My Story (page 2)

bernadette

interesting points about how statisitcs can be manipulated

purplesofa

Great letter, I would like to send a copy of it to my mother, who is a JW.

I am sorry about losing your family, but glad you out and share yourself here.

purps

jwfacts

Thanks Purps, feel free to send all or any part of it to your mother.

While my actions have not mirrored your's 100% (I'm still in), my feelings toward the WTBTS are amazingly in complete agreement with yours. Once a person begins thinking for themselves the journey to taking back control of their life also begins.

Crumpet

That is such an interesting story. And I find this particularly telling:
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.
Very very interesting.
Thank you for sharing

This was something I honed in on too - very interesting. Do you have actual stats that can support and substantiate the education part. I mean we all know its true - because we lived it, but are the figures collated that can corrobrate.

I really enjoyed reading this and please slap my wrists if I have ever not responded to one of your emails ! One day I will get over there and have a drink or two with you and Dark Knight and Heretic!

free2think

Great letter jwfacts, and thank you for sharing your story with us. I think it's great work you are doing in assisting people to break free from the mind control.

changeling

Thank you for that. Having been raised in similar circumstances, your thoughts and feelings are comforting for me.

IronClaw

My heart goes out to you JWF. I can relate on all accounts.

The Claw.

Sunspot

Thank you for your post. It was very well written. I am in the same boat as you, that being the discovery that the WTS is NOT what it claims to be, or what it leads US to believe it IS. Because we stood our ground and our integrity before God---the WTS has managed to rip our JW friends and family away from us unless WE agree to comply with their demands. It is vicious (but well-planned) blackmail, through and through. Christlike? Not for a moment!

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.

Isn't is odd that when one is at his lowest and having sincere doubts about the importance of the peculiar WTS teachngs in his life....that this is when the elders decide to zero in and bombard him with MORE peculiar WTS beliefs to solidify their first peculiar beliefs....ya know? Its the "Watchtower Way"! IF it IS the "truth" it will most certainly shine through any haze....without "bible aids" or constant elder supervision. If it proves NOT to be the "truth", then this will come through loud and clear anyway! The WTS know its a load of baloney and are hanging onto it by a thread---they just don't want you to know it.

In your research, it became apparent that the JWs are just the same as every other religion they sneer at, mock and condemn. Their success rates on divorce and raising productive children, are no better or no worse that the rest of the families on any street in any town.....so what IS the advantage of living your life under the WTS rulez & regulationz and denying yourself and your family of all the things that only the men of the Watchtower say are wrong (displeasing to GOD dont'cha know)....I see NO advanage at all.

Thanks for a great website, BTW...

hugs,

Annie

Mum

Bethel was the place where you started to see the light! That figures. I was the only JW in my family when I started out, though some of the others were on the fringe, hangers-on so to speak, waiting until the precise moment of when Armageddon was about to start or they felt close to death -- i.e., those who were concerned about saving their necks.

Anyway, I started at age 15. At age 21, I married an elder, thereby becoming more of a JW "insider." Because I was an elder's wife, I was treated with a lot more respect than I had been as a lowly publisher with no family in the "truth." I was no different, but others' reactions to me were very different. I was more in tune with elders' families and the more "spiritual" members of the congregation (not the same one I had been in when I was single). They were so petty, ignorant, and hypocritical that I was very puzzled for a long time. My daughter tells me that the fact that I went right to the center of things rather than hanging on at the fringes made all the difference for me. My parents became JW's when they became sickly and old. They remained true believers despite my exit. I was never DF'd, so there was no shunning. But each continued to hang on because they never "advanced" to see the real deal, the man behind the curtain.

From what I read here, I believe that it is the most committed and "true blue" among the JW's that are most likely to leave.

Regards,

SandraC

My Story