any ex- jehovahs witnesses?

Question

i was brought up under the jehovahs witness faith, but my family had some difficulties with their doctrines and we slipped away from the faith as I got older. Now I am eager to return to God but cannot find a christian group that I feel i can trust, since all my foundation beliefs have been shaken to pieces. Has anyone else experienced similar? anyone become disillusioned with the Jehovahs Witnesses? What did you do about it?

Answer 1

Jehovah's Witnesses are not perfect, but there is no other religion that compares. Even the men who walked with Jesus were sometimes confused and discouraged, but they stuck with the best source of truth available (see John 6:68).


Jehovah's Witnesses are unique for their rejection of paganisms, use of God's personal name, and global preaching by every active adherent. No other religious organization can claim such purity of worship.

These facts about Jehovah's Witnesses are perhaps relevant to this question. The more one compares this Christian religion with others, the more remarkable it is shown to be.

1. Jehovah's Witnesses have no paid clergy. Yet they remain tightly organized with more than 6.5 million active Jehovah's Witness preachers (about 16 million associate themselves with the religion). Even fulltime preachers and workers at their branch offices are unpaid volunteers.

2. There is no elite class among Jehovah's Witnesses. Even the few 'anointed' among them enjoy no special privileges in their congregations on earth. An anointed person (one of those relative few with a heavenly hope) is not elevated above his fellow congregants in any way, and he may not even qualify for appointment as a simple 'deacon' or elder. There are no titles; EVERYONE is addressed as 'brother' or 'sister'.

3. No person benefits economically from the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses. Even the 8 to 20 men who serve on their Governing Body receive simply room, board, medical care, and reimbursement for certain personal expenses according to the exact same provision as every other branch volunteer.

4. About a hundred men have served on Jehovah's Witnesses' Governing Body committee during the past 125 years or so. The vast majority of them have spent the vast majority of their adult lives volunteering for their organization's purposes, and the vast majority have died faithfully and near-pennilessly while still under their legal 'vow of poverty'.

5. Amazingly, Jehovah's Witnesses did not splinter as a sect from some other religion. Instead, a truly tiny but sincere group of bible students studied only the Scriptures to determine the will of God. Thus their religion remains absolutely independent of and not carrying the sins of Christendom's history, yet carries the authority of Christ's teachings.

6. Despite the distortions of anti-Witnesses, throughout their modern history Jehovah's Witnesses have refused to claim divine inspiration or infallibility for their teachings. They have pointed to the bible (and not any particular translation) as the only inspired infallible means of knowing God's thoughts. For over 125 years, their teachings have been presented as merely the results of sincere bible research by imperfect but godly humans.


Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/jt/index.htm?article=article_07.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/20040601/article_02.htm
http://jw-media.org/people/who.htm
http://jw-media.org/people/statistics.htm

Answer 2

Jehovah wants everyone to return to him, no matter what you have done he will forgive you if you repent. There are some really good articles on jw.org entitled "why return to Jehovah"
Also, both the meetings are now 1 hour and 45 minutes not 2 hours. I am only a child, but I can concentrate. They are a lot more intresting now, and they give help on public speaking and has boosted my English levels. If you prepare and answer in the meetings, it will help. Also they have changed the layout and they enclude videos. In the yearbook or a video, there was an experience of someone who's was born into Jehovah's witnesses. Her parents were pioneers, and she was expected to be the perfect child. She felt like there was too much pressure put on her. As a teenager, She saw others coming into the truth and seeing the best of best th worlds. Finally she did some immoral things, and was told to leave. Finally she returned, and is now enjoying a happy life as a Jehovah's witnesses as a single mother with either one or two children (I forgot!).
And your parents/brothers can't help it. They are told from the bible to "stop communicating" with those who were disfellowshiped. It might have been a bit harsh for your parents to say that they wished that they had never had you, but I don't know the circumstances. One sister came back to the truth because her family ignored her, and if they didn't she might nto have re-joined. You can experiment with different religions, but with many people they did that but found that they were always missing something. It's really sad because a brother who was next door to my nan just got disfellowshiped, and his wife and son were living in the same house. Apparently he is in worse moods now, and just recently he kicked his really sweet son out of the house. It's so sad how much he has changed, but I'm just wishing that he will return some day.
My friend's mum was disfellowshiped for taking drugs, but she has started coming back to meetings and trying to stop (I think she is trying to stop, but I'm not that nosy).

