Hi. Ex witness of 20 years here. By the grace of God (or something anyway) I managed to get out.
I visited this forum about 5 years ago and noticed the U.N. issue. I just came home one night from the thursday night meeting and decided to look the Witnesses up online. It played on my mind for quite some time, but after making a robust decision to 'please Jehovah', I studied hard and just buried my head in the sand. The only problem was, I left my naked butt sticking in the air, and continued to have niggling doubts about the whole thing.
Came to a head about 9 months later when I brought Crises of Conscience and In Search of Christian Freedom. Went on to read a lot of other works and became heavily into religion in general, doing full circles - belief in Jesus - yes, no, maybe and back again. Similar kind of thing to the so-called Faithful Slave really.
Spent the past few years trying to adapt to the outside world. I feel like Red after his release from Shawshank. Even worse, Brooks - but only sometimes. Still find it hard to socialize with people. Never really had many close friends in the Witnesses but those I did have all left me like a shot when I started asking uncomfortable questions. Subsequently I have spent a lot of time on my own, reading through lots of works as I mentioned earlier. Heard a lot of crazy theories too, but I'll save them for some other time.
Turns out I was one of the lucky ones, I know a lot of people still have family in the Witnesses and are watching as the loving Borg tears it all apart. My thoughts are with all of you people, and to all those who to this day are victims of the Borg. I hope I can add some valuable input here from time to time, and I will try my best to listen and maybe offer and friendly helping hand.
Well, that's me. I am The Nothing Man. Nice to meet you.