The blinders came off that day. I’d never really thought of the organization as a cult before, but it became all too real to me on that day. I wasn’t considered an apostate back then; before then, I’d never even perused this type of website or spoken out against the jw’s. So I was shocked by the lengths that they went to in order to keep me out. But of course I didn’t fit neatly into their description of a disfellowshipped person. The “world” hadn’t used me and abused me, as they like to proclaim. I wasn’t strung out on drugs or whoring in the streets or begging for my next meal. I was a law student working for a successful and prominent law firm, and I was doing well for myself. Maybe they didn’t want their members to see me and start thinking that it’s not so bad “out there” after all. If my parents had shunned me “properly”, then my life would have been a lot more difficult, which leads me to believe that shunning ex-members also serves that unspoken purpose for them. Once you take away a person’s entire support system, when he falls destitute because of it, they can point and say, “Look at what happens to you out in the world.”
They might wake up from their cult-induced coma if they talked with you. Some people you just can't wake up.
Thank you for sharing and welcome to JWD.