shunned

It all started in 2017 when I first told my story as the podcast This JW Life, the podcast that kicked off everything that has happened since, including this channel. Now, years later, that podcast has been turned into the book Becoming Jehovah, a book that can be read online at  https://becomingjehovah.com/  in both English and Spanish. In this episode I talk about how this came about, the work t...

Shayna was a person that stood up to bullies in school that were hurting other kids, but unfortunately the biggest bullies were the adults in charge of her care in life. A mother that left her with her alcoholic dad and that took the other kids when they split is just a small glimpse into what she was facing at home. But the later judicial committee discussing rape encapsulates why Jehovah's Witne...

Hali grew up in the cult of Jehovah's Witnesses, but also in what was thought to be a trap house. One of her first memories, at just 5 years of age, was a SWAT team breaking into her house, taking everyone out, and holding her father at gunpoint to arrest him. So she experienced the shame of being one of Jehovah's Witnesses and having to be different from other kids at school, but she suffered a d...

I have created a website with a trivia quiz to help reach Jehovah's Witnesses online. The goal of the quiz is to get them sharing, talking, and above all, thinking. Through carefully crafted questions and answers, where even the wrong answer can introduce a person to something that they never knew, my hope is to help people have fun while learning about the very destructive thing that they are inv...

In the cult of Jehovah's Witnesses, appearance means everything. It is your credibility, your social status, even your standing before god in their congregations. So when Daisy had moments that mirrored the pain she felt inside that manifested in a way that could be seen outwardly, her mother took that very personally. In fact, time and time again throughout Daisy's story the need to look the part...

I decided to go out this year to test some new ideas for activism and protest at conventions of Jehovah's Witnesses in Evansville Indiana. I wanted this to be a one man protest and planned to go alone. The goal was to give a voice to the voiceless, to create cognitive dissonance in people that wish to ignore actual truth in favor of "The Truth", and to give them a chance to connect to the emotions...

When Felicity's father left when she was just eight years old, life took a sudden turn as her mother fell into the cult of Jehovah's Witnesses. Struggling with her own mental and emotional health, her mother is described as a wild animal, hurling objects and abuse at her young daughter. Concerned outsiders could see what was going on at times, but not Jehovah's Witnesses. In fact, young Felicity w...

Throughout Greg's life in the cult of Jehovah's Witnesses, he observed the hypocrisy and lack of love in the congregation. People were appointed to positions based on who they knew. They were dealt with judicially, with determinations of their fates being based on who they knew as well. Eventually Greg would have to leave his life as one of Jehovah's Witnesses behind to find himself. Support the s...

Whether it is aligning people against you, telling you that you can't trust people on the outside, or trying to convince you that you're crazy, a person that is gaslighting you can wreak havoc on your relationships. When that person isn't just one person but an entire cult of Jehovah's Witnesses and it is everyone that you know, you don't stand a chance at having good relationships with others or...

In this episode we meet Kyle and Kari, a brave couple that has been a support (along with others) to their community of religious disaffiliates as they have been awakened to the realities of their group in shocking ways. What group are we talking about? Meet the Two By Twos, at times referred to as "the no name church", a group that doesn't necessarily have a specific designated name from within,...

Gaslighting isn't just a one time event, it is a pattern expressed over time, and Jehovah's Witnesses use it with regularity in the cult. Love bombing, brainwashing, projecting what they're doing onto others, hypocrisy, etc. are all a part of the experience. This is the fifth in a series where I'll break down the ways that the cult of Jehovah's Witnesses is actively breaking individuals down, from...

Catherine wasn't born into the cult of Jehovah's Witnesses. There was a lot of abuse and bullying that went on in her home, both parental and from her siblings. Her family was lacking love, and one day she thought that she found it when she met a young man. That young man ended up bringing her to Jehovah's Witnesses, and she took to what she thought was "The Truth". Eventually she would realize th...

