My wife and I raised our child while in the bORG. We don't feel we abused him however he did suffer emotional abuse on different occasions because of the Watchtower teachings and certain witness families who he spent time with.
Many children raised in JW families are not equipped to deal with life as an adult. They are taught all of their lives to put off things and wait for the new system. So they don't mentally feel the need to prepare themselves for the adult world. As parents under the cult mind control we did not try to motivate our son for his future.
We did however try to fill the needs he had as a child by playing with him and getting involved in activities that we knew he would enjoy. We did not forbid him from playing with neighborhood children who weren't dub kids but we did discourage him in a mind controlling way from playing organized sports and getting involved with celebrations at school.
True some witness families take the societies teachings so seriously they oppress their children completely and many now possibly like the original poster of this thread feel hatred for the way they were raised, that is their right and I applaud you for speaking out about how you feel. Abuse of children is rampant in the world and always has been those that suffer from it are affected for the rest of their lives and we are seeing the product of that in the senseless violent acts perpetrated around the world. Will this abuse end, I hope so but in the meantime I will do my best to help my grandchild who is being raised in the bORG by my son and daughter-in-law to have as normal a life as humanly possible despite the cult mind control she will be subject to.
I have already made my son aware of the things we did that were wrong and hope that he learns from our mistakes. I think he has and will do his best to give his daughter the opportunities that he did not have.
Everything in this universe spirals from the universe down to the smallest living creature and all that we can do is maneuver our life's spiral either up in a positive way or down. I am determined to turn my life's spiral to that positive way.
The universe moves us in the direction that we set in motion and only we have the power to change that direction. Children raised in the bORG are set in motion based on the teachings and direction of a group of old men in the inner sanctum of their protected little corner of life. Is that a form of abuse? Yes it is. Can we change it? We can and we are. By speaking out and making people think.
There will always be people like Reniaa who don't want to open their eyes to all the possibilities in life, who only look at the negatives in the world and think some white knight on a white horse is going to come along and save the world from those perceived dangers. Will people like that ever think for themselves? Perhaps not. Possibly the abuse they suffered at the hands of the cult mind control governing body is too much for them and they are too weak to open their minds. It's sad but there is nothing we can do about it because it's their spiral and only they can control it. And perhaps they are right and a white knight on a white horse is going to come along and fix their lives after all many other fictions in life have become a reality given time. But in the meantime, can't we all just be friends?
LD