Michael Jones: Breaking the Chains of a Cult—My Journey Out of the Watchtower

I was raised a third-generation Jehovah’s Witness. All of my family and friends were Jehovah’s Witnesses (of course my friends were Witnesses—since the cult doesn’t allow you to have friends outside of the religion). I was a regular pioneer and later served “where the need is greater.”

However, I had doubts about “The Truth” and the religion’s many failed predictions. In 1983, one of the members of the Governing Body, Raymond Franz, left the religion. I discovered he had written a book, Crisis of Conscience, and I bought it. Before I finished the first chapter, I realized I had been brainwashed my whole life.

Ray showed, with a very calm and rational explanation from the Scriptures, how many of the doctrines and actions of the Governing Body were unsupported by a true study of the Bible. I also came to realize that, contrary to how Jehovah’s Witnesses like to think of themselves, they are not Bible students.

Sure, they are allowed to read the Bible privately and, of course, must read and study the Watchtower Society’s latest publications. But what they are really doing is studying the latest versions of JW theology, handed down to them as it changes. They are NOT students of the Bible in the way, for example, a New Testament scholar would be—someone who studies many different scholarly sources, even sources with competing theories, and ultimately makes decisions for themselves.

They aren’t even students of their own religion, since they are discouraged from studying the history of the organization and its ever-changing doctrines. The vast majority of the religion’s publications are no longer even in print.

So I stopped attending meetings and other JW activities. After a period of time, my dad wrote me a letter saying he had talked with the rest of the family and they had decided they would no longer have anything to do with me unless I returned to the religion.

As painful as that was, there was no way I could continue living that lie—let alone continue proselytizing and trying to get more people to join the cult. The religion is all-consuming. If you aren’t all in, you will soon be all out.

So I lost my mom and dad, my four siblings, my brothers-in-law, nieces, nephews, and my oldest daughter, her husband, and my two grandchildren. I think about that all the time, and it hurts every time.

There have been so many things I wish I could have talked to my mom and dad about—their childhood, their life experiences, the choices they made, their regrets. So many things. And not knowing about the lives of my family and friends has been so painful. I don’t even know who is still alive and who has passed.

However, I’m so happy I escaped the cult and all the false teachings and so-called “promises” about a paradise earth that was always just around the corner—where all of us JWs (and only JWs) would live on forever. Blah, blah.

I’m thankful every day that I have friends who accept me as I am—and I them. I’m thankful every day that I can look for real, tangible ways to help make the world a better place, instead of parroting the latest doctrine spewing from a few old men in Brooklyn.