Chapter 48 New Boy: Life and Death at The World Headquarters of The Jehovah's Witnesses

Chapter 48 Shunning and Shotguns

I was the guy you watch on the Ed Sullivan show. The guy that put up dozens of spinning plates at the end of long sticks. He would put up more and more sticks with more and more spinning plates. How was this all going to end? It ended for me like it ended for him. Unable to keep those spinning plates up any longer, I stepped back and watched them all fall.

I didn’t have the courage to leave the Jehovah’s Witnesses for many years. I knew if I could break free, as I told my psychiatrist, the cost would be immense. When it did finally happen, my worst fears were realized. I ended up losing all my friends and most of my family members, including my wife of 27 years. This all happened, plus financial ruin too, since a big chunk of my Real Estate business came by way of my fellow church members. Just two years later, in 2003 I filed for bankruptcy. A few years after that, I was driving a taxi cab in the streets of downtown Portland.

Welcome to their wonderful world called shunning.

When my letter of disassociation was read to the congregation, this was, of course, great news for my wife. All the talk in the congregation about who had caused our split was now over. I had become the evil apostate. She was now the poor victim of the drone gone mad.

If a Jehovah’s Witness calls someone an apostate, it’s like calling them a devil worshipper. It’s the vilest of all connotations. But the simple definition in the dictionary is this: “Someone who has abandoned a religious or political belief or principle.”

My children, who were adults at this time, were totally shocked and taken back by this sudden turn of events. However, they too, had been having doubts about the organization for many years.

I had mentioned how I had been shunned because of what had happened to my parents back in the 1960s. So, guess what? The same thing happened to my children when I left the organization forty years later. They were shunned too, not by all of their friends, of course, but by enough of them to make them notice. Yes, they too, were judged, not by their own behavior, but by mine. Just like I had been judged by the Witnesses because of what my parents had done. Forty years later nothing had changed. My children were semi-shunned because I no longer wanted to be a Jehovah’s Witness.

Even though I took the semi-shunn I got at their age, they would not. They could see the hypocrisy of the fake and temperamental love of the Jehovah's Witnesses.

My children had also seen many red flags popping up. They, too, were connecting the dots. The picture that it was showing them was of an organization that was run and controlled by people, not by a god. Because of this, they had pretty much stopped going to meetings.

Of course, their Witness mother pleaded with the Elders to do damage control. The Elders made many visits, hoping to steer my kids back into the flock.

Many Jehovah’s Witnesses will tell you, because it’s painfully obvious, that the only time the Elders give you extra attention is when you are either coming into their organization or leaving it.

In this case, the Elders’ visits were too late. My son sent in his letter of disassociation a few months later. My daughter didn’t want to play by their rules and decided to just fade away.

To this day, my ex-wife believes that I’m totally responsible for taking her children out of the organization. This simply is not true. However, I certainly didn’t discourage them from leaving it either. As adults, it was their decision. It was an easy one to make too, because the children of today are much better at spotting bullshit than my generation.

For that very reason, those in the younger generation in the organization are leaving in droves.

Debbie my soon to be ex-wife totally believes to this day that I betrayed her by leaving the Witnesses. But really, who betrayed who? She chose a religion instead of her husband, children and even her own father because her religion had told her to do so. For her, the only true family she ever had was her church and the people in it. It wasn’t us, her physical family.

So who betrayed who?

In all the years since I chose to leave the Witnesses, she has never asked me why. She really doesn’t want to know the answer. However, if you were with someone for almost thirty years, wouldn’t you want to know why they were leaving the organization you both grew up in?

It would have made no difference to her anyway. Even if I had said I had seen the whole Governing Body having a mass orgy with farm animals and small children. It would have made no difference to her. It would have been the equivalent of her putting her hands over ears and saying, “Blah, blah, blah. Please don’t confuse my mind with the facts.”

We now have become part of the thousands of families split up over this religion. Children who have been shunned by their parents. Parents who have been shunned by their children. Siblings not talking to each other. Friends of forty years walking past you on the street and not even looking at you. It’s like the last daughter in Fiddler on the Roof when she married the gentile. “We have no daughter now!”

A few months later, I was getting out of my car and walking towards a restaurant. As I did, Tom McGee, who had been at Bethel with me and was a close family friend, was getting out of his car. I had known Tom for over twenty years. We even went on vacations together. As he was walking toward the same restaurant, I waved at him. He took one look at me, turned around, and got back into his car and drove away. He didn’t even want to eat in the same restaurant as me.

