The Dark Secret at the Heart of the Jehovah’s Witnesses | Informer

Any organization that demands the shunning of loved ones cannot be any good.

I really wish this organization could be stopped, they destroyed my life and tore apart my family

I was a Jehovah Witness.... And I can confirm. I've gotten out of my deep depression when I got out. AMA

As a former JW, I can tell that there are many good people still trapped in this cult. Thank God I have never suffered or heard about any case of sexual abuse, but I can't say the same about psychological manipulation and emotional abuse. If you stay in for too long, the sure consequence is pain and regret. I'm a member of a broken, resentful family and when I got out, I ended up hating God and myself. But His plans are perfect and He reached me. Now I understand His true principles, which has allowed me to build for myself a happy and loving family.

That trauma reaction was him dissociating, and yeah… you get a lot of trauma from this cult. I grew up in it. Left when I was 17. A few years later, as my younger brothers got old enough, they left too. After a few years of us all trying to talk some sense into our mom, we finally got her out, too. My stepdad stayed in as an active member. She divorced him. He is still in the religion, even though he abused me for years, and all of the elders know it too. I repeatedly begged them for help, but they refused and said I’d better not say anything to my teachers, doctors, police, etc… because if he went to jail, I would be responsible for the reproach on Jehovah. It’s such a load of horseshit.

This is NOT EVEN A FRACTION of how psychotic those “nice people” are. The abuse and manipulation is so unreal. The craziest part is that all of the members are literally brainwashed so it’s pretty spectacular to ever wake up AND escape. Congrats to your family sir!!

I had a weird co worker that was a JW. He talked so bad about them to me the whole time he worked there. He said he only stayed due to his wife. The amount of abuse he disclosed to me was so sad. He said he even went and file a report on an elder for sexually abusing a 12 year old that ended up pregnant. He said i could take that crap no more. Due to him working with kids he was a mandated reporter and he told it all. They opened a case thw family was investigated. They disfellowshiped him after that and 2 weeks later he no longer worked for our company.

I'm so glad I left this organization 😊 I finally know thyself ❤This was my experience bring there the worse almost 30 years. Abuse, especially, lies, isolation, programming all way to much. I'm free and living life ! ❤🎉

The beautiful thing about the social media era is seeing lies and degeneracy exposed on a large scale. As a (more conventional) Christian myself, seeing all the cover ups of abuse has been heartbreaking, but necessary. So many people in positions of power are preying on their congregants.

This cult has a lot of ignorance, lack of accountability, and manipulation. Hypocrisy thrives in this environment. I am so glad I left when I was a teenager.

I have severe PTSD. There are so many things I have blocked out, but when certain phrases or JW terminology instantly hit me then a bunch of repressed memories start flooding my brain.

I had been a Jehovah's Witness for 28 years in Brazil and I can surely tell this is all true. Being a Jehovah's Witness was the worst thing that ever happened to me but I moved on. My brothers are still manipulated by that cult. I remember a friend of mine telling me he was abused by an elder and I was so mad at him because I used to say he was lying and couldn't accept the fact that he was saying bad things about an elder. I regret it so bad. Today he is still my friend, he is still a Jehovah's Witness because he doesn't have a place to go so he doesn't want to be shunned by his family. He is into a very bad depression for years.

I was sexually assaulted by a ministerial servant, 20 years ago this year. The only witness was my mother, who walked in before it got too bad. She blamed me. Her reason: "When he did that to your little sister, she fought back harder." I wanted to go to the police, but my mother threatened to disown me if I did. She said the elders would handle it. They did nothing; there weren't two witnesses. They still prayed over him, because OBVIOUSLY I was the one at fault, and he was merely weak to my evil seductions. (I was a young woman; that's "evil" to them.) That was the end for me. I refused to go back. I already strongly disagreed with their view on education (I rebelled and went to college), their anti-science opinions, some really gross levels of homophobia, antisemitism, and racism against some of my Black friends (many textured hairstyles were banned, one mother from Nairobi was told to not wear her traditional outfits because they were "too colorful" while a Japanese immigrant in a bright kimono was totally fine) but this was too much. As I looked around online, I realized that this was not unique. It wasn't that my elders were horrible. They were following standard operating procedures. I began to think back, how many times I questioned things, how often I was scolded for DARING to question. They're fine with simple questions, but when one's love for history becomes a serious threat to their brainwashing, the reply is, "Don't ask that, don't speak of that again, or you'll get in trouble." They are TERRIFIED of facts that clash with their beliefs. Thankfully, my mother refused to cut off communication with me. She kept getting in trouble for it. She finally moved to another state, so she could talk on the phone with me all she wanted, and no one cared. She never apologized for blaming me, we had a rocky relationship until the end, but at least she still loved me and enjoyed talking to me. That alone was rebellious. The last time I stepped into a Kingdom Hall was when I flew out to visit her and my (non-JW) dad. I reluctantly agreed to go. Mom introduced me to their head elder, and someone teased that he and two other elders used to shoot kittens and set dogs on fire when they were teens, something he didn't deny but merely laughed about. I was horrified. That's the psychotic types of people running the show.

Honestly every ex witness out there has got some wild stories to tell ,they will definitely shock you. Glad this guy got his chance to speak out

To shun your own flesh & blood is unbelievable. The fact that a person would even ask that of you is evil in itself

I was brought up as a Witness. Took me 35yrs to get out of it. Now i am much happier and living my own successful life. People get deceived by this religion. I feel truly sorry for them.

My grandmother is a Jehovah witness, any inconvenience she blames people and tries to ruin their life by causing them to argue with others by spreading false information and being cruel. I haven’t spoken to her in 15 years. My life has been amazing ever since.

Wow. I spent 23 years in this faith and finally hearing other's experience in the organization is really refreshing and cathartic

I’m disfellowshipped for about a decade I’m practically alone I lost my family and have suffered but I’ve found people along the way that became my family

As a former Witness, I agree 💯 % with this guy. Although there are nice people within the different Kingdom Halls, I believe the organization to be largely flawed and misguided in their practices! I also find it odd that the founder Charles T Russell was a 33rd degree Mason and is buried under a Masonic Pyramid. The founder of the Mormon religion was also a 33rd degree mason! Two cults founded by members of a very secretive organization! 🤔