Dear All,
I'm new here and this is my first post. I hope to introduce myself in order to gain more friends online.
To begin, I'm middleage and has just left WT with my family intact (praise God for that). My wife and I each has about 20 years association with JW Org and has 4 kids, plus one more coming (thanks in advance for your congratulations. We love kids).
[Before proceeding further, in my language, WT = Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, WT Articles = WT books, magazines, etc, JW = individual(s) who are in WT, JW Org = The Religious Organization called "Jehovah's Witnesses" (not the JW mentioned in Isaiah)].
We considered ourselves "spiritual" in the Biblical sense. Both of us read Bibles (not just NWT), gave up/disowned by our non-Christian families, our careers, my chance for University studies, married so that we can "reach out" for Missionary service together, travelled to "territories where the need is greater" to serve, etc, all for God (though we do not know WT has betrayed God then).
Primary reason of our decision to walk out of WT is because of the hypocrisy we discovered after a mis-pronouncement that made me step down from Pioneering. To cut a long story (15 years) short, I was foolish but not sinned against God, sensation raised and Elders' "ganged" to removed me (none of them serving as E now), I was asked to stepped down. But I did not accept, fight in many ways for 15 years, case re-open, meet with 3 COs, few Elders (not involved in the original case), ... , and finally, the DO who in his "shperding visit" with another E, privately apologzes and ask me what I want to do to the E's. I said "nothing needs be done to them", but wants to be "reinstated as a Pioneer". The answer by the DO was "I cannot do it". Well said by one who assured me he was "representing the Faithful and Discreet slave". Well, through the 15 year process, we saw all sorts of hypocrisies. When we're finally assurred that "WT image", not "the Name of Jehovah", is what the Es are concerned, we decide to leave WT with our children.
Of course the rest are experiences of shunning faced by everyone here. (That's why I considered myself lucky that my family is still intact.)
Today, I try to join online forums (including this one) to get myself on the "Internet Highway" so as to travel as quickly as possible away from WT ligerings. For those who wish to know more about me, you can read what PartyDelights post on Yahoo! R&S.
So, thanks for your reading and would very much like to link up with with more ex-JW worldwide, particular those in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. (Latest statistics from JWFacts indicates there's more than a million who had left WT the past 50 years.)
And be of good cheer (shall I quote from NWT of what - A joke).