Let the shunning begin.

My father, as well as my Jehovah’s Witness sister, were both living in Southern California in 2012. My own sister, Carol Baez, from San Clemente California never even called me to let me know our non-Jehovah’s Witness father had died. She buried him and never said a word about it. I wasn’t allowed to go to my own father’s funeral because I didn't know about it and she didn’t want to see me there.

It’s totally surreal.

Of course, many people have asked me over the years what it was like to leave after fifty years in that kind of controlled thought system.

My best analogy would be this one:

You’re walking down a street in California and someone stops and throws you in a van and drives you to New York City. The van door opens up and they throw you out into the street. They tell you to never contact any of your friends or family. You are dead to them now. Your new life starts in that vacuum.

For many, the new vacuum doesn’t work for them.

Just a few months after I left the organization, two other families would be making national news because of their extreme behavior after their expulsion from the church. Both these families had moved to Oregon from different states to escape the devastating effects of shunning from their friends and families.

In December of 2001, Christian Longo decided to kill his wife and young children. Afterward, he said that he was distraught over his expulsion from the Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2000. He said, “I sent them to a better place.” Why would he say this? The prosecution mentioned that Christian believed that being a disfellowshipped JW meant the sins of the parents could be passed down to the children. It also mentioned the JW teaching about dying before Armageddon and having a chance for a resurrection as opposed to dying during the mythical doomsday war. As crazy as it sounds, Christian Longo thought he was doing his wife and kids a favor. He thought he was giving them a chance for everlasting life by killing them now.

Then, just two months later in February of 2002, just a few miles away from where Christian Longo had killed his family, yet another man killed himself, his wife and four children all because of the shunning of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

It seems that once again the religion has loaded the gun, it is a mentally ill person who sees no way out but to pull the trigger.

An article in The Oregonian newspaper reported on the event on March 17, 2002:

RELATIVES STRUGGLE TO GRASP KILLINGS

“Faith ruled the lives of Robert and Janet Bryant. A crisis of faith drove them from California to Oregon. Faith in themselves then created a life in Yamhill County most people only dream about."

"Four outgoing and energetic children cared for by a stay-at-home mom. Plans to build a house on a slice of land they owned free and clear. A thriving new business. Bills that were paid — even ahead of schedule.

“Yet sometime after 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 23, Robert Bryant, who was by all accounts a loving husband and father, picked up a 12-gauge shotgun and almost ceremoniously killed his wife, two sons and two daughters. Then he shot and killed himself. Yamhill County sheriff ’s deputies discovered the bodies in the family’s home Thursday."

“Police, neighbors and grieving relatives on Saturday were still sorting out the circumstances that led to one of Oregon’s worst mass murders."

“No clear motive has emerged for the murder-suicide, except that it was perhaps, as Janet Bryant’s sister suggests, a desperate attempt by Robert Bryant to keep his children away from his parents and other California relatives. The family had become estranged three years ago after a wrenching break with their Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation."

“Robert and Janet Bryant were both 37 when they died. Their oldest son, Clayton, was 15; Ethan, 12; Ashley, 9; and the youngest, Alyssa, was 8. Their move to the McMinnville area last summer was supposed to have been a starting over, of sorts."

“Robert Bryant grew up in Shingle Springs, a rural community about 40 miles east of Sacramento, where homes are nestled between horse ranches and dry foothills. His parents, Keith and Arlene Bryant, had raised their three sons and daughter in the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in El Dorado County".

“Robert met Janet at a private high school affiliated with the church. Married just out of their teens, the couple held weekly Bible classes and prayer meetings in their home."

“Neighbors recalled watching the Bryant children biking up and down the gravel road and Janet Bryant often walking the children to the corner to catch a school bus. The Bryants homeschooled their children for a while but eventually decided to send all but the oldest boy to public school in California."

“Working with his father and brothers, Robert Bryant had a landscaping business and was often seen driving his white pickup truck and hauling lawn-mowing equipment in a green trailer. ‘He worked weekdays and weekends, no matter the weather,’ a neighbor said."

“‘He seemed very loving and very kind and was always patting his children on the head,’ said Dana Jones, who lived next door."

“‘The Bryant family enjoyed hunting, fishing and camping trips. They regularly attended prayer meetings with Robert Bryant’s parents, his two brothers and sister,’ said Mark Messier, an elder of the congregation."

