In the Beginning

I became one of Jehovah's Witnesses in 1987 at the age of 17, but got excommunicated five years later, in 1992, for 'apostasy'.

One of the Jehovah's Witnesses' field service (door-to-door) training manuals, entitled, 'Reasoning from the Scriptures', p.34, defines 'apostacy', thus: "Apostasy is abandoning or deserting the worship and service of God, actually a rebellion against Jehovah God. Some apostates profess to know and serve God but reject teachings or requirements set out in his Word. Others claim to believe the Bible but reject Jehovah’s organization."

Indeed, I did abandon and desert "the worship and service" of the God of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. I rebelled, yes; but, not against this "God", Jehovah; rather, I rebelled against the leaders of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society by vociferously exposing their lies. I don't reject Johovah; but I do reject the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.

Before I continue, I ought to reveal to you my spiritual and political bias, my philosophical background and my moral foundation. I am a Deist and a Freemason; I am a Canadian political conservative; I have a B.A. Cum Laude in Philosophy; and I was raised in a French-Irish Roman Catholic milieu.

My opinions are my own and they are my opinions only; they do not reflect the opinions of others, whether Deist, Masonic, Canadian Conservative, French, Irish, Roman Catholic or not. Others certainly hold opinions different than mine, and that's perfectly fine.

In retrospect, I feel quite proud of carrying the title 'Apostate', for reasons that I can't quite explain. I seem to derive some sense of pleasurable satisfaction from it. (Perhaps I ought to talk to a therapist about it - like Dr. Jordan Peterson?) I've always been a bit of a rebel.

My book is not perfect - especially in an academic sense. If it were academic, I would have tried to get it published professionally. Unfortunately, there are some missing sources for a number of quotes, especially in later chapters. I wrote it before I learned how to properly source my material; now, those sources are lost to me. (See internet article: Going to university is frowned upon by Jehovah's Witnesses).

I went to university 16 years after I got excommunicated, from 2011 - 2014. I began my program of study at Laurentian University at the age of 41 and graduated with a B.A. in Philosophy, Cum Laude, at the age of 44. I am very proud of that accomplishment.

Most of my material is original; some of it draws heavily from borrowed sources. When I could, I made every attempt to conscientiously put what I learned from others into my own words; and when I could not, I always gave credit to whom credit was due.

At the end of the book I include an appendix containing the full content of a paper I wrote in my second-year of university. It was for an elective course on relational sociology. It is an analysis of the socio-dynamics surrounding the death-by-suicide of my cousin N.S. - in memory of whom this book is dedicated - when he was just twenty-six years old. N. was raised in a family of Jehovah's Witnesses. In my paper, I analyse his life and death from a Durkheimian, structural-functionalist sociological perspective.

THE APOSTATE

Find More 'Cracks in the Walls of the Watchtower': Table of Contents

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