If you really went through a rough time growing up as a witness child I'm sorry about it but you should be angry with your parents and the elder who wouldn't believe you, not the organization.
Xyron, there's other issues I have as well, and it has nothing to do with my parents, nor the elders, but what's printed in the Org's books for children. I had a chance to look at the new "Learn from the Great Teacher" book when it came out, and I had many questions answered. I found out why my self-esteem and confidence was shit. I was taught to "be like a slave" and "turn the other cheek and the problem will go away". I was also taught that "violence was wrong" and "competition is wrong". By putting all these pieces together, I learned that I shouldn't stand up for myself, and I should "put my burden upon Jehovah". I've let people walk all over me and take advantage of me most of my life. All I did was "turn the other cheek" instead of kicking them in their proverbial balls. I was beaten up on a daily basis in school, and all I did to help myself was pray to Jehovah. I learned not to take any responsibility for myself, but let some invisible guy who supposedly created the whole universe defend me.
And looking at those of the opposite sex isn't wrong either, but when children reach the age that they start doing so, their parents should talk to them about it so they know why they're changing and starting to look at those of the opposite sex in such a different way.
Unfortunately, the Org directs the parents on how to explain sex to their children. There's no pictures in the "Your Youth" book that show exactly how sex works. It's all words and a picture of some shithead teenager sitting on his bed thinking. I learned exactly how sex worked when my worldly cousin gave me a porno tape when I was 16. Hell, my wife had a pop-up book to learn from. I got ripped off in the area of sex ed. Being pulled out of sex ed classes in school didn't help either.
As for the whole holiday thing, I was simply pointing that out to Sun_dae to inform her what would happen if she did marry her JW boyfriend and had children with him.
Just because you experienced such things doesn't mean that's how it works with every Jehovah's Witness family world wide.
What I've seen is that the Org's teachings can amplify a person's bad side. If they had a good upbringing, their bad side isn't going to be as strong. If they had a bad upbringing (like my mother), their bad side is going to come out like a growling monster with sharp fangs, sharp nails, bad breath, and a desire to kill. Having someone's fingernails dug so hard into your throat that they leave marks isn't fun.
