The first time I met a JW at the door was in my teens. I was only just a young girl and they said something about an Armageddon, which was heavy. Then they went on to say that God and the devil were warring over my soul – that was scary. I couldn’t wait to go back inside and I remember saying to myself I didn’t want anything to do with either of them (God or the devil). It all sounded somewhat threatening and I just wanted to forget what I heard as quick as I could. Always make sure not to let your kids answer the door to them, is strongly advised.
You can request to have your address removed from their list – they are obliged to do that and most people are not aware of it. That will spare you a lot of unnecessary stress and inconvenience. Some people are kept at their door when preparing meals, attending to little kids, or visitors are waiting inside for them.
Jesus intervened in my life in my 20s – a totally different experience. And when I was about 30, I shared about Him (naturally) to someone in our street who said it really helped her. She also cautioned me not to speak about Him or Christianity to any JW if they came to my door because they take everything you say to their organization, so they can find out how to tare it to pieces. Nice people!
Not much later, a JW man came to my door one day with a young boy and stood him right in my doorway, so I couldn’t excuse myself and go. At the time, I was about 24hrs out of hospital – very week and woozy, needing to go back and lay down – and he wouldn’t stop talking. I was left very concerned about the little boy afterwards “what if they encounter hostility with his parents persistence and he gets emotionally damaged at such a young age?” I said to myself, fully aware that he was “Using” his own child to get religious agendas across. I saw it as a form of “child abuse” and do to this day. Sure enough, I was informed that is common practice by someone weeks later.
About 18 years ago, I had a different experience with a JW girl in her 30’s with Fibromyalgia in a way that only God could arrange. We got together in a library…..she kept sensing the Peace of God as we spoke. She commented that she trusted me and exchanged details. She also felt loved. She was considering buying a product from me to help her with her condition. When I felt led by the Spirit of God to let her know that Jesus desired to heal her, she became wary a few days later because of things she had been taught_ that healing was of the devil.
I have a question to ask people of that religion. If the devil heals you, howcome he made you sick, then he made you well OR did God make you sick and the devil made you well? Really! Our true bible (inspired Word of God) tells us that sickness is a work of the enemy of mankind and that Jesus came to undo his works and bring healing. This makes so much more sense, doesn’t it? There is so much said about healing in the bible, I don’t know how they could miss this, but so many people get mixed up. Religious cults mess with your brain, and the bible has cautions about that.
The enemy of man-kind peddles such doctrines at your door sutlely and persuasively, because he does not want you to be Saved in this life or the next_ so he uses such people to lure you into a ‘Counterfeit’ before you find the REAL…..or more correctly to say, so you don’t find the real and actually reject it once you’ve been misled into thinking these “doctrines of men and demons” can give you Eternal Life.
In the street where I live, there is excessive door to door activity on a regular basis from these people. I appealed to a man who was leading a group one day, saying “excuse me, you have been to these houses several times now, we don’t want to put people off of God, do we?” He lost his temper, shouting at me – that was the reception I got, he was quite angry. Not long after that, I saw the same thing on a YouTube video and several other videos with stories from people who are leaving that religion.
Should maybe tell you about a lady in a nursing home who was very wary of everyone there (all the staff and residents). She refused to mix or even have meals with them. When I spoke to her, she was very bitter about “none of her people going to visit her” and the Coordinator there said she had been abandoned by them. She needed Salvation, not religion.
Those are my dealings with those people over the years, so looks can be deceiving.
Recently, I met a JW lady in our local shopping centre, sharing a wonderful story about two family members who are now with Jesus. The story is warm and vibrant and I had no deliberate intention of sharing it – I was just so happy for them that day. Her response was to give me a JW Card and tell me “God has a memory of them” (that is all) thinking she might win a convert. Hardly, I would not ever exchange the assured reality I have with the likes of that kind of thing. “A memory! Is that all?” Yes friends, do be careful.
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Why I Left Jehovah’s Witnesses – Former Elder / Pioneer YouTube Video HERE
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Encounters By People Who Were JWs
Confirmed What I Already Observed
I actually read this book about 20 years ago and wanted to refute the folks who think this book is garbage. I’m willing to bet those criticisms are made by active JWs who are offended. The fact is that isolation, loneliness, anxiety and paranoia are rampant among witnesses. I saw in in my own family and congregation. Is it any wonder their members have a predisposition to mental problems when you have a very authoritarian religion, that threatens excommunication, and intrudes into the most personal aspects of your life. Great content!
