Barbara Anderson’s research on the “true” history of Jehovah’s Witnesses would fill many volumes. So it hardly comes as a surprise that she spends every spare minute — sometimes more than six hours a day — researching the organization.
It’s no surprise to her, either, despite the fact that she spent many years promoting the beliefs, and even volunteering for more than 10 years at the world headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y.
“Writers should write about what they know, and I know a lot about the Watch Tower,” says Anderson, who lives in Tennessee with her husband, Joe. “I had so much invested in it. I was so heady about it, arrogantly heady, so I’m trying to passionately undo what I did for years. It’s very important to me to present the truth — I thought what I was doing was truth.”
Joe and Barbara Anderson — photo courtesy of Mrs. Anderson
Spending hours doing research is not a difficult task because every topic leads to another.
“Sometimes when I‘m working on one particular thing, my eyes catch something on the page or across the page that is enlightening. I make a note, and then I go back to it … and then I follow it through and see how they introduced a new slant on an old teaching. They don’t bring in a new teaching, they just slant it differently.
“Every rock you turn over you find a different bug. I don’t mean the Watch Tower is a rock; they’re sort of a rocklike religion — they’ve got their heavies, and they’re non-thinking like a rock,” she says with a laugh.
But proper research is about more than simply finding damning tidbits to use against Jehovah’s Witnesses. Anderson makes sure of everything she says before bringing a new item to light, a fact that many readers appreciate.
“Generally speaking, since I try to abide by an ethical approach, the comments and responses are generally very favorable because I don’t come across as having an agenda,” she says. “I don’t have agenda. If the Watch Tower has the truth, then I want it. If I can find positive things to say about them, I do, on a specific subject.
Barbara in 1957 — photo courtesy Mrs. Anderson
“People are appreciative of it, not because I’m the best writer in world, but because I’m inviting them to share in what I was part of. People are curious about Mecca — and it is like the Mecca of our past religion.”
Anderson became involved with Jehovah’s Witnesses when she was baptized as a teenager in 1954. From June 1982 to December 1992, she served several departments in the Brooklyn Bethel, including the shipping and accounting departments, and later the writing department, where she put her passion for research to good use compiling historical information for the Jehovah’s Witness history tome, Jehovah’s Witnesses: Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom.
Of course, women aren’t usually involved in the writing department, and Anderson’s placement in it didn’t happen overnight. Although she stated on her application that she was allergic to toxic chemicals, Anderson was assigned to tape duplication — which used a variety of chemicals. So Anderson was shuffled over to the shipping department, where, at 42 years of age, she worked for almost a year with much younger men and women.
“I really became mom to those kids,” she recalls. “Our son was actually just a year or two older than most of the young men there at the time.”
She later moved to the engineering department, finally able to put her secular skills to good use.
“I did specialized bookkeeping for construction companies,” Anderson says. “I knew my way around the field.”
Her bookkeeping skills helped her uncover a scheme that explains why many Kingdom Halls built in the 1980s and 1990s have identical chairs.
At the time, construction was being simplified and congregations could pick from five or six hall designs, but they were told to buy their chairs from a specific Canadian company, for which the department’s assistant overseer was a commissioned salesperson — a fact Anderson discovered with a quick glance at an invoice.
“He found the company that could provide the chairs and signed up with them as a rep,” said Anderson. “Because he was a rep, for every chair that was purchased, he got two per cent. That man is dead now, but how many chairs have been purchased with him getting two per cent? You know it had to be tens of thousands over the years — until it was discovered, and then it was stopped.”
Anderson became a personal secretary for a Bethel project manager, and became involved in several projects, including the initial development of the Watchtower’s property at Patterson, N.Y., and the remodeling of the Bossert Hotel. Her passion for research was utilized in this role, in which she prepared environmental impact statements and studied city zoning requirements for a projected new 30-story building.
“Since this (Bethel’s Brooklyn location) was a historical area, you couldn’t remodel unless you obeyed the rules,” Anderson says. “If a group was working on the windows, they had to have a new window that looked just like the original window. How do you know what the original window was like? The building could have been built in 1914.
