Thanks for your response NERD IN THE BRAIN. I do see where you're coming from.
But also try to see where a lot of people here are coming from. . ..
When you sat down in that Kingdom Hall:
Three rows up from you was a lovely pioneer sister. Happy, smiling caring person. I think she even said "hi" to you.
A week from now she will get involved in a terrible automobile accident, and the only way to save her one-and-only life will be to take a blood transfusion. She will refuse it, as she has been programmed to do by this cult, and die.
You also might have heard a really bright, young kid give a terrific answer at the Watchtower study.
Not only did he give a good answer, the kid is smart as hell. He's the type of kid that could grow up and be part of the research team that finds out how to beat cancer.
But he doesn't. He doesn't even go to University, because he and his parents have been beaten over the head with cult propaganda that college and is DANGEROUS, WORTHLESS, and a TRAP devised by SATAN to destroy a young person's faith. He spends the rest of his life in a mindless job that just barely supports his existence as a pioneer.
And then you have that young girl sitting your left, about 9 years old. She was just baptized at the last Circuit Assembly because -- as we have heard recently -- anyone who is beyond the toddler stage of life has no reason not to be baptized.
However, about 15 years from now, she will come to realize that this "religion" is a complete crock of shit, and that there is no way she can continue in it. She tries to leave gracefully, stating she just doesn't believe, but in the end is disfellowshipped for apostasy, and loses all of her friends and family. They will never talk to or even acknowledge her existence ever again.
Actually, this may not be anything like the Kingdom Hall you went to.
But this is very much like the Kingdom Hall I and many others here grew up in.