Kudos to you Daniel!

Having had a very similar experience growing up JW and always questioning everything( which I was constantly told not to question Jehovahs authority, even when I would say as a young child… “ but men wrote this!!! How do you know they didn’t put their own thoughts and ideas into what was written?) I was constantly reprimanded which I’m sure comes as no shock to you! I too like your brother knew I was gay at around 5 years old. I knew I was different but couldn’t articulate what it exactly was. As I got a little bit older I was told to be careful of any male that would ever try to touch me inappropriately as that was wrong and people that did that sort of thing were “ sick “, and the ultimate horror they would die in Armageddon! Well it was a little too late for that by that time, I had already been molested, and at 8 yrs old I was traumatized and now believed I was “ sick” and was going to die a horrible death because of something I couldn’t explain. So being the square peg, I had to figure out as much as I could on my own, since it’s not something that I at that time felt was a safe subject to discuss, thinking as a child that my family would stop loving me and throw me out into the streets, and no one would ever speak to me again( thanks to all the wonderful and idiotic fear mongering that we were taught as JW children!). I observed many idiosyncratic things growing up as a JW, always being told we were gods chosen people and the only ones knowing the

“ truth” as it were, and yet I thought it odd that an elder in our hall would on occasion expose himself in front of me as a kid, or that I saw some brother kissing a sister that wasn’t his wife, or the uncle that was an elder that molested his siblings , and that in turn one of them ( another younger uncle ) molested me. And yet, as I’m sure you can recall this yourself Dan,

“ Oh those things don’t happen in Jehovahs Organization!!! “.

Bullshit!!! I knew the JW organization was no different than all the other religions they knocked or try to prove wrong! Needless to say I also never was baptized because I knew I would never fit in or belong to something so ridiculous and that made no common sense , at 14.

I have read much recently on all the pedophilia, child abuse, etc. that the Watchtower Society is dealing with something like 25,000 cases worldwide that were over a period of time and most were swept under the carpet allowing the abusers to continue doing what they did. Unbelievable!!!

Sorry I know I could ramble on about more, but I respect your decision to abandon something you could no longer believe in and know how tough of a situation it must have been for you being so engrained into the religion and your family. Again, Kudos to you!!!