I was conceived in New York City by design. My mother and father, Joy and Ken Watters, decided that having a 6 year-old beautiful little girl was not enough; they needed a boy. As my parents later told me, it was to help hold the family together. My mother prayed so hard that she told the Lord if she had a boy, she would give him to the Lord, like Samuel of Bible times (1 Sam. 1:11). This act of faith ...

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By my third year at Bethel I was really enjoying it and determined to make Bethel a life career. Although my desire to marry Judy, the single Bethel sister, did not work out, I would just stay and be single if I had to. I did not like the grind of life on the outside. I could never see myself working a 9-5 job (still can’t after 30 years), having a family and settling down. I was a March hare, full ...

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Served at Bethel Headquarters from 1974 to 1980; ; Having been a pioneer for two years and anxious to live at the hub of "God's organization," Bethel seemed like a wonderful place to be. From the start, I learned to run a press, printing the New World Translation, the Aid book, and many other publications. By 1977 I had been appointed a floor overseer and a Bethel elder. I was in charge of the presses ...

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52 years as a J.W., born in 1949 in Azusa, Calif., raised in Glendora, Calif. My father was D.Fed in 1961 for not going to the Kingdom Hall he was assigned to, {AHHHHH the love} by 3 brothers who later all left or got kicked out of the borg too! Pioneered in Salina, Kansas 1968-1970. Was at N.Y. Bethel 1970-1974. Worked in the laundry, under Ken Dowling {AHHHH the love}, bindery, East freight elevator ...

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Not everything on this site is negative towards Jehovah's Witnesses. In fact, they are fine people with a heart for the better things in life for the most part. This file is an example of some of the hard and fearless workers that once graced the halls of Bethel, in spite of how they were treated thereafter.   Note: this summary was typed from a taped interview with Covington completed on Nov. ...

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My name is Steve McRoberts. I was born in 1956 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I was raised, along with my older brother and sister (Tom and Mary), as a Catholic. Tom was adept at skipping church, but Mary and I took religion very seriously: we spent our free time cleaning the church and distributing "holy cards" to bewildered passers-by.But then we moved, and we started attending public school. Mary made ...

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My six-year stay was a happy one, in spite of the events that came down in 1979-1980. Before that time I was learning social skills and seeing the world, and during the shakeup I was happy to know what it meant to love Jesus Christ and share his grace and love.   All pictures taken between Nov. 1974 and late 1979.   left to right, the Bethel boys from Linwood Congregation: Rich McGee, Jack ...

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In the last issue of the Journal,I left off where the apostasy had begun at the Brooklyn Bethel headquarters in 1979, and some of my friends had been asked to leave. Former Governing Body member Ray Franz left a few months before I did, forced out by the anger of several power-hungry autocrats. For the first time since their appointment as part of the elite Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses, the ...

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The following is a letter sent to the Watchtower's Governing Body in 1981 as a letter of resignation/rebuke regarding the way other Bethel family members were treated during the "Franz Incident" of 1979-1980 at the Brooklyn headquarters. At the time of writing this letter, Randall was an elder in the Airport Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses in El Segundo, California (Los Angeles). Randall declined ...

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When I left off with my story in the last Journal, I was pastoring a small church of Christians called Hope Chapel West Manhattan Beach. We were three years into the church, and it was about 1993, and I could no longer take the workload of doing the ministry and the church. I was not paid a salary by the church, but did it to help others, allowing my funds to come from Bethel Ministries. I also ...

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How many of you have ever been deceived? Has anyone ever lied to you? Has your parents, Pastor, or best friend ever lied to you? How did you feel? Were you devastated? Did you ask them why they had deceived you and were their explanations less than satisfactory? Second Peter 1:16-21 talks about following "cleverly invented stories." According to Adam Clarke in his commentary on Second Peter, it ...

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Randy,; ; Man, I feel beaten up. I've never e-mailed you before but I've been reading and re-reading everything on your site for a couple weeks now, and man, I am having the worst time ever. As you are probably aware, it's tough coming out of the JWs because there is little that anyone can say that will help you to just let go, you know? Anyway, I feel like I just need to write out what's going on ...

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I was born a nothing. That is to say, my family had no religion. In my early years, I never heard my dad speak of God, nor my mom of Jesus. Grandpa K was a pipe smoking loner. 47 years in one company, and they noticed not that he retired. Grandma K, was I believe, a woman of faith, though it was the deep, abiding sort. She had a Bible on the end table in their modest home, but it was dusty whenever ...

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Hi! I'm new to this electronic surfing thing and, so, surprised to find a web site like yours this quickly. Reading several letters caused me to reminisce on when I too was a JW publisher, pioneer, and Bethelite - twenty years in all. Because visitors to your site customarily get to tell their stories, allow me please to pass on a little autobiographical account I wrote in 1995 in the wake of my excommunication ...

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Interview completed on SATURDAY MAY 18, 2002 by Dr. Jennifer Henderson, assistant professor, department of communication, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX. Minor errors corrected and edited for space and fluency only. ...

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I applied for service at the world headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses (known to Witnesses as "Bethel") in Brooklyn, New York. I was invited to serve there as a volunteer starting November 14, 1968. At Bethel, I worked hard at whatever work I was assigned to do. I was also very dedicated to learning as much as possible about the Watchtower teachings. I was warned to stay away from "bad associates," ...

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In my totally overwhelming 53 years of human existence, I've finally learned that "it isn't what you think you know; it's what you've been through" that matters to most other people. So, as an unwilling, though also willing, participant in that cycle of life and death, belief and unbelief, I will offer more to you more than I've ever said to any group of folks than I've ever known. That's JWN for ...

