Our Stories

Real-life case studies put a human face to the problem

We are collecting stories to make mandated shunning more relatable and tangible in front of lawmakers. Some authors have chosen not to include a photo due to safety or personal reasons. Their voice still matters.

When Family Belonging Becomes Conditional

I was a committed Jehovah’s Witness for most of my adult life. I pioneered for approximately 25 years and served as an elder for 12 years. During that time, I participated in judicial proceedings, including disfellowshipping decisions. I be...

Ginny: Disfellowshipped at 21: A Lifetime of Loss and Recovery

I will tell a very brief summary of my story below. I am 59 years old, and I was born and raised as a Jehovah’s Witness. I was disfellowshipped when I was 21. Since then, my relationship with my large family has been irretrievably broken, a...

Louise: Shunned Without Baptism: A Lifetime of Silence

My mother’s family were Jehovah’s Witnesses. She married a USMC sergeant who was not a JW. We moved often, and attendance at meetings was on and off. I was scared of the graphic pictures in the Paradise Lost book. If I could, I would ...

Sandra Dam: Staying to Survive, Leaving to Live

I was not raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, but being who I was, I walked into their doors at the age of 27 alongside my husband and our two young children. Long story short, not wanting to lose what was left of my family, I stayed even though...

Baptised in Fear, Shunned in Silence

I was brought up from birth as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses by my mother. I was coerced into being baptised at age 15, which I didn’t want to do. The fear tactic then was that if I wasn’t baptised, I wouldn’t make it through ...

Carole Okeeffe: They Shunned Him for 44 Years. I Shunned Them Back.

I was not a Witness, but half my family was. I studied with a Witness to see what my family was into. I thought it was bogus and quit after several weeks. I am not easily led and didn’t go at the rate they wanted. Instead, I read ahead and e...

s: Twelve Hours from Shunning

I’m not shunned yet, but I’m about 12 hours away from it. I was raised as a JW, and I was baptized before I was 12 years old just because it was about time for me to get baptized. I never was super into it, and I stopped going regular...

Raised to Obey: Losing My Family to Jehovah’s Witnesses

My mother converted from Methodist to JW when I was less then a year old. I'm the third of four kids, so my older siblings remember the change. We went from celebrating Christmas and birthdays to being forced to going to boring meetings three time...

Gloria M.: Remembering Gloria: A Life of Faith, A Death in Isolation

This is the story of my friend, Gloria, whom I greatly admired. I am sharing her story to the best of my memory, because I wish to highlight the great harm suffered by the elderly due to mandated shunning tactics in some coercive religions. This a...

Simon Hunter: Breaking the Cycle – Rebuilding Life After Leaving Jehovah’s Witnesses

Realising that your whole life has been based on a lie when you hit your forties is traumatic to say the least. I, like my wife, was raised in the ‘truth’ from birth and led to believe that I was so fortunate to have been so. I delaye...

Katrina Hunter: Life After Leaving: A Year of Pain, Clarity, and Survival

To be honest, the past year has been pretty rough. I was so unprepared for everything and so confused. I made two suicide attempts. I feel like I’m out of control, and the guilt is insane — my marriage, all my choices I’ve ever m...

A Stranger Overnight: Surviving 29 Years of Shunning After Leaving the Exclusive Brethren

I left the exclusive brethren when I was 18 years old. I stopped attending meetings and I was subsequently excommunicated. I did not agree with the level of control and the hypocrisy within the cult. From that point on I was completely shunned by...

Donna Lamb: Excerpt from “From Dream Come True to Nightmare: My Aesthetic Realism Experience”

This is the section of my story that includes being shunned while in the cult Aesthetic Realism, founded by Eli Siegel, which I was in for 32 years, from 1969 to 2001. The entire article was published in ICSA Today, Volume 12 – No 2 – ...

Deb Fera: Between Two Worlds: Chosen Silence, Chosen Freedom

My mother converted when I was 2, my father is an atheist. They nearly divorced, but did not and they are both still alive and married. I started questioning at about 15, and left when I was 24. Because my dad is not JW, I was allowed to communica...

Tony: The Hidden Cost of Silence: An Elder’s Story of Shunning and Conscience

I am a second-generation Jehovah’s Witness. From childhood, I was introduced to studying the Bible within this religion, and at 15, I was baptized. Over the years, I took on various roles, including pioneer, ministerial servant, and elder. C...