Letter From Lorene Stanley on Passport Allegiance and Blood (August 22, 2008)

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Lorene Stanley 730 N Emerson #10 Wenatchee, WA 98801-2076 August 22, 2008

To Whom It May Concern:

When my husband, Robert L. Stanley (Bob), and I picked up the application papers for our passports to make our first overseas Watchtower convention trip in 1955, we immediately noticed that the papers we were to sign required us to swear allegiance to our country, the United States of America.

We did not sign the papers until after Bob phoned Watchtower headquarters to read that declaration to a Watchtower official. It has been so long ago that I can't remember who he talked to but whoever it was, Bob was assured that it was okay to sign that we were in agreement with the allegiance declaration "because that's the only way you can go."

We tumbled that response in our minds for only a short time because we believed our Watchtower "brothers" had a hot line to God so we didn't need to worry about it.

In addition to obtaining passports for the trip, we also were required to have a number of different kinds of vaccinations. We realized that at least some of those injections contained blood fractions and serums in them so again Bob phoned WT headquarters and was told we should go ahead and take all required injections because "that's the only way you can go."

In all sincerity,

Lorraine Stanley

Lorene Stanley