Thanks for your informative web-site. I had read
"The Christ Conspiracy"
and was looking up the authors web-site when I found your link. I was shocked to see something by an ex-JW. I am an ex-JW too. I didn't know there were other ex-JW who had come to the conclusion that the Bible was not inspired by anyone but Jewish men and the borrowing of stories from the cultures around them.
To be free of the JW's is great, to be free of the restrictions of the bible is even better.
Thanks,
Mary
Hi Mary,
It's nice to hear from a fellow traveler! How long have you been out?
Yes, there are a few of us who not only left the "tower of terror" but continued our search for the real truth. You're right about the sense of freedom: it's great!
--Steve
Steve,
I have only been out of JW's for almost 2 years now. My story is featured on AJWRB.org under the name of Mary about the JW woman who lost a child due to the blood policy. I used another name to protect the identity of the one active son I still have in the JW. Having my 15 year old son die in part because of the WTS policy on blood was sickening to me back 27 months ago. After he died and I researched it thoroughly on the internet. My son's father was unmoved through by the lies the society has taught us. I left him and WTS and was disfellowshipped at that time 4 months after my son had died. My husband was a verbally abusive and sometimes physically abusive to me the 30 years we were married.
So began my research on the WTS and leaving it mentally then. I became a witness with my husband when I was 20 years old. I was a faithful witnesses mostly all those years, believing they had the truth. What a shock to learn 30 years later I was totally fooled and deceived. Now wonder they didn't want us reading on the internet.
But then about a year ago I picked up "The Christ Conspiracy" and began to realize that the bible itself is not real or truthful. I read
"
The Jesus Mysteries",
"
Jesus and the Lost Goddess",
"
101 Myths of the Bible". I also purchased a video tape called
"
The Naked Truth" (this is an excellent documentary on the bible). Well needless to say, they all blew huge holes in the bible being Holy and given to man by God. It was all nothing more than a sham, the whole thing. So now I explore all types of spirituality. And I very much appreciate the freedom I have to do so now.
How long have you been away from the JW's? Isn't it good how life is rich and full of things to think about since leaving the JW's. I have even met a few ex-witnesses through Meet-Up which comes around once a month. But often think of those still in and wonder if they will ever wake up. I have an older son who is 19 and left when I did. But my youngest son now age 15 lives with his JW Dad at his own choice for now. I am sure the restrictive live will make him change his mind in time. We will see. I am not pushing the issue, and neither have I shared with him what I have learned about the WTS and the bible. In time I believe he will find his own path out. He is very defensive of the WTS now.
Good Luck with your web-site, hope many witness find there way there and explore your information there.
Dear Mary,
I am so sorry for your loss.
I cannot even begin to comprehend what you must've gone through in the last 27 months (not to mention the 30 years of abuse from your ex-husband). You are a very strong person to have come through it, and to have pursued the truth about religion. I am honored to know you.
I am publishing your letter on my website so that people will see just how dangerous the Jehovah's Witness cult really is. It is one thing to think in the abstract about Witnesses dying due to the blood transfusion policy, it is quite another to think in terms of a flesh and blood individual. It really drives the point home. Wake up, people: your organization's man-made rules are killing your children!
You have been reading some excellent books. I strongly recommend
The Christ Conspiracy and
The Jesus Mysteries to my visitors. Both books present the truth about Christianity: that Jesus was not a historical person, but a myth. How sad to see how misguided people have swallowed this giant mistake and ruined so many lives with it for nearly 2,000 years!
I have been out of the "tower of terror" for 26 years now! Leaving that stifling organization is a decision I have never regretted. In fact, I celebrate my freedom daily. What a narrow, cramped, world I lived in as a Witness: it's hard to believe now. When I receive letters from Witnesses today (who think they are open-minded because they've broken the rule about avoiding sites like mine) I am amazed that I was once as blind as they are. I try to reason with them, but it usually proves futile. Unfortunately, people who are victims of mind control seem to need some sort of tragedy in their life to snap them out of it before their minds can comprehend any criticism against their "masters". I guess that's how "experience makes us wise". But those who are really wise will learn from the experiences of others. So, I thank you for sharing your painful experiences, and I hope that others will learn from them.
Mary, I hope you have a lot of emotional support. I hope you are close to your eldest son and that you can comfort each other. Please feel free to write to me any time you would like to "talk".
Steve
Thank you for your kind letter. It has been hard, but at the same time I feel I have learned many lessons from my association with a high-control religious group such as JW's. And your right it is a shame it takes a tragic event to wake JW up from the mentality they are so convinced of. Religions of the world has done much to damage men and women's lives over the past centuries. Christianity has brought even more spread of that control. I feel one day in the future that men will walk away from religious controls, but it may take centuries yet.
Feel free to add my story just not my email address. I do what I can for those who wish to come out of the organization when they are ready to leave it.
I have been fortunate to have a new husband who is very supportive of my efforts to help other JW's who have left. He has never been a JW, and life with him if full of love and comfort and the freedom to really examine all we have ever been taught.
Personally to find the freedom to understand that men created the bible to control the masses has helped set me free. Guilt, depression melted away with this knowledge. I hope others can find this freedom.
Your web-site will continue to bring insight to those searching the JW organization to see if it is the truth and hopefully turn a light on in the darkened places within the WTS.
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