Ask a Cult Survivor

[TwoCultSurvivor]

Or in my case, a survivor of Two Cults.

What would you like to know about Jehovah's Witnesses?

What would you like to know about The Way International?

About joining a cult? About leaving?

About "losing faith"? 

Go for it.

[purplepurpose]

It pains me that there is a well made non spoken instructions on how to approach non believers, from smiling to the new arrivials to gradually "planting the seed" to save them from hell.

Does pain of going through such shit and realizing what it actually is passes over time?

[Brian37]

Or in my case, a survivor of Two Cults.

What would you like to know about Jehovah's Witnesses?

What would you like to know about The Way International?

About joining a cult? About leaving?

About "losing faith"? 

Go for it.

The only difference between a cult and a religion, is size and political power. Upstarts and small groups are seen by the majorities as cults. But big or small, a religion is a mythology yet to be discarded.

[mlmooney89]

How did you get out and why did you join a second one?

[TwoCultSurvivor]

In fairness, I'm going to answer why I got out of the SECOND one, because the first is boring and doesn't explain why I got into the second.

I was born into a family of Jehovah's Witnesses. My parents divorced and stopped attending. Therefore, I never entered voluntarily and I never left voluntarily. It was just circumstantial.

But in the six or so years between the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Way, I did seek.

It never even dawned on me that the Bible might be wrong. The only question for me was, who got the Bible right?

So I never left the JW's in my heart until I encountered The Way, which was less judgmental (in my view), less full of itself (in my view at the time) and more fun (by any standard).

So I left the second cult in phases.

First, there was a schism not even a year after I joined. I stayed with an offshoot group. Then, about seven or eight years after THAT, I got divorced. They frowned on it, and while I tried to stick with them, it just wasn't practical. I tried another offshoot, but later just decided I was better off with a mainstream Christian group that didn't inspect my personal life: they were just glad I was there and that was that.

The Way was home fellowship based. It was impossible to be there and not be in a family. A mainstream church allowed me to slip in, enjoy the message, and slip out -- end of story. I liked that after a while.

Becoming an atheist is a whole other story.

---

It pains me that there is a well made non spoken instructions on how to approach non believers, from smiling to the new arrivials to gradually "planting the seed" to save them from hell.

Does pain of going through such shit and realizing what it actually is passes over time?

Oh ABSOLUTELY!

The only problem is when you go to the people who patronized over so many years and have to apologize. Which is 10x worse if they bought INTO your crap.

But you get over it. People are responsible for the decisions they make.

[Minimalist]

It does require facing reality.  That right there is a bridge too far for most theists.

[Shell B]

Did you ever feel like you were wrong when you (presumably) tried to convert people? How weird was it as a teenager to be a no birthday having Jehovah?

[TwoCultSurvivor]

In my teenage years I was not a Jehovah's Witness, but I was still sympathetic to them. I had two birthday parties in my teens. The first was not a big deal: it was a surprise party, so not like I collaborated. The second, I invited a bunch of friends over. I didn't even bother to get a cake, which mortified them, so they went and got me a cake during the party.

As a child, it was never a big deal. You don't know what you're missing while you're missing it, if you never had it. It's like, how does it feel not to celebrated your half-birthday six months after your birthday? It wouldn't even occur to you to wonder such a thing. That's how I felt about birthdays.

Christmas and Halloween were bigger deals. Those were the times I felt left out.

But birthdays? Didn't miss em.

[mlmooney89]

In my teenage years I was not a Jehovah's Witness, but I was still sympathetic to them. I had two birthday parties in my teens. The first was not a big deal: it was a surprise party, so not like I collaborated. The second, I invited a bunch of friends over. I didn't even bother to get a cake, which mortified them, so they went and got me a cake during the party.

As a child, it was never a big deal. You don't know what you're missing while you're missing it, if you never had it. It's like, how does it feel not to celebrated your half-birthday six months after your birthday? It wouldn't even occur to you to wonder such a thing. That's how I felt about birthdays.

Christmas and Halloween were bigger deals. Those were the times I felt left out.

But birthdays? Didn't miss em.

Do you have birthdays now?

[Angrboda]

Do you feel distanced or out of place somewhat with respect to Halloween and Christmas now, or have you embraced them?