Indoctrination, subservience, ignorance, abuse, exploitation, racism, submission, homophobia, paedophilia, brainwashing, manipulation, mental conditioning, sexual misconduct; control.
Speaking to a former Jehovah’s Witness – ‘apostate’ as he is now known – through my mind’s eye, presumably through Jehovah, listed above are the many aspects that I Witnessed.
Jehovah’s Witnesses, J-Dubs to the familiar, are a religious organisation (cult) which preys on the vulnerable using hypothetical assurances – ‘redemption, absolution, salvation’, ‘perfect health, everlasting life, earthly paradise’ and suchlike – to entice its followers.
On the surface, Shayne is a regular dude; problem is, he was brought into this world as a third-generation Jehovah’s Witness.
New Zealand’s Jehovah’s Witness congregation comprises ‘districts’ throughout the country with each district divided into ‘circuits’; of its global 8.3 million followers, New Zealand contains around 18,000 of those J-Dub ‘adherents’ across five districts.
Shayne’s grandparents were part of the Jehovah’s Witness community, as were his parents then he, along with his J-Dub wife, propagated his own family within the community.
To be clear, no one claiming to be a Jehovah’s Witness has witnessed Jehovah as such, although they have witnessed acts in which He may have been indirectly involved.
Shayne left the J-Dub community around ten years ago, his then wife electing to stay on and keep the faith; their adult son remains a member while their daughter has similarly opted out.
For the child of a Jehovah’s Witness, by Western standards, their upbringing will be unnatural; they are forbidden from celebrating birthdays or Christmases, while making their way through the public schooling system, they are discouraged from making friends with the ‘worldly’ kids yet, largely due to their adopted beliefs, of course, they make many foes – on account of that belief system, also their future careers in door-knocking, they are conditioned to expect thus to cope with bullying – then they are adults.
Growing up in the lower North Island Shayne endured his share of adolescent hardship, then on completion of high school he went on to start a carpet cleaning company; business ownership is encouraged by Jehovah’s Witness elders, as it frees up a lot of time for door-knocking and general worship.
J-Dub high school leavers are discouraged from furthering their education; high school is the advised extent of a Jehovah’s Witnesses education and, although they are expected to find employment among the worldly populous, this choice is heavily regulated by the J-Dub elders.
Given Shayne’s frequent association with the worldly populous through his work, along with the influence this had on his lifetime of conditioning regarding his perception of reality, as a 40-year-old man he found himself having reservations about the legitimacy of his chosen lifestyle.
The Jehovah’s Witness congregation has a remarkably high turnover; vulnerable souls are continually being groomed and indoctrinated, yet there appears to be a high number of adherents coming unstuck (‘appears to be’ because often others do not know what becomes of the many people who leave the J-Dub community).
Suffice to say, once you are a J-Dub, as the elders and the almighty Governing Body would have it, you’re a J-Dub for life.
Since birth Shayne’s mind has been gently moulded to embrace the Jehovah’s Witness way of life, and while, by their own admission, J-Dubs ‘work hard to have no social, ethnic, racial or class divisions’, from an ulterior perspective, within the Jehovah’s Witness community, racism, homophobia, gender discrimination and ultimately, male-dominated hierarchy, is rife.
Indeed, according to the Jehovah’s Witness Governing Body, ‘we abhor sexual abuse’; yet, again, from that ulterior perspective, abuse in the form of sexual manipulation or domination, even in the form of the molestation, or rape, of their children, is very much reality.
From the perspective of the J-Dub victims, though, if they don’t know it’s wrong, or if they are conditioned to believe that Jehovah will make it right, how wrong is it?
Officially, J-Dubs abhor sexual abuse; unofficially, it’s a way of life among the community. Those other, worldly, folk just aren’t allowed to believe it.
Article by Tim Walker
Edited by J Dobbing
Photography by Witt Nassed
Yeh, that’s pretty much it in a nutshell, they are aloud to lie to worldly people about what goes on in the cult it is called Theocratic Warfare. They do a good job of fooling the general public about what goes on behind the scenes. Most people always say oh yeah I used to go to school with a JW or I worked with one they are lovely people. It’s all bullshit and it’s all a facade, this is a very evil and dangerous cult that absolutely destroys families and it should be shut down. If you are unlucky enough to be born into it and you call it out for what it is, you are going to lose all your family the support groups you have around you because of course they’re all jws as well and you get treated like your dead. This generally happens to young kids and after that, your on ya own.
Thanks for that, Ben; awesome insight.