Our exit from the Watch Tower Society was fairly speedy. Within about 3 months, we'd ceased attending meetings and lost all of our friends (apart from Hobo Ken and his wife).
What was shocking - and only confirmed that we were right to leave - was how our decision was met by our so-called friends.
We were leaving behind people whom we'd enjoyed friendship for over 20 years. We were leaving behind friends who were closer to us than our own families were. In Gail's case, she had two friends who were like sisters to her. They were all very, very close and had helped and supported one another through their teenage years, we'd celebrated engagements with them, been to their weddings, gone on holiday with them, celebrated the birth of their children with them etc etc.
Yet, when we stopped attending meetings they didn't want anything to do with us. They didn't want to know our reasons for leaving, and we weren't going to give us the chance to tell them.
Here's how I likened it;
The scenario is you, as the JW family who are leaving 'the truth', are standing the safety rail of a very high bridge. You and your wife are clutching your children to you as you prepare to leap off. Behind you, standing on the safety of the bridge, are a crowd of onlookers. The onlookers are your friends. All of them are begging you not to jump. They know that if you jump, you'll meet a certain gruesome death, both you and your young children.
"Please don't do this!" they cry out. "But we have very good reasons!" you reply.
"Well....we don't want to know your reasons..."
One by one they withdraw further into the safety of the bridge, leaving you and your family teetering on the edge of oblivion. Rather than listening to you, trying to help you, trying to understand your reasons for jumping, your reason for taking your 'spiritual life', they simply don't want to know. Before you even get the chance to hint at the reasons that have driven you to this point, they cut you off. "We know you want to jump," they say, "but we don't want to know your reasons."
Imagine this happened in 'real life', that a man and woman were clutching their children and preparing to leap off a bridge. Imagine if gathered on the bridge were this family's loved ones and friends, all begging them to come back onto the safety on the bridge. And imagine the family exclaiming, "we have very good reasons for doing this!" and the loved ones not even being prepared to listen to them, knowing that their reasons would probably be painful to hear and difficult to deal with. So instead the loved ones prefer to stand back and watch the family - children and all - jump off the bridge.
