Anyone want to share emails that they wrote to the BBC about the program this morning?

by brotherdan 36 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Mickey mouse

  Dear Emma,
  
  I just wanted to thank you for the programme on shunning by Jehovah's Witnesses. Sadly this is a topic that doesn't get nearly enough media exposure. I am a Jehovah's Witness and would very much like to leave but there is no legitimate way out for a baptised Jehovah's Witness to do so without repurcussions. It is my daughter's birthday in two months time, we will be having a birthday party in secret for her because if anyone knew, we would be disfellowshipped and cut off from family. We celebrated our first Christmas this year, behind closed curtains. I was baptised at the age of 13; had I known more about the history of the religion including the repeated false prophecies related to the apparant imminence of 'Armageddon', I would probably not have done so.

  Jehovah's Witnesses are warned against reading or listening to any critical information; the leadership uses thought reform techniques to control their members and quash any doubts or questions. This is not unique the the JWs, it is common practice amongst many cults including Scientology and the Moonies. Many Witnesses are able to break free of the mind control once they see the parallels in the way their religion operates when compared to other high control groups. A book called Combatting Cult Mind Control by Steve Hassan (an ex Moonie) has been instrumental in this process for many of us.
  
  There are probably thousands of people like me trapped in the organization. Thank you for highlighting our plight.
• 

  Little Imp

  Cantleave, you were absolutely brilliant - well done.

  I just listened to the interview on iplayer. Nathan was too (not sure if he is a poster on this site though).

  My husband listened to it too and says he feels fired and angry now though he hasn't been to the KH in two years, he says it just brings it all back and obviously we feel deeply for all those still trapped.

  Well done!
• 

  Lady Lee

  Hmmm this is just weird

  I had no posting box but when I clicked the link at the top of the page that said POST REPLY it brought up the posting box
• 

  brotherdan
• 

  Mickey mouse

  Same here Lady Lee.

  Must be the demonz.
• 

  brotherdan

  Let's see if it changes on page 2.
• 

  Mickey mouse

  We need some filler posts to get us there...
• 

  slimboyfat

  I kept it short and sweet:

  Hi Emma,
  I am a Jehovah's Witness in Scotland who no longer believes in the religion. I have so far avoided getting disfellowshipped. Thank you for doing the story about shunning among Jehovah's Witnesses. This is a story that needs to be told as it affects many thousands of people in the UK.
• 

  chickpea

  Hello Emma
  
  Reaching from across the pond, here in northern XXXXXX, I have listened to the interview with Nathan Phillips and others, regarding the well established practice amongst Jehovah's Witnesses of shunning former members, including those "disfellowshipped" for disciplinary purposes (to keep the congregation from defilement, in JW-speak) and those who leave over philosophical divergences. JWs allow their members NO DIGNIFIED EXIT. They shoot their wounded, in a manner of speaking, much in keeping with the practices of high control cults.
  
  I am an ex-JW who left their organization to stand by the side of my adolescent child who was diagnosed with gender dysphoria at 15 and is transitioning as a female to male transgender. Imagine the pariah we have become amongst those who think it an honor to be "separate from the world."
  
  
  Witnesses DO shun family members and DO horribly disrupt family ties and it is a practice heavily encouraged by the hierarchy at the local levels, due to heavy-handed prodding from higher echelons.
  
  After having been isolated from the "world" and its doomed inhabitants, which includes you, ma'am, a JW has only the congregation members and other JWs as a community. Imagine knowing someone 20 years, who, on the actions of a committee of company men declaring you excommunicated, refuses to meet your eyes on a chance encounter at the market, let alone call you nearly everyday as had been the custom between you.
  
  This is the reality: family and long time friends will abandon a DF'd or former member the moment an announcement is made during a public meeting that "So and So is no longer one of Jehovah's Witnesses". They will shake your hand before the meeting saying "sorry it has come to this" and then see right through you at the end of the meeting, as though you no longer exist.
  
  The organization will use what they call "theocratic warfare" to spread disingenuous disinformation to the "world", in a totally locked mentality of "Us vs Them" and instruct their benighted adherents to do the same on pain of...... you guessed it, disfellowshipping and shunning.
  
  Thank you for providing a public discourse on the tactics of the Watchtower Society, which preys on the vulnerable. One reason for making repeated calls, covering "territory" over and again, is to take advantage of changing circumstance for "householders." They look for the low hanging fruit, people in distress or hardship, and offer a paradise earth, reunion with resurrected loved ones, that can be theirs for eternity if only they disengage themselves from "the world" and adopt a cult personality. They caught me in that snare when I was mourning the deaths of a brother and son in a 12 month period. Low hanging fruit indeed.
  
  Regards,
• 

  Lady Lee

  bttt