Our Stories

Traumatized and Abandoned: How Mandated Shunning After a Tragic Accident Changed My Life Forever

At the age of 16, and not baptized, I had a car accident as a learner driver. Subsequently, due to a death in that accident, which occurred on a beach in Queensland, Australia, I was held as being "blood guilty" because no one was wearing seatbelt...

Aaron Butterworth: Waking Up After a Lifetime Inside

I was born into [the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization].I woke up at 46.I started researching.I decided to write a letter of disassociation [a formal letter notifying the congregation that I no longer wanted to be considered one of Jehovah&rs...

Jesirae’ Shope: Finding the Truth Beyond the Walls of a High-Control Group

Letter to the Governing Body [the ruling council] of Jehovah’s WitnessesTo the Governing Body, I am writing this letter to request that you remove me from all records as a Jehovah’s Witness. I was disfellowshipped [formally expelled] ...

Forced to Shun the Ones I Loved

I’m a born-in third-generation Witness. It hasn’t been easy growing up as a Jehovah’s Witness, especially with all the people I’ve been forced to shun [cut off social and familial contact with]. In the late 1980s, my ...

Marie-Soleil Read: Nothing Prepares You to be Erased

I wasn’t raised in this faith [Jehovah’s Witnesses]. I chose it as a teenager, at a time in my life when I was searching for meaning, for love, for something to hold on to. I was fifteen, maybe sixteen, when I encountered Jehovah&rsquo...

Maria: Losing Family and Community for Wanting a Normal Life

I was born into Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs), with both of my parents being members. My mum’s parents were lifelong Witnesses, and my dad was a convert [someone who joined the religion later in life]. I left at the age of 16 but avoided b...

Kathy Davis: Fading at 62—A Life Reclaimed

My parents became Jehovah’s Witnesses when I was 10. At 12, there was a group of young ones getting baptized, so I went with the crowd. I was a very faithful Witness for 50 years and had been in the last congregation I attended for 22 years....

Siamese: We Waved to Our Grandchild—And the Police Were Called

My wife and I were Jehovah's Witnesses for some 40 years. Several years ago, we made the difficult decision to disassociate from the organization. That choice came at a heartbreaking cost. All of our children and grandchildren remained members of ...

John Briggs: From Fear to Freedom: Escaping the Grip of Shunning and Addiction

I was born in 1966 and raised as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Some of my earliest memories as a child weren’t of play or joy—they were of fear. I remember my family saying things like, “Any day now,” “Not much lo...

My Father Kept His Secret to Protect Us

I was shunned. The elders asked me deeply personal and inappropriate questions about the man I later married. One of the elders who asked the worst questions—an older man—was later charged with sexually abusing my sister. She was only...

Ezra Moore: Looking In From the Cold: A Journey Beyond the Walls

I grew up in a little mountain town in the Black Hills of South Dakota, raised in a Jehovah’s Witness family. From the start, just about everything in my life was controlled—what I believed, who I spent time with, how I passed my days,...

Martin: Broken by Belief—My Story of Shunning and Survival

I was born into the Jehovah's Witness religion. I was not allowed to associate with anyone outside the faith. During secondary school, I was bullied very badly because I was a Witness. Despite my mom repeatedly visiting the school to intervene, th...

Kalia: From Shunned to Strong—Rebuilding a Life of Purpose and Love

I was a third-generation Jehovah’s Witness—my grandparents joined when my mum was a baby—so for many years, it was all I ever knew. For much of my early childhood, I was also home-educated, which meant I had very little interacti...

Rick Wellstone: Stepping Down to Speak Out

I served as an elder in the Jehovah’s Witness organization, but I couldn’t stomach the elders' meetings anymore. All they wanted to talk about was disfellowshipping and how to avoid being sued. No thanks. I stepped down—and I tol...

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 ...