Our Stories

Hadassah Wiersma: Shunned for Reporting Abuse

I was born in 1970 into a strict Jehovah’s Witness family. Like many who grew up in high-control religious groups, my childhood was marked by isolation from the outside world and intense pressure to conform to the organization’s rules ...

Miriam Rincon: How Mandated Shunning Cast a Shadow Over My Marriage

At nineteen, I fell in love and made the choice many young people make—I became intimate with my boyfriend before marriage. But as a Jehovah’s Witness, this simple act of human intimacy triggered a cascade of consequences that would shadow my marr...

A Marriage Torn Apart: My Story of Mandated Shunning

I cannot give my name, but I live in Brazil, and I am one of the many victims of ostracism by the Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In March 2020, I was disfellowshipped for disagreeing with the teachings of the Watchtower Society an...

Terri O’Sullivan: Mandated Shunning Is a Cruel Practice

I was 21 years old when I left the Jehovah’s Witnesses. I had started to have doubts and had skipped a few meetings, yet leaving the religion I no longer believed in resulted in being shunned by everyone I knew. Five years earlier, my older sister...

Cindy Gabriela Ramirez: My Cold Day in January

I was born into Jehovah’s Witnesses. My parents, young and hopeful, immigrated with me from El Salvador to Portland, Oregon, when I was just 18 months old. My mom was only 23, and she had been baptized as a Jehovah’s Witness when she was just 14. ...

Efrain Rivera: My Journey With Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Shunning Policy

I started studying the Bible with the Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1986, at the age of 13, following my mother’s lead. By January 1988, I was baptized and quickly immersed in the congregation’s activities, becoming an Auxiliary Pioneer, and six months l...

Joshua Hanson: Growing Up in a Box

Growing up as one of Jehovah's Witnesses was like growing up in a box. I grew up believing that everything I could ever need, physically, emotionally and spiritually, was inside that box. I also grew up living in fear that everything outside of it...

Eve Brady: A Mother’s Heartache—22 Years Lost to the Concerned Christians Cult

It’s every parent’s nightmare—watching your child get drawn into something you know isn’t right, powerless to protect them. That nightmare became my reality when my daughter, as a teenager, was coerced by her father and the leader of the Concerned...

The Dark Reality of High-Control Religious Recruitment

In 1993, Jeffrey was a 23-year-old struggling to find his place in the world. Penniless, jobless, and living with his parents, he felt isolated from his siblings. So, when his sister and brother suddenly began showering him with attention and affe...

Made to Feel Less than Human by the New Independent Fundamental Baptist

I was raised in the New Independent Fundamental Baptist movement from age 10 until I left when I was 18. This high-control group expects complete and utter obedience to the church, their version of the Bible, and your parents. There were several ...

Jean-Pierre Coquand: From Faith to Freedom

In 1984, at the age of 36, I found myself at a crossroads. After years of witnessing the notorious corruption and cruelty of the untouchable leaders within the Watchtower Society, I began to see through the deceptive ideology that had trained Jeho...

Patrick Haeck: Mandated Shunning is a Crime Against Humanity

I have spent almost 40 years of my life as an active member of Jehovah’s Witnesses. For 20 of those years, I served as an elder (local congregation pastor), which is a highly respected position in the congregation. In 2005, my daughter was disfel...

19 Years a Captive: I Pretend to Believe for Fear of Shunning

I have spent almost 40 years of my life as an active member of Jehovah’s Witnesses. For 20 of those years, I served as an elder (local congregation pastor), which is a highly respected position in the congregation. In 2005, my daughter was disfel...

Daniel Torridon: Believing the Lie—A Story of Cognitive Dissonance

I was born in 1969 to parents who were both Jehovah’s Witnesses (JW) from birth. Their parents were also Jehovah’s Witnesses, so it’s all I ever knew growing up. From a young age, my life was shaped by the doctrines and high-cont...

Esther Gebhard: Mandated Shunning at an Early Age

I was five when my parents joined a faith-based group that practised and enforced mandated shunning. At seven, my mother’s good friend was disfellowshipped and everyone in our group was informed that we had to shun this person to be loyal to God. ...