Lying is integral to gaslighting, pushing the false realities that create confusion and lead to controlling behaviors. "The Truth", as Jehovah's Witnesses refer to their religious cult, is full of lies. The organization conveniently bends truth to create narratives to support and excuse their own behavior. The constant pressure to conform creates situations that lead to inauthenticity among member...

Waking up to the realities of life in the cult of Jehovah's Witnesses is hard enough to do even in the best of circumstances. But what if you were an active JW, and what if you were fighting another active JW for custody of your child? And what if, in doing so, your eyes were opened to the reality of everything that you were involved in through the behavior of others? What if, as lawyers asked you...

One hallmark of gaslighting is using what is near and dear to a person as ammunition against them. Jehovah's Witnesses weaponize their relationships with you, your normal and natural desires, the expression of those desire, and more. They use shame to make you feel like a bad person for daring to want something outside of the approved list of personal expressions. A person that is beaten down and...

Life happens, both for the better and for the worse. Being a kid is hard, especially as it relates to school. Families fight. Relationships come and go. Individuals have their own internal struggles. There are amazing people in this world that seek to uplift others, and also people that prey on others and hope to take them down. Cherie's story highlights how these normal life events happen, but no...

One hallmark of gaslighting is the denial of what happened, even in the face of proof. Jehovah's Witnesses are masters of spin, from the organization itself to the individual members of the cult. When you hold something dear and you call it "The Truth", you need it to be true no matter the cost. Whether it is the denial of their systematic shunning policies, their failed predictions of the end of...

Jess grew up between two worlds, the one at her father's house and the one at her mother's. Both involved abuse and created much trauma for her, and as a child she would have to choose which home to stay at. That often meant staying at one home until she could no longer tolerate it, and then moving to the next. Add in bullying at school, by other family members, and the destructive cult of Jehovah...

On March 15, 2024, Mark Sanderson of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses gave an update to his cult followers. This comes on the heels of a country like Norway taking the cult to task for their shunning policies, something that most Jehovah's Witnesses likely won't even know happened, and a court case that the JWs lost. As a result, funding was cut for their religion. This announcement of th...

Young Jacob was diagnosed with cancer at just 5 years of age and suddenly found himself in different environments that garnered attention. However, as he would move on throughout his life, Jacob would find himself on the outside looking in, trying to be good enough to qualify to do the things that he saw other Jehovah's Witnesses doing around him. Jacob discusses these matters, living with autism...

Through gaslighting, one person or one group of people can become the reality check for an individual, whether that person wanted that reality check or not. A person is systematically broken down, detaching from themselves and attaching to the one doing the gaslighting. Cults often employ gaslighting to get oneness of mind, unity, sameness. Jehovah's Witnesses don't just tell you what to think and...

Getting baptized as one of Jehovah's Witnesses is a forever contract with a cult. In Justin's case, that decision to get dunked in a pool of water was made as a young man, a young man that knew he was gay. Because of that, ultimately he would never be able to be what they wanted him to be. He realized that if he were ever to be disfellowshipped from the cult because he was now an official member a...

The Covid-19 pandemic brought a lot of change to the world. Many started to wear masks for protection. But for many Jehovah's Witnesses, their facial freedom was about to be granted as a result of something that is seemingly totally unrelated. Will these bearded brothers continue to grow their beards bred in captivity, or will they eventually become the free range beards that we all wish for them?...

Finding a way out of a cult is one of the hardest things that a human can do. To find one's own way free, to take a stand against everything you've ever known while knowing that it will cost you dearly, is hard. For many it costs them their entire family, and in this episode I talk with a couple that made it out together. That comes with its own unique challenges, and Natasha and Ben were open in...

Many people don't realize that Jehovah's Witnesses were among the many that were persecuted and brutally murdered by the German Nazi Party. Growing up, this was put to me as both a source of unusual pride but was also used to instill fear in me that someday this would likely happen again… to us, because it was always about us. We were told many JW centered stories about the event, and although I a...