Ex Jw - Blog Posts

Judas really put Friends to Enemies to Lovers on the map huh 😳

If you or a loved one have been forced to attend a regional convention of Jehovah's Wittnesses you may be entitled to financial compensation.

Just call 1-800-SAD-PIMO today!

regional convention is now who wants to give me money /j

The way I've seen abuse normalized as a Jehovah's Wittness is appaling. I know so many people, including some in my family, who are stuck with abusive partners under threat of excommunication or "sinning against god". Few victims ever leave and those who find out about the situation often praise the victim for putting god first by staying.

On the other hand children are told their value exists in being fully obedient to their parents to please god. You are explicitly told that even if the parent is wrong or listening to them upsets you, it doesn't matter. Yet, they're surprised when abusers flourish.

Members can't acknowledge this because their relationship with the organization is the same. You do everything you're told, often in your worst interest, and you can't leave.

Meetings really only exist to encourage my deconversion at this point. I don't know how saying that "feminism making women think they should be fully equal in the marriage is damaging" will make me, an afab person, agree that God knows best lol.

Like no. I don't know about you but I don't want to be in a position where my partner can abuse me without consequence.

I just watched infinity train season two, and the main character is amazing! When you leave you a cult you don't just have to rebuild how you view the world, but also yourself. You have to stop trying to change yourself. You have unlearn the teachings that condemned individualality. You have to loudly scream that "I exist!" The character's whole arc revolves around these ideas making her extremely relatable.

Characters that I hold close to my heart as an ex-cult kid

The entire cast of The Path (Hulu) • Venus, Jupiter and Neptune of We Know The Devil (PC game) • Rapunzel (fairy tale) • Lapis Lazuli of Steven Universe • Aziraphale and Crowley of Good Omens (Gaiman & Prachett) • Lake of Infinity Train • Bucky Barnes of Marvel • Mark Grayson of Invincible (Kirkman) • Abigail Hobbs of Hannibal (NBC)

I can not explain how validating it is to see other nonbinary lesbians with religous trauma on here. Especially ex jw or ex cult ones. After realizing I was in a cult I thought, "There is so much crazy in my life. Will anyone understand my hyper specific experiences?" Apparently the answer is yes and it feels amazing.

I'm learning that being in a high control group has made me a fantastic actor. I had doubts for years and while I felt a lot of guilt, I also just couldn't make myself feel or act how I knew I was excepted to. So I leaned hard into the shy sweet girl archetype. Sure they think I'm at least 5 years younger than I am, but I can do the bare minimum and ignore uncomfortable topics out of "nervousness".

The real me is opinionated, blunt, and consistently makes jokes. My family will tell others this, but they don't often believe them. It goes unquestioned and gives me some freedom. Still, I will be extremely relieved when I can retire the role.

It's interesting to me how people in high control groups believe they are being persecuted despite being heavily supported by governments and their culture. From my own experience, I think its easy to pretend your feelings of embarrassment caused by your own doubts about the group, are actually a result of "the world looking down on us". I would see people joking about us or about other Christians and feel terrible because I agreed with their points, but internalized it as "they hate me". Still, seeing content like this helped sort through my feelings even though at the time I wished it would just go away.