What is your story?

HereIgo

I thought it would be fun to get to know each other's background a little better.

What brought you into the "truth"? Were you born in?

What caused you to have doubts?

How did you leave? DF? DA? Fade?

Divergent

19xx — Born-in (super spiritual family, unfortunately. Most of them are still in)

2013 — Feelings of dissatisfaction led me to question "the truth". I felt that we were wasting time preaching an UNCONVINCING message. I could NOT accept the teaching that non-JW's would be destroyed at Armageddon. A god of LOVE would CHOOSE to DESTROY almost 8 BILLION people RATHER than find a way to CONVINCE them of truth? That didn't make sense at all. I needed to know that I was not the only one who felt the same way. Visited several "apostate" sites out of curiosity (including this one). TTATT was unleashed! I knew that I was onto something. The 3 main issues that stood out for me were blood, child abuse, and false prophecy. There was no turning back now!

2014 — Began my fade

2015 — Faded almost completely

2016 — Nowhere to be seen!

gma-tired2

Born in 68 years ago. Faded off and on until I was 40. Elders treated my son in such a nasty way I quit and never went back. Move across US and now no one cares.

LongHairGal

I came in as a young adult with an interest in end-time prophecy.

I was led to believe the Witnesses had special knowledge that other religions did not have. I was also led to believe they had no clergy class and that everybody was equal.

Wrong on all counts. Oh well, live and learn.

running_away

What brought you into the "truth"? Were you born in?

Almost, my mother started when we were very small.

What caused you to have doubts?

As everybody, it's never one small thing, but a lot of small things. I could not explain 1914 only with the bible (and nothing else), and one beautiful morning my 4 years old kid asked me: "that means that Jehovah is going to destroy everybody in my classroom because the birthdays?"... I almost crash the car with that question. That was the "click" moment. From there CoC and jwfacts... and done.

How did you leave? DF? DA? Fade?

Even that the click was about 7 years ago, I'm still in because my super zealous wife. She needs (as me) one click moment, and I have just to wait.

Then, we are going to fade...

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exjwlemming

Not born in. Baptized in 1989. Married in 90 (guess why I got baptized). 2 born in kids that shun me without being DA or Dfed. Marriage separation when I started fading in 13. Divorced in 16. Two parents that started shunning me several months ago.

Chook

I had a truly free childhood even to the point of to much freedom. My father was a hard working man who gave us a comfortable life ,the big " BUT" is he wasn't real emotional or warm to us ,he was from a family that was that way , and he loved beer I mean lots of beer, so volatility was at times lurking. My mother is a rockstar of a woman she worked like a dog for years as nurse on night shifts which bring there own problems ( like having nannies before school ) and sleeping when we were playing, she done years of 4 hours sleeps so me and my two brothers could have a comfortable life.

Of us three boys I was the wild one, and I truly believe wild ,for example when JW pioneers girls I went to school with said they skipped my house witnessing. I grew up around hippie culture that surrounds the hills of my childhood , you know the music of Jethro Tull, Bob Dylan , Neil Young ect ect. My childhood friends were loyal to point of extreme. Police never got us as children to collaborate stories," no comment " was tattooed into our hearts. These friends would literally give their last $20 if I asked ,one day when I was eighteen I rang a friend and asked could you come and get me I need a ride home ,he said I'll leave this afternoon for the 1900 km drive to pick me up , 3 days later he was there. These friends did not reject me because I became a JW ,I left them because of a JW teaching . Why I hooked back up with these guys again they held nothing against me for disappearing from there lives for 27 years, JW friendships are not of the same calibre.

My brothers are good guys one is a catholic priest who is Australia's priest for the army, my other brother is the boss of an Australian state heritage department as the head architect he is gay with a really nice partner who is a rockstar anesthetist. And mighty me a degree in window cleaning. My mom said that if she writes a book about us boys it will be called " The Priest,The Prophet ( me), The Poof ".

