That good old JW rumour mill (page 6)

punkofnice

Toes - I imagine they still justified it and didn't feel a darned thing. JWs live in a bubble, de-sensitised and cut off from feelings and reality. The Governing body keeps them as robot slaves.

Years after I left, a JW met me with my then school aged son and asked about my daughter. I mentioned she was home with dad, taking her afternoon nap. "No, I mean your older daughter-middle school aged?"

(This is representative of more than one conversation, so not verbatim). I was maybe 27,28. I said my son was my eldest. . .apparently, my showing up at school homecoming parade with a toddler in high school cemented the rumors of my illicit life post jw. I was babysitting during homecoming and we were both invited to ride the float with my group who decorated it. Somehow, word got out to JW community and I was branded an unwed , unrepentant sinner. Still a virgin at the time, I was branded as a hussy in a time when unwed moms keeping their kids were the subject of after school specials, along with shoplifting and runaways being lured into prostitution.

I set several straight. I was DAd because I didn't know that an baptised person stating that they were not going to become a JW meant exile. I soon learned that, but had no idea that my reputation was a fornicater. What baffles me is how many knew I was not an unwed mom! I babysat for neighbors who lived next to JWs! I was in demand as a sitter by JWs until I was DAd. No one set the record straight, not even my mom, who probably preferred a fornication daughter to the apostate that I truly was.

Yeah, they gossip. In fairness, many do, but their brand is extra hateful and potentially life altering for the subjects of it, even if the elders informally "mark" you.