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This publication is for Jehovah's Witnesses, ex-JWs,
and persons concerned about JW relatives, friends and neighbors.

Since The Watchtower has commanded followers to "avoid independent thinking...questioning the counsel that is provided by God's visible organization" (January 15, 1983, page 22), any free discussion must originate from outside -- primarily from those who have left the organization.

David A. Reed, publisher and editor of Comments from the Friends began studying with Jehovah's Witnesses in the summer of 1968 and was baptized at a circuit assembly in Plymouth, Massachusetts, early in 1969. He served two years as a pioneer (full-time door-to-door minister) and eight years as an elder. In 1971 he married Penni Scaggs of Coldwater, Michigan, who had been raised in the organization and also pioneered.

Toward the end of that time David and Penni noticed that some of the "new truths" being introduced in Watchtower Society publications were actually teachings that had been abandoned a few years earlier as erroneous. Now the Society was returning to those very same teachings, yet presenting them as something new. This led David to do some serious research in the Society's publications--where he found even more glaring examples of back-and-forth flip-flops, failed prophecies, unbiblical doctrines, and deceptive cover-ups.

Meanwhile, personal Bible reading that David and Penni had begun with the goal of becoming better Jehovah's Witnesses, began to convince them that they should be disciples of Jesus Christ rather than unquestioning followers of an eccentric human organization.

After David used an Instruction Talk at the Thursday night meeting to encourage the congregation to put Bible reading ahead of studying Watchtower publications, he was removed from the list of speakers. Those conducting the meetings even stopped calling on the Reeds during audience participation question-and-answer sessions. So, in December 1981, David began publishing Comments from the Friends underground, while still a JW in good standing. In a matter of months he was put on trial and disfellowshipped for publishing it, since freedom of the press does not exist among Jehovah's Witnesses.

• Jehovah's Witnesses Answered Verse by Verse
• How to Rescue Your Loved One from the Watchtower
• Answering Jehovah's Witnesses Subject by Subject all from Baker Book House
• and the first new hardcovered book on Jehovah's Witnesses in decades by a major U.S. secular publisher, BLOOD ON THE ALTAR: Confessions of a Jehovah's Witness Minister released in 1996 by Prometheus Books.

Comments from the Friends ©1996 David A. Reed, Editor -- Clipart © Corel Corp., et al. -- Unsigned material is by the editor. Manuscripts are welcome, with stamped self-addressed envelope for return. We assume no responsibility for return of unsolicited materials. Financial support for this publication is provided by subscription fees and by the gifts of those who wish to see it continue. Contributions are not tax-deductible. The printed edition is printed in U.S.A., ISSN 1063-7575