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When Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the Church doors in Wittenberg, Germany, in 1517, no one, including Luther himself, could foresee what a firestorm would be unleashed in the Church of his day. Yet, there would have been no Reformation had not God done His work of reformation in Luther's soul. What happened to him happens, by God's eternal decree, to all of His elect. And so, God worked His ...

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Vignettes of this famous author's life, as reviewed from her out-of-print book, "Visions of Glory--A History and a Memory of Jehovah's Witnesses" (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978). Barbara gave exclusive writes to her book to Randy just months before she passed away in 2002. The whole book is available as a PDF download from the newly remodeled Free Minds Store, thanks to V and ...

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I'm so sorry to hear Ray Franz has died; my thoughts are with his dear wife. I never knew him personally, but he still managed to change my life. This is my story. I was a fifth-generation Jehovah's Witness -- regular pioneer, Bethelite and congregation elder -- from a large family of Jehovah's Witnesses. When I got married I left Bethel and settled into a happy routine centered around congregation ...

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Vignettes of this famous author's life, as reviewed from her out-of-print book, "Visions of Glory--A History and a Memory of Jehovah's Witnesses" (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978). Barbara gave exclusive writes to her book to Randy just months before she passed away in 2002, and today begins one of several excerpts from her book. The whole book is available as a PDF download from the newly remodeled ...

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I met Raymond Victor Franz in 1968, in the room of my friends Rene and Elsie Vasquez at the Watchtower world headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, a few days after I had arrived there to serve as a volunteer. A few months later, I was assigned to Rene's congregation, Queens Spanish, where Ray and his wife Cynthia also attended. Ray and I were in the same book study group, and we often traveled together ...

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These are the list of excerpts on this site from "Visions of Glory" by Barbara Grizzuti Harrison: Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, Author and Essayist, Dies at 67 Visions of Glory Series with Barbara Grizzuti Harrison N. H. Knorr, Bethel, and Jews - Barbara was personally acquainted with the Watchtower's third president, Nathan Knorr. Knorr could be nasty. God can't kill Arnold - Barbara discovers ...

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April 26, 2002; By DOUGLAS MARTIN source Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, who emerged as a popular, prolific writer of keenly observed nonfiction with a 1978 book about the dozen years she spent as a Jehovah's Witness, died on Wednesday at a hospice in Manhattan. She was 67 and lived in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. The cause was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, said her daughter, Anna ...

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Vignettes of this famous author's life, as reviewed from her out-of-print book, "Visions of Glory--A History and a Memory of Jehovah's Witnesses" (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978). Barbara gave exclusive writes to her book to Randy just months before she passed away in 2002. The whole book is available as a PDF download from the newly remodeled Free Minds Store, thanks to V and Paul. GO HERE ; ...

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Vignettes of this famous author's life, as reviewed from her out-of-print book, "Visions of Glory--A History and a Memory of Jehovah's Witnesses" (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978). The whole book is available as a PDF download from the newly remodeled Free Minds Store, thanks to V and Paul. GO HERE ; I had grown up in the gross and painful experience of casual anti-Semitism. By the time ...

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Vignettes of this famous author's life, as reviewed from her out-of-print book, "Visions of Glory--A History and a Memory of Jehovah's Witnesses" (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978). Barbara gave exclusive writes to her book to Randy just months before she passed away in 2002. The whole book is available as a PDF download from the newly remodeled Free Minds Store, thanks to V and Paul. GO ...

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Vignettes of this famous author's life, as reviewed from her out-of-print book, "Visions of Glory--A History and a Memory of Jehovah's Witnesses" (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978). Barbara gave exclusive writes to her book to Randy just months before she passed away in 2002. The whole book is available as a PDF download from the newly remodeled Free Minds Store, thanks to V and Paul. GO ...

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Vignettes of this famous author's life, as reviewed from her out-of-print book, "Visions of Glory--A History and a Memory of Jehovah's Witnesses" (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978). Barbara gave exclusive writes to her book to Randy just months before she passed away in 2002. The whole book is available as a PDF download from the newly remodeled Free Minds Store, thanks to V and Paul. GO ...

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Vignettes of this famous author's life, as reviewed from her out-of-print book, "Visions of Glory--A History and a Memory of Jehovah's Witnesses" (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978). Barbara gave exclusive writes to her book to Randy just months before she passed away in 2002. The whole book is available as a PDF download from the newly remodeled Free Minds Store, thanks to V and Paul. GO ...

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Vignettes of this famous author's life, as reviewed from her out-of-print book, "Visions of Glory--A History and a Memory of Jehovah's Witnesses" (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978). Barbara gave exclusive writes to her book to Randy just months before she passed away in 2002. The whole book is available as a PDF download from the newly remodeled Free Minds Store, thanks to V and Paul. GO ...

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Vignettes of this famous author's life, as reviewed from her out-of-print book, "Visions of Glory--A History and a Memory of Jehovah's Witnesses" (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978). Barbara gave exclusive writes to her book to Randy just months before she passed away in 2002. The whole book is available as a PDF download from the newly remodeled Free Minds Store, thanks to V and Paul. GO ...

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Vignettes of this famous author's life, as reviewed from her out-of-print book, "Visions of Glory--A History and a Memory of Jehovah's Witnesses" (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978). Barbara gave exclusive rights to her book to Randy just months before she passed away in 2002. The whole book is available as a PDF download from the newly remodeled Free Minds Store, thanks to V and Paul. GO ...

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Vignettes of this famous author's life, as reviewed from her out-of-print book, "Visions of Glory--A History and a Memory of Jehovah's Witnesses" (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978). Barbara gave exclusive writes to her book to Randy just months before she passed away in 2002. The whole book is available as a PDF download from the newly remodeled Free Minds Store, thanks to V and Paul. GO ...

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