Our Stories

Luisa Haas: Traumatized By Mandated Shunning

I was a born-in to true-believing members of a faith-based group that practised mandated shunning. At ten years of age, I learned just how inhumane the practice is. And for me, it was a traumatizing event; one that I will never forget. My parent...

Corina Gabriel: It’s Not Easy, But There Is Life After Mandated Shunning

To say that I was born and raised in the Jehovah’s Witnesses religion does not accurately describe the scope and magnitude of its effect on my life. It was more than a religion; it was my entire existence. It wasn’t just how I worshipped; it was w...

Jake Reinert: A Lifetime of Pain

My name is Jake Reinert and I am a 25-year-old ex-Jehovah’s Witness from Spokane, WA, USA. I was born and raised in the religion and was a 3rd to 4th generation Jehovah’s Witness. Shunning was a theme of the religion that I learned from a young ag...

Pablo Rodriguez: Mandated Shunning Hurts People

My story starts in Mexico City, where I grew up in extreme poverty. At age 18, I emigrated to the USA in the hope of a better life, but that’s not exactly how it worked out. After a few weeks in this new country, I was without a job, without money...

Monica Velin Rodriguez: Can You Help Me Stop Mandated Shunning?

I was 39 years old when I first realized I was going to die. All my life I’d been led to believe and cherished God’s promise to me that I would live forever on a Paradise Earth. However, I had begun to doubt this was possible. Was I mortal? Had I ...

Richard E. Kelly: Mandated Shunning is Damaging!

When I was four years old (1947), my mother joined a high-control religious organization, Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs). At age twenty (1964), I stopped going to their meetings and participating in their door-to-door ministry. In 1977 I was disfellow...

Rachel Jackson: Shunning Experience

My name is Rachel Jackson. I was baptised at the Palmerston North District Convention in New Zealand, at the age of 25 back in 1990. I was young, naive and somewhat of an idealist. Coming from a Catholic background, I was ripe for indoctrination. ...

Exclusive Brethren Widower Shunned by Family

I was born into the Exclusive Brethren in 1947, one of five children. In 1959 there was a leadership challenge, which caused a major split. My family decided to stay with the American ‘man of God’ this meant shunning all our friends and relatives ...

Lee Marsh: The Shunning Policy Hurts People Who Need Support

I was baptized in 1969 when I was 17 years old. Married at 18 and had a baby before I was 20 and another, 4 years later. My husband became an elder after about 7 years. He had one personality for the congregation, kind, helpful, and knowledgeable ...

Grandfather Has Never Met Grandchild Due to Mandated Shunning

I started to be shunned in 2012 at age 53, 38 years after I became one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. I was not disfellowshipped yet, though. The shunning was neither complete nor universal at that point – only a few JWs really talked to me, but most oth...

Lifetime of Shunning, Early Death and Mandated Abuse

In the early 1960’s my mother began to study the beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses with the woman who lived next door. She was at a low ebb. My father had recently had another nervous breakdown, and she felt she had nowhere to turn. Jehovah’s Witness...

Painfully Shunned by Mother and Brother

My parents joined Jehovah’s Witnesses when I was 5 years old. I was raised in the cult and knew no other way. I married very young, pioneered, ministerial servant, then elder. I think that by my 30s though I was having many doubts about doctrine, ...

Grandmother Shunned by Family for the Last 7 Years

I am 51 years old and have been shunned by both of my parents, 2 sisters and 2 nephews for the past 7 years due to my decision to leave the Jehovah’s Witnesses religion. I was raised a Jehovah’s Witness from a young child but realized at a young ...

JW Mother-in-Law Shows Lack of Love

I am married to a person who was a Jehovah’s Witness. She left when she was in her twenties but has many family members still in the organization. My main experience has been with her mother who is required by the organization to shun her daughter...

Julia Gutgsell: Researcher Shares Experience of Mandated Shunning

My earliest memories of the Jehovah’s Witnesses date back to when I was a young child, just before I started school. Our childhood home was visited by proselytizing JWs. Growing up with my grandparents, I observed my grandmother’s typically friend...