If you have read and digested the preceding chapters, you are now ready to consider specific material to present to your Jehovah’s Witness loved one. Ideally this should be done step-by-step over a period of time. It takes time to program a person into a cultic mentality; so, likewise, it takes time to deprogram. Rushing the process can result in an aborted attempt—something that can not be risked when there may not be opportunity for a second attempt.

The material assembled here will have a powerful impact on a Jehovah’s Witness. No JW can read these selections and simply shrug. Rather he or she will find them extremely unsettling, giving rise to strong emotions and intense reevaluation of beliefs.

However, you should not expect to see an immediate outward manifestation of this. Jehovah’s Witnesses have been trained to keep their real feelings to themselves, especially doubts, fears, and insecurities about their beliefs. To express open disbelief in Watchtower teachings is to expose oneself to censure and possible expulsion, so JWs learn to mask their inward questionings and to hide their secret thoughts even from their most intimate associates.

For example, consider the situation that developed among my in-laws. My wife’s parents began to study with the Witnesses while Penni was in elementary school, and soon became dedicated, baptized JWs. So they had been in the organization for a good portion of their lives when Penni and I, in the eleventh year of our marriage, agreed to quit the sect. We visited her parents to tell them of our decision, knowing that the reaction they had been programmed to give would be to throw us out of the house and refuse to see us anymore. You can imagine our surprise, then, to discover that they themselves had wanted to leave the organization for a long time, but had held back from doing so because Penni and I were so firmly entrenched in it that they expected we would cut them off. They hid from us their true feelings throughout all that time. So as the evidence you share with your Witness friend begins to weigh more and more heavily on his heart, do not expect him to tell you so. In most cases he will be unable to discuss the direction in which his thoughts are moving until he has reached an irrevocable decision to break with the organization. Any disclosure before that could result in his being forcibly expelled before he is ready to leave.

However, it should also be noted that the Witness exposed to the information we are about to present may react in one of two opposite ways: he may flee from the Watchtower organization and seek out true Christianity, or he may flee to the security of the Kingdom Hall and resolve never again to critically examine his religion.

I have seen both reactions in different individuals. Consider “Karen,” for example. A minister she met in her door-to-door canvassing shared with her some information that shook her faith in the Brooklyn leadership. She spent a couple of days in emotional turmoil, seeking help from “spiritually mature” persons in the congregation. But she ended up settling the matter by sticking her head deeper in the sand. In the future she would be quicker to walk away from anyone presenting apostate ideas—she wanted never to face that sort of mental anguish again.

Whether a given individual will be liberated or further enslaved by an encounter with the truth will depend on a number of factors, some of which you can not influence (for example, his or her personality, family circumstances, and so forth) and some of which you can control (for instance, your timing, approach, techniques, personal example, and so forth). Since the factors within your control may be enough to tip the balance one way or the other, it is imperative that you give due attention to the thoughts in our previous chapters on strategy, timing, techniques, and approach, as well as the remaining chapters of this book. Applying these suggestions may mean the difference between success and failure. Moreover, since a bungled attempt may bar you from the opportunity to try again, you should muster all available resources to do it right the first time.

Rather than dispute various Jehovah’s Witness beliefs one at a time, we have seen that the most effective strategy is one that takes aim at the Watchtower organization itself—the very basis for all of those false beliefs. “Is the Watchtower organization truly what it claims to be?” That should be the focus of early discussions with a JW, until the Witness sees the organization for what it really is. After that, and only after that, can you successfully challenge the doctrinal beliefs that are now left to stand on their own without being upheld by the Watchtower’s authority. If the organization is what it claims to be, then all of its teachings must be true. But if it is an impostor, then all of its teachings are suspect.

In brief, these are the steps you will need to take:

1. Establish the Watchtower Society’s claims. As a defensive maneuver, JWs will sometimes insist to outsiders that their leaders are “just ordinary people like us, who study the Bible and try their best to teach what it says.” To head off this defense, you must first document that the organization claims to be God’s prophet and the exclusive channel of communication that God is using.

2. Disprove the organization’s claims. Since it claims to be a prophet, examine its prophecies to demonstrate that it is indeed a false prophet. Since it claims to be the channel of communication from God, examine some of the ideas it has communicated that could not possibly have originated with God.

3. Draw the conclusion that the Watchtower is not God’s organization. At this point the Witness’s sense of obligation to the sect ends, and he or she is free to rethink beliefs and redirect life’s goals and ambitions.

4. Establish the real truth. Help the JW fill the void left by the Watchtower by getting to know God and coming into fellowship with genuine Christians.

5. Aid in deprogramming and readjustment. It takes years for a fully indoctrinated Jehovah’s Witness to shed all the mental and emotional encumbrances acquired while in the sect. The resources listed at the end of this book will prove helpful in this.

The next few chapters enable you first to establish the claims the Watchtower’s leaders have made for themselves and then to demonstrate the falsehood of those claims. To aid you in accomplishing this we provide documentation of the organization’s statements, along with suggestions for discussing these with your Jehovah’s Witness loved one. Bearing in mind that Witnesses are forbidden to read apostate literature, it would be unwise to show them this book. Not only would they normally refuse to look at it, but they might also feel obliged to cease discussions with you since you are passing on to them so-called apostate ideas. Instead, photocopy the documents individually and present them as pages from Watchtower publications—which they truly are, and which Witnesses should feel free to read.  In some cases the photocopies have been marked like this to highlight relevant passages.