Matthew in many respects being a witness is often a life or death experience. Or a broken family experience..... or at the least....... a shunning experience. But it gets worse.
Because of their ban on blood transfusions many many JW's die needlessly or well before their time. Thousands more then died at Jonestown. which was a one up. But with the JW's it goes on and on......... every year.
Someone mentioned the ARC look it up. ARC stands for the Royal Australian Commission which looked into how religions in Australia dealt with sexual child abuse (Like the Catholic Church). When they got around to the Jehovah's Witnesses they found from subpoenaed files that the Branch had to keep, 1006 cases spanning 50 or so years.
This is JW children being raped and/or being forced to do disgusting things to adults.....guess how many of these cases were sent to the Authorities? Not a one. The JW's don't even think this is a crime they think it is a sin. Who do they call first? The legal dept. at Watchtower headquarters. Then they are put on hold for days or even weeks while the WT legal dept. determines if it is mandated by law to report this crime. Believe it or not....... it is often not mandated by States for religious entities to report this. Because of their 'Two Witness Rule' they will take no action unless their are two witnesses to thew crime.
But if someone sets fire to a Kingdom Hall or throws a rock through a KH window they immediately call the police or fire dept. After all their property is more important then the children who were sexually abuse.
You need to understand this....... it's a corporate religion and it always acts like a corporation first which is how it started back in 1879. So appearances matter, walking in step matters, Obedience is equal or even more important then Faith.
Good luck Matthew....by the way............. wishing someone good luck is forbidden by the JW's.