I when I was twenty I go off the rails ,to much drugs and emotional probs , I start asking the big life questions of why are we here? Then I get a worldly female friend of mine give me a red book called " paradise book" , I read this book in 3 days and went to KH on my own in shorts and tee shirt, the girls from school informed their dad the elder to watch this bad apple, i was that keen I literally went to a door to door with an elder 7 days after going to the hall. The elder wasn't that keen on taking me, but I done a deal which went like this , he will take me down one street and I will agree to two studies a week and no more witnessing I agreed. My real childhood nickname is chook ,when I first when to the KH the girls from school who were even in my same class didn't no my real name because even my teachers called me chook.

Then the prophet evolved called chook who took all the wrong turns in giving my children a life of child abuse in the form of no birthdays, no school camps, no sports teams, no worldly friends when the kids lived on rural properties which can become prisoner camps for these kids ,but I let the kids do soccer but I was to late on a lot of the cults behaviour reversals, I let kids when they were young to have guns,motorbikes, and I encouraged adventure,but I gave to much TIME to the JW church at the expense of the kids.

Now I'm at the crossroads as a inactive, not disfellowshipped apostate , who won't go down quietly, its the least I can do as a return favour for the church is to return the same zeal I gave them, I went witnessing by myself when I was in, also I was a regular pioneer . I've had people say I'm crazy in the head , I say you have know idea what is in this crazy head.

LoveUniHateExams

I wasn’t born in. My mum & dad each had a study before I was born and when I was a small baby. They stopped their studies but I was brought up with the WT religion presented as ‘the truth’ – my parents always referred to God as Jehovah, I was taught to pray to God in Jesus’ name, etc.

When I was three, we moved to a new house approx. 20 miles away. When I was 9 or 10 me, mum & dad each had a study with the new local congregation. We stopped after a while but kept on attending the memorial each year.

So, although I would class myself as an outsider, I was pretty close to being a born-in.

When I was 13 or 14 years old, thinking it was the truth, I actually phoned up my study conductor and requested a study. My mum& dad started their study again. I studied the red Paradise book followed by the blue United in Worship book and got baptised in March 1995. I didn’t bother much with school – the end was so near back then.

The moment I realised it was all nonsense came sometime in October 1995, when I received the 1 November Watchtower magazine. It contained both the 1995 generation change article and an article on child abuse that basically stated that if a molester is asked by the elders about allegations and he denies them, nothing could be done about it. I stayed around for over 11 years because I understood that the WTS plays for keeps and, I guess, I still believed they were right on other things.

In January 2007 I left and faded completely. Strangely, in September 2007 I was thinking about going back when I read all about the situation and crimes of British paedo Michael Porter. I never went back. Instead, I went back to full-time education – first to college in 2009 and then on to university in 2012. I think I made the right choice.

LisaRose

I was converted, along with my parents, when I was thirteen years old, back in 1968, at the time the thinking was that Armageddon was going to come in 1975. I was influenced by my ten years older sister who was the first in the family to be converted.

I left in 1999 after 28 years in a bad marriage (my ex husband was disfellowshipped early on). I could no longer see any reason I should have to suffer, nor any reason God would want me to stay in a destructive relationship, and I had lost faith in the organization due to its failed teachings. I walked away, moved and never looked back, although my JW family treats me as if I am disfellowshpped.

I have been out for seventeen years now, happily remarried to the love of my life, a guy I wouldn't date in high school because he wasn't a JW. Life is good.

Lisa 🌹

HereIgo

Great stories...

I wasn't born in the "truth" but I was born around it. My dad was worldly and my mom was very lukewarm. She was the type, when she was studying, the sisters would show up and she would still be asleep and miss her study, she never took it seriously lol We went to conventions and memorials annually but besides that, never went to meetings. When my grandmother passed in 2003, I was 15 years old, that's when things got serious. My mom believed she would see her again in the resurrection and got very serious in the religion. I also believed in the teachings and at 16 was baptized. I began having doubts shortly after, due to hypocrisy I had witnessed. I faded at age 22 in 2010. My mother and siblings continue to pursue the religion faithfully and don't speak to me because of it. It makes me sad but I'd rather have it this way than live a fake lifestyle.

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