Submitted: August 17, 2009
By: Solana
I left when I lost hope of ever marrying a Witness and was faced with temptation. It was an impossible choice really. To live in misery in the congregation or at least have men pay attention to me. I could have hid my sin but I felt the need to confess to the brothers. They wanted to know everything about what happened and cared more about how I felt about it then what they could do to help me make better choices. They df'd me once and then changed their mind when my sis convinced them I was a sex addict. Then dfd me again when I had sex again. I didn't care at that point since I was going to die anyway. Then I found out that much of what I had been taught for the first 20 years of my life was a lie. It's not even scriptural. I'm not bitter. I made my choice but I can't stand how they treat me. It's been 20 years since I left and they do that thing where they pretend I'm a ghost or stare at me when they think I'm not looking. I wish my former friends could just accept that my life has changed. I am glad to be free of that. If only they were not so hateful and heartless. I only have half a relationship with my family but I guess that's better then nothing...just sad.
Submitted: August 9, 2009
By: Nikki
It has been at least 10 years since I've been in a Kingdom Hall or had any association with JWs and even though the pain gets duller I still live with it every day.
My husband and I were baptized in 1973 and raised our 2 children in the organization. We really believed everything we learned from our studies and meetings and lived for the day when "Jehovah would bring to ruin those ruining the earth."
So 1975 was the year we hoped many promises would be fulfilled. To make a very long story short we were horribly let down not only by the unfulfilled expectation but many other incidents too numerous to mention. I especially found I no longer believed what I was expected to preach to others and began skipping meetings.
Eventually after our children were on their own my husband and I stopped attending meetings and moved to another part of the province. We still have a great deal of affection for many of the brothers and sisters although we keep in touch with only a few. Our son and his family are still "in the truth" and we see them from time to time but it's very difficult to be as close as we once were as a family. Our daughter has seperated herself also but she has many mental problems now and we all suffer from depression. I still have so much anger inside me for allowing myself to be so controlled by this organization and have been reluctant to say anything because we now have grandchildren and we're so afraid our association with them will be completely cut off.
