“It was like a house of cards that has collapsed,” says a former cult elder.
For 40 years of his life, António Madaleno, born in Portugal, was part of Jehovah’s Witnesses, which he defines as a “cult”. He was just one year old when his mother went to the Kingdom Hall, as the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ places of worship are called.
After reaching the top of the Jehovah’s Witness hierarchy, becoming an elder, Madaleno found himself in a situation where he began to address their heresies while his wife was pregnant in 2003.
“As is usual in these cases, the first concern of a Jehovah’s Witness is the question of the need for a blood transfusion,” he tells Gospel Prime, in an exclusive interview.
António Madaleno says that this led him to research, study the Bible and question the teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses. For the first time, he was using his mind and conscience to seek the truth about what he had learned at the Kingdom Hall, even though he considered himself an expert in the Witnesses’ doctrines.
His research has led him to what he defines as “a house of cards that has collapsed”, as he claims that “it has resulted in many other researches and inquiries”.
“What I came to discover led me to lose all credibility and trust of the Watchtower organization,” he says.
The former elder became what they define as an “apostate”, drifting away from associating with members of the cult and starting to speak out against what happens there, including crimes covered up by the leadership. In an exclusive interview, António Madaleno talks about his experience.
Read all interview here:
https://a-jw.org/education/brazil-sexual-abuse-heresy-social-control/