A former JW tells his story

Rob S., from California,  is a former JW who contacted me after watching my latest Youtube video titled, “Jehovah’s Witnesses:  Hypocrisy on Steroids.”  His comments to those who disagreed with this video were so well thought out that I asked Rob to tell me his story:

“By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” As one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, I was raised to believe that this scripture at John 13:35 proved that I belonged to the one true religion. From infancy, my mind was conditioned to react favorably to Watchtower propaganda. I was conditioned not to question and not to research the things I was taught from their publications. The Watchtower had “lovingly” completed all the research for me. What need was there for me to question their love for me? My parents were both witnesses, and they couldn’t be wrong, could they?

I grew up on the Watchtower magazine that Jehovah’s Witnesses have used for so long to discredit “Babylon the Great,” the world empire of false religion. How guilty were all those people in the world who didn’t know Jehovah!  My grandparents would relate to me how close the “Great Tribulation” was:  it was just around the corner, and all I had to do to survive it was remain in Jehovah’s loving organization. If that was so, why didn’t I feel love from Jehovah? 

I grew up attending Witness congregations three nights a week.  For a young child in school, this can be tough. I was forced to stay awake at meetings, sit in one place for over an hour, listen to people explain things that were beyond my little mind—or suffer the wrath of my parents. Jehovah came first before everything, and it was important that my mind receive the correct conditioning.

Of course, I had to wake up early the next morning for school, and I was expected to focus on that as well. Maybe I should quit complaining because I still have the weekend. So what if I have to get dressed early Saturday morning so I can spend the afternoon knocking on doors with my parents?  The sad part about all of this is that I still have trouble sitting in one place and focusing on one thing without falling asleep…even to this day.

At least six times my parents have moved from one congregation to the next; one of them was due to the fact that we were between houses and didn’t stay in the area long. Four of those moves can be attributed to problems my parents had with the body of elders.

I grew up being toted around from one congregation to another by my parents because it was important that I receive the proper conditioning. Obviously, the purpose for this was so that I could tote my children around from congregation to congregation when I grew up and raised a witness family of my own.

I didn’t break the Jehovah’s Witness conditioning until after I was thirty years old. It was then, in 2011, that I saw a new world for the first time. Jehovah’s Witness apostates were not devil worshippers. Charles Taze Russell was an Egyptologist, who had a pyramid for his gravestone! Jehovah’s Witnesses disowned their family members as new darkness loomed over the congregation.

It is a humbling experience when you first realize that you had live half a lifetime ensnared by a cult organization. Once you’ve breathed fresh air for the first time, you can begin learning what life is about. There is truth out there, and finding it is an amazing journey. The Watchtower Society does preach some truth, but not before they’ve warped and twisted it so far beyond recognition that you may never notice the hole they’ve led you into until it’s too late.

There is an estimated eight million witnesses now, all preaching that hate is love, and darkness is light. Is there any wonder why people hide in their homes when the doorbell rings?

— Rob S.

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