It’s about time someone said something. THANK YOU! …
It’s about time someone said something. THANK YOU! JW’s are a CULT. Full stop.
Anyone that tries to argue with that is just in denial.
Have Seen Mental Problems
A must read by JWs. I personally had a friend who took her life because the elders were convinced she was demonized when she approached them about her depression. They told her to pray more and rely on Jehovah because seeing a professional was “out of the question”. I know many who are seriously in a bad way because they are forbidden to associate with close family members who decided to leave the organization and disfellowshipped as a result. Many feel trapped because if they question authority or leave, they will be treated as dead and cut off from family, so they suffer in silence.
Vital information!
Jehovah’s Witnesses have been thoroughly indoctrinated to believe they are the happiest people on Earth. Thus, when confronted with research that points to mental health problems among them, the Witnesses typically refuse to acknowledge the validity of this information. They are in denial. To be otherwise would cause their world to crumble.
Author Of Book Recounts Her Observations
I was a one of Jehovah’s Witnesses for 25 years. In my new book, “Awakening of a Jehovah’s Witness: Escape From the Watchtower Society”, I expose the havoc the Watchtower Society’s teachings cause in Witnesses lives. I have personally known Witnesses who, out of fear of dying at God’s hands, drove themselves mercilessly into a mental breakdown trying to obey the dictates of the Watchtower Society. In their fervor, many Witnesses become mentally unbalanced.
A Different Author Helps People
In “Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Problem of Mental Illness”, Jerry Bergman does an excellent job of presenting how specific Watchtower teachings contribute to mental problems in Jehovah’s Witnesses, and how the Witnesses’ belief system can cause mental problems for them while living in a society that operates under different premises.
Dr. Bergman is to be commended for speaking out in this important arena that few have the courage to take on.
Elders Refuse To Give Practical Assistance
Since I started my fade I met with two elders regarding a family issue they did not understand and refused to look on the internet on approved sites to be able to understand the issue.
No Concept Of The Mental Illness They Cause
Often thought how many witnesses who believed and had mental health issues were disfellowshiped for a weakness because elders did not understand or would not try to understand and so contributed to the illness.
Regrets, Looking Back
I was one of those victims wanting to get some higher education for a skilled job but did not do it because I would miss meetings. What a chump I was. Also the mental illness you mention I say the same thing in the congregations I served. Take care. Still Totally.
A Mental Illness Improving Since Leaving
I tend to agree with you that the JW religion can cause mental illness because of its promoting an alternate mental reality. What happens when reality comes crashing through…..as it most certainly will?
My experience with the JW religion gave me OCD. I have shaken most of it off……but every now and then it pops up.
A Concerned Christian
Doubtlessly JW does nothing for the mentally challenged being told to wait for Jehovah. If only they would cry out the mighty name of Jesus in the day of evil.
A Demanding And Insensitive Religious Establishment
I think JW life and doctrine leads to mental illness. Especially depression. But of course, the problem is always placed on the person and never the organisation that causes the problem.
Waiting, waiting, waiting for a day that’s always “just around the corner” (since 1875) but never comes. To keep yourself on your toes every second of every day is not healthy.
Forcing yourself to suppress or stifle your desires, goals or interests simply because a magazine told you to also isnt healthy.
Former Jehovah’s Witness says religion ruined his childhood
https://www.dailymail.co.uk › news › article-7161649
28 June 2019 — ‘Intense brainwashing, manipulation and fear-mongering’: Former Jehovah’s Witness says religion ruined his childhood – as he feared he would be …
‘Intense brainwashing, manipulation and fear-mongering’: Former Jehovah’s Witness says religion ruined his childhood – as he feared he would be KILLED if he mixed with the outside world
- A former Jehovah’s Witness spoke about the organisation’s extreme practices
- Damo Hyland made YouTube videos about the way members were ‘manipulated’
- He said he grew up believing everyone who was not a Jehovah’s Witness was evil
- Jehovah’s Witnesses said they couldn’t verify Mr Hyland’s claimed experiences
- They also said his claims don’t reflect the experiences of 8.5 million members
A former Jehovah’s Witness has spoken out about the religious organisation’s extreme practices in a series of shocking YouTube videos.
Damo Hyland, 20, from Perth, WA, was born in to a family of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
He claims he spent much of his childhood being indoctrinated, brainwashed and subjected to emotional manipulation.
Mr Hyland told Daily Mail Australia he was forced to clean meeting places and take part in door-to-door preaching known as ‘witnessing’.
Read More HERE
