I grew up as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. You know, those people that come knocking at your door during Saturday morning cartoons? Or even during dinnertime? I was one of those. And at one point, I was REALLY into it too. I even graduated high school two years early, so that I could devote the majority of my time to annoying people at their doors. Or saving them, if you want to look at it from the delusional view of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. For a few years, I was trying to spend at least 60 hours per month knocking on people’s door or otherwise “preaching the word of God.” Later, I tried to become what they call a Regular Pioneer, which entails spending 90 hours per month or more preaching. Mostly, I just wanted to be a “good little girl,” and do all the things I had grown up being told I SHOULD do. I thought maybe I could make my mom happy that way.
Unfortunately, living as the “good little girl” also meant that I could not date or marry the person I had fallen in love with. For a while, I tried to convince myself that I wasn’t in love with him, but every guy I dated could not compare up to him. The Jehovah’s Witness boys I dated could not compare with this man I loved who was considered a bad influence by the Witnesses. Eventually I realized that I could not live my life this way. It was ridiculous for me to deny myself love, based on the ideas of MEN who thought they could control people’s lives. All it really comes down to is power and control. If you can convince someone that they need to live the way you say and do exactly what you say, you have control over that person. If you can control them, you have power over them. And, of course, with power comes money. Using God and Jesus and a person’s desire to believe in order to get that power and money is just despicable.
One of the biggest things that pushed me away from the Jehovah’s Witnesses is that we were not allowed to question. If something we were told or something we were read did not make sense to us, we could not question it. We could not push those teaching us to explain WHY, because that somehow meant we were questioning God. We were told that God would make the “light shine brighter” at the appropriate time, and we had to trust in Him. Eventually, after leaving and doing my own research, I found that with most things, the reason we could not question was because there was no actual BASIS for the rule in question. That is besides the fact that by discouraging independent thinking and encouraging people to trust blindly, those in control gained even more control and power over the masses. We were all blind sheep, following without questioning, while children were molested and people died or had their lives destroyed.
If you have done any research at all online about Jehovah’s Witnesses, you will come across several websites that discuss the child molestation issues that are swept under the rug by those in charge of the congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses. One of the major ones is the Silent Lambs website. There are so many horrifying stories of sex offenders who preyed on innocent people in the congregations of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Some of these were people preying on their own children or other relatives. The typical case ends with nothing of substance being done: no call to the cops, no official record of the assault, no warning to the public that this person may be a danger. In the congregation I grew up in, my best friend at the time was molested by a friend’s brother. When my mom told those in charge of the congregation, the only thing done was that he was publicly reproved. This means an announcement was made to the congregation, basically letting them know that he had done SOMETHING wrong and was being punished, with no clue to the actual wrong-doing. That was it. No cops were called on him, and later, when he married, my friend and I actually ended up babysitting HIS children, although neither of us would ever be alone with him.
There were many other little instances of things that occurred, which in the end helped me to see how very false this religion, or cult if you want to be technical, is. Eventually, maybe I’ll write out my full story of growing up as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses and how I got out, but not today.
