I have been on this
forum for almost 10 years and out of the cult for only 3. For 7 years, I
- knew of the issues with
the pedophiles,
- Knew the dates didn't make
sense
- the weird teachings of
Russell and Rutherford
- I disagreed with the
shunning, and the blood policy
- The UN, Malawi, etc.
Despite all this, I
stayed in! I reasoned that in the end, they were doing more good than bad.
Then, I finally read
the books of Raymond Franz: This truly opened my eyes. The fruits I'd
see with the organization were all about sustaining the organization. They
preach door to door and in kingdom halls leaving barely enough time
to practice what they teach. Charity is not simply sharing ideas, it involves
actual actions. Sure, they do some actions, just not enough compared to the
time dedicated to talking about it.
In his book,
he denounced how they expect the brothers to be "humble and
not boastful with pride" by questioning their teachings. In
reality, to set this expectation while also admitting that they are
not inspired makes THEM the guilty party here.
Still, I stayed. At
that point, I thought I could do some changes from within. I had fun from time
to time in exposing their beliefs by playing the overzealous. Or presenting
things in a truthful, accurate way, and yet, in a light that they were not
used to.
For instance, at a
super, a brother said how horrified he was that some Muslims had
stoned a girl who committed fornication. I said: "Objectively
speaking, there is nothing wrong with that. They are simply still following the
Mosaic Law. Heck, under Moses, there was even a man who was stoned to death for
picking up woods on the Sabbath. I don't think that the word
"horrified" is advised here knowing that Jehovah himself definitely approved stoning only 3 days ago. You know, a day for a thousand
years? – There was a very odd silence at the table.
Then my kids started
to be old enough to listen at the hall. That was the deal breaker for me. I
realized that I would not be able to teach my own beliefs. Being kids, they
could express these contrary beliefs in the wrong place, at the wrong people,
and I could have faced a JC at any time. Essentially, JWs are required to give complete
authority to 7 men in NY, even over their own kid’s spiritual education. I
could not allow this. I left.
