiers who put his Son to death. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” If the largeness of divine forgiveness extends to murderers of Christ, why wouldn’t God grant forgiveness for the sin of misinterpreting the Bible? Cyndi looked impatient. “We’ve covered that!” she snapped. Micah’s face softened. “Hang with me,” he said. “Hopefully, this will make sense to you.” Further, if the largeness of divine forgiveness extends to unrepentant pagans (Christ asked that they be forgiven with no strings attached as far as repentance on their part), how much more so will he forgive those who have a measure of light, such as Jews and Muslims, who worship the same God as we do. The apostle Paul did not refuse to pray with Jews in synagogue and even offered animal sacrifices at the Jerusalem Temple. Early Christians and Jews worshipped together. Over time, traditionalist Jews expelled those upstart Christians from the synagogues, forcing Christians to hold separate worship services. Christians did not leave due to fear of being contaminated by any supposed impure worship. Micah looked up from his reading with a pleading look on his face. “What I’m saying is that having differences of belief should not cause divisions among those who worship the God of the Bible.” Cyndi shook her head. “Didn’t Jesus say that he came to cause a division, even between members of the same household?” “She’s right,” I said. Micah had to agree. “True,” he said. “Division does result from following Christ, but it’s not the Christians who separate themselves. It’s opposers who cause problems. It is written ‘As far as it depends on you, be at peace with all.’ I didn’ t leave the congregation. I didn’t argue with anyone or promote my ideas. The elders threatened me and kicked me out when I dared to pray with other Christians who they claimed were not in the Truth. I can’t imagine what they would have done had I gone to a synagogue like Jesus.” Cyndi shook her head again. “How did you get so messed up that you imagine the Truth doesn’t matter?” “You’re asking how I got started thinking along this line?” “You used to be so zealous for teaching the Truth door to door.” “It all started with the case of Sister Flowers. I had just been appointed in the congregation as elder at the time. It was my first experience a judicial committee. Sister Flowers was accused of wrongdoing. She had participated in an interfaith wedding ceremony for her daughter at a New Age Church by praying for Jehovah’s blessing on the marriage as part of the ceremony. When she failed to repent, we disfellowshipped her, despite the fact that she had prayed to Jehovah, calling him by name, and even had a head covering on. We used Bible texts that refer to the worship of pagan gods to condemn her ‘interfaith’ prayer. But she insisted it was not interfaith since everyone there believed in and prayed to the same God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Peter, Paul and Jesus.” “And you agreed with her? Cyndi interrupted. “Hold on a minute! You’re skipping over some vital Bible truths.” Micah smiled patiently. “No,” he replied. “I didn’t agree with her at the time. However, what she said and did began to open my eyes. Eventually I came to see truth in it.” “Sects and divisions are wrong,” Cyn scolded. “They are works of the flesh that we must avoid. You can’t be saying that the splintering of Christians into various sects is Ok. The Bible condemns divisions and sects.” “She’s clearly right,” I chimed in. “That’s the sticky point you’re avoiding.” “I’m getting there,” he assured. “We sometimes imagine that the true Christianity is based on correct doctrine and that imperfections in other organizations identify them as sects. But this misses the point of what a sect is. A sect is a section, like the section of an orange. Some may be larger. Some have more juice; others more seeds. But basically they are sections of one whole. The household of faith encompasses all who claim to serve Christ. Some teach the Bible more accurately than others, but that same Bible says we should leave judgment up to God. Sectarianism builds walls between sections and denies spiritual fellowship to those it judges as unworthy.” Cyndi shook her head in extreme puzzlement. “How can you possible say that we are anything like the splinter groups of Christendom?” “We’ve focused on the differences between us for too long and overlook hundreds of points of agreement. All those who claim to be Christian believe in the same God, share the same Holy Book, chapter for chapter, verse for verse. We even have the same numbering system for our verses. We all pray for forgiveness of sins based on Christ’s blood, believe in the same prophets and apostles. We all believe in honesty, chastity, reverence, love, joy, peace, a final judgment and on and on.” Cyn’s head snapped. She sat tall, looking ready to do battle. “What about the Church’s involvement with the world,” she accused, “What about the priests abusing altar boys? What about self-glorification of the rich tele-evangalists and their money schemes?” Micah opened his palms, admitting she had a point. “Sure! There is plenty of hypocrisy to go around. No group is free from it. We have our hypocrites too. The Bible