“It got around that I liked to do this kind of thing. When a need came up, I’d get to go and do it. I went to the library or the Long Island Historical Society, which had records going right back to the Revolutionary War — the Battle of Long Island was fought right there where Bethel is.”
1983, First winter in Brooklyn — photo courtesy Mrs. Anderson
When a lull came in Anderson’s job when the city did not approve the construction of a 30-story building on Brooklyn’s waterfront, she was loaned to another department, and spent a month cataloguing the wiring for Bethel’s telephone system — just Anderson, a computer and a rickety chair in a cold room full of wires.
“I could have kicked myself for even asking to be there,” she said with a laugh, adding that the younger workers to whom she became “Mom”, felt sorry for her and tried to brighten her day. “They felt so sorry for me that it wouldn’t be unusual for me to find a rose on my little table. It was so sweet!”
Following another lull and a loan to another department, Anderson’s supervisor received a call from the writing department, which was hoping to utilize Anderson’s research talent for the book that came to be called Jehovah’s Witnesses: Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom.
“I went to the interview and there were five women, me and four others, and they were all housekeepers — so I got the job,” Anderson says. “I do think the deck was stacked — I was with housekeepers who couldn’t even type.”
When Anderson’s position became known, she was quickly given access to files that contained some of her best known “discoveries”.
“They say women gossip, but I’m telling you it was the men who gossiped at Bethel. And that inner group passed the word.”
That led to Anderson being directed to an old cabinet from former president Charles Taze Russell’s day, full of card files that linked up with actual files stored in a vault.
“I could spend as much time as I wanted to. There were all kinds of file cabinets in there, and I just started pulling them out.”
In one cabinet, she found the Watchtower Society’s first account book from 1881 — but despite that discovery, she still maintained her modesty.
“When that discovery got around in the inner sanctum, my resume really got special,” she recalls. “I was scared to talk about what I was doing. I never told anybody. At the table, when people asked me, ‘What do you do?’ I barely let them know I was in writing because I just thought that this draws too much attention to the person — I was a purist. … You want to do what Jehovah expects of you — that was our motto — and these were God’s spokespeople.”
Anderson’s work uncovered some interesting facts about the Watch Tower Society’s history, some lost to time, others covered up. For instance, the schism that resulted between Russell and associate Nelson H. Barbour in 1878 wasn’t as much over Christ’s ransom, as over which man was God’s mouthpiece.
“The fight between Russell and Barbour — the Watch Tower keeps talking about over the years that it was all about the ransom. It wasn’t; that was secondary. It was over who was the channel. That’s what was going on behind the scenes.”
Her research on behalf of the Watch Tower Society turned up another intriguing discovery — one that started her on the path out of the organization.
“Russell was not the man the Watch Tower portrayed him as,” Anderson says. “Russell supplied the information and then later his associates supplied the information for any published material. They didn’t tell the history accurately. They were revisionists. The late material on Russell was taken from material that was written 40 years before, and that was written based on 20 years before and 40 years before, and so on, and so it was inaccurate and nobody bothered to check.
“So what surprised me the most was when the Proclaimers book paints him as this man who made his fortune from the haberdashery that his father started, that all of that income was behind Watch Tower and he was such a generous, wonderful man. The true picture is not that way at all. He was a wheeler-dealer. He was into the stock markets, and he was an oil and real estate speculator.”
He was also an abusive husband, she notes — her conviction solid because her research included reading the cross-examination of Maria Russell during the couple’s divorce proceedings, which paints a far different picture.
“There was one point when she was very ill,” Anderson says. “She had a bacterial infection and she was very ill. He was trying to get her to sign a paper that would say that she didn’t have any complaints about him. … He kept her up all night, as ill she was, and he badgered her and badgered her and badgered her. … That shocked me so much because when I was studying child abuse and domestic abuse for the society, that kind of behavior is psychological abuse. …
“When I read it, I was so moved that it was the only time in all of this, from the very beginning, that I cried. … He fit the profile of an abuser. It just blew away everything I ever thought. That probably was the first, most shocking thing.”
