Dear Brenda Re: under 74 Your article about JWs is a long way from the truth. Please read the following quotes. if you want an electronic version of the book they are taken from - then please e-mail me and I will send it FREE of charge.
The following statements have been made by men and women who have left or been disfellowshipped and give a true life impression of the anguish this can bring:?I loved those people more than I can say. They were my friends, my family, and my whole world for 13 years. I believe with all my heart that they loved me too, and still do, as I love each of them. The thought of having my disagreements with Watchtower Society teachings discovered and being disfellowshipped and losing every one that ever meant anything to me was unbearable.? (MissD.F.)
?I typed a letter resigning my responsibilities. I handed it to the elders.... I was bitter after 24 years of my life in which I gave up all personal goals. Being a ninth grade dropout, I had to eke out a living with minimum wage jobs. Now I look back and wonder how stupid it all was. Yet, the worst was to happen. The strain on my family during all this time, caused by my own physical and emotional breakdown was immense. My wife carried all the weight as I went downhill. I could barely work: my nerves were bad. I had three sensitive sons who were very affected by seeing their father treated so poorly by those who claimed to love their dad. Michael was particularly disturbed by all of this. He went downhill to the point where he just broke down and could not trust anyone and just hated himself. We tried everything, psychiatrists to family therapy for help. We begged the elders to come over to pray for my family and me but they were so cold towards these kind of emotional problems. Finally on Nov. 17, 1981 Michael killed himself. He was 16.? (Mr. F.Z.)
?I was disfellowshipped in 1981? when I needed them the most, they turned their backs on me and my family. I was so dedicated to the organization that I fought the reality of what they were doing to me. Being thrown out hurt more than I could possibly say. I went downhill so fast that
it all seems like a nightmare.? (Name withheld)?I am fourteen years old.... My whole family was disfellowshipped because of celebrating Christmas.... We did however go back to the Kingdom Hall for a meeting early last year. I was very shocked when I got there - all the people who used to be my friends, were now my enemies. The people who claimed to be so God-and-Christ like were just the opposite. They teach hatred and punishment, while God and Jesus teach forgiveness and love. ?(Miss R.L.S.)
?My sister, whom I love very much was disfellowshipped. I was not allowed to say one word to her. My mother is a Jehovah?s Witness still, also my brother and sister-in-law. I was in such fear of that organization that I wouldn?t dare to talk to her or be seen in public with her. My husband is also a Jehovah?s Witness. He is very strict to the point that he chooses the organization over me, his own wife. We have four children and he insists they will be destroyed unless they go to the meetings with him. They are getting brainwashed. Now that I am disfellowshipped, my eleven year old son says, ?I don?t have to listen to her, she?s just an apostate,? and my husband doesn?t do a thing; he goes along with him. They treat me like the dirt under the rug and that?s not the half of it!? Mrs.R.M)
?It?s almost a year since I resigned from the Society. I do miss most of my family who are Witnesses, my friends, but not the tyranny control of the Society.?
(Mrs. U.L.)
?Every single one of my relatives is one of Jehovah?s Witnesses and not one has ever left or been disfellowshipped, ever! I have sixteen cousins, three great cousins, and five sets of aunts and uncles and of course grandparents. And I?m thinking of leaving. This is tearing me apart because although I?m not disfellowshipped or disassociated, none of my relatives will have anything to do with me. Neither do any of the Jehovah?s Witnesses in town, because I haven?t regularly attended the meetings since January.? (Name withheld)
?I was put on trial twice for apostasy as a Jehovah?s Witness, and disassociated myself before they disfellowshipped me. I lived with my Jehovah?s Witness husband for a year before our divorce (and experienced all of the agonizing shunning silence, and mistrust that went along with that) lost my family and oldest son because of shunning and on a weekly basis must cope with the emotional devastation that my youngest two children experience every time they visit their dad on the weekends and he tells them things like, ?Mummy is going to die at Armageddon because she is not a Jehovah?s Witness,? etc. I well know the heartbreak caused by the Watchtower.? (Mrs.P.M)
?My heart is broken. My daughter has broken my heart in two with just a little piece holding it together. She let them do this to us, and shunned me, her mother, at her own wedding at my expense. Her old girlfriends were all there crying and sobbing. She told them they couldn?t be in her wedding or come to theirs if
in a church. I loved them; she threw them out of her life. I sobbed and sobbed. Sometimes I wish I could just die, it hurts so bad. My baby girl threw her brother out, hurt him so bad. My husband, is hurting to the bone with the way she let them treat our old friends. How can they call themselves Christians?? (Name withheld)?I left the group, but my daughter has remained a Jehovah?s Witness. This would not be so bad except that Jehovah?s Witnesses are not allowed to speak to one who quits, so I don?t get to see Lauren any more. I don?t
get to visit and love my grandchildren because the Governing Body of Jehovah?s Witnesses have told my family that I am wicked and evil and even demonised.?20 years I spent in the Watchtower Society -
3 years I have been out and after 3 years of terror and heartache I am now feeling the love of Jesus.? (Mrs. WB.)I cry buckets of tears daily for my family, therefore my message to you today:
Be careful when the Jehovah?s Witnesses come to your door. Don?t
let them into your home or you might just lose your own little Lauren. But if they do come to your house, would you please do me a big favour? Would you tell them that if they happen to see Lauren ask her to phone home as her mother loves her dearly.? (Mrs. G.N.)