Comments on: Jehovah's Witnesses Hate the Smurfs

By: B_BAD

B_BAD — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:07:10 +0000

I feel your pain and I hope that one day I can escape the heavy burden of guilt and shame I was raised with as a JW. I hope that I can be at peace some day and I hope the same for you. My parents were both very kind, they were raised as JW also, but the organization itself warps children's minds. My father ended up going from elder to atheist, and I'm headed down a similar path, and it's terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. Good for you for following your heart. And to those fundamentalists who don't realize how brainwashed they sound, you don't understand that not having a belief in god is not a choice, it just is, believe me I've prayed to believe in god, and to have peace. And I'm still not a theist. If god is real then I'm sure he is more understanding of my pain, and my struggle than you are. Live and let live.

By: riverdaughter

riverdaughter — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 17:18:22 +0000

Been there. My mom was JW too, but not my father. It just struck me the other day that if I had had a medical emergency while my father was at sea (he was in the Navy), she would have let me die before she let me have a blood transfusion. And you know, she really would have let me die. Of course, she would have done it to save me but you know, I would still be dead. And I think she would have grieved over it but in the end, HER conscience was more important than my life. And then I thought back on all of the times when her conscience trumped my well being. Over and over and over again, she has demonstrated that my feelings and who I am personally are just not that important to her. She left the JWs but fell into fundamentalist Christianity. It's almost worse. She has replaced getting through the tribulation with the Rapture. She's even gone so far as to designate me as her only heir in the rapture clause of her will. Then she delights in telling me at every opportunity that I should enjoy it for the short period of time I will have while I'm alive to use the money. For years, I didn't think much about it except that was my crazy mother. Now, I'm genuinely offended by it. She explicitly separated me from the rest of the family and let's everyone know it at every turn. I'm the blacksheep. She shuns me in other ways as well and treats me like a child and my siblings like adults. My dad would be pretty pissed to see this if he were alive. Alas, the parent who loved his life is dead while the one who can't wait to leave it is still alive. I had to cut her out of my life even though I could really use the support now that I'm unemployed. I just couldn't stand it any more. She chose religion and she continues to choose it. God is everything to her. And unless I accept her worldview, I am nothing. Some people should never have children. If they feel this strongly about God, they should join a religious community.

By: Sarah Jane Braasch-Joy

Sarah Jane Braasch-Joy — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 01:47:05 +0000

I'm very glad you're still here, Mr. C.

Stay strong.

By: mr.c

mr.c — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 01:13:26 +0000

I felt this same way ALL my pre-teen years as a JW child, im very surprisd im still here....

By: Trina

Trina — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 18:59:54 +0000

Hi i can so relate to this tragic story of yours, i to came from a very problematic home where my mom sat around and made pretend that she did not see what was really happening to her 6 children. I was a young girl studying everytime i turned around my parents saw the need to make me have book study after book study because they said i asked to many questions that brought reproach on jehovah's teaching and that my evil butt needed to realize that i was doing such. I realized things in the bible that made now sense, the watchtower magazines seemed to mock and bully its people way of free thinking and mind you now i was 7 when i had questions of why we changed our bible so much, why we went from asking for payment of the books to donations and my dad slapped my face so hard and said you are a evil little girl and if you keep asking questions against the organization i will report you and have you put out of my home! I began to grow even more determined to find out why asking questions made my parents uncomfortable and my bible study conductors where actually livid with me they would say i ask questions that were stupid and they didnt want to study with me so they passed me off to so many others who would eventually act like they didnt here my questions about blacks not being in any publications but as the beast and why we were taught that we were people of sin because we were black...I was a child that wanted to have information about what i was learning and how we get the info we were given...I was later pushed to be a unbaptized publisher and recruit for this organization and that to me was a hard and terrible thing to do to other families because they would have there children endure what i had to endure and i did not like that idea at all but my parents made me and my other siblings do the work of the organization. I was twelve at the time and so many sisters there said that i looked like a little model and they would buy me suits to wear and give me there lovely garments that they once wore and i was impressed as i am a girly girl so i love pretty things well my dad had a elder approach him and say your daughter is wearing things not suitable as a young lady, now take into account that sisters were giving me these high end suits and they came past my knees and i was only a 98 pounds and why was my clothing becoming a problem so my dad took me by the hand outside the congregation and said to me that i was no longer allowed to look like a whore in Jehovah's house i started to cry and he said well the brothers have spoken and that is what you look like to them so just shut up and remember what i said to you next you will be put on public reproof... I would have to tell you that was the end of my relationship with the witness faith as it was not of any loving God. My mom would never have anything to say against what was happening with her children and i begged just like you for her to help her children out of this horrible confusing place. My mom only worried about my dads late hours with the elder in which i always heard her discussing with my aunts, that she felt as though there were some gay things going on with the brothers and she knew of one that was really a Gay elder but he was excused because he said he would walk the path but later to find out that he did in fact sleep with some of the young men he was studying with and not to mention some other elders but he was only talked to and not disfellowshiped only the young man who told on this elder was put out of the organization after telling 1 of the elders he had been asked to do something ungodly with the Elder brother that was gay....My mom and dad are presently still practicing Witnesses and continue to look at me as the waste of life they had but i have to say something about that, i have learned to forgive and love all and tho it has taking me so long to really get the brainwashing and the scare tactics out of my system i want nothing to do with a organization where it is ok to stop speaking to your own family members! that in itself totally shows me that a religion of such ways is not one where God resides!!! Sorry to offend anyone but my son said something to me the other day, he said mom if JW's dont like reading or doing anything worldly like reading and getting on the internet, reading apostate info then why is the organization indulging in the website business, why are they reading things people say and cursing at people that have the right to vent about things that harmed them in the religious world!! Stop flaring up like beast when people talk about things they endured in the JW world and just take learn something new if so many have problems with the faith like Jesus said according to your translation keep searching and those claiming to be my mouthpiece or doing work in my name they are lying because we dont need a mediator he is the way and only through him shall we receive salvation! I love Jesus Blind story in the Bible, it gave me the real clarity that i had been searching 4 and with that i live and love and forgive the way of man trying to set up and make money off our love of God!! Be blessed Sarah!

