I was a born in. My step-grandmother (yes, I have one of those) has a story that when I was a toddler, I said how I loved Jehovah and "He's my father's God."
Looking back, it's easy to psychoanalyze and see that at some level of consciousness, my impression of God WAS my biological father, this woman's step-son.
But my dad? He was raised around the truth and had "anointed" heritage on his mother's side. (The story goes that the territory in Paris, Texas was fostered by my great grandmother and her father. It's a nice story.) Dad's father was a convert who allegedly killed a cop at some point and ran to California from Iowa. He was a drunkard, and there was an occasion when my dad and uncle beat the shit out of him after he quite LITERALLY beat my grandmother until she crapped the bed. Dad went off into the Navy, and the story goes that he read the Truth book in one night on the USS Perkins. When he first met my mom, his high school girlfriend had broken up with him. Mom has her own story.
So what was my dad's impression of God? Maybe it was the father he didn't have.
He could have just waited and not married my mom. I wouldn't have been born, but he could have just been a bit more skeptical. Regardless, I'm here, and you could say that I, a brand spanking new apostate, owe my very life to the Watchtower.
*shudder*
