By Mike Haubrich

For our October meeting at the Apple Valley Community Center, James Zimmerman gave us an informative and witty presentation. Zimmerman started speaking in front of audiences when he was just eight years old, and a few years of experience have made him into an entertaining and accomplished presenter. It does make a difference, too, to have a good book to present. Zimmerman’s autobiographical tale of growing up in, living in, and finally leaving the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society is Deliverance at Hand!: The Redemption of a Devout Jehovah’s Witness. I don’t want to give away too much of the story, because I strongly encourage people to purchase and read the book.

One of the puzzles that atheists who grew up without religion struggle with is the question of why theists don’t leave their religion as soon as they no longer have the faith necessary to believe that what their religion teaches is true. Zimmerman explained that he had been an agnostic for approximately seven years before he and his spouse both decided that the time had come to leave the only church and community he had known. They had to leave their friends, and they had the dreadful knowledge that if their church disfellowshipped them then they would soon become nonpersons to many of those friends and family members. It was a fearful prospect, but ultimately one that they chose together, and the book explains what led to their desire to be honest with themselves and reject the lies around which they had built their lives.

For more on Zimmerman’s book, listen to the podcast of the October 27th Atheists Talk, available to download.

Deliverance at Hand! is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the Minnesota Atheists online store. Some of the proceeds of the book sales go to Minnesota Atheists!