In 1997, Anderson severed her ties with the organization over the Watch Tower Society’s child abuse policies. In the ensuing years, she has since been actively working to increase education about Jehovah’s Witness teachings in an attempt to help others see the truth behind the organization.
“I have a passionate personality. … I’m of that nature that I would like to right injustices,” she says. “People who are in cults generally are of that nature — not the ones who are born in them, the ones who convert to a cult. … People join cults because they’re passionate about justice and a better life, and they want to share it with others and I’m of that nature.”
Her son, a former elder who served in Bethel for 16 years before he and his wife left to have children, doesn’t share her passion for the cause.
“My son hates it, of course,” she says. “He’s supportive of the Watch Tower through and through. He said I do a noble work but I should never have gone public with it.”
Because of the mandates of the Jehovah’s Witnesses teachings, her son is forced to shun her and her husband — a policy that disgusts Anderson.
“Shunning destroys families. If you destroy families in any way, through any other organization anywhere in the world, society would do something about it, but because it’s a religion, they can get away with it.”
But while she researches the organization, she always remembers that it is driven by men, not God.
“If I live for anther 10 years, it’ll probably be a smaller, well-operated organization,” Anderson says. “Will it be more spiritual? I don’t have any idea. Each bunch of Governing Body members bring in their own administration. …
“I don’t care anyway. They’re corrupt, but not financially corrupt — they’re ethically corrupt and they don’t even know it. And they’re mean as could be to do what they’re doing to people in the name of God. There’s no love. If you pattern yourself after Jesus, you’d never do those things.”
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To learn more about Barbara Anderson and her research, visit www.freeminds.org to read her blogs.
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September 28th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
With regard to the details about Russell, it seems strange to me that most of his early associates portray him as gentle, caring and modest – so the critical points raised seem out of synch with most of what I have read about Russell and I do not refer to what the Watchtower has to say about him , but rather what the Bible Student Movement has written over the decades quoting many historical sources ?
September 28th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
I would also like to add , that Russell was not the founder of the Jehovahs Witnesses religion, that the Watchtower Society has morphed into something he never envisioned. Interestingly the Bible Students Movement founded by Russell , consider the Watchtower Society to have become an apostate organisation and see the society as a 3rd Babylon.Most JWs never get to read the “Studies in The Scriptures” written by Russell and most would be discouraged from doing so by the society. When I read them with an open mind for the first time , I was blown away by what I read – especially by Divine Plan of the Ages . I started reading critically at first to find fault , but found myself crying and thinking there is more truth in this one little book , than in all the WTS literature I had read in the past 25 years!
September 28th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
In response to Seeker: That is entirely possible. Note, she is referring to the writings of his wife from the divorce proceedings. There are countless public figures that, on the outside, would appear to be bright and shining examples, but behind closed doors are evil, vile people. One only need to look into politics to see how frequent and rampant such double lives are throughout.
September 28th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Gig , true I “hear” what you are saying and thanks for your response , I left the organisation about 15 years ago and have researched as extensively as Barbara has but have come to a different conclusion , and thats okay
I have travelled extensively over the years , including the US where I spent sometime at the WTS Headquarters , and am familiar with much of the organisations inner workings – so I do not speak from inexperience .
I presently reside in the UK , where there is a much publicised celebrity divorce currently making headlines and both parties have recently said some rather incriminating things about each other and each denying the accusations.
Experience has taught me that there are always two sides to every story !
September 28th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
seeker, her reaserch was not oriented to find fault in him, rather to discover facts about the history of the Watchtower. However Rusell is not only in the history of the WT but in several other religious groups therefore any group that has Rusell in their history would logically try to bring good light to this man’s character. However I wouldnt be surprise if another researcher from a different group would with a good intention research his life would find the same information as Barbara did.
There are two sides of a story, the side that the religions who have him as a hero have and the story that the honest and sincere with no agenda research would bring into the light.
Once the information and the facts are presented is up to us to believe whatever we want to believe. Whatever suits our position, but if our position is to find out the reality, the reality should define our position.
September 29th, 2009 at 11:17 am
Having been a JW from 1967-1990, I left because I discovered that the understanding of Scripture taught by Charles Taze Russell was far different than the societies teachings.