"Robert Bryant was cordial, very unassuming, mild and meek,’ Messier said.”

“Jehovah’s Witnesses, according to their official Web site, believe that the Bible is the inspired, infallible word of God, whose true name is Jehovah. They believe that Jesus is the son of God but not equal to God or part of a trinity. Members are organized in congregations that worship in Kingdom Halls, and they believe that they are living in the last days before God establishes a kingdom on Earth."

“Three years ago Robert Bryant, who had become a church elder, grew disillusioned with what he considered to be hypocrisy among the members. He decided to leave the faith, for which one of the basic tenets is NOT to question."

“That decision prompted other church elders to hold a hearing leading to Bryant’s ‘dis-fellowship’ from the church and his isolation from his family and friends."

“The practice, called shunning by non-Witnesses, is based on a biblical passage that urges believers not to associate with ‘anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reveler, drunkard, or robber — not even to eat with such a one.’”

“‘He was expelled for conduct not in harmony with the Bible’s principles,’ Messier said. ‘If they’ve chosen to be a certain way, you withhold association from them, hoping they realize the error their ways.’"

“Janet Bryant was troubled by her husband’s expulsion. She was upset when members of the congregation refused to say hello at the supermarket. ‘She suffered fatigue and felt physically drained,’ said Sharon Roe, her younger sister."

“‘She was very torn,’ Roe said. ‘But she was the kind of person to hold her feelings in and be strong for her children.’"

“Though Robert and Janet Bryant were to be avoided, the children’s grandparents and aunts and uncles tried to maintain contact with the youngsters. ‘Much to Robert Bryant’s distress,’ Messier said, ‘relatives had even sought legal advice on whether the grandparents could require visitation.’"

“With most of his landscaping customers being fellow Jehovah’s Witnesses, Robert Bryant lost jobs once he was ousted by the church. He filed for bankruptcy in January 2000."

“In March 2001, Bryant’s father disassociated himself from the landscaping business, further hampering Bryant’s ability to earn a living in California."

“‘The way he described it, they were absolutely horrible what they were doing to him,’” said Albert Clary, who lived across the street from Robert and Janet Bryant in Shingle Springs."

“By June, the couple had sold their house, loaded their belongings in the dead of night and moved their family to Oregon, where Janet Bryant had lived for a time as a girl and where the family had vacationed."

"‘They didn’t tell their Jehovah’s Witness relatives where they’d gone,’ Roe said."

“Mark Marshall, a McMinnville State Farm insurance agent, said Robert Bryant had told him last summer that he left California because of a church dispute and that his parents were trying to gain custody of the children to keep them in the congregation."

“Marshall said Bryant told him: ‘We’re coming up here to get away from them.’"

“‘Everything seemed to be going great for them,’ Skoog said.’ Why then, eight months into their new life, would Robert Bryant shoot his wife and then his children still tucked in their beds?"

“‘A man who feels hopeless and isolated, as Robert Bryant might have if family and church ties were severed, is at risk for suicide,’ said Dr. James Hancey, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Oregon Health and Science University. ‘If he has experienced big changes in his life, including a new job and residence, the stress in his life is magnified, even if he sought the changes,’ he said."

“But Hancey said why a man might kill his family before committing suicide is harder to discern. While he was not familiar with the details of Bryant tragedy, Hancey said sometimes such actions are related to distorted religious thoughts but may arise from other factors."

“Roe said she learned of the deaths about 2 a.m. Friday when she was visited by local law enforcement officers and a chaplain."

“Seated in her living room, she listened to a deputy tell her there had been a murder-suicide in Oregon involving Robert Bryant."

“‘I heard Robert. I heard Janet. I heard Clayton. I kept thinking, ‘It’s got to stop. There’s got to be someone left.’ Then I realized all six of them were gone,’ she said Saturday. ‘I rationalize in my mind that whatever he did, he must have done it out of love and out of protection for his family,’ Roe said. ‘In his own mind, he felt he was protecting them, and that’s all I could reason out of it.’"

“Critics have said the practice of fellowshipping severs family ties, shatters individuals and may lead to suicide or attempted suicides. The six bodies were taken Saturday to a crematory. Yellow crime scene tape still surrounded the home.”

