silentlambs, I continue to applaud you. What you are doing is sooo important. After I left the jws and put myself through college, I worked as a social worker. Several clients were jws who were currently or had been through heinous sexual abuse. Although I had no knowledge of that going on when I was a jw myself, through my patients and talking to their elders, I saw how horrific abuse is perpetrated by a high control group and its dysfunctional power structure and rules. My heart goes out to anyone who went through that. I can't even imagine how horrible it must have been.
To the critics (and I've had my share of my own critics when I've spoken out), I guess you are entitled to express your opinion. No one's stopping you. (Pointing out that you enjoy free speech just like those you criticize.)
OTOH, I think you need to have your heads examined. Anyone who speaks out
honestly and politely is doing no wrong and gives
no cause for anyone to think they make ex-jws look crazy. If you are embarassed about that, you need to ask what it is
inside of you that would make you be embarassed? That is definitely
your issue, not the messenger's.