Vanderhoven7,
thank you for your kind thoughts, like most people here I do have a ‘tale to tell’, but a long one, (perhaps one day it will be written down.) Things never improved for me, but at last, about 2012/3 I began to realise Christianity has nothing to do with organisations or churches like Watchtower.
Initially was looking at a website discussing watchtower doctrine from an alternative viewpoint (apostate, so-called) with a view to defending Witnesses, but since I had a voracious appetite for digging out the truth, l was also reading very early Bible Student literature, and discovering the truth about the Rutherford years.
There was no sudden realisation of being duped, no flash of lightening or major waking up. I just came to the conclusion that since Watchtower was behaving and calling itself a religion, it was just the same as all the other churches of Christendom.
The internet has been most helpful to me, but the cost of staying so long is devastating. At times I feel totally isolated, really miss the discussions we had back in the 60’s, but never really found the kind of relationships that lasted forever.
Now in my mid- seventies, my health is ruined, my elderly PIMI husband hardly ever talks to me, (not that he ever did) my daughter, who left the same time as myself, struggles with low self-esteem and depression, both brought on by Watchtower policy and doctrine.
But my experiences have made me very understanding of the many kinds of problems that other Witnesses and ex-Witnesses have which result from the influence of having been in a high-control group. There have been a few suicides in recent years, both in my husband’s family and the local congregation, just regret I was not in a position to support any of them before they gave up. So sad to see people get into such a state of mind.
Jehovah’s Witnesses leaders speak softly and carry a big stick.