Whilst his personal life will always be a debate, his understandings were superior. I do not agree with him but he taught the REAL meaning of disfellowshipping. The individual is called to a meeting of the COMPLETE membership. He/She has an opportunity to speak and members have the right to ask the individual questions. In front of the individual, the “case” is discussed and then a vote of ALL the membership is taken.
If the individual is disfellowshipped, the “right hand of fellowship” is withdrawn. This means that the individual will not be allowed to make comments at meetings or offer prayers BUT they are still spoken to inside and outside the meeting although they will not shake hands [right hand of fellowship]
The person is disfellowshipped from THEIR local group only and NOT the other groups within the fellowship.
October 7th, 2009 at 8:41 am
In response to Gershonite….
I am a ‘worldly one’ who married a JW. He was disfellowshipped shortly after we began dating. He was never called before the congregation. A few of the elders had a meeting and they called to tell him he had been disfellowshipped.
You spoke of the ‘real meaning’ of disfellowshipping, but you didn’t say what that is. This is a practice I don’t understand. My husband couldn’t really explain it to me either and he has been a JW for over 20 years. All I know is that it doesn’t seem loving or merciful to withdraw the support of the congregation at a time when an individual may be struggling the most and most in need of that very support. Maybe you can help me understand this practice better, as it has left me feeling frustrated and resentful at the congregation, the organization, and my husband’s family. Any help you could offer would be appreciated. Thanks.
October 9th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Hi Wordly one ,
With all respect , I think you misunderstand Gershonite …
He was trying to explain the difference between the current JW policy and methods used in disfellowshipping and the views expressed by Russell , the founder of the Bible Student Movement whome JW s falsely claim as their founder.
Russell was of the opinion that if someone in the congregation committed a serious sin i.e adultery , then the entire congregation was to be involved in deciding on the matter not a committee of 3 as is practiced by JW s , shunning was also not something he endorsed, rather a withdrawing of fellowship or association was the idea and only if the person was determined to stubbornly continue or persist with a wrong course , which is what the Bible teaches wether or not one agrees with the policy. Sadly JW have adopted an extreme policy that does more harm than good.
October 9th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
To add to what Ive said above , Christians are called to be a community of believers united in faith , not just a group of people who meet for a bible study once or twice per week.
Christians are called to be a part of Gods “family” , all brothers and sisters collectively accountable to one another all equal in Gods eyes ,so all decisions with regard to fellowship and association are taken collectively as would be done in any health functioning family situation – all decide together what is for the good of the family and what is in its best interest…
November 30th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
I have read all of the comments made. I was baptized @ 18 and 2 years later, got disfellowshiped. I was very angry, so I dicided to join a church. It took me 6 years to realize my mistake. I must confess, I never read anything on Russell. There’s 2 side to every story. You guys have to remember that whether the man or woman is a JW or a church goer, they are sinners and it doesn’t matter what we see in them we have to look up to God and HIS words. I committed fornication, I was club hopping every week-end and go on field service talking to people about God. How 2 face of me? Before I got disfellowshiped, I met with the elders, they really tried to help repent, and return back to Jehovah and serve Him faithfully. That wasn’t my plan. I married the father of my children, a church minister. He cheated on me with choir girl and a prostitute/drug addict who came to the church for help. He still giving sermon at 3 other churches, and suppoting himself on the less fortunate. Yes, the policies are hard, but Jehovah is a God of order and he requires us to give him full devotion. Must of you who got disfellowship cannot tell me that you didn’t commit a sin, and the elders just decided to take this harsh action against you. I repented but leaving the congregation was my worst mistake. I am living with a clear and clean conscient(sp), I devote my life to do what I read in the bible and the publications at heart. There’s always a bad seed in every religion but in Jehovah’s congregation, true christian lives their lives according to bible principles. If they fall short, they pray Jehovah for forgiveness. I’m not sure what happened with some of you but not everyone received the truth from Jesus, very few did. I don’t see the organization as the governing body’s, Russell’s, the elder’s or whoevers but Jehovah’s organization. From seeing how so call christian live their lives in church, how the sheperd was treating and misleading the God’s sheeps, I am more than convinced that this organization is truly founded on God’s principal. Anyway, Jehovah always gives us His best, why shouldn’t we give Him our best. If a christian is not willing to live his/her life according to bible principle he/she should be disfellowship. My regards to all of you and hope that you don’t let Harmaguedon come and you didn’t repant.
