Why are you out, what made you leave?

MrMoe

So what helped you leave the JW's? Curious. For me it was the itnernet and reading COC. Then this forum helped with all the mental crap that went along with it. So curious, how did you break out? Breaking free from a major cult is no easy task...

JH

This site has nothing to do with me leaving. I appreciate it though.

I left because of the lack of love, the false prophecies, getting rid of the 1914 generation, the king of the north always changing...and so much more.

Basically, I left because I wasn't happy there anymore. I didn't have 1 real friend. Now that's sad. When you want to talk about what you feel, and there is no one to talk to. Anybody I would have talked to would have told the elders.

larc

I left before the internet and before COC was written. I left because I read the early writings of Russell and Rutherford, and realized how different the religion was back then.

I did not leave because of personal problems at the Hall. I went to a nice congregation, and I was sorry that I had to leave them, but leave them I must. Otherwise, I would have been a hypocrite.

Eyebrow2

I did not find this site until a few years after I left.

I came to a point where I just did not believe most of it any more. There were too many changes, too much 'new info/new light' in in the past 20 years. I was tired of the hypocrisy I saw; but I have not found another religion that is any better. Some worse.

I have known many wonderful witnesses! I think the shunning of DA and DF'd people bothered me much more than some of the other teachings. the woman that studied with me was/is a great person, and very faithful. Yet, she would not shun one of her old bible studies that never got to the point of baptism when they decided it was not for them. This is why I have not DA'd myself, becasue I dont want to hurt my mother and others in the fam that are still in. Also, if I see a JW in the grocery store, I am going to say hello. They know I am not really one of them: I have not been to the KH in five years; I have married out of the truth and celebrate holidays.

It is funny, because things are less strict than they wore 10 years ago even. If I had told the elders that I wanted to go to college, I would have been told that I would be wasting my time. Now, a good number of the teenagers in the local hall are going, or are in college. That is a good thing for them...

Holey_Cheeses*King_of_the juice.

I left when I realised that in reality, I was just not a spritual person and, any measure of spirituality that I developed by becoming a JW was really only superficial, and I began to view the witnesses as just the same as any other religion - full of lies and self-righteous hypocrisy.

I have been out for around ten years and have not bothered with them much in that time, but recent goings-on in my area prompted me to have a look to see what they have been up to doctrinally in the time since I have been 'out'. I rue that the internet was not available when I was on the way out. We were always told never to look at the works of so-called 'apostates' and, besides, access to such material in a rural locality was almost non-existant. With the internet now widely available, there is really no excuse for a JW (or person of any religion for that matter) not to investigate their beliefs and customs from an objective point of view.

cheeses.

DJ

Hiya Moe,

I prayed about whether or not it really was the 'truth'. I had some concerns over their teachings about Jesus, mainly. Whenever I brought up his name, their reactions were quite odd and it always bothered me. I have actually been given almost what you'd call a nasty look by elders for bringing up his name. They always quickly redirected my thoughts to the OT and pointed out Jehovah. Eventually, I just prayed about my answers about Jesus and asked to be led in the right way. That's all she wrote! I was out. That was seven years ago.

Nathan Natas

I was raised in it, and basically just discovered that all the WTS BS did not align with the reality I perceived as I became an adult.

For example, I learned that "God's People(tm)" were corrupted by their tolerance of pedophiles in the midst of their congregations and that many people of the "wicked evil world(tm)" were higher quality human beings than the Jehovah's Witnesses who condemned them to mass graves.

rocketman

Hey Moe!

For me, it's been a long process attributed to many factors, including the way my daughter had been treated by jw youngsters, hypocrisy and lack of real love, the 'generation' switcheroo, and finding out that there were many others who had similar misgivings (upon discovering this site).

Hugs Moe!!!

AlanF

I suppose I began a long process of leaving in the late 1970s, when I gradually realized that the failure of the 1975 prediction showed something seriously wrong with the JW organization. Over the next few years I saw enough nonsense in the JWs to fuzzily realize that they're a bunch of lying charlatans, and moronic to boot. I became inactive. Some years later I began intensive research into a variety of JW topics related to science (doctrine is so fuzzy that it's not worth arguing about), and found my fuzzy suspicions crystallizing. I realized that the JW organization has been intellectually dishonest (and self-deceiving) from its beginning. Once I realized that, I investigated a number of religious teachings and found them to be bogus as well.

If you're interested in a more blow by blow account of these realizations, check out this link: http://www.geocities.com/h2obiographies/bios/bio-af.html

AlanF

joannadandy

Cheeses-

I began to view the witnesses as just the same as any other religion - full of lies and self-righteous hypocrisy.

Me too!

I never really believed it was the "truth"...when I wanted to "make the truth my own" I decided to study other religions and found that they were all pretty much the same. I could never buy into the absolutionist crap that there is only ONE right way to worship God, nor could I believe that the JW's had found it when it was so full of hypocritical old men who's whims and opinions outweighed their Bible knowledge,

The final straws came when I saw them deal with my friends. Those with elder parents got a slap on the wrist. Those who did not, were tossed out faster than you could say "holy chesses!" for even more minor offenses. I could not believe that these old men had the "hand of God" directing their actions. I only saw their personal grudges and infected pride guiding them.

Why are you out, what made you leave?

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