I received an email from a lawyer who has been studying with Witnesses for some time. He wanted to know my story, if I am disfellowshipped and if I have an axe to grind, in order to know if the information at jwfacts.com can be trusted. Here is what I sent him.
I was raised a JW, my aunty and uncle, many cousins and grandparents are JWs. My father is a Circuit Overseer and my sister is very active, leaving Bethel a few years ago to have children. I was raised in an old fashioned congregation that was very strict and fundamental - Jehovah personally directed the Organization and soon everyone not a JW would be destroyed. As promoted in the Watchtower, I did not expect to finish school prior to Armageddon. That didn't happen so I left school, pioneered and then went to Bethel. I am very gregarious and came to know personally over a thousand JWs. What always bothered me is that I knew of many JWs that were doing shocking things, and many 'worldly' people that were very nice. I could not reconcile why God will kill the worldly ones and save the Witnesses simply for a label. The worldly people generally knew nothing of Jehovah's Witnesses so it could hardly be said they were evil rejecters of Jehovah.
It was my time at Bethel that convinced me that the Watchtower Society does not have Jehovah's direction. In 1994 a Bethelite friend of mine was made an elder whilst he was committing adultery. It was later discovered that this had been going on for 7 years. This proved to me that God’s holy spirit is not involved in Watchtower congregational appointments. Though weakening my faith, I did not know enough about Watchtower history or alternative doctrinal viewpoints to know whether the Watchtower at least taught the closest truth about the Bible. I was too afraid to find out, afraid that if I read anything not from the Watchtower I would be influenced by apostates, afraid that if I left I might be wrong and would die at Armageddon, afraid of being shunned by my family and friends and very afraid of entering the world knowing no one, and believing that the world is an evil and depressing place to live. I still regularly wake up in shock at how happy I am and how in just a couple of years I have built up a large group of wonderful new friends. The only sadness I now have is that my family and some of my closest friends refuse to associate with me.
In 1994 I left Bethel, feeling that the Watchtower may not contain truth, so started to wonder what it would be like in 20 years time, as the Watchtower Generation teaching clearly said that 10 year olds alive in 1914 would still be living when Armageddon came. I could not imagine the Watchtower shutting up shop in 2014 saying "well the last person 10 year old has died, we were wrong", so knew eventually a new Generation doctrine would be formulated. It was still quite a shock when this occurred in 1995, and I took this to indicate that even the Governing Body are not confident that the end is really just about to happen as they still so often say. However out of fear of the loneliness of leaving I still chose to attend meetings, but the constant derogatory statements about the world and worldly people became to irritate me and I started to miss more meetings, until by 2004 I was almost inactive and could see no point in life either. It was at that time that the elders started to pressure me to reactivate myself, wanting to know what my problem was. I told them that I had little faith so they told me to prove the truth to myself by studying more. It finally dawned on me that I already knew more about Watchtower doctrine and policy than most people yet I had never properly studied the Bible outside the single point of view of the Watchtower. So I started to research from numerous sources. This all happened at the time of Tsunami so one of the first subjects I looked at was earthquakes and I can not express the shock I felt at the deception in the Watchtower in this regard, as the (so-called) increase in earthquakes was one of the foundation points of my faith. The next few months I became consumed by research and the shock and disappointment with the Watchtower Society was well compensated for by the amazement I felt at finally being able to think and learn. As a Witness a person can not openly question Watchtower doctrine. However most Witnesses have issues where they do not always agree with the Watchtower which causes cognitive dissonance. I had spent my life constantly suppressing contrary thoughts and regurgitating prescribed Watchtower beliefs. To finally be able to evaluate information rather than blindly input it was quite literally mind blowing for want of a better term and I now see freedom from mind control as vitally important.
I stopped attending meetings early 2005 and attempted to slip out. I started to locate or try to find out about all my childhood witness associates. I found that of 40 people over half were disfellowshipped. Some had barely been contacted by their parents for 20 years. Others still were racked by fear of being destroyed at Armageddon. I started to examine Watchtower statistics and become convinced that although there are many happy JWs, the Organization does more harm than good. Witnesses have one of the highest turnover rates of any religion, with 100'000's adversely affected through being shunned. The Witnesses divorce rate is as high as the general population, they have the lowest level of education and lowest income levels of any established religion in developed countries.
I posted jwfacts.com as I wanted to do my part in assisting people find objective and factual information in a format in the hope of helping other Witnesses avoid the confusion I felt for the 10 years prior to leaving. There are also many that have left that still need help to get over the ingrained guilt and fear that results from being raised a Witness. It is also important for Bible studies to have both sides of the Watchtower story prior to baptism.
Originally jwfacts was anonymous, but about 6 months after it went live the elders found out about it and announced that I was "no longer one of Jehovah's Witnesses." Whether I was disfellowshipped, disassociated or my baptism was annulled is difficult to know as they no longer divulge such information. I had requested that they annul my baptism as I felt as a minor I was not in a position to make such an important commitment to an organization that has life time ramifications, but they did indicate that they would not accept my reasoning. You ask if I have an axe to grind. I suppose I do. It has been very difficult teaching myself to present objective information. However, I believe to be most effective the information I have presented must be accurate and honest and I always look forward to emails from people that help me rectify any errors.
I am strongly against any religion that manipulates its members and look forward to a time when atrocities are not done in the name of religion, whether they are in the form of terrorist acts, religious wars, violence, shunning family members or refusing medical treatment. I have high hopes that injustice in the name of religion can be minimized through education, and the Internet is going to dramatically increase the availability of education over the coming decades.