"The late Dave Malone, himself an ex-Jehovah’s Witness, went to the Bryants’ memorial service. These were his observations:

“Jeb and I pulled up we could see the tall microwave antennas sticking up from atop the News trucks that were parked in the back lot of the church. We arrived about fifty minutes early because we anticipated a large turn out and wanted to make sure we had a place to sit. Being an ex-JW and having an ingrained uneasiness for churches I felt a little strange walking into this very large church. I turned to Jeb after we entered the doorway and told him this was only the third time since becoming associated with the JW when I was four years old that I had stepped foot into a church. The other two times were also for funerals for the relatives of good friends of mine many years after I left the religion."

“We walked further down the entryway and signed the register book like I had done at the other non JW funerals that I had attended. After we signed our names we turned and started to enter the main worship area. There by the big double wide doors were pictures of the Bryant family. One large photo in the middle that looked to be a few years old judging by the recent school photos of the Bryant children. I looked at the family photo and thought to myself that this did indeed look like a typical JW family. Father, wife and four children. Two boys, two girls and somewhat close in age. This was a perfect group of what most would consider the ideal family."

“As I looked at the happy faces of the children in the photos something snapped and reality instantly clicked in, I realized what I was there for. Those children in those photos were all dead, all four of them along with their mother and father. These beautiful young boys and girls were no longer smiling faces but lifeless corpses."

“For a few moments I couldn’t feel anything, I just stared at the photos. I thought of my own kids and how I love to look at photos of them as they grew up and their appearance slowly changed from cute little babies into young men. These photos I was looking at were the last photos of the Bryant’s that would ever be taken. I have been to several JW funerals but not one single one of them ever had photos of the person who had died. JW funerals are not about those who have passed but more of an infomercial for the JW religion."

“In the front there were a dozen or so flower arrangements and three or four wreaths. There were two large pieces of paper with several dozen drawings and notes from many of the kids that attended school with the Bryant children. They were all very nice and considering the circumstance fairly up beat and cheerful looking. I looked at a few of them and one of the notes that was drawn in crayon stuck out. It sad a few nice things about one of the Bryant girls and then at the end there was a simple and personal comment. It said, ‘and I’m sorry for making fun of you.’ Yeah, a tiny lump shot up in my throat."

“I sat down with Jeb and a little smile came to my face. Even though I felt strange being in a church for a memorial service of people I never met, I didn’t feel alone at all. Within a few minutes the main worship area began to fill up. There were reporters in the back with both video and photo cameras and they began taking shots of the kids that were coming in. One of the Bryant children’s classmates came and had reserved seats up front. As I looked around I figured there were around sixty to eighty kids scattered around the room. In total and from my best estimation there were over three hundred people who filled up the main area. All from different thoughts and philosophies in life. All there because they cared about people who lived in their small town."

“A card was read that was written by Sharon Roe and addressed to the people of McMinnville. It was very touching and very thankful for what they had done for people they did not even know. I thought to myself, there wasn’t one single JW in the room but all these people from different churches and different parts of town came to pay their respect to people out of one simple concept, LOVE for their fellow human."

“Yes, these are the same people we were taught as JW’s that were wicked, evil and would soon be destroyed by Jehovah god. These were the people we were taught that did not know the meaning of true love and only were out to satisfy their own selfish desires. These people had nothing to gain by coming to this memorial. They had no one specific religious philosophy to try and sell nor were they there to judge or point fingers. They were there simply to show genuine love for people who once lived in their small town. This little community of McMinnville Oregon showed more love for their neighbor than I have seen shown by all the hundreds of JW’s that I had met in my life. I did not hear one accusation or one single comment that sounded condescending or self- righteous. All I heard was words of comfort and questions about why this all happened."

“As I looked around at the flower arrangements one of them caught my eye. It was a wreath of white flowers and a white ribbon that hung below. The wreath had a few words stapled on the ribbon in gold letters. It said, ‘Shunned no more.’"

Of course these words were not true at all, because there wasn’t one Jehovah’s Witness at their funeral. Not even Robert’s parents or siblings took the time to come. So, yes they were still being shunned.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses could rationalize the shunning of Robert and Janet Bryant but what about their murdered Jehovah’s Witness children? What were their sins?

They were of course judged and shunned by their aunts, uncles, grand-parents and all the other Jehovah’s Witnesses who boycotted their funeral. I guess they must have considered the children worthy of shunning because of their association with their dead parents. Guilt by way of association—nothing new among the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

As I have said before, it makes no difference if you are guilty or not. Anyone living or dead can still experience this unique Jehovah’s Witness punishment!