Thank you for sharing...

By: Apostate Lois

Apostate Lois — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 01:15:21 +0000

I never followed MJ's personal life much, so I had no idea he was a Jehovah's Witness! It certainly explains a lot, though. The guy was completely barmy, and the evidence for it was pretty obvious. If you grow up in a home characterized by fear and self-loathing, you can expect all kinds of mental aberrations to occur. For whatever reasons, Michael was more prone to them than the rest of his family. There were times when I felt sorry for the guy. He seemed so unhappy to me. He hated himself, and displayed his self-hatred by trying to change what was on the outside because he couldn't change what was inside--or so it seemed to me, anyway. Coming from a messed-up JW home couldn't have helped him at all.

I am glad you were able to leave that horrid cult. Christianity is dying in many parts of the world as more and more people realize what a scam it all is. If there is a god, then it is not associated with any variety of Christianity. The child sexual abuse cases that are making headlines represent the tip of a very large iceberg. It does not matter which denomination we examine, they all have dirty little secrets that they are trying very hard to hide. It is thanks to modern communications technology--and no thanks whatever to God--that this is all being dragged out into the daylight.

By: bonnie

bonnie — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:23:29 +0000

i left the jw's 25 years ago and have gone from being a devout jw to an atheist. i found the only way to break free from them and the bible was to go back to the beginning and debunk all that was indoctrinated into me. this is a step i find those who remain believers even after leaving the jw's or switch to another faith have not done. this is very scary to do when you first leave as you have thoughts of satan has won you over, disloyalty to jehovah and the organization, your weak,your being weeded out and a whole slew of other self loathing thoughts about your self. one day a light bulb went on and i seen it wasn't me but what i tried to make my self swallow all those years. the deliberate lies of the organization, the myths of the bible and its cruelty etc. the one positive thing that came out of leaving the jw's was critical thinking. to have a mind free to question and let the chips fall where they made is such a gift after you have been controlled all those years. of course they make independent thinking a bad thing how else would they be able to control you. my heart breaks for those still trapped and abused...to frightened and beaten down to leave. when i left there was no internet you felt alone thank goodness for the internet where you can share and learn your not alone. there is help out there.

By: Sarah Braasch

Sarah Braasch — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 09:35:51 +0000

Elizabeth,

Even if your mom doesn't love you, I do.

Write, please write. It is such a release. It feels so good to refuse to be ashamed and guilty and fearful and secretive anymore.

And, I think it is so important to let people know that it is not ok to turn away. It is not ok that we are condoning the horrific abuse of millions of children in the name of freedom of religion.

If every ex JW wrote his or her story, no one would be able to ignore the real Truth.

