There were multiple people/writers/speakers across the years that slowly chipped away at my faith:
1988 - Revelation book making crazy assertions, I was only 9 but could tell that applying scriptures to conventions in the 1900s was utterly boastful and self-centred.
1995 - Convention where they changed the generation teaching: The generation that wasn’t supposed to pass away became a “period”, later, became overlapping generations.
1996 – A gay householder told me: If I am to listen to you, I will need to leave the love of my life. Could you imagine falling in love, living the dream, only to have a kid show up to your door and tell you that you’ll have to leave that person? That struck a cord with me that still resonates now!
2006 – An Atheist Householder made me realize that all of the “creation” book was largely about one argument: “The world around us is so complex that it must have a creator”. This argument falls flat when the logical route leads to this: God is also, if not more, complex, therefore, he also needs a creator. On that day, I realized that my faith was not based on observable facts.
2005 - A friend of mine who called me an apostate when I read him something written by Charles Russell. His reaction was even more troubling to me than the article I was trying to share.
2005 - An experienced elder I respected who could not demonstrate that 1914 was based on the bible. He thought it was based on a biblical “pivot” date and started avoiding me when he realized it was not. That day, I realized that I was aware of how flimsy the teachings are and that I could seriously hurt people by sharing this information.
2007 – An elder chased down someone close to me in a grocery store. She was not married and very pregnant. He followed her from rows to rows up to the cash register, telling her she’ll have a Judicial Committee for this. His behaviour confirmed that they are more concerned about rules than helping people.
2011 - A 16-year-old sister who shared her experience at a convention where she explained how she shunned her father. I was shocked by the spectacle, thinking of how the only person that loved her were none of the thousands of people applauding, but her father which she was now shunning.
2013 - Elders at a meeting who didn’t understand the significance of multiple new lights in a specific watchtower. Showed me how shallow most of their knowledge of their religion is.
2013 – A Circuit Overseer at a service meeting who said : We don’t need to tell “this” to the householders until they are baptized. Certified my understanding that they manipulate many to baptism.
And finally, those who gave me the courage to say adios to my religion, family and friends:
2013 – Ray Franz’s books: I read both books and found a Christian, troubled by his religion. Up until me reading these books, I believed that despite many teachings, the JWs were generally better people than others. Than these books made me understand that their disrespect of personal conscience, and their legalistic approach to Christianity is even worst than fornicators. For instance, they will keep shunning someone who committed fornication, even after that person got married.
2013 - My kids: They were growing older and started repeating things from the meetings that I didn’t believe. I realized that I could not teach my personal faith to my kids as it would have been considered apostasy