Richard E. Kelly

Announces the release of his new book

Growing Up in Mama’s Club

A Childhood Perspective of Jehovah’s Witnesses

— Revised & Expanded Third Edition

This Third Edition includes an additional thirty-eight pages of new stories, a glossary of Club jargon, a short history of Mama's Club, and my commitment to continuous improvement.

What can happen when a child is forced to adhere to strict religious ideology that he or she is unable to comprehend or believe? Growing Up In Mama’s Club – A Childhood Perspective of Jehovah’s Witnesses answers that question by disclosing the rare insights of a boy and his day-to-day life experiences grappling with religious confusion for over sixteen years.

The fast-moving memoir vividly describes the emotional struggles within a child that can develop from this kind of dilemma. The boy’s attempts to conform are at times both humorous and heart-rending, but his ultimate triumph over religious indoctrination should be inspirational for people of all ages, especially for those who grew up in an emotionally abusive environment.

When I was four years of age, during my mother’s turbulent five-month conversion process, I thought she was joining a club. Once she became a member, Mama insulated me from an outside world she believed would be destroyed before I reached the age of twenty. While I didn’t know it at the time, my childhood was similar in many ways to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest—forced to live with Nurse Ratchet-type rules and surrounded by a supporting cast of unusual and colorful characters.

While most books about cults are written by theologians or angry ex-members, this book engages the reader with amusing ironies, unique events, and graphic scenes—all presented in a warm, accessible tone. The book also includes interesting information about the non-mainstream beliefs and checkered history of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and what it was like, as a child, to be forced to live under “the rule of truth.”

Mama’s Club should prompt readers to rethink the influences that underlie their own childhood, encouraging them to better understand that a full life is created not by what happens to us, but by how we make sense of events over which we had no control.

The Third Edition of Growing Up In Mama’s Club was released on March 7, 2008. The book currently retails for $16.95 and available through several major retail bookstores and from Amazon.com, FreeMinds.org, or Borders Special Orders. If you have difficulty ordering a copy at your local bookstore or online, please Email the publisher for assistance.

If you would like to preview and sample Growing Up In Mama's Club before ordering your own copy, excerpts and two chapters are now available on the Notes page.

If you are interested in learning more about Growing Up In Mama’s Club – A Childhood Perspective of Jehovah’s Witnesses, please feel to Email or call. Be sure to visit our Blog for updates, events, and other background information.

You can read comments from readers of the Second Edition of Mama's Club by going to our Reviews page.

Go to the Acknowledgements page to learn more about some of the people who contributed to the publication of the book and the creation of this website.

A Reader's Guide is also now available in both page view or PDF formats (both versions are print ready).

RichardEKelly.com

Growing Up In Mama's Club

Richard E. Kelly

Announces the release of his new book

Growing Up in Mama’s Club

A Childhood Perspective of Jehovah’s Witnesses

— Revised & Expanded Third Edition