"I no longer believe that
the WT is 'God’s channel.'"

TO THE EDITOR:
I am an inactive Jehovah's Witness and I had been considering returning.
I decided to ease back by perusing the Internet as perhaps a way of making anonymous contact and asking about various things that bothered me with regard to some WT teachings.
Much to my surprise, I found a wealth of information refuting WT teachings, etc.
Needless to say, after surfing through all this information and after reading Crisis of Conscience by Ray Franz, I no longer believe that the WT is “God’s channel.”
At this point I feel like a boat without a rudder. I want to study the Bible and I would like to find out if there are any local groups of former JWs that may be meeting together.
All the former doctrines I have believed in I am now questioning and I have no idea what is truth anymore. I am very anxious about what to believe as I have two young daughters that I want to teach about God but I am lost as to what I can teach them that is accurate.
I have suffered a lot because of being a JW (my wife left me even though I was inactive which has devastated my daughters) and now I am in the process of searching for answers. If you know of any local JWs that have correspondence, please let me know.
Roger Kuhnen
Connecticut

Read . . . in Suriname

From: REmenaker@MAF.Org (Rick Emenaker)
To: davereed@webshowplace.com
Subject: Re: New ONLINE EDITION
Dear Mr. Reed,
We just tried out the New Online Edition. It's done very nicely! The cost for us to use it on a regular basis is too much (online costs in Suriname are a lot higher than the US.) So we definitely still want to receive our printed copy.
But we pass our one copy around to several people. It's nice to know that if others wanted access to information they can get it by going on-line. We will let others here know about it.
Keep up the great work! We hope you enjoyed Christmas. May God continue to bless and use you in a mighty way this coming New Year.
Rick and Rebecca Emenaker
Mission Aviation Fellowship

memorial . . . dropped by 225 thousand

From: ***********
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: comments@ultranet.com
Subject: Watchtower statistics
Just a brief note, which you may find interesting. I have seven years of Watchtower statistics on hand. Last week, the stats for 1996 were published. The amount of service hours for JW publishers has dropped by 10 million! Also, memorial attendance has dropped by 225 thousand!
This is the first time I have seen such a large drop in these categories, and it is worldwide. Perhaps something significant is happening, probably caused by their dropping the 1914 generation, but then again it may be an isolated incident. They actually appear to have decreases throughout Europe.It will be interesting to see how the leaders respond.
Please refer to me as “LM from California.”
I have friends and family who are JWs,
and I am not disfellowshipped --yet.

Expecting to be Disfellowshipped

Date: Mon, 9 Dec 1996 17:19:35 -0600 (CST)
From: J.M. Schwehm <jmschweh@comp.uark.edu>
To: David Reed <comments@ultranet.com>
Subject: Jehovah's Witnesses

Hi David-

...My wife and I have been attending a Lutheran Church as of late. We joined a small Bible study group made up of 3 other married couples. A couple of weeks ago it was our turn to host the Bible Study meeting in our apartment...

Anyway, two of the couples told us that they had gotten lost and started knocking on doors in our complex trying to find out which one we lived in. One of the husbands, his name is Chris, said that he was not going to go from door to door with a Bible in his hand because people would think that he was crazy. At this point the two couples that got lost started having a discussion about what happened to them when they were called on by Jehovah's Witnesses. My wife and I had never told them that we were ex-JWs. We just sat there and listened to them. It was obvious that neither couple was in the least bit prepared to talk with a JW at the door. At this point I looked at my wife and she looked at me and we told them that we were ex-JWs and that we had just started going to their church about 8 months ago.

Both couples were shocked, but they were very interested in what the JWs teach and believe. They asked me to explain to them what the JWs teach and why they teach it and how it is wrong. I have kept most of my Watchtower literature and was able to show to them and explain to them the changes in the "generation of 1914" among other things. Most of the time, they appeared to be shocked that anyone would actually believe what the JWs believe. They all wanted to know more so that they could be prepared the next time a JW came to their door so I let them borrow two of your books. One of them took my copy of your book "Answering JWs Verse by Verse" and the other couple took you book "Answering JWs Subject by Subject". By the way, I have found the latter to be very helpful in defending myself when attacked by JW relatives especially my mother who just recently accused me of worshipping the Devil.

I expect that my wife and I will be DFed once the JWs find out that we are celebrating Christmas this year. My wife's family does not know that we are attending a Lutheran Church now so when that info comes out I am sure that we will be hearing all kinds of stuff.

I guess I just wanted to say thanks for your help.

Jeff S.

". . . was thoroughly confused . . ."

From: Ramseydr@aol.com
To: comments@ultranet.com
Subject: Praise God for your ministry!

Dear David,

I am a Christian who lives in New Orleans, La. and subscribe to Comments from the Friends. Although I have never been a Jehovah's Witness, six years ago for a duration of about two years I was throughly confused by the Watchtower’s teachings. It was only through serious Bible study (the truth) and the reading of your books (exposing the Watchtower) that the Holy Spirit delivered me from the confusion.

Someone at my church has a friend in Mississippi whose wife who has been a JW for three years. Last night this man brought his wife to New Orleans to talk with me. Using your literature I exposed the errors of the Organization and using the Bible I shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with her and her husband (a Catholic). At 12:30 am this morning after six hours of discussion both the husband and wife repented of their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. When they left to go home they also took a NIV New Testament, a load of photo copies of old Watchtowers, and your books "How to Rescue Your Loved One from the Watchtower", "Jehovah's Witnesses Answered Verse by Verse", "Index of Watch Tower Errors" and "Pilgrimage through the Watch Tower". Thank God for your Ministry, God has used you to bring two more people into his Kingdom. Also if time allows and you have any follow up tips for me please reply.

Spencer Stewart