I want to discuss my experiences with the Witnesses.
How it began: I was recruited during the time I was escaping from a violent husband to a shelter. A witness came to my door as I was preparing to move during the day without him knowing (while he was at work). She said it was 'Jehovah's' direction that she came to my door in time! They tried to keep us together!!! They showed him a part in the 'Truth' book (small blue book used in the 70's) that said when a woman is smarter than her husband (more intelligent) then she should make sure she doesn't point this out to him and give in to his leadership so as not to make him feel less or lower than her. He played them and tried to use this on me to get me back. I LEFT him and never looked back. That was MY decision, details don't need to be rehashed here.
Anyway, I was recruited during a very low time in my life. I NEEDED friends and support. My family didn't realize how abusive that my husband had gotten since he returned from Vietnam. This was such an opportunity for them (JW's) to 'grab' me before I dissapeared!
Years later, now looking back, and some conscience relieving therapy (de-programing) from a Psychologist who specialized in former JW's. She was wonderful in re-affriming that I was a separate individual with a mind of my own and the 'God-given' ability to make my own decisions based on MY OWN reason! I was lucky to 'get out' really OUT. I stayed 9 years as a baptised JW, 9 years too LONG! I also messed up my little sister's life (who became one, and then left too later) and the friends I had who helped me back then and became JW's too at the time. My children still feel resentment for that time in our lives when the children of the other JW's put them through hell (I never knew this). The guilt I have is not that I left the JW's but that I actually became one and preached to all my friends and family and left them all behind for that long! My poor relatives who had to be apologized to later on. That was hard too.
Thanks for the opportunity to have a place to finally tell this story! There is so much more to tell, you know things that other members of the congregation did that made me cock my head, 'wha?'! Thank God I had access to a public library to research things that were told to me. I had forgotten a lot of it till I read some of the forum here (fell upon this site through a search). I thought, maybe some of the things I experienced MAY help someone else to release their conscience too!