December 13th, 2000

Dear witnesses.net readers:

I regret to inform you that as of today witnesses.net is offline permanently. The reasons for taking the site offline are many, and I will attempt to explain at least a few of them in this letter. Before the explanation, I would like to give special thanks to Aisne, Lisa, and Chris who were a terrific help in managing the site during these last couple of months. I also want to thank everyone who has served as administrator or moderator in the past, during which we made "witnet" an enjoyable destination for Jehovah's Witnesses online.

Witnesses.net (witnet) was officially born in February 1998 while I was still guide of the JW site at Miningco.  I had envisioned witnet as the community side to my efforts at the Miningco, and the first witnet pages talked about free email accounts and free hosting for personal web pages. In July of that year I parted ways with Miningco and witnet development began in earnest. I'm not going to go into much more history than that, other than to say that the idea from the start was to provide the absolute best community for Jehovah's Witnesses. I must admit we were thrown for a loop by the November '99 Kingdom Ministry which condemned JW website projects.

Other brothers who did try web projects while still active were given stern warnings by their local elders. Many paid attention to the counsel. Some did so quietly, like Dave Dughi of witnesses.miningco.com. Others expressed a measure of apprehension publicly, like Holger Helms of www.jwnet.org. I've never understood the wisdom of silencing your own supporters, but then again there are a lot of things I don't understand about the Watchtower. However, despite the vehement opposition of the organization against JW websites there has been a proliferation of sites by loyal Witnesses, most of them children of witnet. These site attract thousands of readers daily, which brings me great satisfaction. The genie is truly "out of the bottle".

Importantly, I was able to easily continue sponsorship and management of witnet because by that time I had stopped active association with Jehovah's Witnesses. The Watchtower has never been able to suppress witnet. I am not disfellowshipped or disassociated, simply inactive by choice. I apologize for indicating otherwise on several occasions during the last few years. Until now, I have never felt free to discuss my personal choices in public. I have hinted at my discontent at various times, but never outright.

If you are a loyal reader of the site, you might know that my heart has not been in witnesses.net for quite some time. It has been difficult to even muster up enough interest to read most of the active threads. Controversial subjects bring some enthusiasm, but not enough to justify the expense. The ensuing deterioration in the site has been evident. Many participants have left, despite the best efforts of the administrators. I am also moving on with my life, and my life does not include this site anymore. I was persuaded to put the site up for sale against my better judgment. Now that the sale process has been an utter failure, witnesses.net is over.

If you are currently serving as one of Jehovah's Witnesses, I encourage you to examine your beliefs in light of Bible truths. Pray to Jehovah to illuminate your path. Things are not nearly as black and white as you may be convinced that they are. The Watchtower has many of the basic concepts of Christianity wrong, made painfully obvious by the decay of love in the congregations. Love is what Jesus said would be evident among His followers . There is only one way to follow Christ and achieve salvation, and it doesn't involve works. It doesn't involve how many hours of service you put in, or how faithfully you attend the meetings. It is faith in Jesus Christ as our savior, plain and simple. Certain leaders don't want you to latch on to that beautiful truth, because it doesn't lend itself to the business goals of a worldwide publishing corporation.

It's been a pleasure serving you. Even though I make the statements above as a matter of principle, they will likely be the last that you read from me about the subject.  I am not interested in the public spotlight anymore and will act accordingly. Thank you for reading my letter. 

Obed Fernandez

PS: I have not decided whether and how to make archives of the site available. I might make selected archives available in the future, but don't hold your breath.