At the end of another article about the Bryants, The Oregonian asked what could push people to this kind of insanity.

I decided to call The Oregonian and told them I had some information that might help an outsider understand the shunning a little better. So, Wendy Y. Lawton gave me an interview.

My children begged me not to let the interview go into print. “I publicly went into this religion and now it’s time to publicly leave it. Besides,” I told them, “maybe somehow I can help just one person escape the hell that this religion has created for them or their families.”

It must have been a slow news day because this article ended up on the front page of The Oregonian on March 21 in 2002.

SHUNNING CALLED DEVASTATING

“Keith Casarona doesn’t pretend to know the mind of Robert Bryant. Why anyone wipes out his family with a shotgun on a Saturday night, then points the 12-gauge under his own chin is beyond the comprehension of this soft-spoken Tigard real estate agent.

“Yet Casarona knows – in intimate and anguishing detail – the pain Bryant felt in his final years. Both men split with the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Bryant was expelled three years ago in California. Casarona chose to leave a Beaverton congregation last fall."

“The decision gave Casarona peace and fresh possibilities. But the break was devastating. Casarona said he lost his wife of 27 years and friendships that stretched back for decades. About a fourth of his real estate clients vanished. “‘Witnesses are good people, and I bless their path,’ the 52-year-old said. ‘But when you leave them, you go into a Never Never Land.’"

“The killings in McMinnville last month – the worst mass murder in recent Oregon history – cast a spotlight on Jehovah’s Witnesses and their practice of ‘dis-fellowship.’ In a Christian sect that proudly protects members from the corrupting influence of outsiders, expulsion is the harshest form of discipline."

“There is no official motive for the slayings. Police think Bryant was under emotional strain when he shot his wife, four children and himself. That stress, investigators said, included fallout from his shunning."

“Now anti-Witness Websites are abuzz with accusations. Who in their right mind would ever want to stay in this horrible, horrible, hateful religion? one posting reads. Witnesses, too, are talking. But they’re saying the church is the scapegoat for an unfathomable act."

“Leonard Golaboff, a 46-year-old Elder in Oregon City, notes that there is no proof that Bryant’s ouster from a congregation outside of Sacramento was directly responsible for the murders and suicide. ‘Like all expelled members,’ Golaboff said, ‘Bryant could have changed his ways and come back.’"

“‘This is all just a tragedy, a travesty, a shock,’ Golaboff said. ‘What was going on in this man’s mind? I am sure there is a lot that we don’t know.’"

“What worries Golaboff and other Witnesses is a link between the trigger of Bryant’s shotgun and a 132-year old faith that deplores violence and cherishes family."

“Jehovah’s Witnesses are a made-in-America church that boasts 6 million international members. They believe in Armageddon: The world will end, the wicked will die, and God will create a paradise on Earth for the righteous. The name refers to members’ watchful return of Jehovah, or God."

“The Bible is their bedrock. Witnesses live their lives in strict accordance to its teachings and follow a rigid moral code. Stealing, drinking , smoking, premarital sex – all are forbidden."

“According to another Bible interpretation, members also must keep separate from a world invisibly controlled by Satan."

“They’re not supposed to vote, join the military or celebrate holidays aside from the commemoration of Christ’s death each spring. Close ties with non members, or the ‘worldly,’ are discouraged. The reason is reflected in a standard Witness saying: ‘Bad associations spoil useful habits.’"

“Protecting the congregation’s purity is the point of disfellowship. Members are kicked out before they can harm, or continue to harm, others with conduct or beliefs that contradict the Bible."

“Sherwood Elder Tom Davis said there is a second purpose: Putting a member back on the proper moral path. Davis said dis-fellowship – or even the threat of it – often forces people to make positive changes in their lives."

“‘This helps someone realize that they’ve made a mistake and need to change their ways,’ Davis said. ‘And we’re not talking about little stuff. This discipline comes from violating the stated laws of God.’"

“According to Elders, experts and church materials, here is how dis-fellowship works: To get kicked out, baptized members must display a pattern of ‘serious un-Christian conduct,’ such as molestation, adultery, drinking or lying. Promoting teachings that conflict with the Bible also qualifies."

“It isn’t clear what Robert Bryant’s offense was. Neighbors and friends in California said he began to question Bible teachings and found the Shingle Springs, Calif., congregation too controlling. An Elder has declined to discuss specifics, saying Bryant had ‘turned away’ from the faith."

