EX JWs - What planted the seed in your mind?

jstalin

I'm interested in finding out what planted the seed in your mind that got you started on questioning the Watchtower. What issue, event, or idea started you on the path to rejecting the Watchtower? And while we're at it, what event was the straw that broke the camel's back, that pushed you over the edge to finally quitting the organization?

Ellie

I don't know what it was that put the doubt in my mind but even at a very young age (I'm guessing about 5 years old) I already had serious doubts, I don't know if that makes me very intelligent or the average witness very stupid.

skinnyboy

the first day of school when i was treated like a leper and told that this was my burden???? WTF? i just want to have a birthday present and party like al the other normal kids. So about 5 for me too, oh and as soon as i could stand up for myself and intelligently debate an elder into dumbness and stammering, great to have a photographic memory you see, any monkey can dole out scriptures to fit the situation can't they!!! Worked that one out pretty sharpish too, bout 12 years old then.... shall i go on?

mrsjones5

1975 and all the stuff behind it. I grew up with that myth and when it got swept under the carpet I was still curious. Curiousity killed the cat I suppose.

Finally-Free

The sexual molestation of children, and the Watchtower Society's policy of protecting child abusers.

W

under74

Well, my family was already having a hard time when I was around 12. We went to a Hall that had some well-off people there and we were looked down upon because my mom was a single mom with several kids and there wasn't much income....so, we were poor.

But the seed of doubt for me was when a muslim kid in my neighborhood and I were talking (both of us 12). He started asking how come my family didn't do this and that and I told him about JWs. And as the coversation went on I let it slip that JWs don't think non-believers will live after the end. To say the least, this kid was horrified. What I really remember him saying was, " my parents an me are muslim but just because you don't believe what we do doesn't mean we think God will kill you."

I never quite was able to get that out of my head and it ended up leading to a lot of questions that couldn't be answered by my mom and other family members. It took a few more years and a family crisis for all my immediate family left. BUT 12 year old Jamal did it for me.

Ragnar1211

I wonder if anyone that ever left the organization was looking for the truth when they left or just an easier life... Sounds like all of you are looking for a life of ease, sounds like easy prey for Satan. If you were looking for truth when you left - what did you find that was so inspiring?

Finally-Free

Sounds like all of you are looking for a life of ease,

Now that would be silly. There's no such thing as a life of ease.

If you were looking for truth when you left - what did you find that was so inspiring?

It was truth that caused me to leave. Truth about the Watchtower's protection of child molesters. Truth about the Watchtower whore's fornication with the UN. Truth about the Watchtower's sanitizing it's own history.

What's inspiring? The knowledge that no God who is worthy of my worship would expect me to bow before an abusive publishing corporation.

W

GetBusyLiving

For me the initial doubt was reading the Bible Story book as a kid. Jehovah just seemed like a total prick. I thought God making the sun stand still (instead of just killing the Israelites enemies, LOL) and fables like the talking donkey were just silly, like it couldn't be real. The God of the old testament was a maniacal petty murdering bastard.

As I got older I learned about evolution and logic, then got the hell out of the cult.

GBL

rebel8

There were many, many seeds....1975 was the first (but I was too young to be sure what to make of it), then the blood issue--of which I was a victim. There were many more after that.

We started studying the red Revelation book and it was so bizarre I thought they had all lost their minds. Plus they were so delighted when reading about how all the non-JWs would die gory deaths, and how we'd have to bury the bodies. They were actually looking forward to burying dead bodies that had been partially eaten by birds--ghouls. They were ecstatic to be so morally superior to others. I realized they did not display the signs of being God's people that they claimed.

Right about that time my JW boyfriend started dating my under aged sister. They have such Middle Aged views on adult men dating pubescent girls. It really grosses me out. There are not enough emoticons for me to express how I feel about that.

Anyway, there was a big to-do about it. My circle of JW non-friends weaved a giant web of lies. As any teenager who had stunted emotional growth due to being in a mind control cult and having an abusive/mentally instable mother, I did not handle this situation well emotionally. I became quite angry and depressed, having lost almost all my friends, my boyfriend, and my social standing in the cong. in one fell swoop. Most of my so-called friends stopped speaking to me.

To make matters worse, I was not allowed to avoid the couple. I was privately reproofed for not speaking to my ex, ya know, because he is a penis person and I wasn't showing proper respect of his headship and all. The elders read to me the story of Leah and Rachel and said I am Leah, the less loved sister. I asked how reading this was supposed to make me feel better, and they looked at me with that stupid look. These particular guys used to think if they could read a scripture that in any way related to a topic, it would resolve everything. No attempt to use one's brain.

I was ordered to apologize to him and promise I would speak to him and work with him in FS. My apology was supervised by my whack MS cousin, to ensure I showed proper repentance. Barf. When he was checking in on me during the apology, I decided right then and there I was going to get out of that blasted cult once I had the resources to leave my mother's house.

My sister began physically abusing me and lying about it, and to this day, she is believed. I told the elders this during my JC and they said I was lying. When she pushed me down the stairs and my mother said I was lying, that was the end for me. I never went back.

EX JWs - What planted the seed in your mind?

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