January 6th, 2010 at 6:43 am
I would like to comment on Barbara’s research. I was in the hopes that I could find something more on the constructin side of things. I have been an estimator and project manager for much of my career dealing with commercial and industrial projects. I know costs and I know the tricks contractors use to hide profits. The chairs being purchased is one area I saw immediately and have even questioned myself in past years. I also question purchasing Kingdom Hall pacakges from one or two suppliers. People will set up a company just to turn paper they thus skim off profits made on material used on a projet. I think this is being done with Kingdom Hall material, circuit overseer cars, assembly halls and basically anything the RBC touches. This unified effort of construction is questionable. Katrina efforts used FREE labor and the Watchtower collected Millions off Insurance Contracts that was clear PROFIT from the efforts of so many. Research this if you have the time. I guarantee it will be an eye opener.
January 25th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Know man can read the heart only jehovah can. He is the one who forgives in a large way.Disfellowshipping can only make matters alot worse. True repentance has to come from the person themselves to God and then healing can begine. If there is a feeling of unworthyness it will always be hard for someone to return.There is really too much injustice inside the organization for love to florish.Only God can heal the hurt if the person is truly rependent.Jehovah said return to me and I will take you in. He wants know one to be lost. What love God has for us. Should we not have the same love for each other?Jesus went after the sheep when they went astray and then carried them back on his back.We need to be lead along by the greatest commandment ….love. Linda
July 8th, 2010 at 3:57 am
Excellent read, thank you. Often seeking out for unusual and great stuff to read
July 22nd, 2010 at 4:39 am
Barbara has an axe to grind. Her entire claims of Russell being an abusive husband are based on Maria Russell.
Maria Russell grew unhappy in their marriage due to the fact that Russell took a vow of celibacy and she kne w this was the deal when they married.
She also wanted a greater role in writing Watchtower publications.
The Russell critics often tell half.truths. For example, the judge in the divorce case said he found Maria’s claims of “Mental cruelity” unproven. In spite of this he still granted her the divorce.
Also, Maria Russell testified under oath that he ” DID NOT comit adultery.”
Barbara like a lot of former JW’s take their bitterness out on Pastor Russell, for the later sins of the orginization truly founded by JF Rutherford.
If you want to know the true group founded by Russell, attend a meeting of “Bible Students.” Yes, they still exist today.
July 23rd, 2010 at 3:03 pm
It’s unfortunate that Mrs. B. Anderson came to the conclusion she did in regards to Mrs. Maria Russell.
Although from what I read; she (B. Anderson) has read > altogether accepting > what Maria Russell wrote .. viz. she has presented one individual’s word of that of others. . . witnesses – to – the “fact” of said badgering, et al
I ask tho that I not be misunderstood. I am not criticizing Mrs. Anderson’s efforts .. nor her intent ; I am not saying she ‘has an ax to grind’ or what..
but also, if I can add this.., the Bible Students are alive and happy -> not as followers of Russell, albeit tho that they (I, we..) read what he wrote critically too(!) finding in them the manifestation of a man that was ardent in his service to God, balanced and reasonable: yet having faults and of course infalible.
I reside in Africa, where it is (here) a great joy and blessing to serve along with many others who study God’s Word, the Holy Bible; and find an aid to study The Divine Plan of the Ages, as well many other valid writings still in publication: still circulated here anyway – - and let me tell you – - with ‘booo!!!’ from the J.W.s ; whose book God’s Purpose Triumphing for Man’s Good: p. 11 states that The Divine Plan… ceased circulation in 1929. Yeah; sure it did…as sure as Russell was this.. did that.. But, then someone at Bethel did poor research OR, in that case: had an alternative agenda