Why 'Yellow Brick Road'?

During my journey out of the Jehovah's Witness religion, I read a posting from a gentleman called Roy ('royboyxx'), writing in ex_jehovahs_witness_support@yahoogroups.com. This is part of the final chapter of a book he was writing, which struck a very resonant chord in me at the time:

"I used to feel much like Dorothy, as she walked down the yellow brick road, seeking the Wizard of Oz ... I thought that a handful of men, called the Governing Body [of Jehovah's Witnesses], were that Wizard and ... I was fearful of speaking back to the authoritative voice that seemed to come from God. How disappointed Dorothy must have felt when the curtain was pulled back to expose a little old man with his hands on a control panel. This may well express my disappointment when I realized that the Governing Body was no better than the Wizard of Oz.

"Dorothy and her friends still needed to find a way home ... A guardian angel suddenly appears before Dorothy and explains to her that she didn't have to do all the things she thought she had to do. It was always within Dorothy's power to go home. All she had to do was click her heels three times and say, "There's no place like home. There's no place like home" ...

"Just as Dorothy and her friends were too afraid to pull back the curtain, I was also too afraid to pull back the curtain to expose what I had many times in the past suspected ... Unlike Dorothy's friends, my family and friends elected to keep their eyes shut ... It had become clear to me that ... the spirit of Christ was not active in my family and friend's lives. It was the spirit of the Watchtower."

I, too, had once believed that the Governing Body was appointed by Jehovah's holy spirit to guide and direct Jehovah's Witnesses on earth. This rather innocuous statement conceals a dangerous concept that holds captive every Jehovah's Witness: it is a concept that is very ably debunked by Don Cameron in his superb book Captives of a Concept. I'll return to this subject again.

Interestingly, I recently came across a former Witness's web site (I recommend it, it's very well done, by the way) in which he used a similar analogy:

Although Watchtower leaders appear to be great and powerful, they are hiding behind a curtain of outright error, now being exposed by many former Jehovah's Witnesses. It only took a little dog to pull down the curtain and expose the real truth behind the great and powerful Wizard of Oz, and it is only a matter of time before the curtain of the Watchtower organization is pulled as well. (Six Screens of the Watchtower)

Introduction

First, I'm only now writing about events that took place a few years ago, so please cut me some slack if my memory is rather rusty. I may easily get some events wrong, or forget others altogether. Which is why I wanted to write these down now, before amnesia--never mind senility!--sets in.

I aim, subject to the limitations already noted, to set down events in chronological order, but it's inevitable they may need to be re-ordered in due course. Please bear with me. Once I get this up to date, my posts will then become less frequent as I'll be recording events in real time.