pale emperor, my heart breaks for you and your little family. I would like to weigh in on the side of compassion for your ex. Please re-read the post by JW Daughter near the top of the second page of this thread. There are so many issues to weigh here. You are both in a whole lot of pain, and the common enemy is the WTBS.
I am not proud to say that it took 30 years after my husband left the organization to wake up, and I still suffer from all the pain that we caused one another as individuals, as a couple and as parents. I am so fortunate to have adult children who have said they understand that anything I ever did was out of love.
Please remember that you were once under undue influence too. We all did things in that state that were certainly not our best moments and likely were not true representations of who we really are as people, otherwise it is not likely that we would be here.
I understand that the harsh words and judgments expressed toward your ex in this thread come from a place of pain. I'm not saying to throw caution to the wind. I'm just advising you to look underneath the fear and anger you both feel and see if both of your actions might, in fact, be motivated by love. Keep in mind that you both cared enough about each other to commit to sharing a life and family together. There is no need to destroy that now. Moving on, if that is where you presently are, is one thing. A scorched earth policy is another.
Out of concern for your child, please support your ex to the best of your ability now when she needs it the most. You know that there is no honorable way to leave this cult. The pain and confusion of cognitive dissonance can be life threatening. It was for me. How could it not. As a wife and mother I loved my husband and children, but felt helpless to save them from what I believed to be certain destruction while at the same time believing that a loving and just God could do no such thing. We were indoctrinated to believe that the only way to save our family is to stay loyal to Jehovah and his organization, a theme that was hammered home with ever more vitriol in the conventions this year.
You know what it is like to lose everything. It takes an extremely strong person to even consider it. I know this because my husband will sit next to me in my dark moments of remembering the past and assure me that I am the most honorable person he knows. That I have always wanted to do the right thing. I simply trusted the wrong people, who were in a position of authority over me since childhood, and they abused that authority. When I woke up to that, I walked away.
Wishing your family peace,
Diane