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 03:05:48 +0000

Dear Sara, I found your blog by mere chance, sometimes, when I'm bored with work, I google the words Jehovah's Witness... as you shall see, I feel, too, that rush of adrenaline, of momentary psychotic breakdown, when the demons, and satan, and the world, will come rushing through the door (heck, through the walls ) to take over me, and all those warnings will become true. I also grew up as a JW, I remember feeling very proud in the congregation because I had been born a JW, never entered a church, never celebrated a xmas, a birthday; and, living in a very Catholic country (Mexico), I felt specially proud for not being baptized as a Catholic, unlike my older brother, whom I would mock and scorn incessantly for being so tainted, and touched by the "whore". As I read your post, I went from laughter to tears, I remember too the whole smurfs scare, and Michael Jackson. I remember reading an article in an Awake magazine that quote him saying something like he "didn't believe in occultism... some time later, when I saw the video in a cousin's house (we were not allowed to watch TV alone), I felt I had been possessed, I had nightmares for years after that, the zombies getting from under my bed, reaching for me, and I was unable to cry the name Jehovah, and thus, he could not save me; when I told this to my brother, he told me that god was not going to hear my cries for help until I talked to mom and dad and told them what had I done, I couldn't do it, I was too scared that I had committed a "sin against the holy spirit", and they would tell me I could never be forgiven. After that, I developed migraines that would leave me in bed for days, my nose would bleed nonstop for hours, the doctors had no idea what was wrong with me, then, one day, I started having nightmares about insects, I still have them sometimes, when I'm over stressed because of work. I knew that was my punishment for leaving the door open for the demons, just like the plagues for Egypt, millions of insects swarming my body... I was five or six years old. To this day, I too feel the sudden rush of anxiety, the sudden jolt, the endless insomnia at nights... I pop pills in the morning to wake up, and at night to go to sleep... Every time I hear the name MJ, I feel uncomfortable, uneasy, and the whole media frenzy around his death was... just too much for me, I would refuse to participate in the talks with friends about it. It was too close to home. My mom and brother are still active JWs, and my brother is an Elder... I haven't seen them in years, my dad and I managed to somehow get away and have a wonderful relationship, but we never talk about "it". A few months ago I received a call from my mother, every once in a while she calls to ask how I'm doing, and to tell me she loves me very much even though I have "forsaken everything that is good and holy", and that she hopes that one day i shall return home "as the prodigal... etc". This time, however, was different, first we talked for a few minutes, I told her about my garden and my cats, about a book I'm writing... and then she blurted "I just called to say that I am never going to talk to you again, since it is never a "spiritual" conversation"... I said fine and we hung up. Then I found out about the big paranoia JWs developed around the whole swine flu thing... I guess she was thinking Armageddon was next week or something. I love my mom, and wish she could love me too, but I am content with the fact that she has something in her life that gives her more love and personal satisfaction that her daughter. Sorry for leaving such a long comment, your post stirred many memories and emotions I rarely ever revisit; but this has given me the final push to do something I have been wanting to do for over ten years, ever since I got away; I'll start writing about the craziness that goes on in JWs families. The only thing that had stopped me was the thought that it could end up hurting my mom, and our already estranged relationship. I guess now that has become irrelevant. Thanks for your courageous post.

By: GaryK

GaryK — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:24:39 +0000

Sarah, wow, incredible story. I found this site because I am a Christian and was looking for a way to speak to my sister, a JW. The events you have suffered give you every reason to come to the place that you have. I'm not sure how to encourage you. Just saying, "Jesus will never abandon you," isn't enough to fully give an acknowledgement to what you have been through. The "parent" "child" relationship is supposed to be representative of the unconditional love God has for His children. That torn, through a circumstance like yours, it is an amazing hurdle, maybe. But, your instincts were right all along, and your insights very well on the mark. If you would allow it, my prayers would be for you, and those who are praying for others, too, that the Lord would help, and that He would protect and save. Your experience is distrubing, and you have come far. My care is simply, "Lord, please help this one. In Jesus name."

By: OMGF

OMGF — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:22:33 +0000

Very few atheists (here at least) would contend that there certainly is no god. So, there's no requirement, Tom, that you believe that there is no god in order to be atheist. Most of us here will tell you that there is a possibility for god or gods to exist - we simply disbelieve that any evidence has been provided for them and see no reason to believe such gods exist. If you don't believe a god exists, then you too are an atheist, whether you have doubts or not.

By: Thumpalumpacus

Thumpalumpacus — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:53:07 +0000

So I could no longer be atheist, I saw I had no proof there is no God.

The burden of evidence is on the claimant. The "evidence" you cited is not evidence; it is merely a concatenation of personal claims which, again, require evidence.

Also, are you seriously agnostic about fairies? Really?