“Elders said they try to avoid shunning through Bible counseling. And, if repenting members convince leaders they’ve changed, they can stay. If they don’t, Elders call a private, judicial-style meeting and expel them."

“The shunned still can attend religious services, officials said, and conduct business with members. But Witnesses are instructed not to socialize with someone who is disfellowshipped."

“John Crossley, a professor and director of the school of religion at the University of Southern California, said a similar tradition of excommunication is shared by Catholics, Mormons and the Amish. But the practice is fading."

“‘It is almost impossible to hold up moral doctrine and force people to conform to it anymore,’ Crossley said. ‘It is especially difficult to continue a practice that is as severe as dis-fellowship."'

“Witnesses point to lives transformed by shunning. People kick drugs, stop gambling and mend marriages. But critics attack the practice as cruel and destructive." “While families aren’t required to split up due to disfellowship, critics and even a few church members said that is often the practical result. Computer sites devoted to attacking Jehovah’s Witnesses are loaded with stories of divorce and custody battles and estranged siblings – as well as depression, drug abuse, bankruptcy and suicide."

“Daniel Duron used to be among the angry."

"After he left the church in 1984 over a disagreement over blood transfusions, the Hillsboro roofer’s world turned upside down. Elders came to his door and told him his two boys were ‘fatherless.’ His wife and friends and extended family became strangers. Duron was so shaken he planned to kill himself. The gun store, however, was closed."

“Soon Duron started fighting. He divorced and won joint custody of his sons. He picketed a local Kingdom Hall. He joined a support group for ex-Witnesses, where he met his second wife. Looking back, the former Elder said the biggest impact of his shunning was the sudden loss of certainty."

"‘Everything you believed in is gone with this tight-knit church family,’ Duron said. ‘The way you look at science, spirituality, the after-life – it’s all different. Eventually, that can be very positive. But it’s also scary. I wouldn’t wish the experience on anyone.’"

I love this line from the article: “To get kicked out, baptized members must display a pattern of ‘serious un-Christian conduct,’ such as MOLESTATION, adultery, drinking or lying.”

Really? Molestation?

I had informed The Oregonian to get Tom Davis to explain the Witnesses’ side of the story. Thus, the article reported, “Davis said dis-fellowship – or even the threat of it – often FORCES people to make positive changes in their lives.”

"Yes, if we can, we will FORCE you back to god’s loving organization. So much for free will. It is conform or die.

Just two days later on March 23, 2002, after this article in The Oregonian was printed, News-Register, a local newspaper, published this column by its editor:

THE TALE OF TWO FREEDOMS

“Do you believe in God?"

“Do you believe the Bible provides explicit instructions for how to spend your life on Earth? Will you follow the edicts of men who interpret those instructions, even as their interpretations change over time and conflict with basic human values?"

“If commanded, will you remain silent about your doubts?"

“Can you accept, without question, any proclamation, any theological theory decreed by your church, and withhold your friendship and loyalty from members who don’t show total allegiance? If demanded, will you reject, rebuff and shun all contact with your mother or father, your son or daughter, your best friend in life, no matter how sick or distressed that loved one may be?"

“Welcome to the world of Robert Bryant, a world in which a perceived mental illness and his known religious conflicts came crashing together to produce a terrible crime against humanity. Welcome to the world of Jehovah’s Witnesses, a religion that many consider a cult. But before you judge the members of Jehovah’s Witnesses, remember that judgment is the weapon this religion uses to control the minds and souls of its followers. Before you judge Robert Bryant, remember that his mind and his soul were shaped, then cast aside by the religion that dominated his life. His unthinkable response was to leave this world, and take his family with him. Perhaps, as spoken this week by his surviving sister-in-law, Robert Bryant’s purpose for being on this earth was to deliver the message that comes from this tragedy. That message, said Sharon Roe, is that you have no right to judge men in the way that the Jehovah’s Witnesses judged Robert Bryant, in the way that this religion and others have judged and damaged so many people throughout history. She wants to believe that something of value and consequence can come from this act that stunned our community, our state, our nation."

“I want to believe that, too."

“I know that our Constitution gives the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others, the right to judge men in any way that they choose, and that our forefathers died to protect that right. But we have another important right, that of free speech."

“We have the right to speak out when a religion produces astonishing levels of psychological abuse. We have the right to say that it’s wrong, dead wrong, and to ask for a change."

“I join Sharon Roe in exercising that right.”

Next up Chapter 49 God Kills Another Baby