Hello all, I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but I need to get it out.
I'm new to the board (registered today), and here's my story:
Born into the "truth" so to speak, my parents just started studying after I was born. After the 1975 prophesy failed my father slowly distanced himself from the org. My mother kept on attending meetings, and we moved to California in 1976. I was 5 at the time and this is about where my own memory of my life begins. I started school and, as usual, was an outcast because of my religious constrictions... er convictions. We continued to go to meetings, but started missing a few here and there until aroud 1979 when we stopped altogether. A few years later my parents divorced, my mother remarried and we started going back to meetings in 1983.
Now, up to this point I have been an active witness child for nine years, and inactive for four. During the inactive years we still lived our lives as though we were active - no holidays, no sports, no T.V. or movies, no friends. That was pretty tough since the witnesses at school wouldn't talk me, and I wasn't allowed to talk to anyone else.
When we did start attending meetings again everything seemed okay for a while, my step-father didn't know much about JW's and we had been out for years, so it was kind of like starting fresh. But after my step-father learned the rules he quickly dropped out and used the organization against us. He learned that my mother could only divorce him if he committed adultery - so pretty much everything else was okay, and he did it all.
First he started drinking heavily, then he started using drugs, and then selling drugs out of our house to support his habit. The elders said we weren't strong enough in the truth and that Jehovah was testing our faith. Then he started hitting us - four kids (including myself) and my mother. Again the elders told us it was our fault and re-emphisized that my mom couldn't divorce him. We eventually had to move out of our house and live with the PO for a while. Then step-daddy shows up at the PO's house one day and grovels "I know how wrong I was - I repent - send my family home." So off we go, but step-dad didn't miss us, it's just that his knuckles hurt from hitting walls and he wanted softer targets back home. Again the elders tell us that it's up to Jehovah when our test should end.
So, we ended it ourselves. We stopped going to meetings, threw him out, my mom got her divorce and restraining order and we got on with our lives.
Subsequently we got a sheparding call from the PO who had the gall to repremand my mother for her actions. That was the last time we spoke to a JW.
Sorry for rambling, but I had to tell my story to listening ears.
Thanks for your time.