contains many warning examples of corrupt kings and leaders of ancient Israel. Those warnings apply to our organization as well, to our elders, to our Governing Body members. Yet, many devoted souls in all sorts of groups genuinely live by Christian morality. It is wrong for us to separate ourselves from others who serve God and Christ with a holier than thou attitude. There is no reason we shouldn’t pray together, just as the Apostle Paul prayed with Jews in synagogues and at the Temple.” “That was just temporary,” I said, “until the Christian congregation got on its feet.” “You won’t find any command for Christians to separate from Jewish worship in the Bible.” Micah insisted. “Not early. Not later. If we want to imitate first century Christian worship, we need to broaden our outlook and be less about our organization and more about forgiveness.” Cyndi chimed in. “What about all the scriptures concerning accurate knowledge? What about—“It’s in vain that they worship me, teaching commands of men.” What about-- ‘I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to accurate knowledge. Because of not knowing the righteousness of God, but seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God’?” “OK! First, these clear statements were directed at the corruption of the Pharisees, yet none of this prevented either Jesus or Paul from worshipping along side Pharisees at the Temple or participating in synagogue services with Pharisees. Jesus read aloud from the scroll of Isaiah during the synagogue service in Capernaum, isn’t that true?” “I guess.” “Second, the issue is not black and white. We all lack accurate knowledge to some extent. There are shades of gray, some lighter, some darker. To whatever extent we fail to worship in God’s way, we miss out on blessings and to that extent our worship is vain. If it were an all-or-nothing situation, then any slight inaccuracy in our understanding would condemn us.” “That’s ridiculous! God promises to forgive his faithful servants who love him and do the best they can.” Micah said nothing. He just smiled and leaned back in his chair, feeling that Cyndi had made his point. I leaned forward in my chair. “You’re still ignoring all those verses that warn against hypocrites and false teachers.” “OK! As we’ve said, I’m connecting the dots in a different way. And there are a lot of dots. Let me make one more point first, then well talk about false teachers, OK?” “OK,” I consented, but thought he was just trying to avoid the tough questions. “In Jesus’ parable, the one of the wheat and the weeds, Jesus deals explicitly with this question; how should we handle false Christians in our midst. He describes himself as a sower of seeds, who has planted wheat in a field. The wheat seed represents his teachings. Weeds start to grow in the field. The weeds represent false teachings. His disciples then asked, “Should we weed your field and pull out whatever does not belong?” Jesus surprising answer-- “No! Allow the wheat and weeds grow together until the harvest. In the end times, the angels will separate them.” I stared at Micah with unbelief. “You’re saying it’s wrong to kick out habitual sinners and hypocrites? There are a zillion scriptures that command us to keep the congregation clean.” Micah sat up, looking me in the eye. “No, I’m not saying that at all with regard to conduct. Fornicators, thieves, extortioners are to be reproved and removed from the congregation. Titus mentions those who disown Christ by their works. The congregation is empowered to deal with habitual sinners in its midst. I’m talking about differences of belief. The lists of sins that warrant disfellowshipping, such as in 1 Corinthians, do not include apostates, heretics or the sin of misinterpretation.” “At least we partially agree,” I said. “At least you acknowledge that some sins warrant congregational discipline.” “Yes, but in Jesus’ parable of the wheat, we is talking about different ideas and teachings. The seeds represent teachings. The good seed God’s Word, the poor seed human ideas. Jesus said, ‘Don’t uproot anyone based on the sowing of a different seed, a different doctrine. Let them grow together until the harvest. God will judge. He did not say that the wheat should clear a patch of the field and keep separate from the weeds. It is presumptuous of us to judge others on matters of faith.” Cyndi shook her head. We both did. “There’s a lot that you’re overlooking,” I said. Opening his raised hands, he pleaded, “Feel free to lay it out. What am I overlooking?” “The Christian scriptures instruct, ‘Reject the man that promotes a sect after two or three admonitions.’ False teachers transform themselves into angels of light. Such men were to be avoided, as their words are like gangrene. Christ, in Revelation, says that he hates the sect of Nicolaus. The letter of 2 John states that we should not entertain in our homes or even greet false teachers who cause divisions in the congregations. How are you going to deal with all that?” “Flip that issue on its head,” Micah smiled broadly as if he had just belted one out of the park. “The one who promotes a sect is the one who establishes a separate organization. The sectarian is the one who divides and leads away disciples |