And please stop saying that the people who take the lead in my religion are bad. You remind me of a guy who was dragging a really angry looking and strong dog on a chain and who said that Jehovah witness children are brainwashed into serving Jehovah, and a guy who bent down to swear in my brother's face when he was about 7. And to the guy with the dog, guess what i told him? I said that I wanted to go out! At the moment I'm stuck in ill and can't go on the ministry tomorrow, and I'm sad. So please stop being bad because that's exactly what hitlar did to Jehovah's witnesses when they just wanted to serve God and make sure everyone who wanted could join. No one is forced to join, so stop complaining.

Answer 3

I left because my step-mother who's a hardcore JW tried forcing it on me, treating me like a hostage with no choice with a gun pointed to my head if I don't study and yes that's part of their indoctrination tactics, living with fear if you don't read the bible. Since I left, I've been in more control of my life and a lot more happier doing my own thing. My parents still talk to me once in a while even know they're told not to but still do anyway because that's family unlike most other JW families that just give up on each other. I don't regret it because they teach the same thing until you're sick of it, play mind manipulation games and the list goes on, plus I'm not eager to continue living with my parents while doing things like pioneering like most other JW families do. Plus, they hate higher education even though I've known quite a few brothers/sisters that actually went to college and had decent jobs, explains why everytime I went to meetings/assemblies I see all these nice cars and beautiful homes when I visit them, don't tell me minimum wage paid for all of that.

Answer 4

Don't rely on what others say, get your answer from God himself.

Persistently pray about it and see what happens.

Phil 4:6 "Do not be anxious over anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication along with thanksgiving let your petitions be made known to God."

Answer 5

I am not an x jw, but my husband is. We go to a good non denominational church that is very small and very loving, close and personal. i believe this would be the kind of church that would fit you. my husband and i are very comfortable here and have felt like part of the family from day one.

Answer 6

I am glad you are asking this question.

I would recommed a lot of folk on here that can answer from a ex JW perspective
Pedi C
Unsilenced Lamb
Simon Peter

and more

I would recommend just reading the Bible, The Torah, the
Quran..
you will find amazing simularities, interesting differences,,
and you will have the knowledge thus the power to judge what denominiation works for you

Answer 7

You will find many suggestions here: http://www.jehovahs-witness.net Folks who are in a similar situation. I learned all about the JWs from that site after a family member started becoming indoctrinated.

Answer 8

I was brought up as a JW but came to realise things just weren't right on a moral sense. I didn't understand enough about the doctrines for that to be a reason. To be honest, I found having to sit for 2 hours mind numbingly boring and as a result became an excellent daydreamer.
What I didn't like was the militancy, the interference, the hypocrisy and double standards. I also felt very vulnerable and was being treated for depression at 14. I had no one to turn to. This made me a much stronger person though and I'm not the type to be walked over anyhow, especially since I felt very uncomfortable about some of their moral standards (abuse, cover ups, deception) so the day I turned 16 I left home. I was so mixed up and persecuted that I spent 4 weeks in hospital being treated with clinical depression. I was determined though. I didn't want my life to be ruined as acre silt of these people so I worked while doing full time A-Levels to support myself and then a few years later went onto Uni.
I hate the religion for what it has done to my family. I love and worry about my parents incessantly but quite frankly I'm nothing to them and regularly tell me they regret having me and that they don't want me. For some reason I put up with this and still try. As for my two radicalised brothers I couldn't care less if they got run over by a bus tomorrow. I don't hate them because they are not significant enough to me to feel that emotion but I don't care about them and I don't care if I never see them again in my life. I have chosen to shun them because of the despicable way they have been towards me. I will walk right past them in town as if they are a stranger and they may as well be. This really upsets them because the JWs think they are the only ones with the right to shun people. To be shunned by me angers and upsets them. But they need to get over it. They mean nothing to me.
So that's what the cult has done to my family and yes, it affects me in how it's damaged my relationship with my parents and how I have become a person who finds it hard to trust/love and do other things a person brought up in a normal environment would but there's nothing I can do about it and I just gave to get on with it.

Answer 9

Wondering Faith is right - you should definitely either email him or anyone he listed.
I am an ex-jw, but I am also an atheist, so I don't think I can help you find a christian church.
The only thing I can tell you is to study - find out what you believe. Find a place where you can worship comfortably while still learning what you want to learn.

Answer 10

If I were you, I would look for a small church. really small church. That way it will be easier for you to trust them.

There are a lot of baptist churches that avoid being too pretentious. Why don't you find a group of believers in a small baptist church? Sorry, my experience with church is limited, but I do know people. It's my job.

I can only guess that a small intimate church would be the best route for you. god bless.